ZEISS Mexico: More Agile and Centralized Human Resources Management

The challenge of centralizing an operation with very different employee profiles

Before Humand, much of the internal communication took place through informal channels and/or email. However, many employees work in manufacturing, logistics, and distribution and do not have permanent access to a computer or corporate email account, making it difficult to reach everyone.

In addition, various Human Resources processes relied on separate tools, spreadsheet forms, emails, and manual approvals. Even vacation and leave management required different systems to review historical data, record information, and manage balances.

With Humand, ZEISS began centralizing these processes on a single platform accessible from mobile devices.

Implementing Humand in 15 days

The initial implementation took approximately 15 days and began with the Vacation and Leave module, just as ZEISS needed to replace its existing provider.

This decision also quickly drove adoption: Humand became the only channel for checking balances and requesting vacation time. From day one, employees logged in to review their information and explore the platform.

Today, 100% of ZEISS’s 115 employees use Humand, with 99% weekly active users.

From there, ZEISS continued adding internal communications, forms and requests, service management, documents, surveys, events, and time tracking.

Everything ZEISS needed, all in one place

As the platform expanded across the company, ZEISS added different modules to centralize Human Resources processes and improve the employee experience. Its most frequently used modules include:

• Internal communications: to share updates and reach employees who do not work at a computer.
• Vacation and leave: centralizes requests, balances, and approvals in a single workflow.
• Time Tracking: digitalizes clock-ins and clock-outs, centralizes records, and streamlines report generation.
• Forms and requests: replaces processes that previously relied on Excel, emails, and manual management.
• Service Management: allows employees to submit tickets and enables the team to track them directly from the platform.
• Documents: centralizes personal information and important files so employees can access them whenever needed.
• Surveys: simplifies the management of internal surveys and specific assessments.
• Events: makes it possible to organize and communicate activities for teams working outside Mexico City as well.

Humand evolved from addressing specific needs to becoming a central hub for different moments throughout the employee experience.

Time tracking and Mexico’s new labor reform

One of the most significant changes related to Mexico’s new labor reform came with the Time Tracking module.

Previously, ZEISS used biometric readers physically installed at its different locations. To obtain the records, Human Resources had to ask each local manager to download the information onto a USB drive and then send the file. The devices were neither connected to one another nor integrated with an ERP system.

Consolidating the records to process attendance incidents and overtime could take an entire workday. With Humand, this process was reduced to approximately one hour, significantly decreasing the time spent managing attendance files.

The team can also review all records in one place and generate reports by employee, group, department, or period, without relying on physical downloads from each location.

This digitalization has become even more relevant in light of Mexico’s new labor reform. The Federal Labor Law introduces the requirement to electronically record each employee’s working hours, including their start and end times, and provide this information to the authorities when requested.

In this context, companies need centralized, accessible, and traceable attendance information. Humand’s Time Tracking module digitalizes working-hour records and simplifies report generation from a single platform, helping organizations prepare for the new timekeeping requirements.

A platform that simplifies Human Resources

Today, employees can use their phones to access vacation information, documents, communications, and internal requests, while Human Resources reduces manual tasks and centralizes process tracking.