The same company. Different rules at every site.

A company that opened sites in several cities, each with a local manager who made do as best they could at the start. The rules formed along the way, differently in each place. The scenario is illustrative: it describes a type of situation, not a client.

A new hire starts their first day with different paperwork depending on the site. A leave request is approved by the direct manager in one place and by accounting in another. The files reach head office in formats that cannot be compared.

The possible causes: there is no process owner, the rules were never written down in one place, or they were written but never adapted to what actually happens at a site working in shifts.

You draw up a short list: what has to be identical at every site and what can stay local. Differences in working hours, job types or local suppliers are legitimate exceptions; forms invented separately are not. The process gets a single owner, who decides when an exception becomes a rule.

Before any new software, the same flow is run at two sites and compared step by step. A system bought on top of unclear rules multiplies them, it does not resolve them.

Example: the first-day paperwork. You agree a common list, the same at every site, plus the items that legitimately differ, such as protective equipment specific to the activity. What goes on the list is checked with your own employment-law specialist, for your situation — there is no universally valid set.

The immediate step: take one recent hire from each site and put the paperwork side by side. The differences show up within minutes.

You track the delays caused by incomplete files and the number of requests returned for correction. These are process indicators, not promises of results.

How do I know whether a local exception is legitimate? + −

Ask what happens if you remove it. If the answer has to do with the activity, the working hours or a specific legal requirement, it is a real exception and gets written down as one. If the answer is "that is how we have always done it", it is a variation left over from habit.

Does this sound familiar?

Tell us how many sites you have and where most of the differences show up. We will tell you where we would start.

Common flows and the pilot before implementation are described in HR digitalisation.

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