Success story: Grafton Group
The Grafton Group were using over a dozen systems to manage payroll, timesheets and benefits, all of which didn’t integrate with each other.
Since adopting Access People’s cloud-based platform, the Grafton Group have seen significant improvements in key areas of the business.
Business size
2,500+ employees
Industry
Manufacturing
Background
Grafton Group plc has a strong portfolio of businesses and brands. Succeeding in the builders’ merchanting industry can be a challenge, as companies face an uphill battle against digital disruption.
Ecommerce continues to be transformative, but there are other less talked about obstacles plaguing businesses in the sector – including human resources.
Grafton struggled with internal issues and managing human resource services across its workforce. In 2013, Grafton opted to seek a change and find an HR platform that could consolidate talent management and other key functions, which met each brand’s individual needs.
What were the requirements?
Managing payroll, timesheets and benefits for 13,000 employees across four different countries isn’t easy.
Grafton were using seven payroll legacy systems, six HR systems and four workforce management systems – all of which didn’t integrate with each other – leading to a predominantly manual process with a lack of reporting accuracy across the board. A lack of oversight across HR functionality is a dangerous proposition.
Grafton’s HR team needed a change, and a group review began to determine the best course of action for the UK system.
The investigation and selection
In November 2013, Grafton thoroughly vetted three different vendors in a lengthy tender process that produced several presentations, peer-reviewed research and industry references. Access People stood out as a leading cloud HR and Payroll software provider.
The major benefit is Access People’s significant investment in innovation with continuous product improvement and two major annual updates. Grafton chose Access PeopleXD as it could unify Grafton’s HR management, yet still give individualised functionality to its array of subsidiaries.
The implementation
In July 2014, Grafton and Access People rolled out the cloud-based HR platform to Selco, a UK-based builders’ merchant, in less than a year. Moving forward, Grafton continues to benefit from everything Access People has to offer by adopting further functionality through various tools and staying up to date on all the latest releases.
Given the large number of stakeholders and end users impacted in an undertaking like this, project management was a key factor in its success. Grafton’s HR team was in constant communication with Access People’s implementation and upgrade teams, which were headed by a central project manager and supported by specialised teams in specific product areas.
The ability to centralise a number of siloed systems had a profound impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of our HR team - especially as a multinational conglomerate.
The results
Grafton’s HR teams saw a multitude of benefits by upgrading to Access People’s cloud-based platform Access PeopleXD:
Workforce Management: continuous enhancements have been especially beneficial to functions that carry a heavy administrative burden, such as:
- Rostering: centralised and automated rosters for a unified view across departments or businesses
- Timesheets: processing a large number of transactions
Onboarding: business units that have high turnover are able to onboard more efficiently.
Devolved HR: the cloud-based HR platform gives more autonomy to HR teams within their own companies, allowing them to map services to their unique needs.
Real-time reporting: many decisions across the business are being made based on Access PeopleXD’s Analytics module, such as bonus payment calculations.
After its implementation, the company saw adoption rates of 69% on desktop and 28% on mobile.
There were no global processes and HR operated in a silo. After the project, we saw significant improvements in key areas of the business, like employee retention and GDPR compliance.
Every solution, in one place, for your people
The Access Group's HCM division, Access People, offer an unrivalled suite of solutions for businesses, including HR and Payroll, Absence Management, Workforce Management, Compliance, Recruitment, Talent, Learning, Employee Benefits and Engagement, Health & Safety, all of which are underpinned by the powerful Access Workspace platform.
The Access Group is one of the leading providers of business management software to small and mid-sized organisations in the UK, Ireland, and Asia Pacific. We help over 100,000 customers across commercial and not-for-profit sectors become more productive and efficient.