Talent Management

Umano Medical and Cegid-Talentsoft: the birth of a relationship of trust

Umano Medical is a company that has come a long way and has been growing between 30% and 100% per year since 2015. In 2010, Stryker Medical, a hospital bed manufacturer, announced the sale of its plant in L’Islet, Quebec. Some 300 people learned that they would now lose their jobs. Motivated to preserve the company and the knowledge, four managers banded together to revive it.

This was the birth of what would become Umano Medical. After several years of development, the new company launched a revolutionary hospital bed, and then, after much success, released a complete range of products. In an effort to better support its employees and ensure sustainable performance, the company needed to rethink the employee experience and implement an HR software suite capable of boosting productivity and meeting future challenges. Audrée Belleau, Human and Organizational Development Consultant at Umano Medical, explains why Umano Medical chose Cegid- Talentsoft.

 

How did Umano Medical get through the pandemic?

It was a period of hyper growth. We were obviously one of the few so-called essential companies that were allowed to continue operating. The demand for hospital beds was strong from the start of the pandemic which led to massive recruitment in order to increase production, both at the L’Islet plant and at the R&D center in Lévis. Today, we have 370 employees and we continue to grow rapidly. For the past two years, we’ve been hiring about 100 people a year.

 

When did you decide to acquire a software suite specialized in human resources management?

It was becoming complicated to continue using a traditional spreadsheet program at the rate we are growing. The decentralization of our HR data was becoming a real problem. And the ATS (applicant tracking software) we were using to manage resumes was also beginning to show its limitations.

At Umano Medical, we have our own approach to talent management. We choose to build on the strengths of our employees rather than pointing out areas for improvement. This is much more effective! To this end, we use the psychological tests of the American Gallup Institute. Each employee identifies his or her five main strengths, which we then allow them to develop. So, we were looking for a software program that could help us do this.

 

How did you decide on a software suite?

Of course, we had a budget to respect. In this context, a consultant analyzed our needs and presented us with several solutions. The Cegid-Talentsoft solution appealed to us because we quickly identified the return on investment.

 

What did you particularly like about Cegid-Talentsoft’s offer?

As companies, our values were aligned. We were convinced by the depth of the software suite, which was very consistent with our conception of human resources. Its features were also well suited to our regulatory constraints. Because we operate in the medical field, we are subject to many standards. Employee training is subject to strict rules, and we have to prove that it has been carried out properly in the event of an audit. The procedure used to be quite cumbersome and paper-intensive, but this is no longer the case. The last aspect that won us over was that this cloud-based solution was able to support our growth for the next few years: for instance, in two years, we will probably be 500, spread over several countries.

 

How is the implementation going?

Everything started in September 2021. Each time, there is a workshop for the project managers to discover the components of each module, to design the parameters of the solution and then validate it. We started with the training module and continued with the «hub,» the part of the system that hosts all the employee data. Both of these elements had their own constraints. The training module required custom services because our needs, as you can see, are very specific. The hub was more like a turnkey solution, but it took time to install. We had to think carefully beforehand about the type of data to be integrated. Our settings are about to be completed.

 

What is your overall impression over last six months?

I really appreciated this implementation phase. We were well supported by the Cegid-Talentsoft project manager, who proved to be a real point of contact. The fact that the same person followed us on both sites allowed us to build a solid relationship of trust. I am convinced that this tool will change the daily life of the Human Resources team. It will also greatly improve the experience of employees, who until now have had to follow a very rigid training process. They will also have a broader online offering. We have in fact drawn from the Talentsoft Content catalog to offer them training in the use of Microsoft tools, personal development, leadership, etc.

 

What are the next steps?

We will have to start by training the HR team to use the first two modules, and then very quickly, the staff. The training part will be accessible to everyone in self-service: it’s really a tool for disseminating knowledge to as many people as possible. And then we still have three sets to implement: performance management, compensation management and recruitment. We have not yet decided on an important issue: when employees will have access to the platform. Even if we choose to wait until all modules are installed, it will not be after the fall of 2022.

About UMANO MEDICAL:
> The company is a high-tech hospital bed specialist.
> It generates 50% of its sales in the United States, 40% in Canada, 5% in the United Kingdom and 5% in Australia.
> The company employs 370 employees.
> Umano owns a plant in L’Islet (Quebec) and a site in Lévis (Quebec) where R&D is located.
https://www.umanomedical.com/fr-ca/