OKbase helps John Crane manage HR efficiently for 600 employees. In an interview with Jaroslav Dostál, HR Manager for Eastern Europe, we learned, among other things, why he sleeps soundly — even when an inspection comes to the company.
John Crane is a global leader in critical technologies for the energy and process industries and an innovator in rotating equipment — including mechanical seals, couplings, filtration systems, and digital diagnostic solutions. As a major player on the Czech market, the company consistently employs over six hundred people. These employees work in various shifts (single-, double-, or triple-shift operations) with flexible working hours. The shift schedules are also tailored to the specific needs of individual departments.
A tender with high expectations
In the past, John Crane faced challenges with a fragmented HR system, where attendance tracking and payroll were managed by different providers. “We knew that our existing setup was highly inefficient,” says Jaroslav Dostál. “So we started looking for a supplier capable of covering the full range of our needs and unifying everything into a single system.”
Discussions about selecting a new HR software began around mid-2018. As part of a standard tender process, John Crane approached 12 to 15 external companies. “Only a limited number of candidates met our expectations, so OKbase — or rather, OKsystem — made it to the final round and ultimately won the tender! And to this day, we’re glad it did,” Dostál adds.
The transition to OKbase took place in 2020. Jaroslav Dostál was initially responsible for implementing OKbase at Smiths Medical (which later separated from Smiths Group and became part of ICU Medical, while continuing to collaborate with OKsystem). Since 2023, however, he has been back at John Crane. “Even the separation from OKbase was smooth,” he says, describing his positive experience with this HR solution that has accompanied him across different operations.
OKbase in the cloud: an invaluable advantage
At John Crane, OKbase is used as a cloud-based SaaS solution, currently running on three key modules — attendance, HR management, and payroll, including outsourced payroll processing.
Hosting OKbase in the cloud has proven to be a tremendous advantage, especially in crisis situations. “We recently faced a cyberattack that brought down most of our internal systems. Restoring them was a slow and complicated process,” explains Jaroslav Dostál. “However, we managed to secure an exception for OKbase, since the data wasn’t stored on our servers but hosted externally. Thanks to that, we were able to restore access to the web client almost immediately as part of our recovery plan.”
This independence from the company’s internal network has proven valuable before. “A few years ago, a transformer station caught fire, leaving the company without power — the building was offline, and we couldn’t contact employees because their phone numbers were stored on a local server,” recalls Dostál. “Today, we can be sure that we have access to critical data anytime, from anywhere.”
Customization options and peace of mind during audits
One of the most valued features of OKbase is its flexibility and wide range of customization options. This allows the company to personalize the system, create tailored reports based on its specific needs, and easily extract data sources for further processing.
“Another important — and in my opinion, often underrated — advantage of OKbase is that I can sleep peacefully during internal or external audits,” says Jaroslav Dostál. “I know that our organization’s HR processes are fully compliant with all legal requirements, thanks to your system.” The OKbase development team continuously incorporates current legislative updates into the platform. The results speak for themselves — as confirmed by the outcome of a recent internal audit.
The quality of the implementation phase is key to making the most of OKbase
Jaroslav Dostál emphasizes above all the quality of the implementation phase and the expertise his team gained from OKbase consultants — knowledge they continue to build on today. “These foundations are what we draw on whenever we want to tailor a solution to our specific needs,” he says. A major advantage is that HR administrators understand how OKbase works, which enables them to make better use of the system’s potential and incorporate additional functionalities without relying on external support. This leads to the optimization of internal processes and more efficient administration — for example, through custom reports that significantly reduce the time needed to prepare employment contract amendments and handle other HR paperwork.
Employee self-service in the system
One of the main benefits that OKbase has brought to John Crane is the active involvement of employees in the HR system. “A key criterion when selecting a new system was to give employees greater autonomy over their HR matters — to give them insight into their attendance, allow them to check it themselves, and see their shift schedules. In short, we wanted them to easily see what their managers had approved or rejected regarding recorded working hours,” explains Jaroslav Dostál. “Supervisors also actively use the dashboard to visualize key data, such as the validity of medical checkups. From a workplace safety and emergency evacuation standpoint, it’s absolutely crucial for us to know who is present or absent on site, including their contact details. We also appreciate the mobile login option and responsive design. The benefits of the web client are truly enormous for us.”
Thanks to the web client, employees can work in the system independently — for example, to access their payslips. The company has also transitioned to electronic processing of tax documents, which employees have been completing themselves (or in cooperation with the payroll outsourcing team) for the past three years. “We’re moving forward step by step. Our goal is to digitalize as many HR processes as possible and get closer to a fully paperless HR operation,” Dostál concludes.
Plans for the future
The company has a clear vision for how to continue developing the digitalization of its HR processes. In the near future, John Crane plans to expand OKbase with a training module. They have already launched the digitalization of mandatory training through the implementation of a new Learning Management System (LMS) and are currently preparing localized training content tailored to specific job positions. In the long term, they also plan to integrate the LMS and OKbase modules to eliminate the need to maintain data in both systems separately.
Once this phase is complete, the team looks forward to focusing on electronic signatures for HR documents and implementing UFO forms. Although they have previously created their own sets of Word-based forms, these lack automated integration — for example, the ability for new hires to fill in their personal details before onboarding and have them automatically transferred into the system. This, Dostál says, is an area with great potential for improvement.
John Crane thus demonstrates how a well-designed and flexible HR system can significantly support both the company’s daily operations and its long-term development. With OKbase, the company has succeeded not only in streamlining internal processes and ensuring seamless compliance with legal requirements but also in gradually advancing toward full automation of HR processes.