De Heus modernizes its HRIS landscape to build a unified foundation for growth by transforming HR and payroll with Workday and Strada

An interview with Silvian Nanarjain, Global Program Manager – HR Transformation, De Heus

As a global leader in animal nutrition, De Heus operates across more than 23 countries with over 17,000 employees, and continues to grow rapidly through expansion and acquisitions. But with growth, came complexity.

Differences in HR systems and processes across regions, combined with limited visibility, revealed an opportunity to strengthen workforce insights. For a company built on strong family values and an entrepreneurial mindset, this created a clear path to further enhance how the organization scales and grows.

To support this evolution, De Heus embarked on a multi-year HR transformation, with Workday as the foundation and Strada as their implementation partner.

How De Heus evolved its fragmented HRIS landscape into a unified HR foundation

In parallel with the Workday rollout, De Heus also modernized payroll, starting with Spain using Strada Pay fully integrated with Workday. By transforming HR and payroll together, De Heus established a more consistent data foundation and streamlined core processes. In Spain, payroll is currently being stabilized and continuously refined to meet local compliance and regulatory requirements. This phased approach allows the organization to build a scalable payroll model while ensuring accuracy and alignment with regional standards over time.

Before Workday, De Heus operated with a decentralized HR landscape:

• multiple systems across countries
• varied data definitions across regions
• limited reporting capabilities
• no global view of workforce insights

Reporting processes highlighted opportunities to further align systems and enhance consistency across the organization.

At the start of the transformation, De Heus was working with various sources of employee data worldwide, reflecting its strong global growth and expansion. This created a clear opportunity to streamline data consolidation and improve the speed and reliability of answering key questions, such as headcount and workforce insights.

By addressing this complexity, the organization is now better positioned to strengthen HR efficiency and unlock greater value from its data. This enables more timely, data-driven decision-making, an important step in supporting continued growth, particularly in a dynamic, acquisition-driven environment.

Why Workday was chosen as a vendor for flexibility, scale and experience

During vendor selection, De Heus evaluated multiple platforms but ultimately chose Workday for its ability to balance global harmonization with local flexibility.

“With our scale, complexity and number of countries, we needed a system that could harmonize globally but still adapt locally. That combination plus the user experience, made Workday the right fit.”

Silvian Nanarjain Global Program Manager – HR Transformation, De Heus

Equally important was Workday’s strong customer ecosystem. Silvian and his team connected with other global organizations during the selection process, gaining confidence from real-world experiences and community insights.

A strategic phased approach to HR transformation designed for change at scale

Recognizing the scale of transformation, De Heus adopted a phased rollout strategy (2024–2026) driven primarily by change management considerations.

The journey began in Asia, their largest and fastest-growing region, including Vietnam with over 3,000 employees. This approach allowed De Heus to:

• define a global design early
• test and refine processes in a controlled environment
• apply learnings across subsequent regions
• balance harmonization with local needs

Rather than a “big bang” implementation, this phased model reduced risk and improved adoption at every stage.

Enhancing De Heus team with a partnership built on trust and teamwork

From the beginning, Strada played a critical role, not just as an implementation partner, but as an extension of the De Heus team.

“Strada brought deep expertise across Workday and payroll, but what stood out was how they applied it, guiding us, and working alongside us as one team. That combination of knowledge and partnership was critical to delivering a complex, global transformation successfully.”

Silvian Nanarjain Global Program Manager – HR Transformation, De Heus

What stood out most in this implementation partnership was the collaborative and hands-on approach:

• on-site workshops across regions, including Vietnam, to address country-specific requirements
• weekly functional and stream alignment sessions to manage regulatory changes and ensure consistent interpretation of local legislation
• direct support during integration, testing, and parallel runs to validate payroll accuracy and compliance before go-live
• flexibility in adapting solutions to evolving legal, tax, and labor regulations while maintaining a harmonized global model

This close partnership was especially critical during moments of complexity, from integration challenges to organizational changes mid-project.

Navigating complexity in Workday and payroll integrations, governance and change globally

Like any large-scale transformation, the journey came with challenges:

• running payroll and Workday implementations in parallel
• managing complex integrations across countries
• aligning global processes while respecting local ways of working
• supporting a lean internal team through an intensive program

At one point, De Heus faced hundreds of testing issues as global designs met local realities, requiring close collaboration and rapid iteration.

Yet through strong governance, stakeholder alignment, and resilience, the team successfully delivered on its milestones.

Progressing towards global Workday deployment

By early 2026, De Heus  has progressed significantly in its global Workday transformation journey:

• rolled out Core HCM across multiple regions
• introduced key capabilities such as Performance, Talent, and Learning
• enabled Employee and Manager Self-Service (ESS/MSS)
• established a unified global HR data model

The phased approach has helped build confidence at each stage, with earlier rollouts informing subsequent deployments. As the program continues, the focus remains on refining processes, supporting adoption, and ensuring consistency across regions.

The positive results of improved visibility, consistency and experience in HR

While the transformation is still ongoing, De Heus is already beginning to see early improvements:

• centralized employee data across all regions
• improved reporting and workforce visibility
• more consistent HR processes globally
• a more intuitive and modern user experience
• stronger alignment between HR, IT, and business teams

Perhaps most importantly, Workday is helping De Heus move toward a common global language for people data and processes, a key enabler for future growth. These early outcomes reflect initial progress, with continued focus on harmonization and optimization across HR in the next phases of the program.

Preparing for future Workday expansion, AI and workforce insights

With the foundation now in place, De Heus is already looking ahead. Upcoming priorities include:

• continued expansion of Workday modules
• evaluation of AI-driven capabilities
• supporting ongoing M&A integration

Workday is expected to play a central role in enabling faster, more seamless acquisitions.

“Workday enables us to integrate new companies faster, with a consistent experience and unified data from day one. Strada complements that capability as a transformation partner that can keep pace with our global growth”

Silvian Nanarjain Global Program Manager – HR Transformation, De Heus

A foundation for long-term transformation and advice for peers

For De Heus, this transformation goes beyond technology. It is about professionalizing and harmonizing global HR, while building and continuously strengthening a payroll foundation in Spain, all while preserving the entrepreneurial, family-driven culture that defines the organization.

From a complex HRIS landscape to a unified global platform, De Heus is continuing to build a foundation to scale with greater consistency and confidence, as the transformation progresses into its next phase.

“Focus on building a strong, scalable foundation, one that balances global harmonization with local flexibility. Challenge your existing processes, invest in change management, and choose a partner that can support both HR and payroll complexity as you scale.”

Silvian Nanarjain Global Program Manager – HR Transformation, De Heus

For organizations on a similar path, the key lessons are clear: start with a clear global vision, phase the rollout to manage change effectively, and ensure your technology and partners are equipped to support both growth and regulatory complexity across regions.