Safeway plc, the fourth largest supermarket chain in the U.K., is implementing a web-based human resources management system from IBM and PeopleSoft. The chain expects to reduce HR-related administration costs by 40%, resulting in a saving of £3 million a year.
The project will create a centrally located HR system housed on Safeway’s intranet and managed by a call center in Warrington.
Safeway employs a workforce of 90,000 across 500 stores. Until now, Safeway’s HR functions were operated locally, which meant that local HR personnel were spending a lot of time on routine administrative functions which were replicated from store to store. In addition, Safeway says, the store-by-store approach prevented the company from spotting talent at one store that might be best used at another.
By relieving the local HR staff of routine duties, the new system will allow local HR personnel to focus on staff development and personnel management. It also automatically matches up the skills of job applicants and employees with the needs of all local stores, not just the store where a vacancy exists.
"As well as reducing the amount of paper based administrative processes and freeing up the time of our HR teams to spend on more value added activities, the new system is key to helping us identify talent as it comes into our business,” Jim White, HR director at Safeway, said. “We also have the capability of posting real time vacancies on our corporate web site, updated every 24 hours from information taken directly from the system, and accepting applications on line, which will considerably speed up what has traditionally been a lengthy and time consuming process".
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