The driving force behind MileOne Autogroup’s success is its frontline workers, who make up 90% of the company’s staff. But to attract and retain sales associates, service advisors, mechanics, and other essential employees, leaders needed more flexible tools for managing the workforce, especially scheduling and time tracking.
“Our system didn’t allow employees to choose the hours and times they work, and it was putting us at a competitive disadvantage,” says Angela Humphreys, talent acquisition business partner at MileOne.
Leaders also described their workforce management process as antiquated, making it difficult to plan, manage, and analyze labor needs. “Our managers were left guessing what the peak labor demands were,” Humphreys says.
Workers in the driver’s seat.As they sought a solution, leaders took Workday workforce management solutions for a spin. The suite of applications includes Workday Scheduling, combined with Workday Time Tracking and Workday Absence Management to give employees real-time access to a nimble, user-friendly solution accessible on desktops, smartphones, and tablets.
“We had instances where you’d have five sales associates scheduled for a 9:00 a.m. meeting but they weren’t needed until after 12:00 p.m. when we had more customers,” says G. Mossanen, senior director of Human Resources at MileOne. “The new system does away with those inefficiencies.”
Managers can now choose criteria to generate shifts, such as availability, preferences, demand, sales forecasts, and labor budgets. They can also better track employees’ clock-ins and pending or approved time-off requests. Built-in real-time analytics lets managers compare planned job shifts to actual hours worked and labor costs.
“We’re excited about Workday because, as we look at reporting, we can measure productivity based on time of day, headcount for that period, and how effective it was,” says Mossanen.
Leaders noticed an immediate rise in employee engagement and overall job satisfaction following the switch. The ability to retain employees has also climbed, which has resulted in less money spent on job searches and training. It also keeps customers coming back if the employees they’ve grown to trust are still with MileOne.
We have empowered our managers to be more engaged, which helps elevate the overall culture of our organization.
Chief Information Officer
System gets a tune-up.Another reason employee engagement has increased is having all Workday applications accessible in a unified system. “I don’t have to chase personnel information around in the five different payroll systems that resulted from our siloed acquisitions process,” says Henry Lederer, chief information officer at MileOne. “Now, it’s all in one central location we can quickly access.”
The new system has streamlined operations to the point where an outsider might wonder whether MileOne needs more staff. “We may look a little lean, but we’re not,” Mossanen says. “We just have the tools to be really efficient.”
For employees on the front lines, that means they can better focus on customers, which fulfills MileOne’s mission. “It also means more time for us to give back to the communities we work and live in,” says Debora Feinberg, chief human resources officer at MileOne.
Another advantage was the switch to filing payroll records and other documents online. The reduction in paper usage saves the company about $100K a year in related expenses such as off-site storage. “We had a whole warehouse filled with paperwork about former employees going back 30 years for things like time-off requests,” Humphreys says. “To see all this paper was mind-blowing.”
Because we now have so much efficiency in our system and it’s automated, we don’t need more manpower.
Chief Information Officer
Opportunities on the road ahead.Company leaders say Workday is part of the largest systemic change in its 26-year history. “The company is now embracing change like it is second nature,” Feinberg says.
The change was significant, but the choice to go with Workday was easy, says Lederer. “Companies will either sink or swim depending on whether they embrace a modern, unified workforce management system.”
Feinberg agrees. “As the industry is changing—just like the shift to electric automobiles—now we have the tools to be more flexible and nimble to meet whatever new challenges arise.”
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