How Želva digitalised their HR processes and empowered a mobile workforce

Želva is a mid-sized Slovenian company with around 300 employees and a unique mission. Founded in 1991, it supports the employment and social inclusion of people with intellectual and physical disabilities. Under one roof, Želva carries out a wide range of services: facility management, landscaping services, cleaning, technical maintenance, institutional care, occupational rehabilitation, and social inclusion programmes.

The Challenge: Time-Consuming HR Administration and Mobile Workforce

With such a diverse range of activities and teams constantly working in the field, Želva struggled with an outdated system, Excel sheets and manual tracking. Their HR administration was time-consuming, error-prone, and difficult to manage, particularly for processes such as hire-to-retire, which lacked a centralised system.

Moreover, the majority of their employees don’t work at desks or have regular access to computers, making it almost impossible to share up-to-date HR information with everyone in a timely and transparent way.

The Impact: Better Recruiting & Onboarding

With Gecko HRM, Želva leapt into HR digitalisation, finally replacing outdated systems and scattered spreadsheets with one centralised and secure platform. The impact was immediate:

• Efficient administration: HR teams can generate and manage leave decisions and employment documentation in bulk, saving hours of time-consuming work.
• Improved onboarding: With hiring and onboarding now streamlined in Gecko, the team is better prepared for growth and smoother employee integration.
• Mobile-first access: Employees now use the Gecko mobile app to check their leave balances and personal data, right from the field.
• Automated annual leave management: Complex leave entitlements based on various collective agreements are now calculated automatically.

The biggest win? Everyone now has real-time access to key information (personal data, contracts etc.), no matter where they are – office or the field.

Recruiting & Onboarding: Building Inclusive Teams With Care

Hiring at Želva is about more than just filling roles. It’s about creating opportunities for people who are often overlooked in the labour market. Their recruiting process reflects this mission, with a strong emphasis on inclusivity, tailored onboarding, and long-term support.

With Gecko, Želva has digitalised and streamlined this crucial part of their operations, making sure their whole hire-to-retire process is in one place.

Annual Leave: Automated Calculations and Full Transparency

One of Želva’s biggest administrative challenges used to be managing annual leave, especially given the variety of roles, working time arrangements, and collective bargaining agreements across the organisation.

Calculating entitlements, handling adjustments, and issuing formal leave decisions was a manual and time-consuming task for the HR team.

With Gecko, this process is now fully digitalised and streamlined:

• Automatic calculations: Gecko handles all leave entitlements based on each employee’s contract and applicable collective bargaining agreement.
• Mass issuance of decisions: Instead of manually creating hundreds of documents, the HR team can now generate leave decisions in bulk, saving significant time and reducing the chance of human error.
• Real-time employee access: All employees, whether in the office or on the field, can now see how much leave they have left, directly in the Gecko mobile app. This level of transparency was previously not possible.

The result? A faster, more reliable process for HR, and empowered employees who can finally access accurate information on their own, anytime, anywhere.

Why Želva Chose Gecko HRM?

When selecting their preferred HRM solution provider, Želva carefully evaluated several key factors:

• Responsiveness and expertise of the provider, as well as their willingness to implement necessary adjustments and a deep understanding of Želva’s specific organisational needs.
• The modular structure, flexibility for phased implementation, strong user experience, and the provider’s ability to adapt to Želva’s unique context were all seen as major advantages.
• The implementation team recognised Gecko’s professional and productive approach, and recommended Gecko HRM as the most suitable long-term solution for Želva’s digital HR transformation.

For an organisation like Želva, with complex needs and a highly mobile workforce, Gecko brought order to chaos. What was once a patchwork of outdated systems and Excel files is now a fully digital HR system designed for transparency, mobility, and growth.

With Gecko, Želva isn’t just keeping up with modern HR practices – they’re setting an example of how technology can serve people, not the other way around.