As an essential business in the pandemic, Midwest grocer Schnuck Markets remained open while facing 10 percent absenteeism across its stores—four times more than normal—due to childcare and issues not related to illness.
Schnucks had to hire and onboard 1,500 teammates in two months, five times normal. With corporate offices closed, teammates had to work from home or in stores to assist operations.
During the pandemic, we had to adapt our business processes fast, almost overnight in many cases.
Director, Human Capital Management
Meeting the complexities of 31 union contracts.
As a grocer with 14,500 teammates in 112 stores across four U.S. states, Schnucks must accommodate 31 union contracts. These contracts require compliance with thousands of rules governing payroll, time off, and other working conditions. In addition, the company sought to minimize the high turnover typical of retail operators. To evaluate candidates with Human Capital Management (HCM) systems that could address these complex needs, Schnucks issued a request for proposal (RFP).
Workday best met the requirements set forth in the extremely demanding RFP. It consisted of 28 of the most complex business-case scenarios the company had faced. One candidate declined to respond at all. In the end, Schnucks determined Workday to be the strategic partner it could trust to help move its business forward. An added attraction was access to the Workday Community for peer networking on specific deployment topics and best practices.
Improves organizational agility.
In mid-2019, Schnucks successfully deployed Workday Human Capital Management and additional applications. The company consolidated its footprint, eliminating one mainframe-based system for HCM and two payroll systems. Workday helped streamline recruitment and onboarding processes considerably.
Then the pandemic hit. For their health and safety, hundreds of corporate teammates were sent home to work, and others were reassigned to stores. Workday provided the agility and flexibility that were crucial to Schnucks’ response. “We had to adapt our business processes fast, almost overnight in many cases,” says Becky Fitzpatrick, director of HCM.
We can change processes in 30 minutes, including setup, testing and rollout, using Workday.
Director, Human Capital Management
Unifies employee data.
Schnucks has eliminated information silos to provide a unified view of teammates. With this data, executives can make more informed decisions about recruiting, staffing, onboarding, learning, payroll, and more. The company also dispensed with time-consuming and error-prone manual data entry and reporting. Secure, role-based access to employee data has boosted operational visibility.
All these capabilities helped Schnucks accelerate the recruitment and onboarding of 1,500 new hires over two months, five times more than normal, due to pandemic-driven requirements. The company could now easily add new teammates to the weekly payroll system, and quickly change processes and workflows as needed.
We quickly onboarded 1,500 new hires with Workday, so they could clock in, and out and get paid weekly.
Director, Human Capital Management
Improves engagement and retention.
With Workday, Schnucks has improved teammate engagement and retention to reduce costly turnover. It has enhanced the teammate experience with easy information access, streamlined business processes, and professional learning opportunities in modes individual teammates prefer.
This helps Schnucks preserve its investments in better recruitment, more effective staffing, and skills development, so teammates enjoy greater engagement and job satisfaction.