WESTON, Fla.—-Ultimate Software, a leading global provider of human capital management (HCM) and employee experience solutions in the cloud, announced today that Duluth Trading Company, a retail brand offering high-quality casual wear, workwear, and accessories for men and women, has expanded its use of Ultimate’s solutions to maximize talent success.
Duluth Trading Company was founded in 1989 as a catalog company, but shifted its strategy to an omni-channel focus, integrating online shopping and 50 brick-and-mortar stores, from Alaska to Florida. The company’s growth plans include higher online sales and the opening of more stores. Duluth has approximately 2,600 full-time employees, and increases headcount by more than 25% during the peak sales season.
To ensure that every area of HR is working toward the success of employees, Duluth’s corporate HR team rebranded itself as the “Talent Success Team” and sought to deliver HCM functionality that was engaging and useful. Duluth expanded its use of UltiPro’s core HR and payroll suite and went live in 2018 with UltiPro Recruiting, UltiPro Onboarding, UltiPro Performance Management, and UltiPro Perception.
“We are accelerating the pace of store openings, and UltiPro Recruiting and UltiPro Onboarding have been essential,” said Andrew Bohacek, talent success manager at Duluth. “UltiPro Recruiting has greatly simplified and expedited our hiring and created one seamless process. Individuals can fill out an application online prior to a job fair or in-store on kiosks, sit for an interview, and receive a job offer on the spot. The solution has facilitated the hiring of hundreds of seasonal workers for the fourth quarter.”
Bohacek notes that UltiPro Recruiting also enables Duluth to engage in continuous, year-round recruiting—an important component of the company’s retail-store growth strategy—with UltiPro providing the Talent Success Team and store managers with real-time visibility into applicant details. In addition, Duluth is able to create multiple, external branded job boards with UltiPro Recruiting to reach potential applicants. With large-scale hiring taking place year-round, Duluth is also relying on UltiPro Onboarding to automate its formerly heavy manual processes.
“The UltiPro Onboarding process has been our savior,” said Bohacek. “Instead of having to devote resources to regional HR staff charged with keeping an eye on paperwork, we are able to deploy corporate staff to conduct meaningful orientations at our stores. We are also using the onboarding solution to move rehires from previous seasons back onto the retail floor quickly, a vital component of our profit strategy.”
As part of the company’s push to relieve managers’ administrative burdens, Duluth launched UltiPro Performance Management. Managers now have the resources to efficiently complete employee reviews in UltiPro without relying on a complicated manual process, and can take advantage of the convenience of UltiPro’s mobile app. For warehouse managers, diminished paperwork has boosted the focus on such business-critical functions as production and workflow, which gets product to Duluth customers faster.
“The UltiPro mobile app has been incredible,” said Bohacek. “Our managers have been ecstatic about being able to remotely approve PTO, review time sheets, and even look up the company org chart. We have managers who travel from store to store who pull up the org chart to put a name with a face before they walk in the door.”
Duluth’s desire to fuel employee success at every level also drove the launch of UltiPro Perception. The company has begun conducting not only quarterly employee engagement surveys, but also a day-45 survey that explores the onboarding experience, as well as exit surveys and pulse surveys. The insight into the voice of the employee has led to initiatives including a reformulation of the company’s attendance policy.
“UltiPro’s single suite of applications enables companies with complex businesses to execute across the HCM lifecycle,” said Greg Swick, chief enterprise sales officer at Ultimate. “We are pleased to support Duluth’s Talent Success Team as it leverages Ultimate’s solutions to deliver a great employee experience.”
About Ultimate Software
Ultimate Software is a leading global provider of cloud-based human capital management and employee experience solutions, with approximately 51 million people records in the cloud. Our award-winning UltiPro delivers HR, payroll, talent, and time and labor management, as well as HR service delivery solutions. Founded in 1990, Ultimate is headquartered in Weston, Florida, and employs more than 5,200 professionals. In 2019, Fortune magazine and Great Place to Work ranked Ultimate #1 on their Best Workplaces in Technology list, in the “Large Companies” category, Ultimate’s fourth consecutive year to top the list. Customer Sales and Service World Awards recognized Ultimate’s Services team as the #1 Customer Service Department of the Year in 2018 for companies with 2,500 employees or more across diverse industries. Ultimate has approximately 6,100 customers worldwide, including Bloomin’ Brands, Culligan International, Feeding America, First Horizon National Corporation, Red Roof Inn, SUBWAY, Texas Roadhouse, and Yamaha Corporation of America. More information on Ultimate’s products and services can be found at www.ultimatesoftware.com.
UltiPro is a registered trademark of The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. All other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.
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