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Schuh Limited |
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HR uses of an Intranet to deliver strategic plans
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Schuh Limited is one of the fastest growing fashion retail companies in the youth market, based in Scotland and operating across the UK. Established in 1990, after a management buyout, the company initially grew steadily from 10 stores to their current 24 sites.
The board is determined to accelerate this steady growth, by taking advantage of any good opportunities that arise for new properties at identified sites. And they are now in expansion mode, with a further 6 stores due to open in the next 4 or 5 months. |
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The HR department consists of only three people, who are responsible for all aspects of Personnel management, including Payroll, for over 650 employees. With these numbers due to grow to over 1,000 in the near future, the volume of pure administration was about to become impossible if the company continued to rely on mainly paper-based systems. "Also, although we need a complete picture here at head office, it is the store managers who are responsible for hiring local staff and for ensuring that each individual is paid the right amount for the hours actually worked". "Our old payroll system was seen as both unfriendly and inflexible", says Ferguson, "but we recognised that we needed to do more than simply replace it". We needed a system that could support our strategic objectives without changing our processes "We decided we needed some technological help. For instance, reports on absence trends or staff turnover were taking over a week to produce - and then people would want further information which could take forever". "Also, a fortnightly payroll for a workforce with a high number of casual staff meant the volume of paperwork was reaching an almost impossible situation". The first thing to do, before looking at any systems, was to identify exactly what were the current and potential obstacles to continued growth. The other key consideration was to determine the information that would assist operational management, as well as allowing the board to monitor progress. With this high-level focus, it was not too difficult to decide on the main criteria against which to judge potential new systems: 1. Coping with rapidly increased volumes of data, without the need to change procedures. 2. Having a single database, for both personnel and payroll data, located centrally. 3. Enabling managers to record details of starters, leavers and hours worked at their store. 4. Providing a range of reports to the company's management, such as statistics on staff turnover and absences. Schuh contacted a number of potential suppliers, based on a combination of researching the press and directories and, perhaps most importantly, word of mouth recommendations. About half a dozen were short-listed for a beauty parade, which was when they discovered one other key criterion. Namely, whether the culture of the supplier was similar to their own flexibility, reliability and quality style. "It was quite noticeable that several suppliers had fixed ideas on what their software would do for us, instead of listening to what we actually wanted. For instance, we wanted the store managers to enter payroll data for their own stores. Most suppliers didn't understand this requirement properly or seemed to be more interested in talking about the technology for its own sake". "Software for People were different. The combination of HR Classic and HR Intra could be set up to deliver exactly what we wanted - and they obviously believed in the same core values as ourselves". "This was essential given that we could not let implementation cause a major interruption to our already busy schedules". This potential issue was dealt with by creating a phased plan for introducing the new systems, in three main stages. Get your data right before users are even fully trained, and then demonstrate the benefit to them "The only data that was both reliable and accessible was on our old payroll system, so that formed the basis for downloading to HR Classic. This quickly allowed us to get the HR department trained in using the system to record and manage other information as well, such as absences." The next stage will be to roll out the Intranet components to the stores, so that the managers take direct responsibility for data on their own staff. Schuh already had an Intranet established to which all stores have access and which is mainly used as a medium for publishing information from head office. Confidentiality and accuracy are not being sacrificed to the need for improved efficiency |
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However, HR Intra provides more than just publication of data from the central database. It is an integral part of HR Classic and allows data to be retrieved and updated or added just like a local Windows application, but uses an Intranet (or the Internet) to permit direct and secure access. "Store managers will not only be able to record information on starters and leavers, but will be able to see and record everything to do with the actual attendance and absences of their own staff". "In the meantime, since there is only a single database, the HR department will be able to get a comprehensive view across all the stores - without duplication of data input". The administrative burden for store managers is also reduced, since they can be sure that the data they see is up-to-date and only applies to their own store. Also updates are validated and applied immediately. There is even an option to give staff their own PIN number if it was decided in the future to allow them to maintain their own data - such as changes to bank account details or their addresses. |
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In the meantime, the board and the HR department were very pleased to find that reports could be produced regularly on key factors - such as staff turnover and absences, at each store and across the whole operation.
Never forget that you will have some short-term pain before you get all the long-term gains "We already paid hourly rates well above the Minimum Wage and staff, including management, already worked well within the limits of the new Working Time legislation. So we were more interested in the benefits to be derived from more efficient administration and improved quality of information". "The one thing we failed to fully appreciate in advance was the amount of effort required to get the system up and running, whilst continuing to manage the old systems." "With hindsight this is now obvious. You need to undergo short-term pain for long-term gain. But this was where we had considerable help from Software for People. And we started to see some of the gains fairly quickly." "We can now begin to think about our plans for getting even greater benefits in the future from our investment in the technology". The future looks bright - and I don't think there is anything that I would really change "We don't want to lose one of our key strengths by relying too much on technology. We are still quite a touchy-feely company and we have no intention of hiding behind a technology barrier." "I know that there are lots of options now available to us, such as the introduction of on-line training, appraisals and even benefit statements. But we will tread cautiously and don't want to do anything that replaces time spent face-to-face with our staff." "The advantage of what we have done is that we are using the technology only where we wanted it. To facilitate the strategic objectives set out by the board and to reduce the drudgery of administration both for the HR department and store managers". "HR Classic and HR Intra have proved to be very easy to learn and to use. I am very comfortable with all the decisions that we made. We have had a very good experience of working with Software for People - and I have been impressed with the majority of people that I have met. I don't think that there is anything that I would really change if we had to do it all over again". |
