Clarks International
About Clarks
Clarks is a British-based, international shoe manufacturer and retailer. It was founded in 1825 by brothers Cyrus and James Clark in Street, Somerset, England – where it still has its headquarters. The company has over 1,000 branded stores and franchises around the world and also sells through third-party distribution. For the year ending January 2013, the company made a profit of £150 million on sales of £1,433m, making it the 31st largest private company in the UK. More than half of its £1.4bn annualized sales to January were generated abroad, and since 2010 the company has moved into India, where it now has 25 stand-alone stores, and relaunched marketing in China, where it has opened 400 outlets in partnership with local footwear retailers.
Quick Facts
Established: 1825 by Cyrus and James Clark
Headquarters: England, Somerset
Industry: Manufacturer and retailer
Franchises: Over 1,000
Developer: Gustav Coleske, Business Engineer
The HR team at Clarks wanted to improve employee engagement and reduce administration costs. They identified that making pay information available via a self-service portal would achieve both these aims.
Solution
The HR team at Clarks wanted to improve employee engagement and reduce administration costs. They identified that making pay information available via a self-service portal would achieve both these aims. The solution had to provide an exceptional employee experience, as this was the first time the HR team would engage with employees in this way. It also had to be available across a wide variety of devices, as access would be from the employee’s own devices, such as smart phones, tablets and desktop devices. With the data being confidential, security would need to be flawless. The solution would also have to pay for itself quickly and free up HR resource to concentrate upon other HR activities. The project went live in 6 weeks and was rolled out ahead of schedule; it removed the need for 170,000 printed documents to be printed a year.
Results
Before the application was implemented, approximately 170,000 documents were printed and posted every year by the HR team, which was an expensive activity in terms of printing, postage and HR staff time.
The application has enabled employees to access this information on a self-service basis, having eliminated the need to print and post the documents.
As a result of the success of the application, employee engagement has increased and requests to develop the application further have been planned. This will include further HR documents such as pension information and more self-service functionality.
The project went live in 6 weeks.