With Power Apps and Microsoft 365, Votorantim Center of Excellence empowers employees and increases feedback delivery by 288%

The Votorantim Center of Excellence provides services to Votorantim companies in a structure formed by the Shared Services Centers (CSC, in Portuguese), which provide back-office services in the areas of finance, accounting, taxes, and human resources; Real Estate Solutions (CSI, in Portuguese), and Information Technology Competence (IT).

The company brings together approximately 900 employees at its units in São Paulo and Curitiba, in Brazil, and Lima, in Peru.

Development, self-development, and reflection

It was with a focus on employee experience and strengthening the feedback culture linked to cultural attributes (Results, Relationships, Learning, and Order) that the Votorantim Center of Excellence revisited processes in the area of Organizational Human Development (DHO, in Portuguese) and identified the opportunity for gains from a feedback tool.

"The principle of everything was intended to foster spontaneous, free, confidential expression to build a tool that brought visibility, but also confidentiality. A tool for development, self-development, and reflection for people," says Malu Menon, HR Digital Products Leader at Votorantim Center of Excellence.

In 2019, an internal Hackathon was held with the involvement of internal multidisciplinary teams, when a first version of the tool was developed and named “Hi!”

Power Automate integrated with Microsoft 365 generating a simple, optimized environment

"In terms of culture, the platform worked, but we were not satisfied with its usability, extraction, and handling of the data. Microsoft 365 met these demands, and everything was integrated, and that made the numbers of tool usage grow a lot," Malu says.

In 2021, DHO sector approached IT to reshape "Hi!" and evolve the tool when the possibility of bringing the tool into the Microsoft environment arose.

The tool's database was in SharePoint, the application in Power Apps, integrated with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365, with Power Automate flows with automation within the application, and visualization through Power BI.

"It took us approximately five months to redesign the current technology and transfer the data. It's a new 'Hi!', with a new aesthetic and the same track record. We work with the continuous evolution of the tool, we didn't have any unavailability, and it gives us little work, because it's low maintenance," evaluates Cleber Bueno, IT Consultant at the Votorantim Center of Excellence.

Economic gain and goal achieved

With the change in structure, the amount of feedback submissions almost tripled with an increase of 288% compared to previous months, as did the average number of submissions—a very significant gain in usability.

The benefits were quickly noticeable, with a more modern look and interaction with Teams, the tool became something very typical in the company's daily routine, strengthening the feedback culture that the initiative sought to foster from the beginning.

"The environment has made our lives much easier. The aesthetics are more user-friendly, you don't need to log in because it's integrated, and we don't need to resort to manual bases, not least because of the expectation of everything we can still create. Our satisfaction is 100%," says Cristal Milani, DHO Analyst at Votorantim Center of Excellence.

The tool recognizes the entry of a new professional into the company in the database and sends a notification with everything explained about the feedback culture, with everything activated. Another flow is a warning that professionals receive when there is no sending or receiving feedback for more than 30 days. It also has a like button. Within the platform, there is the possibility of placing a screen with the meaning of each competence and bringing a hint, a space that was dubbed "Get inspired.”

"We were able to bring a lot of results to the DHO with greater visibility into this feedback data. We don't have access to content, just the volume of feedback, and the employee has the freedom to share with someone or not," Cristal says.

The Votorantim Center of Excellence was able to achieve its objectives and empowered its feedback culture through the use of Microsoft tools, with a daily feedback practice where everyone can help everyone's development, with no hierarchy, and which generates content for the employees themselves to use as they want.

At the end of 2022, a retrospective was also launched in which each employee could recall their feedback, reflect on their competencies, and even check how the previous years were. With the tool in place and satisfaction with the process, the company now works on constantly improving the technology with the support of Microsoft technology.