Headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts, BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc. is a leading operator of membership-only retail warehouse clubs in the Eastern United States. Clubs sell bulk groceries, apparel, appliances, TVs, electronics, computers, home and office furniture, toys, tires, and a range of other goods. BJ's has more than 215 clubs in 16 states from Maine to Florida.
Challenges
BJ's legacy workforce management system had some scheduling and strong forecasting capabilities but provided little else — including the ability to measure forecasting accuracy. The system didn't provide robust data or the metrics that BJ's wanted to operate against, offer a mobile app, or provide compliance measurement tools.
Solutions
BJ's goals were to transform how it planned labor, with labor allocation done at the highest levels of the company to ensure labor is allocated where it's needed most based on the forecast for each club location and department. The company also wanted to know what labor allocations should be — by job level — in 15-minute increments.
To meet these goals, BJ's determined it should invest in a new workforce management system and create a centralized labor management structure. BJ's selected the intelligent UKG Pro Workforce Management™ solution, formerly known as UKG Dimensions®.
"The reason we picked UKG was we wanted the best support model that we could get, and UKG delivered from day one. It's been a great partnership these last couple of years."
Mark Stephens
Senior Manager of Workforce Management
Results
BJ's saw immediate benefits in using its UKG solution with its 32,000 employees when the company was navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic. "One of the biggest things we were looking for with a new workforce management system was flexibility," said Mark Stephens, Senior Manager of Workforce Management at BJ's. "It's much more agile now and has created a dynamic shift where I don't have to wait to get things done. With this tool [UKG Pro Workforce Management] we can pick and choose what we implement to suit our timeline and workforce needs."
When the BJ's team rolled out the UKG® solution's mobile app for punching in and out, it didn't immediately publicize its availability to team members. In spite of this, many team members began using the mobile app to punch in and out — a process so simple they learned to use it without any training from corporate.
"What this tells us is there's a strong appetite for mobile," said Stephens. "A year ago, I would have told you that mobile was something we wanted to do. Today, mobile is something we have to do."
In looking back at BJ's move to UKG Pro Workforce Management, Stephens said, "The reason we picked UKG was we wanted the best support model that we could get, and UKG delivered from day one. It's been a great partnership these last couple of years."
