DHL Group + Celonis
“We were finally able to back up our gut feeling – namely that salary payments went wrong on a regular basis – with data. Celonis shows us our process bottlenecks and what we need to do about them.”
The DHL Group began their Celonis journey by getting to the bottom of incorrect salary payments. Now, they use the Celonis Process Intelligence Graph to continuously optimize HR services end-to-end. The logistics giant has freed up over €10 million in value — and it’s not stopping there.
When one of the world's largest logistics companies, the DHL Group, began their process intelligence journey with Celonis in 2021, they focused on the famous ‘first and last day’ of employees — the moments when, based on the firm’s experience, most anomalies occur.
Using process mining, the technology at the heart of the Celonis platform, the company was able to identify and eliminate the root causes of continued salary payments to employees who had left the company — freeing up €1M in the first seven months after implementation. For anyone who’s not heard of it: process mining works like an X-ray for business, showing how processes actually run in the form of a living, moving digital process twin.
„The best thing about Celonis is the moment of surprise when our business experts realize they didn't know as much about their process as they thought.“
Maurice Schepp, Head of Center of Digitalization for HR Services
Since then, many use cases and processes have been added, says Maurice Schepp, Head of the Center of Digitalization for HR Services: “We have expanded both horizontally and vertically.” Today, ten source systems are connected to Celonis. Their second big use case, tackling Data Quality Management, is live in all German HR systems and an international rollout is in progress. “Already more than 300 automations triggered by Celonis ensure we have the correct data available in our HR systems,” says Schepp.
Three years after starting with Celonis, the DHL Group has saved more than €10 million by improving processes, such as updating erroneous master data and avoiding consequent overpayments.
Maximum performance, lowest possible cost
Efficient HR processes are an important lever for the DHL Group to achieve the strategic goals: “We want to be the first choice for customers, partners and employees. Without innovation and the push for digital efficiency, we would not be able to keep pace with our ever-changing world,” says Maurice Schepp.
To do it, the logistics company relies on object-centric process mining (OCPM). The technology from Celonis enables the DHL Group to map and optimize its entire hire-to-retire process across departments and systems.
Dirk Hein, who heads the Shared Services Center for HR and Finance, adds: “The divisions expect us to deliver maximum performance at the lowest possible cost. And on the employee side, it’s extremely important that salary payments or name changes, for example, run smoothly. This helps the DHL Group to be an innovative employer brand. If you look at the age pyramid and the shortage of skilled workers in Germany, we need such differentiators.”
Celonis delivers insights across departments and systems
DHL Group’s HR team is now using Celonis in areas such as HR ticketing, contact centers, and travel expense reporting — using the Celonis Process Intelligence Graph (powered by OCPM) to gain insight into upstream and downstream processes across systems and departments.
“The exciting thing about the Process Intelligence Graph is that it allows us to see how our processes across the enterprise are interconnected, and how we can better model and operationalize them. For example, an HR case may be closed for a particular employee, but there is still an outstanding payment that needs to be handled by our finance team,” says Max Schmidt.
Process mining has been front-and-center of Max’s career from day one at the DHL Group. He is now team lead for Process Mining & Execution Management and has helped make DHL Group a process mining leader in the HR sector: “People quickly realized the value of process mining and constantly promoted the technology, especially as we are currently in the midst of transforming our HR systems.”
The results show on a number of levels: accurate payroll and faster response times contribute to employee satisfaction, while streamlined master data maintenance ensures streamlined processes and compliance.
„Celonis is like an X-ray machine for our processes. When a problem needs to be solved quickly, someone will drop the name Celonis.“
Maurice Schepp, Head of Center of Digitalization for HR Services
DHL Group and Celonis co-signing on HR innovation
One of the biggest takeaways for DHL Group during their process intelligence journey: HR processes are much more complex and variable than, say, Finance. “There is simply no happy path in an employee lifecycle. You have thousands of variants, from name changes to maternity leave or sabbaticals. Few companies have looked at HR in as much detail as we have.”
This pioneering work lays the foundation for a group-wide standardization and automation of processes – and can also help other companies quickly streamline their HR processes. That's why Celonis and DHL Group recently signed a co-innovation agreement to jointly develop best practices for HR topics and processes. “We’re true partners in this and are eager to develop ideas for better HR products,” says Dirk Hein.
The vision: a digital twin of all operational processes
Other departments within the DHL Group now also want a piece of Celonis and there are Celonis pilots in areas such as Supply Chain and Finance. Max Schmidt believes the DHL Group will soon scale Process Intelligence enterprise-wide. His vision is to make the most out of Celonis’ capabilities, creating a digital twin of the entire company, mapping all of the group's operational processes: “Not only would we be able to better understand the entire lifecycle of an employee, but we would also have a unique tool to become intelligent architects of all our company’s processes.”
