From several days to five minutes: how Flender automates travel compliance for its service technicians
Around 3,000 business trips a year to roughly 100 countries, often from one day to the next. How Flender cut the compliance assessment for new countries from several days to five minutes without handing the process over.
- Industry
- Drive technology
- Headquarters
- Germany
- Employees
- around 9,000
- Trips / year
- approx. 3,000
- Countries
- roughly 100
About Flender
With more than 125 years of history, Flender is one of the best-known names in industrial drive technology. The company manufactures gearboxes (for wind power as well as a wide range of industrial sectors) and employs around 9,000 people worldwide. Its workforce includes traditional office roles, but above all a large team of service technicians whose everyday work means one thing: being on the move. They commission, service, and repair gearboxes directly at customer sites (offshore out at sea as well as onshore) often on very short notice.
At Flender, Lea Grothus manages Global Mobility within HR. Her team ensures that every assignment runs smoothly and remains compliant.
Without the proper documentation, no one is allowed on site.
"Flender sends its employees to almost every country in the world," says Lea Grothus. Around 3,000 business trips take the teams to roughly 100 countries every year, and each country brings its own requirements: "Whether it's visa issues, tax issues, an A1 declaration, a PWD notification."
For the hands-on work of service technicians, much more is at stake than on a typical business trip. Without the proper documentation, no one is allowed on site. "If we show up at the customer site and the documents are not available yet, then we definitely could not start working on the site, because these are simply essential documents we have to have with us beforehand, before we are actually allowed to enter the site at the customer's," Grothus explains.
Previously, compliance was fully outsourced to an external provider. That setup worked, but Flender wanted greater transparency and closer involvement in its own processes.
One assessment instead of a separate tax statement.
One objective was central for Flender: greater transparency. "For us it was important that the Global Mobility process, or the compliance process, runs transparently and that we have a better overview of it. How many trips do we have? Where are our employees travelling, what are the to-dos?" says Grothus. The team evaluated options across the market. "And that is when WorkFlex stood out to us positively, because the automation there is also very high and it gives us time savings for our employees."
The impact is especially clear during short-notice assignments. Where new deployment countries previously required applying for a separate tax statement first, WorkFlex delivers the entire assessment in a single step, usually within five minutes. Technicians quickly see which open tasks remain, allowing them to be on site at the customer as early as the next day.
Before we started with WorkFlex, we were a bit worried, because they are a newer provider on the market. But we were convinced of the opposite, because WorkFlex won us over with their expertise, and the product then really showed that it works the way it was promised to us.
Lea Grothus, Global Mobility, HR, Flender
When our technicians travel to new countries, we were able to shorten the compliance assessment from several days to five minutes.
Time back for the technicians, oversight for the team.
- Compliance assessment for assignments in new countries: cut from several days to five minutes
- Noticeable time savings for employees, especially service technicians
- More transparency and a better overview of all trips, closer to the process
- Authority checks on site handled successfully
"The biggest difference comparing the previous process and the process now is the time saving for the employee," says Grothus. "That they get through the process a bit faster, especially with the technicians. But also that we, in the background, get involved in matters and are much closer to the process than before."
For assignments in new countries, the compliance assessment dropped from several days to five minutes. Just as vital is the gain in transparency and process proximity: Flender now keeps track of who travels where and what needs to be done, rather than relying entirely on an external provider.
It pays off in practice too. During on-site authority checks, Flender was able to submit all the required data and came out of those situations positively.
We have had authority contact a couple of times in other countries, where our technicians were actually inspected and questioned on a construction site: Do you have an A1 declaration? Do you have a PWD declaration on hand? Did you comply with the working hours? We worked on that together with WorkFlex, and we were able to submit all the data and come out of the situation positively.
Lea Grothus, Global Mobility, HR, Flender
Beyond the platform itself, ongoing collaboration remains essential. The Flender team consults regularly with WorkFlex experts on individual cases, receiving well-founded guidance.
We are very satisfied with the advice from WorkFlex. We exchange on cases regularly and always get well-founded answers.
Lea Grothus, Global Mobility, HR, Flender
I can describe my experience with WorkFlex as consistently positive, because we have a very good, harmonious relationship and really value each other and can learn from one another.