On-Demand Human Capital & Talent Management Software

CASE STUDY
Impact of HR Technology Solution in Retail Management
About the Case Study This case study is about the Human Resources Management challenges faced by a retail organization and the appropriate HR Technology solution provided to meet out these challenges. About the Organization in Case Study The organization in the study is one of the largest retail stores chain across the globe. They have around 100 retail stores in India in different locations and looking to e pand further to more than !00 store across India. Organizational Structure "rganization has a centralized Human Resource #epartment located in Head "ffice. HR decision and process are controlled centrally. Ho$ever% many HR tasks% policies and procedures are managed by retail &tore Managers or regional offices. Current HR management Process The organization used e cel sheets to e change reports. Reports coming from various regional offices and stores $ere compiled in Head "ffice by a team of HR ' ecutives and HR managers. Applicability of the Case Study( This case study is e)ually applicable to organizations having retail chains in *onsumer +oods% Health *are% Multi ,ocational sales offices etc. Challenges Faced by the Retail Industry Their &r. HR Manager during the pre-sales discussions revealed that there $ere many administrative and HR issues $ith the retail store sites. #ue to high focus on sales% the Retail &tore Managers has no focus on issues like attendance% discipline and critical HR practices. The problem areas that $ere identified during the discussions $ere( Challenge 1 Irregularities in the attendance data of the staff at retail stores and other regional offices. &ometimes many of the staff did not sign the attendance register or signed at their $ish and $ill. #uring HR audits it $as found that some staff signed the attendance register .ust at the end of the day. &ome *ustomer &ervice ' ecutives have signed the attendance register but $ere not present at the duty. Challenge ! "here #as no mechanism to trac$ the lea%e data of employees. 'mployees did not kno$ their e act leave data. /t the end of the year it $as revealed that some employees have taken e cess leave $hile some employees $orked incessantly% thus

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causing frustration among the hard $orking lot. 'iscrepancy in HR reports( HR provided a set of ' cel &heets and paper-based forms to &tore Managers to maintain data. Ho$ever% many &tore Managers created their uni)ue formats of reports making it difficult to collate the reports using ' cel macros. The data thus collated had to be verified again and again% yet there $ere errors at the end of the day. Salary 'iscrepancies and Issues( HR and attendance data $as used to generate data for payroll. /s there $ere discrepancies in HR data% these also found their $ay in payroll data. This created many salary discrepancies and caused numerous salary issues raised by the employees% thus lo$ering employee satisfaction rate and also effecting the employee morale. +is,management of -mployees -.pense during "ra%el etc. There $ere lots of travel and e pense activities in the organization. The travel and e penses data that reached the head )uarters $as based on individual0s feedback and there $as no mechanism to verify the validity or re)uirements of the travel. There $as no policy based approval mechanism for travel and e penses. The decisions $ere taken at local levels and the e penses $ere also disbursed locally. This $as also negatively impacting the company0s budget. It $as very difficult to analyze or validate a travel e pense. "raining and Communication Issues( /s company $as gro$ing at a fast pace% training employees on various HR procedures and policies $as becoming increasingly difficult. Thus employees took the decisions based on their previous e perience or personal logic and created unnecessary hassle for HR to intervene and resolve. / fe$ good employees even departed from organization because of the paltry issues. This $as thus causing a harm to organization0s 'mployer 1rand.

Impact of challenges( The above challenges directly or indirectly effected critical business metrics like availability of staff at the stores% *ustomer &ervice% 2rofessionalism% and financial issues like unnecessary e penses% lo$ered sales and poor customer e perience. Analysis of the Problem( /fter identifying the challenges% a stream of discussions $ere conducted by the &aigun0s Team 2ro.ect Managers% /nalysts% 3 HR *onsultant and the "rganization0s HR Managers% HR ' ecutives and the "perations Managers. These discussions churned out the follo$ing as the top 4 reasons of the problem( 1 0ac$ of consistent HR systems across the organization. /s operations managers come from different domains and industries they bring $ith them different practices and feel comfortable in applying the same to their current organization. ! 0ac$ of consistent1 recorded log1 and communication mechanism( There $as no reliable feedback mechanism for HR to communicate policies% change in processes and training for employees and managers. Thus there $ere many confusions among employees about the HR issues. /lso each one tried to interpret the HR policies in their o$n favor.

& 0ac$ of Proper "ools #ith HR1 -mployees +anagers and 0eaders( 5either employees nor manager had appropriate and easy to use tools to follo$ HR practices and policies% they invested more time in creating improvements rather than using e isting practices. Thus they $ere reluctant in partnering $ith HR and considered HR as an hindrance to their routine .obs. ) 'elayed reports to ma$e 2usiness decisions( The HR reports $ere often delayed or completely avoided $hile making business critical decisions. * 0ac$ of Accountability( /s there $ere no 6ob #escriptions% &M/RT +oals% mechanism or $ork-flo$s for managing human resources or for approvals% managers and employees did not feel accountable to HR. #uring meetings they tried to stress their o$n decision making as an important factor and provided e cuses for declining performance like competitive market and economy etc. The leadership and top management considered above problems highly critical for business and immediately advised HR and &enior management to look for possible solutions. Solution Offered( "n the basis of previous discussions% &aigun team suggested the organization to implement 0'mp7track 2rofessional 'dition0. 2rofessional 'dition is a state-of-the-art solution for managing Human Resources. It automates all significant functions of the HR #epartment. 8ith 2rofessional 'dition organizations can manage employee data% e tend HR services to employees and managers% and evaluate performance of employees using a $eb based appraisal system. /s organization $as completely paper based% migrating instantly to an "n line system could cause an iety among employees and also create change-management issues. &o &aigun and the "rganization decided to implement the HR technology solution in t$o phases. First Phase( In first phase% "rganization opted for on-line 'mployee #atabase and 'mployee &elf &ervice. This helped them to painlessly s$itch from current traditional practices to a paperless global HR system. "n-line 'mployee #atabase helped organization0s HR #epartment to slo$ly absorb the benefits and challenges of on-line management. 8hile 'mployee &elf &ervice $ith functions like on-line leave approvals% travel and e pense management% personal data update slo$ly transformed the HR practices. 2enefits of First Phase( 1 Painless Change +anagement( The simplicity of the solutions did not cause much training issues and also eliminated any an iety or confusion among employees. The simplicity of the &tarter 'dition0s functions smoothened the change process and could be absorbed in the organization $ith minimum resistance from employees. 8ithin 9 months the usage of 'mp7track system reached upto :0 ;. ! Accuracy of -mployee 'ata( 8ith &elf &ervice mechanism% employees helped HR to change the data accurately and effectively. /fter three months of

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implementation% ::; of the data $as accurate. /fter three months there $as almost no personal data inaccuracies. /ll personal data updates became incidental like employee status changing from unmarried to married etc. 3e# -mployees inducted in the system -ffortlessly( /ll ne$ employees .oining the organization $ere instantly added to 'mployee database and they used self service to provide further data. Thus organization could al$ays have accurate 3 fully updated employee data $ith them. Accuracy of Payroll data and accuracy in -mployee salaries( *orrect leave data $as available for payroll department% thus salaries $ere transferred accurately. 'ecrease in "ra%el -.penses( Most travel e penses $ere approved through a pre-defined process. This resulted in higher accountability for e penses incurred during travel and other related activities. /ll insignificant travel and e penses $ere disapproved by management thereby improving the financial health of the organization. Increase in -mployee A%ailability at Stores( #ue to increased accountability of managers in implementing HR 2olicies and procedures and improvement in 'mployee morale% there $as a significant improvement in employee availability and hence productivity. 2etter +IS reports( Instant reports $ere available to HR and company ,eadership to help in making critical business decisions. Indeed $hile their competitors $ere laying off employees% this organization $hich did smart hiring in the past had no need to layoff employees< instead they hired the talent from competitors.

Second Phase( The second phase is still under process. The second phase $ill focus on 2erformance Management to measure 3 improve employee performance and meet organizational +oals. +oal &etting 2rocess $ill be initiated for all employees for a specific period. /t the end of the duration% /ppraisals based on the +oal &heets $ill be initiated for all employee. "he impact of HR "echnology Solution on the Organization The HR Technology &olution helped the organization to implement their HR policies and procedures effectively. /ppropriate and accurate data became available to the management to make ob.ective decisions. 'mployees felt satisfied $ith the HR services and did not consider them as an hindrance to their .obs. -mployee Strength of Organization( 1000= 'mployees across 140 ,ocations HR "echnology Solution 5sed( 'mp7track 2rofessional 'dition

Other Information About the Case Study( India Office &aigun Technologies 2vt. ,td. 'mp7track #ivision /-!>?'% &ector 1@ 5"I#/ - !01 901% India 2hone( =:1 1!0 A>9>:00 Ba ( =:1 1!0 !41 0:0C 8ebsite( $$$.emp track.com 5S Sales Office 'mp7track #ivision &aigun Technologies 19A 5 Manchester ,n 1loomingdale% I, @010C D&/ 2hone(1-CCC-CA0-!@C! Ba ( =1 C@@-C!4-9!0A

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