Dealing with rapid growth is the kind of problem most organizations want to have. But while an increase in sales is always cause for celebration, such growth also requires more resources to meet demand, including new talent and more efficient management of existing employees. For Inalfa Roof Systems, a global manufacturer of automotive sunroofs, a mixture of rapid growth and internal reorganization demanded a new approach to how it supports and grows its workforce.
In just a few years, the Netherlands-based company’s sales increased from €300 million to over €1.2 billion. In 2020, the business expects sales to surpass more than €2.2 billion. In 2011, Inalfa Roof Systems was acquired by China’s Beijing Automotive Parts Hainachuan, opening up access to the Asian car market.
“With the rapid growth of our employee base from 2,000 to 7,500, the recruitment and development of talent became a major challenge,” says Bas Eggelaar, senior HR director at Inalfa Roof Systems. “Our move into China saw revenues grow by almost half a billion euros due to the huge demand for panoramic sunroofs and the large Asian automotive market.”
Eggelaar adds that HR at Inalfa traditionally involved many manual administrative processes, and that needed to change. “At this stage, we can no longer afford any inefficiencies,” he says. “We’ve come from a world of one or two new product launches per year to 26 in China alone last year.”