HANNAFORD PLANS NEW ONLINE HR INITIATIVE 2004-05-17 (2)

SHARYN BERNARD

ATLANTA -- Hannaford Bros. plans to build on a three-year-old human resources automation project by launching an "e-HR Initiative" this September, according to Alan Cardinal, director of compensation for the Scarborough, Maine-based chain.

Speaking at Lawson Software's CUE conference here in late April, Cardinal said the initiative will enhance HR automation for employees and managers already achieved through Lawson software. This will "reinforce the Hannaford culture that it's a cool, fun place to work."

The project includes putting all corporate human resources policies, job documents and other common papers on the Web for easy access by employees and managers. The e-HR initiative, a two to three-year project, will incorporate an internal Web face with Lawson self-service systems as the background.

"The goal of this is to help our associates be good consumers" by giving them easy access to information to which they're entitled, Cardinal explained. "This gives them more to work with."

Still, the e-HR plan will not eliminate human resources executives. "It streamlines the workflow. [Human resources personnel] will be able to deal with the tough questions, not the rote ones." For its current program, Hannaford installed a human resources employee at each store to facilitate the process.

At the CUE users conference, Cardinal outlined the benefits Hannaford has achieved so far through the use of Lawson's HR applications.

In a little over three years of running part of the HR benefits software suite, Employee Self-Service and Manager Self-Service, Hannaford has seen widespread acceptance and adoption of the program across the company, he said

Hannaford, a division of Delhaize America, operates 122 stores, three distribution centers and more than 90 in-store pharmacies, and has 21,000 employees, 14,000 of whom are eligible for the full array of benefits.

First launched in 2001, the ESS program allows Hannaford's eligible new employees to enroll with the company and choose their benefits options, from health care choices to 401k designations.

Eligible employees also can change their passwords, update their personal information, and examine their pay checks, vacation time and other benefits -- all functions that were previously handled manually through human resources department employees.

All employees are eligible to use the application to set up minimum necessary functions, such as withholding amounts for paychecks. Employees can access the system anywhere through the Internet and at in-store kiosks.

In 2002, the first year employees and managers could access the system, 76% of eligible employees signed up for the program during open enrollment, said Cardinal. In the second year, that figure jumped to more than 80%.

What's more, the remaining employees all utilized the voice system option for benefit enrollment. At that point, "there was no manual process whatsoever" for enrollment, Cardinal said. "This shows how aggressive it was and how quickly it can be implemented."

According to Cardinal, the Lawson software package has given Hannaford a healthy return on investment. For example, he said, "data is reported more accurately, it is more timely and more valuable."

In addition, observed Cardinal, because new hires were able to enroll faster for benefits, there was a significant labor savings for the benefit department and Hannaford Bros.

While he didn't specify how much the company saved, he pointed out research done by Hunter Group showing how much companies can save by using self-service human resources software.

According to Hunter, companies can save $96,250 per 1,000 employees over using manual processes for various standard human resources actions. For example, a change of address entered manually can cost $18 per employee, vs. $2 per employee using a self-service program.

The MSS part of the Lawson suite allows managers to have access to any functions for which they are cleared; 500 managers and 150 approvers across all 125 locations have access to MSS.

Under the system, managers can initiate 20 personnel actions and register associates for training, as well as track completed courses.

In addition, personnel changes are routed electronically through the chain of command for approval. The process eliminated 80% of paper-based transactions within the first two weeks of the rollout.

"It's simple. It's straightforward," Cardinal said. "It's intended to be quick, so it doesn't take a tremendous amount of time" to launch, train employees, and run day-to-day.

"The biggest benefit is that employees are satisfied because they got the access that they needed, and managers are empowered to make changes," Cardinal said at the conference.