Workday rolls out HR system for Japfa in Indonesia

Workday has deployed its human resources system for Japfa in Indonesia, the first stage of a wider regional rollout. Japfa employs more than 50,000 people across Asia.

The rollout is due to extend to five more markets: Singapore, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Myanmar and India.

Founded in Indonesia and headquartered in Singapore, Japfa is a large agri-food group with operations spanning animal feed production, livestock breeding, commercial farming and consumer food. The project is intended to reshape its HR service model as it manages a workforce spread across multiple Asian countries.

According to the companies, the Indonesian deployment was completed in eight months. The system is being used to centralise HR administrative work across Japfa's Indonesian business units into a shared-services model, aiming to reduce manual processes and introduce more consistent operating procedures.

The move reflects a broader trend among large regional employers to consolidate HR functions and use common software across different markets. For companies with large workforces and complex organisational structures, this can provide a single view of employee numbers, costs and reporting lines.

The new set-up includes tools for workforce planning, talent management and compensation. It gives HR teams and managers access to workforce data covering headcount, costs and team structures, helping inform staffing and budget decisions.

Indonesia is Japfa's largest market, making the first phase a significant test of a broader regional standardisation effort. A successful deployment there would provide a foundation for expansion across the group's remaining Asian operations.

Japfa has grown from an animal-feed producer into a vertically integrated agri-food business. Its activities now cover upstream feed and breeding, midstream fattening, and downstream processing and distribution, creating a workforce spread across different types of operations and regulatory environments.

That complexity helps explain the emphasis on standardised processes and visibility. Businesses operating across several jurisdictions often face a patchwork of local employment rules, reporting structures and legacy systems, making it harder to compare staffing data and apply consistent internal processes.

Jasper Tan, Head of HR at Japfa, described the project as part of a wider operational effort tied to growth and administration.

"Collaboration with Workday supports Japfa to be able to increase talent development, optimise budgeting and cost allocation, and expand efficiently as the business grows on an international scale. This platform also standardizes various processes to increase productivity, strengthen compliance with regulations and laws, and maintain better operational consistency throughout the organisation," Tan said.

For Workday, the agreement adds another large Asian employer to its customer base in a region where companies continue to digitise finance, HR and IT functions. The supplier said the Japfa project centres on improving visibility for managers and supporting workforce planning across the business.

Jess O'Reilly, General Manager of ASEAN at Workday, said the system is designed to simplify HR administration and improve oversight for managers.

"For organisations like Japfa, Workday helps simplify and streamline HR processes, strengthening workforce planning and giving HR teams and managers greater visibility to support more effective talent management. This enables Japfa to better align its workforce with its evolving business needs and support its growth ambitions," O'Reilly said.

The project also involves HR shared services, according to details released with the Indonesia launch. Shared-services structures are commonly used by multinational groups to consolidate repetitive administrative tasks, reduce duplication between business units and create common workflows for activities such as employee records, approvals and internal reporting.

For Japfa, which operates in several fast-growing Asian markets, the regional rollout will test whether a common HR framework can be maintained across countries with different labour markets and operating conditions. The objective is greater consistency across the group's operations in Asia.

Workday said more than 11,500 organisations worldwide use its systems, including more than 65% of Fortune 500 companies.