Decathlon’s Digital HR Transformation Journey With SAP SuccessFactors

We are excited to announce that Decathlon UK & Ireland have successfully deployed SAP SuccessFactors, SAP EC Payroll, and Kronos Workforce Dimensions to embark on their digital transformation journey with their chosen expert SAP and Kronos Partner Gavdi UK.

Decathlon are one of the world’s largest sporting goods retailers employing 200,000 employees across 2,080 stores in 56 countries across the globe.

With a clear strategy for growth and expansion across the UK and Ireland, Decathlon took a holistic view of their entire people strategy to ensure they were delivering an experience and proposition that attracted and retained the best talent. Experiencing some real challenges with colleague turnover, largely due to the absence of capability and technology, driving colleague retention was an area of real focus. During this review, some challenges with the execution of processes, accuracy of data, and lack of automation in certain areas also become apparent.

Despite the backdrop of the pandemic and all of their stores having to close, Decathlon were able to leverage their online presence and this ensured they were able to proceed with this future investment in their people and the provision of a world class experience for customers. Decathlon UK and Ireland chose SAP SuccessFactors as their technology solution because in their words “It was a one stop shop for all HR and the Business – one tool for all requirements”, with Kronos Workforce Dimensions to manage important time management processes, integrated to EC Payroll.

Instrumental in the success of the programme was the relationship between Decathlon UK and Ireland and Gavdi UK as their dedicated SAP SuccessFactors and Kronos partner. At the heart of the partnership was an aligned set of values and ethos between both organisations. The deployment strategy was based on utilising existing best practices developed by Gavdi from all of their experiences and deployments, a good starting point to build a solid foundation. Gavdi’s Packaged Solutions for SuccessFactors were the perfect solution to create and deliver a powerful human experience management solution that permitted them to use ‘best practices’ and get up and running quickly.

The programme was delivered in a very short timeframe to drive progress and to help the business to achieve the goals agreed in the investment case. All goals set for Year 1 have been achieved with reductions in overall costs, increased data accuracy relating to payroll, and a significant reduction in the turnover of colleagues. This has been achieved through enhanced recruitment and onboarding processes, with an improved overall experience through the ability to execute tasks in a far more agile way. Where previously 35% of their time was spent on administration and manual processes, the level of accessibility and automation has also played a fundamental role in giving time back to store managers to meet with customers and engage with colleagues.