In 1995, Canastota, N.Y.-based Nice N Easy selected UltiPro and unified its HR and payroll processes for improved efficiencies, reduced costs and time savings. After 10 years, the retailer decided to take advantage of Ultimate's SaaS model to retain all the benefits of an on-premise system, but with more convenient [image-nocss] maintenance and updated security, it said.Advancing to SaaS eliminated Nice N Easy's IT management responsibilities for the company's human resource management system (HRMS) and enabled the chain to leverage UltiPro's web-based performance management functionality.
Before using UltiPro for talent management, the HR department was responsible for printing performance evaluation forms and sending them to managers. Once completed, the documents were returned to HR associates who manually entered salary changes and filed the paperwork. The paper-laden, labor-intensive process hindered Leeann Light, human resources director for Nice N Easy, in approaching performance management more strategically and efficiently, said the company..
"With UltiPro, HR has gone from merely administering performance appraisals to taking deliberate action to retain the best talent," said Light. "We have been able to evaluate performance across jobs, locations and throughout the company, and then identify areas for improvement. For instance, we found a gap between goals on paper and goals in action, so we have incorporated periodic performance followups into UltiPro to ensure that both leaders and their teams stay on the same page and avoid misunderstandings."
Nice N Easy's HR team also used UltiPro's competency matrix to identify desired behaviors for each job that are then weighted and used for performance reviews and salary increases. By standardizing the metrics of success across the company for the same job, Light is able to ensure consistency and align employee goals with company goals.
"UltiPro is helping HR and company leadership make changes thoughtfully to improve the effectiveness of our staff and the employee experience at Nice N Easy Grocery," said Light. "With UltiPro, we can evaluate employees uniformly by core competencies, conduct peer or self-appraisals and manage the process in much less time than it took us to administer paper evaluations. We can also more easily find high-performers and create employee development plans.... UltiPro is [also] providing us with vital tools to operate productively and maintain employee satisfaction."
Since UltiPro allows Nice N Easy Grocery to manage performance using the speed and efficiency of the web, the HR team has more time to focus on evaluating and analyzing performance because they are free from tactical activities that do not add real business value, the company said.
"Between UltiPro and Ultimate's SaaS model, my job has been transformed to a much more strategic role at the company. My team now has the time and the Web-based tools and analytics to manage our workforce as effectively as possible," said Light. "Plus, sensitive employee data has been moved off our internal servers to a secure location that is maintained by people in the industry whose business is IT security."
A leading provider of end-to-end strategic human resources, payroll and talent management solutions, Weston, Fla.-based Ultimate markets its UltiPro products as on-demand services through SaaS and as on-premise software.
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