Improved Productivity At United Food And Commercial Workers Union

Mission

After discussions with numerous HRIS vendors, UFCW recognized that PerfectSoftware was uniquely qualified to meet and exceed their HRIS requirements. hrWindows could be custom configured with UFCW’s unique attendance plans. PerfectSoftware’s Technical Consulting Practice was willing to work with UFCW to incorporate new features that would make the system even easier to use for the UFCW staff.

As a result, the UFCW Human Resources staff has been able to:

• Closely track and analyze attendance by each employee, any group of employees, or by Plan.
• Decentralize the administrative process throughout the entire organization, saving a minimum of 8 man-hours each week.
• Respond to senior management quickly and efficiently, enabling in-depth analysis of the workforce through advanced reporting capabilities.

Organizational Overview

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union is North America’s largest private sector union, made up of over 1.4 million members throughout different industries. Four of every five UFCW members work in food-related industries. About 900,000 members work in retail food, and 250,000 members are employed in meatpacking and food processing. Thousands of other UFCW members work in the health care industry, for insurance companies, in department stores, and in the garment, distillery, and textile trades.

The UFCW has a national office in Washington, DC and more than 1,000 local unions throughout the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Employees in the headquarters and the field offices comprise a workforce in excess of 800 employees.

Evaluation

In 1992 the UFCW contacted PerfectSoftware and other vendors from a listing in the Data Sources directory. UFCW was using a limited mainframe based Human Resource tracking system and needed more control and reporting for the vacation and sick time accrual process.

Their attendance system could not accurately or conveniently serve the needs of the already overburdened department. The staff at UFCW needed a flexible solution that could handle the attendance as well as the general employee information needs. The evaluation process took over 3 months. Numerous companies were contacted for a product evaluation prior to selecting PerfectSoftware’s hrWindows.

Results

UFCW selected hrWindows as a result of the user-friendly, state of the art features contained in the system. While UFCW initially focused on attendance related features, they added other areas for tracking and maintaining key employee information. The job and salary tracking module enabled them to handle all of the employee reviews and salary history. UFCW management could now have immediate access to the each employees’ entire review history, and numerous custom reports were prepared to assist management during the review process.

As a union organization, UFCW had to prepare information for negotiations with their internal bargaining units. Various unions represent UFCW employees. Each salary and benefit improvement results in a new contract with the respective union. UFCW management uses various analytical reports to help them better understand the implications of any contractual improvements. Management also uses certain information from hrWindows to help with any potential disciplinary problems.

Update

In 1997, UFCW upgraded their DOS personnel tracking system to the new hrWindows. This was a strategic decision as UFCW decided to offer department managers desktop access to employee data, and in particular, the attendance related information. UFCW managers could now access absence and earned leave data for employees in their respective departments.

UFCW also licensed hrApplicant, the PerfectSoftware applicant tracking system. Not only could UFCW comply with EEO reporting requirements, but they could now manage open requisitions, capture applicant specific information, and process batch letters instantly. UFCW future plans include accessing job orders and applications via the Internet.

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