Ferguson Enterprises, the largest US distributor of plumbing supplies, was using a legacy system that undercut HR processes and best practices.
A lack of comprehensive and flexible reporting further limited visibility into people and processes, the latter mostly manual, inefficient, and error-prone.
“Our previous system didn’t allow us to push trainings to employees, but with Workday Learning, we can do this seamlessly”, says HRIS Analyst Leigh Olvera.
With applicant tracking separate from learning management, clean reporting was nearly impossible.
Sr. Director, HR Operational Excellence
One system adds clarity to reporting and development.
With more than 28,000 employees in 1,600 US locations, Ferguson needed one solution to consolidate several disparate employee databases. The company wanted the flexibility to manage numerous employee development paths, plus robust security and reporting capabilities. After evaluating several Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions from different sources, Ferguson found that Workday HCM and Workday Learning addressed all of their requirements as a fully integrated cloud-based solution.
Through Workday Learning, HR leaders now get full visibility into the employee lifecycle to optimise touchpoints for additional learning and upskilling. In addition, managers gained the means to build, customise and track their own learning campaigns. The company has also benefited from Workday Community, sharing with other Workday users ideas on how to best leverage Workday Learning capabilities to their fullest.
Improves employee lifecycle engagement.
With an average employee tenure of 10 years, employee development and learning are core to the company’s culture. Ferguson could build learning into more employee touchpoints by deploying Workday Learning and Workday HCM together. For example, job and promotion-specific content is now built into employee lifecycles, enhancing overall skills development and workforce flexibility.
Customisable reporting dashboards provide real-time metrics to business leaders, managers and HR, and allows them the flexibility to filter or drill into the information as needed. With self-contained reporting, business decisions are data-driven and strategic to better support and retain associates.
We’ve solidified learning as part of our culture by making it an everyday experience using Workday.
Senior Director, HR Operational Excellence
Optimises learning strategies.
Ferguson migrated massive amounts of employee development data easily and quickly, plus 1,200 courses, all as part of the company’s Workday Learning deployment. The deployment team saved tremendous amounts of staff time and eliminated errors that a manual migration could have caused.
The company used Workday Learning to enable the development and deployment of integrated modes of learning, including self-study and virtual and in-person sessions, amassing a training library of 2,000 courses. Role-based training assignments have made learning much easier for new hires and for newly promoted employees. Both groups can now get the right training at the right time.
With an enhanced development model, the user experience has improved and given Ferguson ways to better incorporate employee development into day-to-day business operations.
Workday Learning has taken us to new levels, where conversations have shifted from course build-outs to learning strategy.
Senior Director, HR Operational Excellence
Supports learning campaign initiatives.
Ferguson deployed Workday HCM and Workday Learning simultaneously, helping to unify data from multiple legacy systems. Now it has one source of truth for HR and payroll, plus the foundation for enhancing its learning culture.
With role-based authentication, managers can run their own learning campaigns, while hourly associates can dive deeper into course material with content tailored to them. Self-service streamlines learning across the company.
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