Herbion transforms global HR with SmartHCM

Executive Summary:

Herbion Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd, a pioneer in herbal medicine established in 1983 in Karachi, has grown into a global brand with operations in more than 40 countries. As the company expanded to 24 countries, it faced serious HR and payroll challenges including fragmented attendance systems, manual leave workflows, scattered employee data, compliance risks, and difficulties managing multi-currency payroll. Employee duplication across systems, lack of mobile attendance for remote staff, and limited workforce visibility further complicated operations and slowed efficiency.

To overcome these issues, Herbion’s partnered with SmartHCM, which implemented a centralized, cloud-based HR and payroll solution. The system unified attendance tracking across all regions, automated half-day and benefit rules, enabled mobile attendance with GPS, streamlined leave workflows, and introduced multi-currency payroll support. SmartHCM also centralized employee data, automated compliance processes, and provided real-time workforce analytics through Pivot Table reporting. Smart HCM delivered a fully customized solution tailored according to Herbion’s specific business needs and requirements.

Company Description:

Herbion Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd is a pioneer in herbal medicine and natural healthcare solutions. Established in 1983 in Karachi, Pakistan recognized healthcare and wellness company that specializes in natural and herbal products. Founded with the vision of promoting healthier lifestyles, Herbion develops safe, effective, and affordable remedies using natural ingredients. With a strong presence in pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and herbal supplements, the company focuses on research-driven innovation and strict quality standards to deliver trusted healthcare solutions. Today, Herbion operates across multiple countries, offering a wide range of herbal syrups, tablets, teas, and wellness products that combine traditional herbal knowledge with modern scientific advancements. The company now has a presence in over 40 countries across Asia, Europe, North and South America, the Caucasus, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East.

Challenges Faced

As Herbion expanded its operations to 24 countries, managing HR and payroll became increasingly complex. Despite adopting software-based processes in some areas, several functions were still handled manually, leading to inefficiencies and delays. Tracking employee attendance across multiple locations & countries was one of the biggest hurdles. Different regions maintained separate attendance systems, and in some cases, manual registers were still in use. This lack of uniformity created a multi-attendance challenge, where employee records were scattered across various systems without proper integration. As a result, consolidating attendance data for payroll and compliance became time-consuming and error-prone. HR teams had to manually verify and compile records from multiple sources, which often caused delays in salary processing, reduced accuracy, and created reporting gaps. The absence of mobile-based attendance further complicated matters, especially for remote and field staff whose working hours could not be tracked in real time, limiting visibility for senior management.

Herbion also faced complications in attendance-based benefits. If an employee marked their attendance in the first half of the day, they became eligible for certain benefits such as lunch, allowances, and other company perks. However, if the attendance was not recorded within the first half, it was counted as leave, and the employee was not considered eligible for these benefits and allowances.

Another significant challenge was the lack of a structured leave workflow. With closer to 800 employees globally, leave approvals and balance management were handled manually, often leading to delays, disputes, and errors in payroll calculations. Time office management also remained resource-heavy, with HR teams struggling to, coordinate schedules, shifts and attendance data across different branches and time zones.

Herbion faced problems with scattered HR data and the absence of centralized performance management tools. Employee records were spread across spreadsheets and local systems, making it difficult to evaluate staff consistently, monitor growth, or identify high performers.

Senior management had limited access to workforce analytics and reporting, as most reports were compiled manually, resulting in delays and gaps in data-driven decision-making.

Global compliance was another pressing issue. Operating in diverse markets meant adhering to evolving labor laws, payroll structures, and tax regulations in each country. Without an integrated system, compliance checks had to be done manually, increasing the risk of errors, penalties, and reputational damage. Payroll complexities were further heightened by the lack of multi-currency support, making it difficult to manage accurate and consistent salary disbursements across multiple regions. Each employee had to be duplicated in the system across different locations or departments, which created inefficiencies, data inconsistencies, and errors in reporting.

These challenges collectively slowed down HR efficiency, limited transparency for management, and created bottlenecks in employee satisfaction and compliance. Herbion urgently needed a centralized, automated, and globally adaptable HR solution to overcome these hurdles and support its international workforce effectively.

The Partnership & Implementation Journey of Herbion & SmartHCM

The collaboration between Herbion and SmartHCM began with a comprehensive needs assessment, where both teams identified gaps in attendance, payroll, compliance, and employee data management. SmartHCM designed an implementation roadmap that minimized disruption while ensuring smooth adoption. Dedicated project managers from both sides worked closely, aligning business processes with SmartHCM’s features. The partnership was built on transparency and continuous communication, which allowed for swift resolution of issues and ensured timely progress toward deployment.

Solutions & Benefits Provided by SmartHCM

SmartHCM addressed Herbion’ s challenges with a centralized, cloud-based HR and payroll solution that transformed the way the company managed its global workforce. One of the first solutions was the implementation of a unified attendance system across all countries. By consolidating multi-attendance sources into one integrated platform, SmartHCM eliminated duplication and provided real-time visibility for senior management. This made payroll processing faster, more accurate, and transparent.

For employees who previously faced problems with half-day benefits, SmartHCM introduced automated shift and half-day rules. The system assured if an employee arrived in the first half of the day and is instantly eligible for Herbion’s had specific rules for attendance-based benefits. If an employee marked attendance in the first half of the day, they were eligible for lunch, allowances, and other company benefits. However, if an employee marked attendance in the second half, it was not treated as leave but was instead counted as half-day attendance, making them eligible only for half-day benefits and allowances. SmartHCM automated this process by applying predefined attendance rules in payroll, ensuring accurate calculations, eliminating manual errors, and fairly recognizing both first-half and second-half attendance.

The mobile attendance feature allowed remote and field employees to mark attendance through smartphones, with GPS-tracking and geofencing ensuring compliance. This replaced outdated manual registers and gave HR teams real-time access to attendance data.

For leave management, SmartHCM introduced a fully automated workflow for leave applications, approvals, and balance tracking. This significantly reduced disputes, delays, and payroll errors while allowing managers to respond to requests instantly via web or mobile.

Multi-currency payroll support was another game-changer. Employees across different regions were paid accurately in their local currencies, ensuring consistency and compliance with country-specific payroll structures and tax regulations. Global compliance processes were automated, minimizing the risk of penalties and ensuring Herbion stayed aligned with diverse labor laws.

Data migration played a key role in consolidating scattered employee information from spreadsheets and local systems into a centralized HR database. This created a single source of data of employee records and enabled real-time analytics and workforce reporting.

Herbion customized its unique HR workflows with SmartHCM easily, while still maintaining the flexibility and scalability needed for future expansion.

Training sessions were delivered to HR staff and managers, ensuring smooth adoption of the system, while employees quickly adapted to its self-service features. The mobile app integration further enhanced accessibility, giving both employees and management the ability to perform HR functions on the go.

SmartHCM provided Pivot Table reporting, which allowed Herbion to analyze HR, attendance, and payroll data in real time without depending on manual Excel sheets. Instead of creating separate reports for each country or department, the Pivot Table enabled HR teams to slice and filter data instantly by location, department, employee category, shift, or currency. For example, management could view consolidated attendance across all 24 countries and then drill down into specific regions with just a few clicks.

Benefits:

Faster, more accurate payroll processing across 24 countries
Elimination of duplicate and scattered attendance records
Real-time visibility of workforce data for management
Improved compliance with labor laws and tax regulations worldwide
Accurate multi-currency payroll for global employees
Transparent and efficient leave workflow
Mobile-based attendance for remote and field staff with GPS tracking
Centralized HR data for better analytics and decision-making
Significant cost savings by reducing manual inefficiencies
Enhanced scalability to support future workforce growth

Training

For smooth adoption, SmartHCM conducted extensive training sessions for HR staff, managers, and employees. Interactive workshops, user guides, and on-site demonstrations helped staff quickly adapt to the new system. Employees were trained to use the self-service portal and mobile app for everyday tasks such as attendance, leave applications, and pay slip downloads. Continuous support and refresher sessions were provided to address challenges and boost user confidence, ensuring maximum utilization of the platform’s features.

Mobile App Integration

One of the major game-changers for Herbion was SmartHCM’s mobile app. It enabled employees, especially remote and field staff, to mark attendance, request leave, and access payslips directly from their smartphones. Managers could approve requests, view team attendance, and monitor performance in real time. This mobility not only enhanced employee engagement but also resolved the long-standing issue of tracking distributed teams effectively.

Results:

The implementation of SmartHCM brought measurable improvements across HR operations of Herbion. Payroll processing time was reduced significantly, with errors minimized due to automated calculations and centralized attendance data. The leave workflow became seamless, eliminating delays and disputes. HR gained centralized control over employee data, while management benefited from real-time analytics and reporting. Compliance risks were reduced with automated updates aligned to local labor laws, and multi-currency support simplified global payroll. Employee satisfaction improved as staff gained easy access to HR services via the mobile app. Overall, Herbion’s HR efficiency increased, costs were reduced, and strategic decision-making was strengthened through data-driven insights.

Conclusion

The partnership between Herbion and SmartHCM transformed the way the company managed its workforce across 24 countries. By addressing long-standing issues such as fragmented attendance, manual workflows, and compliance complexities, SmartHCM provided Herbion with a centralized, automated, and globally adaptable HR solution. The collaboration not only streamlined day-to-day operations but also empowered management with greater visibility and control. With SmartHCM’s scalable platform, Herbion is now well-positioned to support its global growth while maintaining operational excellence and employee satisfaction.