HR Technology Director

Turning HR
platforms into business leverage.

Twenty years designing, governing and scaling enterprise HCM ecosystems — including Workday and adjacent HR platforms — for a 35,000+ employee, 40+ country matrix organization. Platform-agnostic by design, AI-forward by focus.

Frederic Virasack
Positioning

When an organization scales, its HR technology has to carry more than transactions — it has to carry governance, trust and adoption. Most of that capacity already exists inside the portfolio; it rarely needs a rebuild, it needs a director who can orchestrate it.

Twenty years in enterprise systems, in service of the business.

I'm Frederic Virasack, an HR Technology Director based near Paris, France. I lead the global HR platform portfolio at Essity — a 35,000-employee group operating across more than 40 countries — spanning Workday, Cornerstone OnDemand, Concur and the wider HCM ecosystem.

I led the original Workday implementation in 2019–2020 and have managed the global platform portfolio since. I work without a direct team, delivering through cross-functional influence across Centers of Excellence, HRBPs and IT — which means governance, stakeholder alignment and Works Council co-determination (France and Germany) are as central to the role as the technology itself.

01

Business, people, technology & AI strategy

02

Operational effectiveness & process efficiency

03

HR technology portfolio management

04

Delivery governance & employee experience value

Frederic Virasack portrait

How the organization sees the role

"A strategic HR technology leader focused on governance and AI adoption across the HR community — Workday transformation, technology portfolio management and organizational enablement that delivers business value. Shaping the future HR technology and AI agenda, particularly Copilot, AI governance, vendor evaluation and large-scale HR transformation."

Complex problems, practical outcomes.

I like solving complex people-and-technology problems. Today I lead HR technology strategy, delivery and value realization at Essity — shaping the future of work through modern platforms, AI and digital experiences that create measurable business impact.

I bring together HR, IT, business leaders and technology partners to turn ambitious ideas into practical outcomes — augmenting HR work and improving employee experience while keeping governance, trust and human judgment at the center.

Outside work: AI news and applied research (RAG, AI data readiness), geopolitics, Krav Maga, Asian cooking, and family time.

Key achievements, by year.

2026

Achievements

  • Led Peakon implementation; ran RFI/RFP for AI-native alternatives to Workday recruiting
  • Piloted Copilot for HR peer network; built business case for Workday SANA AI employee Q&A
  • Set HR technology strategy under executives' mandate; owns global HR technology budget
  • Led Position Management integration to finance decisions and employee assignment in Workday

Value realized

  • Employee experience & workforce management
  • Budget optimization & operational efficiency
  • AI readiness
  • Strategic roadmap under executive mandate
2025

Achievements

  • Renewed the Workday global contract for 3 years
  • Led PMO to implement Cornerstone LXP, piloted for Marketing
  • Ran RFI/RFP for a new Employee Engagement survey platform; defined next strategy horizon
  • Launched HR data lake in production with first PowerBI headcount prototype

Value realized

  • HR data lake foundation for future HR analytics
  • Skills ontology & management from Cornerstone
  • New learning experience
2024

Achievements

  • Business case preparation and validation for a new global Learning platform
  • RFP for a new global Learning platform (Workday vs Cornerstone)
  • RFP to buy Visier, or build a new HR data lake for People Analytics
  • Defined People & Culture key metrics on PowerBI

Value realized

  • HR digital transformation
  • Talent management
  • People metrics
2023

Achievements

  • E-sign integration with Workday across several countries
  • Redesigned employment agreement, job change and termination processes in Workday
  • Set up new HR Technology delivery collaboration across CoE and IT, with prioritization framework
  • Took ownership of HR technology strategy

Value realized

  • New way to deliver HR initiatives
  • Delivery framework and prioritization
  • Operational efficiencies
  • Delivery orchestration
2021–2022

Achievements

  • RFI for a new global Learning platform
  • Redesigned new ways of working across all organizations in Workday
  • Built a change board concept before changes go into production

Value realized

  • Anchored global guiding principles and localization decisions
  • Kept employee experience high through change discipline
2017–2020

Achievements

  • RFP for a new global HCM platform (Workday vs SuccessFactors)
  • RFP for an implementation partner (Accenture)
  • Recruited, trained and implemented HCM, Time Off, Performance, C&B, integrated to payroll

Value realized

  • First global consolidated HCM platform with employee master data
  • Global processes for operational efficiencies
2011–2016

Achievements

  • Implemented payroll and travel expense system PIXID in France
  • Enforced payroll and travel expense policies across major countries
  • RFP and business case for a new global Travel Expense system
  • Implemented Concur globally across all Essity countries

Value realized

  • Employee experience
  • One global travel system
  • Removed cash payments in some countries
  • Full audit trail for all travelers

Frameworks I've built and own.

01 RFI/RFP evaluation framework

Including AI guiding principles — used to evaluate, rate and measure the best fit for Essity.

02 CoE capability maturity assessment

Defines the CoE organization's 3-year roadmap for systems, organization and process design across C&B, Learning & Development, Recruitment, Time Off, Travel expenses and People Analytics.

03 Global "moments that matter" surveys

Measures value realization per role, and drives continuous improvement with CoEs and the Workday support organization.

04 HR technology evaluation & scoring model

Scores current and new HR systems to inform executive investment decisions.

05 Change control & collaboration framework

Controls any configuration change before it reaches production, to avoid technical and employee experience regressions.

06 HR technology delivery framework

Clarifies roles and responsibilities between CoEs and IT organizations, and removes barriers to execution and delivery speed.

07 Initiative prioritization tracker

Orchestrates and funnels all demands into one decision-making framework, controlling delivery frequency and budget.

08 HR technology strategy & decision framework

Clarifies the vision and mission scope under a clear leadership model.

09 AI for HR strategy & Copilot peer network

Upskilled 700+ HR professionals on Microsoft 365 Copilot.

10 AI-driven HR process automation

Copilot → Power Apps → Power Automate → APIs, to automate select HR use cases end to end.

Let's talk about your HR technology agenda.

Get in touch →
Mobile (France)
+33 6 84 81 83 90