Change is in the Air – Synlab

Highlights at a glance

  • Cloud-based workforce management for over 5,000 employees
  • Mapping of 20 collective agreements and 30 company agreements
  • 2,800 working time and around 650 overtime models
  • Company-wide acceptance thanks to change management
  • Self services for 5,500 employees 
  • Higher planning quality requiring significantly less time
  • Digital qualifications and certifications management in laboratory operations

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Think global, act local. True to this principle, SYNLAB analyzes some 500 million lab samples in more than 35 countries around the world every year. Europe’s largest laboratory operator is an integrated, end-to-end medical diagnostics service provider. In Germany, SYNLAB supports doctors and hospitals at over 100 locations. In future, the planning and management of the roughly 5,500 employees will be based on ATOSS Workforce Management in the cloud. The pilot project in Leverkusen is now up and running, and will be followed by the nationwide rollout. ATOSS Consulting accompanied SYNLAB right from the outset to ensure the project ran smoothly. The aim was to harmonize the heterogeneous personnel processes at the different locations, thereby creating a solid basis for the phased introduction of the cloud solution. While a detailed analysis of the processes revealed huge potential, it also highlighted the complexity of the project. Among other aspects, the new solution had to reflect 20 collective and 30 company agreements, more than 2,800 working time models and around 650 overtime schemes. Our consulting team also made a valuable contribution towards the change management process. The in-house branding of the solution under the SYNChron acronym – involving the entire project team – already marked a major success. 

Thanks to the intuitive software and the professional project and change management ATOSS Consulting provided, we quickly achieved a high level of acceptance among all participants.


Ariane Luuk
HR Manager Shared Services & HRIS Projects, Synlab Holding Deutschland

The introduction process included all stakeholders, an approach that created acceptance on every level. Employees benefit from the simple and intuitive operation of the new self service portal as well as from greater transparency in all working time matters. Duty scheduling quality has improved markedly, in connection with significantly lower planning input. In future, the qualifications and certifications so essential in laboratory operations will be factored into planning by the system. Likewise, all the statutory, pay scale and company-specific rules are automatically incorporated in planning and scheduling. The SYNChron project creates measurable value added: more efficient processes, less administration, demand-driven scheduling and stronger employee integration. From now on, the company can bring an even sharper focus on its core competence – conducting lab tests in the shortest possible time and to the stipulated high quality standards. Our conclusion: a sound and healthy workforce management.

Source: ATOSS Customer SYNLAB | ATOSS Annual Report 2018