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NU SKIN’S NEW HUMAN RESOURCES SYSTEM PROJECT
PUTS PEOPLE FIRST

N u Skin Enterprises is an American direct-selling and multilevel marketing company
which sells more than 200 anti-aging personal care and dietary supplements
products through more than 830,000 independent distributors. Since its beginnings
in 1984 in Provo, Utah, the company has expanded operations to 52 international
markets. Annual revenues have topped 1 billion dollars.
Nu Skin’s business model combines direct selling with multilevel marketing. Each distribu-
tor markets products directly to potential customers, and can also recruit and train customers
to become distributors. Distributors are paid from the retail markup on products they are able
to sell personally, as well as a percentage of the sales of distributors they have recruited. To be
successful, Nu Skin obviously must pay close attention to how it manages people.
Although Nu Skin has nearly 6,000 employees in 28 different countries, until recently, it
did not have a centralized human resources (HR) system to maintain employee data or to
provide HR reporting to other parts of the business. Instead, it managed employees manually
at the local level or allowed local operating units to use their own systems. In order to obtain
employee information at the corporate level, Nu Skin had to contact the region and obtain the
data manually. All of this was very time-consuming, and the company really needed more
consistent and automated HR processes.
When Nu Skin’s management decided to implement a centralized HR system, a cross-
functional project team representing human resources and the information systems depart-
ment conducted a thorough two-year analysis of information needs and searched for the right
system. It recommended SAP ERP Human Capital Management (HCM), and started to imple-
ment the modules for personnel administration and organizational management.
Members of the project team were selected so that their HR expertise and experience would
complement each other. Team members included several SAP business analysts, a program-
mer analyst, a technical business analyst, an HR information systems analyst, and a team of
senior systems engineers. Vice President of Human Resources David Daines and IT Business
Integration leaders Amy Camara and Jay Barney supported the team.
External consultants from Symphony Consulting were hired to assist the project team in
identifying information requirements from various Nu Skin offices. Consultants were hired
on the basis of skills and personality that would enhance the team, as well as the ability to
perform on-site training. Nu Skin’s users were in so many different geographic locations that it
would be impossible for them
to train in the new system
off-site. The consultants were
assigned to train employees
on-site during the implemen-
tation.
Through every step of the
project, the company was care-
ful to put “people” before tech-
nology. What kind of people
should be on the project team?
What consultants should be
employed? What are the busi-
ness and culture requirements
that have to be addressed?
The project team visited
various Nu Skin sites in each
of the company’s markets to
inquire about the data each
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