In Australia, The Salvation Army has around 30,000 employees and volunteer workers, in every state and territory. It operates a broad range of entities and a highly diverse workforce. Alongside its fund-raising teams, the 143-year-old organization has retail stores and aged-care businesses. It also provides social programs and employment services, as well as the shared services that support them. Each business used to operate in a silo, with its own, often manual, people processes. For its HR organization, the challenge was to keep track and support all of its people consistently, regardless of their paid or unpaid status.
Rae Phillips, general manager of HR Operations, says this was one of the big drivers for choosing Workday. “We really needed to be able to see our workforce in its entirety. We needed one place to go to get that information and we needed one way of supporting people.”
Finally getting a complete workforce picture.
The information Workday surfaced about the Salvo’s workforce has been a revelation for Phillips. “For the very first time, we can visualize the status and location of every worker type. We can also drill down to see individual worker profiles. Some of our paid employees may also have two volunteer roles, so that can get really complicated.”
Workday allows HR to understand what’s going on for people in all of their capacities. Now, the HR team can provide more tailored communication and support, recognizing people’s various roles and individual circumstances.
This level of visibility was a lifesaver during the pandemic. “Our in-house Workday gurus quickly identified JobKeeper eligibility so we could make sure people who’d been stood down got paid that benefit,” says Phillips. “We were also able to identify where we had vulnerable people, keep them out of the path of COVID, and provide appropriate care.”
Workday supports our top HR priorities of keeping our people safe and making sure their work is fulfilling and rewarding.
General Manager, HR Operations
Using data to improve retention.
Another first for Phillips was the ability to look at areas of high turnover and drill down into why people were leaving. “Workday can alert us to job profiles where we are constantly churning. For example, a centre might be having problems retaining registered nurses. We can now intervene early with centre managers to make sure nurses get an effective onboarding experience and ongoing support.”
As the HR team looked at turnover hotspots, they discovered significant differences across regional and remote areas. “Workday shows us where and why people are staying or leaving. So now we can be proactive in problem areas, adding extra support and frequent check-ins when we know people are working in challenging locations. It also means we can plan ahead to make sure we always have the right people, with the right skills, available when and where we need them.”
Streamlining people processes.
HR Systems and Insights Manager Nandraj Mantri says Workday has simplified processes for employees and volunteers, making interactions quick and seamless. “Take recruitment. Candidates can now look for and apply for paid and volunteering jobs very easily.”
Inside Workday, recruitment has become a largely automated, fast, and unified process. “Workday provides recruiting managers with a central view of candidate profiles. They can screen those candidates, interview them, perform integrity and reference checks, and send them employment contracts—all from the same screen. It’s a fantastic benefit to our recruiting team.”
Managers and recruiters get a real-time and detailed view of the recruiting process. That’s something they never had before Workday.
HR Systems and Insights Manager
Making compliance fast and easy.
In Australia, anyone working with children or vulnerable adults requires mandatory Working With Children and Police Clearance checks. “With Workday, we've been able to tag and track every position, so we know which checks are required and which people have already met those compliance standards,” explains Mantri.
“Our compliance reporting now happens at the touch of a button. Plus, all of a position’s requirements flow into our training module. People are automatically alerted about any mandatory requirements and prompted to undertake recommended learning, which they can also access through Workday. It’s a revolution!”
We are at the center of change at the Salvation Army, and Workday is the enabler of that change.
HR Systems and Insights Manager