Origin Energy modernises HR systems

Origin Energy modernised the systems used in its 'people and culture' function through the back half of last year, moving its payroll, time, and attendance platforms onto SAP cloud services.

The work, which started in the second half of 2022, saw Origin implement SAP employee central payroll. It is unclear what the company's previous payroll platform was.

"In parallel, a new time management application was also introduced to automate complex award entitlements," Origin Energy and SAP said in a joint statement.

The result is said to be process improvement: "standardised pay cycles, alongside a huge culture shift for the team on how they record time and apply employment awards."

In addition, Origin Energy developed "a customised self-serve HR portal to host all policies, procedures and employee-facing content in one place to simplify and improve the employee experience."

"This has resulted in an over 50 percent reduction in volume of inbound employee tickets raised with HR, delivering a more positive and empowering employee experience across the business," the two companies said.

The HR work came after "consolidation and upgrade" works in 2021 concerning Origin Energy's enterprise resource planning (ERP) environment.

The ERP system appears to be used for core finance and asset management purposes, based on a list of products and modules, which include SAP S/4 HANA and SAP Asset Manager.

“Consolidating and upgrading our ERP system to SAP means we’re now able to see the complete picture, remove risk from our asset management practices and realise significant savings out to the end of FY24," Origin Energy's head of ERP, planning and reporting Glenn Joseph said in a statement.

"There’s been high impact since implementation across the business; for example, Origin can now plan maintenance activities more effectively because all our data is in one system – creating visibility across our entire Generation portfolio.

"Increased speed and efficiency are pivotal to ensuring Origin has a greater focus on getting energy right for our customers."