EXCLUSIVE Q&A: Ace Hardware unifies HR processes on one platform

Dariel Williamson, senior HRIS analyst, Ace Hardware Corp.

The world's largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative is standardizing workforce management workflows.

In an interview with Chain Store Age, Dariel Williamson, senior human resources information systems analyst at Ace Hardware, discussed how the retailer is leveraging AI-based human resources management technology from Workday in its corporate stores to deliver tailored content, personalized career journeys, and scheduling assistance that enhance career development and retention among frontline workers.

Based in Oak Brook, Ill., Ace Hardware Corp. operates more than 5,000 corporate and co-operative stores around the world, with a total annual revenue of approximately $6.9 billion.

What frontline challenges was Ace Hardware facing?

Our systems were siloed and everything was centralized at corporate headquarters. This meant frontline workers could not interact with their own data.

We were also having issues with formalizing onboarding and training processes. There was no particular system used to onboard or recruit employees. Paper and electronic forms were still being used in the local centers and sent to corporate offices, where headquarters staff would then do the actual onboarding and hiring within the systems that we had at the time.

Ace Hardware is 100 years old this year. From an entire company perspective, it was time to modernize all of our technologies and software.

How is Ace Hardware solving these challenges with Workday?

Now, all the employee data is in one place. We can use analytics to determine what employees may need extra attention, as well as things like attendance and time off.

We manage payroll, absence and time tracking, and scheduling using Workday. Those are the areas that I oversee, and they all used to be managed with different systems or manually maintained in a legacy system Ace had.

Ace also manages recruiting and onboarding, expenses, and benefits with Workday.

All of those functions were managed using different systems at the time, and now they are all contained under one roof.

With Workday, we can manage business processes and use segmented security to set up a system that end users can have individual access to, rather than having to dedicate systems to specific teams of people.

There are lots of unique ways to get people involved in their own processing of tasks like hiring, termination, compensation changes and role changes, built custom to the needs of individual employees such as process flows.

Ace also manages recruiting and onboarding, expenses, and benefits with Workday. All of those functions were managed using different systems at the time, and now they are all contained under one roof.

With Workday, we can manage business processes and use segmented security to set up a system that end users can have individual access to, rather than having to dedicate systems to specific teams of people.

There are lots of unique ways to get people involved in their own processing of tasks like hiring, termination, compensation changes and role changes, built custom to the needs of individual employees such as process flows.

What tasks can frontline associates accomplish using Workday?

All frontline employees have access to use the Workday mobile app, which allows them to pull down their pay slips, request their time off, check their own data, make changes to their tax withholdings, and report expenses if needed.

When you can involve frontline workers in their own data and their own processes, it makes a world of difference. They have the access that they now need to their own personal information.

What tasks can store managers accomplish?

Store managers can perform all their own hiring, terminating, and job changes. If there are compensation changes, or if an employee is promoted or demoted, the managers can handle all of that themselves.

Other tasks store managers can perform with Workday include approving time off and building schedules. They can use an iPad in the store dedicated for mamaging workers, or they can gain access to Workday on desktop as well.

What tasks can corporate headquarters staff accomplish?

Corporate employees rely heavily on the analytics that Workday provides to make major business decisions, especially regarding financial matters. In addition, Ace is able to involve all the right people in the processes of managing employees.

For example, our payroll team used to be responsible for a lot of data entry. They input all of the information about employees and processed all the changes that were happening in employees’ professional situations.

Now, they can decentralize all of those tasks, which has allowed the payroll team to grow into a more analytical role in the organization, rather than just serving as data entry specialists.

Workday opened up the opportunity for specific corporate teams, such as payroll, to change the direction of where their jobs were going, because it elevated their purpose.