Founded in 1858, Wajax is one of Canada's oldest and most diversified industrial products and services providers. The company operates an integrated distribution system providing sales, parts, and services to a broad range of customers in diversified sectors of the Canadian economy, including construction, forestry, mining, industrial and commercial, oil sands, transportation, metal processing, government, utilities, and oil and gas.
Challenges
Prior to using UKG Pro®, all of Wajax's 2,500 employees were divided among five separate payroll solutions. This structure for managing employee data made accurate and timely reporting impossible, and the company chose UKG Pro with the goal of consolidating employee records. After selecting Pro, Wajax embarked on a company-wide reorganization that reassigned employees from one of the company's three large divisions into areas defined by functional role.
Solutions
"Pro was the critical component of our successful reorganization," said Stuart Auld, Vice President of HR and IS for Wajax. "With Pro as our single source of truth, we were able to generate real-time reports that gave us the key people insights to make well-informed decisions. For the first time, we could provide our leadership with basic information such as headcount, as well as more advanced data, such as employee tenure, that helped us streamline our workforce equitably."
In addition to transforming decision making with people analytics, Wajax also deployed a variety of Pro functionality to help drive HR innovation.
"We elevated our HCM from just a payroll system to a full suite of leading-edge solutions, including UKG Pro Recruiting, UKG Pro Onboarding, UKG Pro Talent, and UKG Pro Compensation, UKG Employee Voice™, and UKG Pro Learning," said Auld. "From a people perspective, we are able to capture everything in one place and leverage analytics capabilities. In terms of process, these solutions allow us to apply one process to the entire employee lifecycle. And in terms of technology, Pro gave us the confidence to go into the cloud to execute change management."
"The deployment of UKG Pro has not only allowed us to support a reorganization, but also reduce costs and standardize processes. HR is in a better position now to support the needs of the businesses that we serve."
Stuart Auld
Vice President of HR and IS
Results
Auld reports that more efficient processes have enabled HR to add greater value to company planning and performance.
"With Pro delivering unprecedented operational visibility, HR can take the lead in recommending ways to control costs and help our leadership make the right choices with respect to payroll and benefits expenditures," said Auld. "A faster, more efficient payroll process also enabled HR itself to cut costs and contribute to the business by moving surplus employees from the payroll function to a help-desk role."
According to Auld, HR now is better able to play an important role in enforcing company policies, since collapsing all employee data into one solution enabled HR to effectively promote one set of company rules. For example, something as simple as the rules around car allowances used to be applied differently throughout the company, but are now simplified in one version.
"Prior to Pro, our HR department was constantly scrambling to piece together the information requested by our managers and leadership," said Auld. "Now, our department can serve as a true business partner, sitting down with our internal clients and focusing on the employee experience and employee needs. With Pro handling our tactical responsibilities, we can spend our energy in roles that add strategic value."
Auld concluded, "The deployment of Pro has not only allowed us to support a reorganization, but also reduce costs and standardize processes. HR is in a better position now to support the needs of the businesses that we serve."