Streamlining a diverse industrial group with an agile and entrepreneurial learning strategy

"Tessenderlo Group is a diversified company that has a global vision whilst staying true to local needs. Cornerstone’s flexible and intuitive solutions suit our requirements perfectly. Simple integration has unlocked functionalities and have given greater flexibility to our organisation, as well as lifting the admin burden through an intuitive and easy-to-use system. Together with Cornerstone, our strategic vision and learning functionality can be accelerated with the facilitation of community, creating natural progression opportunities." Toon Patyn, HR Services Manager, Tessenderlo Group

Business impact

Tessenderlo Group is a diversified industrial operational group, requiring a centralised, streamlined, and intuitive HR software to align with their overall entrepreneurial strategic vision and individual local needs.

Tessenderlo Group focuses on agriculture, bio-residuals, energy and providing water-based solutions in a range of operating segments. The company has grown and evolved from a chemical firm to a diversified industrial group and has a vested interest in sustainable development with innovative product ranges.

The business is headquartered in Belgium, Brussels, with offices spanning over 25 different countries around the world and commercially operating in eight different business units. Tessenderlo Group required a combined, intuitive, and accessible HR system to suit the requirements, demands and responsibilities of their organisation.

The main objective and vision for the group was to function for individuals by granting freedom and flexibility to local teams, whilst making the most out of a common process to link together and maximise efficiency. Tessenderlo Group sought to improve its learning strategy and invest further in the development of its employees to match different viewpoints of their worldwide community.

Why Cornerstone

Cornerstone gives Tessenderlo Group the opportunity to have an efficient, accessible, and centralised system whilst being tailored to the local needs of the various operating groups. The company seeks to have an entrepreneurial spirit in all aspects of their organisation which matches with Cornerstone’s resources that promote innovation and development.

Learning and talent is an essential focus at Tessenderlo Group, and to cover its multiple business units, the group required a provider which could organise and implement the correct processes to overcome potential learning challenges. They believe in implementing a learning strategy that encompasses informal and on-the-job learning as a key pillar in their strategic vision.

Cornerstone allows Tessenderlo Group to adapt to differing learning options and appetite, which differed hugely in the various business units previously. This flexibility can equally serve those more advanced in their learning journey as those who are just beginning.

Tessenderlo Group plans to bring more harmony to talent processes and collaborating even more in groups to maximise efficiency to create a self-service learning strategy for their organisation.

The results

Fostering an innovative learning culture: Cornerstone supports and uplifts online learning course around various compliance topics, now covering all employees through 1 single tool. Employees can realise more of their potential as they accelerate their career development, accessing more inspiring and motivating learning content.

Facilitating community across the globe: By having basic rules for global setup, but room for regional deviation, Cornerstone solutions have improved transparency, efficiency, and connection within Tessenderlo Group. Managers within the HR domain can exchange experiences, customising their integration depending on different factors such as the speed of learners, appetite and assigning courses that suit their specific local demands. The group has implemented Cornerstone in 16 countries in the first year alone.

Easy-to-use and customisable solutions: Employees can use Cornerstone without lengthy or confusing training as the technology is intuitive and easy to customise. Integration thus far has been quick as business units can adopt Cornerstone organically and use the resources for their individual needs and demands, embracing the support and training of how to scale HR from other parts of the organisation. In that way all the business units can keep their look & feel, but profit from a common template.

Strategic, accelerated forward planning: Looking to the future, Tessenderlo Group can now react with greater speed and agility to the changes in the labour market and employees’ personal lives, responding with perceptive training adjustments. In 2021, the first year of the launch, more than 12,500 courses have been registered completed through Cornerstone for an equivalent of over 15,000 hours of training.

Entrepreneurial spirit and culture: Tessenderlo Group are constantly innovating and exploring new products and technologies in their organisation with more than 4,800 employees and consistently rated a leader in most of its markets it operates in. Cornerstone allows the company to foster a learning culture and uplift the organisation to a higher level, to ensure identity and visibility in a crowded sector.