Asics succeed with StoreForce’s Retail Workforce Management tool

“Asics succeed with StoreForce’s Retail Workforce Management tool” ASICS Case Study with Elisabeth Wouters.

The Case

ASICS began as an athletic footwear company founded 70 years ago in Japan, and has since become one of the world’s largest sports performance brands  with  over 200 retail stores. The European arm oversees operations in 21 countries including South Africa.

Due to ASICS’ global reach, planning and controlling payroll spend is challenging. This because of the highly complex labor laws in each country throughout Europe. In North America, specialty retailers have learned to carefully plan their labor spend, but Europe has taken somewhat longer.

ASICS needed a system that would support its  payroll challenges. Elisabeth Wouters is the Payroll & Compensation Manager for ASICS and knows about the payroll challenges firsthand. “With stores in 14 countries, payroll was difficult to manage because we were unable to easily measure labor cost and productivity metrics. We could not effectively manage labor in our stores. One of our responsibilities is to manage labor spend more effectively while improving efficiencies throughout the stores” said Elisabeth.

Time and attendance reporting with payroll integration was a complicated process with which ASICS was faced. Many countries had different payroll providers that required a unique file export, increasing the costs of reporting.

StoreForce created a new approach to handling the complex regulatory environment while being able to integrate with local payroll providers for ASICS. “We built the tool to drive performance, but we also have an incredibly flexible engine for managing specific regulations for each country, we then export that data in any format the client wants,” explained Chris Noble, Managing Director of StoreForce Europe.

StoreForce proposed a single file export with a simple visual format for all of the ASICS stores across 10 countries. It has columns for standard employee information, columns for country-specific requirements, and space to input regulations and rules for each country.

This solution clearly displayed information needed by management for the European arm and management within each country. It reduced costs for ASICS and made this process efficient. “With a single file approach, HR teams receive the same export, but they only use the information that is relevant to them for payroll,” says Noble, “This is how we managed to deploy so quickly and at such a low cost.”

“The StoreForce performance tool worked well for us, so we were confident that adding the payroll piece would work to close the loop and simplify the payroll process all around”

- Elisabeth Wouters, Payroll & Compensation Manager for ASICS

Prior to the Payroll integration, ASICS had been using StoreForce WFM+ to drive sales performance and to increase operational efficiencies. Using cutting edge programs such as Salesfloor Leadership gamifies the sales process. This allows employees to increase sales in the busiest segments of the day, by focusing on performance metrics in real time.

The deployment was swiftly executed at the start of 2018 over 10 weeks to 129 stores across 10 countries in Europe. “To deploy a payroll interface that works from a single file approach to 10 countries in such a short space of time is unheard of.” points out Elisabeth.

The approach StoreForce took simplified what was once an incredibly complicated task to execute centrally, and is now an efficient process that saves time and controls labor spend more effectively.

Elisabeth explains, “Instead of doing manual Excel timesheets or a separate timesheet provider, we now have one central file that is exported out of the StoreForce WFM+ directly to each payroll provider. Their solution was surprisingly quick to implement, and the stores enjoy using it.”

It’s the plus that sets StoreForce WFM+ apart

“StoreForce has been brilliant. I’ve never had to worry about getting a response or meeting a deadline,” Elisabeth points out. “Their solution was incredibly smart and easy to use. I receive real-time metrics that help me stay on top of how stores are performing at different times throughout the day. Having the payroll piece integrated into the tool completes our operations with all metrics at our fingertips. I can’t imagine working without it.”

The StoreForce Solution combines visibility, accountability, and execution into a single, web-based software toolset that is accessible on all mobile platforms and major web browsers.