From workload to work relief thanks to HR Self Service
When Radboudumc decided several years ago to “make work evaporate,” it wasn’t just a catchy phrase. The goal? Less manual work, less HR intervention, and more ownership for employees. What started as a desire to design smarter processes grew into a fully integrated HR Self Service portal. Together with Popay, the academic hospital built a digital system that truly works, and works well.
An ambitious academic hospital
Radboudumc is an academic hospital in Nijmegen with around 12,000 employees. The organisation strives for excellence in healthcare, education, and research, with innovation and digitalisation as key pillars. For payroll processing, Radboudumc uses Oracle Payroll. Louis Holtus, Application Specialist, works daily on optimising payroll systems and HR processes. He shares his experience with Popay’s integration solutions.
“I would absolutely recommend Popay. Their HR Self Service is the most complete and user-friendly solution I know. And they deliver custom solutions.”
Louis Holtus – Application Specialist (Radboudumc)
From loose forms to well-oiled processes
“We’ve been working for years to make work evaporate,” says Louis Holtus. “Less manual work, fewer forms, less HR involvement. That also means more self-service, directly at the source. That’s exactly what we aim for with HR Self Service.”
This requires smart integrations between systems such as Validata, Validsign, and Kentico. “The goal is for processes to run logically and automatically, from request to approval and processing in our HR system.”
Large volumes, great necessity
Previously, many requests were handled through forms, emails, or even by post. Think of travel expense claims, changes in working hours, or allowances. “Not only was that very time-consuming, it was also error-prone and frustrating for employees,” says Louis. “With 12,000 employees, you’re dealing with huge volumes.”
Automation also proved essential when introducing new types of leave, such as caregiving leave and work-life balance leave, to keep processes manageable.
HR Self Service, fully equipped
Together with Popay, Radboudumc developed a user-friendly HR Self Service portal, fully integrated with the HR system.
“What I really like about this solution is that everything an employee or manager submits automatically ends up in the right tables — without retyping or other manual work. That saves our people time and significantly reduces errors.”
Popay built integrations with, among others:
• Validata (screening of new employees)
• Pardon (insight into net salary when working hours change)
• Xpertsuite (sick leave reporting and occupational health processes)
• Validsign (digital signing)
• Kentico (document upload for new employees)
Technical expertise with a human approach
The collaboration with Popay started back in 2018. Louis explains:
“Popay has extensive knowledge of payroll systems and Apex and works extremely well with our users. They ask the right questions, actively think along, and are always accessible. That’s important, because sometimes you need to move quickly. Over the years, we’ve built a really strong relationship.”
The Popay team worked closely with HR, with Popay responsible for the technical side and Radboudumc for the functional processes.
“They understand exactly what’s needed and translate that into a working solution,” says Louis. “Yvonne knows everything about payroll formulas, Joost is strong in Apex, and Pim keeps the overview. Together, they ensure that everything around HR runs smoothly for us.”
More time for what truly matters
Thanks to HR Self Service and the integrations, the administrative burden at Radboudumc has been significantly reduced.
“Employees can now handle many things themselves, without HR having to retype or manually process everything. We even need fewer HR officers. And those we do have now have more time for projects and substantive work. That makes their jobs more interesting and increases their impact on the organisation.”
The system is also far more user-friendly for employees. For example, submitting travel expense claims has been reduced to a single click.
“With such a large group of employees, it has to be fast, simple, and error-free. And now it is. You can easily indicate that, for example, you commute two fixed days per week, and only need to select exceptions. Instead of manually selecting every single day. For 12,000 employees, that saves a lot of clicks,” Louis explains.
Ready for the next step
Does this mark the end of the collaboration between Radboudumc and Popay? Definitely not. Both organisations continue to work together on further optimisation.
“We want to keep developing. There are still many opportunities, for example in the onboarding process or in automatically processing collective labour agreement changes. With Popay as our partner, we’re confident about the future.”
From work pressure to work relief: this is how Radboudumc does it
12,000 employees, dozens of regulations, and thousands of actions every month. How do you ensure your HR processes still run smoothly, quickly, and error-free?
Radboudumc chose a different approach. Less manual work, less HR intervention, more control for employees. Together with Popay, they built a complete HR Self Service portal — fully integrated with the HR and payroll systems and connected to smart tools like Validata, Validsign, and Kentico.
Louis Holtus, Application Specialist at Radboudumc, shares in our latest customer case how this digital acceleration came about — and what it delivered.
Curious how you can make work “evaporate” in your organisation? Read the Radboudumc story:
