Independent supermarket chain Drake Foodmarkets has slashed payroll paperwork and eliminated leave approval delays by deploying Empower-HR for its 4000 employees.

Since Empower-HR went live in July 2007, Drake Foodmarkets has managed to reduce payroll and leave processing time by more than two days each week due to Employee and Manager Self-Service facilities and automated workflows embedded within in the system.

Drake Foodmarkets, which is South Australia's largest independent supermarket chain, employs about 4000 people at 45 sites throughout South Australia and Queensland.

Drake Foodmarkets HR Manager Leanne Fraser and the company's Payroll Manager Jane Washington presented a case study at this month's Empower-HR National User Conference about how the retailer rolled out Self-Service to employees in SA and Queensland.

In the session, they explained how the company has reaped benefits from deploying a paperless office and kiosk model, while also looking at the change management and training aspects involved.

HR Manager Leanne Fraser said Drake Foodmarkets had chosen Empower-HR because it delivered the best value for money. "Compared to other packages, it provided what we required, which was a more efficient payroll system with the HR capabilities to track HR metrics," she said.

"In early 2007, we decided to get rid of some of the time-consuming processes and heavy paper use. We created an online interface between our existing Kronos Time & People system and the Empower payroll, which enables direct import of time records, thus reducing the need for paper timesheets.

"Next was payslips, which were consuming about six hours a week for largely manual processes, such as tearing up payslips and sending them out. That's now all done online, so there's less paperwork and much greater efficiency. It is also much more accurate."

Empower-HR's Employee Self-Service, combined with electronic workflow, has also reduced approving leave requests from taking up valuable time to becoming virtually instantaneous.

Ms. Fraser said employees could even enter their leave requests from home. "For the approving manager, the request just pops up on the screen and, once approved, flows through into the system," she said.

"Previously, it would take about one day a week to manually process leave requests whereas now it's just a couple of minutes per request. Empower-HR also allows employees to book leave well in advance which was not possible under the previous system."

Another major benefit delivered by Empower-HR is to simplify tracking of employees who move between different Drake stores: Previously, this required generating a new employee number whereas Empower-HR automatically maintains an employee audit trail, which makes generating payment summaries a much easier and quicker process.

For more information about the benefits of Empower-HR, contact Empower CEO Alan Greig on 08 8332 6988 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .