Toyota NZ driving change with Jemini

New Zealand is the country’s leading car manufacturer, Toyota New Zealand’s driving forces are imagination, experimentation, humility, respect and innovation. And they celebrated 30 years of market leadership excellence in 2018.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan, they sell new Toyota and Lexus vehicles as well as supplying used vehicles, parts and servicing. The company’s key operations are based in three locations: the National Customer Centre in Palmerston North, Vehicle Operations in Thames, and a Port of Entry facility and Corporate Sales Office in Auckland.

A new era in people management

Toyota New Zealand is about people. So when they looked at improving on their legacy HR and payroll solution in 2017, they wanted something that directly engaged and motivated their staff – not just delivered rigid, mandatory processes.

“Even though our talent system was less than five years old, it wasn’t really doing what we needed it to do,” says Melissa Williams, Payroll and Administration, Business Support for Toyota New Zealand. "Our employees didn’t enjoy using it to enter their objectives and doing their end of year appraisal. It was a bit of a struggle to get our people motivated.”

First love

While Toyota New Zealand wasn’t looking for - or expecting - anything as revolutionary as Jemini, they were attracted to the concept of putting the employee at the centre and its usability.

“Jemini puts the wellbeing of the staff member at the centre of everything,” says Justine Martin, Toyota New Zealand’s HR Manager. And while the other solutions being considered met the company’s current requirements, it was immediately apparent that Jemini offered the bonus of future-proofing. “It’s clearly something we can grow into for our headquarters of the future,” says Martin.

When we saw it we knew it was what we wanted. Jemini stood out. It’s new and evolving. It’s at the start of its lifetime - and that’s what we really liked about it."

Melissa Williams, Payroll & Administration, Business Support, Toyota New Zealand

The journey to change

Recognising that Jemini was a true gamechanger in the people-management space, Toyota New Zealand became a foundation customer.

The Jemini team engaged with people across the whole business through a unique discovery and advisory process, involving design thinking and user experience research. The Toyota New Zealand and Jemini teams then co-created the list of requirements for the new solution.

The initial Jemini system went live for Toyota New Zealand and 250 of their 320 staff in August 2018. The remaining features will be rolled out during the rest of the year and into 2019. As a future-facing and people-centred company, the fact that Jemini will evolve right alongside Toyota New Zealand suits them very well.

We want to show our staff that we listen to them, and that we act on what they tell us. But above all, I look forward to our people getting excited about using Jemini, and actually doing their appraisals without any problems."

Melissa Williams, Payroll & Administration, Business Support, Toyota New Zealand

A winning move

Williams reports that the single-sign-on is an immediate win. Being able to easily and directly access the HR and payroll system is a breath of fresh air for their users, after years of people struggling to even log in to the legacy software.

Immediate feedback from the initial round of users is all good. They all have their profiles set up and can update them directly. Next on the agenda is to have staff enter their own objectives.

“It’s all going well and moving along quickly,” says Williams. “The communication from the Jemini team is great - they answer our questions quickly and nothing is too much bother. They’re passionate about Jemini. We’re lucky that we can take this journey with them.”