South Carolina-based Supermarket with 4,900 Employee Owners

Based in Charleston, S.C., Piggly Wiggly Carolina Company is the largest employee-owned, privately-operated retail company in South Carolina. The company was founded in 1947 and today serves more than 115 stores and 4,900 employee owners. With such a large and geographically diverse employee base, Piggly Wiggly needed a solution that would allow them to better deliver benefits solutions and consolidate their employee benefits management.

Benefits Administration and Consistent Communication Were Challenges with Paper-based Systems

Before partnering with Benefitfocus, Piggly Wiggly used a manual system for employee benefits management. Consolidation and communication were two big issues for the company, as it had to account for 4,000 covered lives. Piggly Wiggly recognized that moving to an online solution would alleviate some of the struggles associated with paper-based benefits management, employee communication and training.

As its employee base continued to expand, Piggly Wiggly’s paper-based system became increasingly cumbersome. The Human Resources team knew the company needed one solution to manage benefits enrollment, education, employee communication, and its health and wellness initiatives. Open Enrollment was just around the corner and Piggly Wiggly recognized the need to implement the solution quickly. “We compared the costs of the way we were doing things with the savings from an electronic system,” said Natalie Gregg, director of Human Resources for Piggly Wiggly. “When you start talking about rolling up the costs of paper and time, it isn’t a hard sell.”

The Benefitfocus Platform Offers One System to Manage All Benefits

Piggly Wiggly had a long-standing relationship with Benefitfocus, who began providing the supermarket’s employees with online enrollment and employee self-service capabilities in 2000. Piggly Wiggly was constantly searching for new ways to automate its manual processes, so it looked to Benefitfocus to consolidate its benefits management and employee education with one Internet portal.

The Benefitfocus Platform connects benefits providers, employees and payroll systems through a single portal. By allowing employers to maintain one system of record in which they can centrally manage all their employee benefits, it helps reduce redundant tasks, avoid duplication of information and increase the level of service to employees.

As a highly customizable HR Content Management System, the Benefitfocus HR InTouch Application™ provides Piggly Wiggly with one place to store and manage all HR and benefit-related information. In addition, the HR team has access to a wealth of administrative tools to manage and publish this information in the custom-branded Web portal. Gregg went on to describe the App, saying, “With HR InTouch, our employees can see the full advantages we offer as an employer. They can now access all their personal HR-related information securely and easily whenever they need to, and they love it.”

The HR InTouch App provides the tools for benefits administrators to push targeted content and tailored messages to specific employee groups. For example, Piggly Wiggly is able to post job descriptions and handbooks for the various roles within the company – from bakers to cashiers. Employees only see documents related to their job function, and can review and acknowledge them online. HR can see which employees have reviewed the handbooks and job descriptions, and follow-up with those who have not yet complied.

“When we first saw it, all we could think about is where it could take us and how it could help with our training,” said Gregg. “Communication can be really hard when you are in multiple locations so using HR InTouch will help us push out training to all of our stores.”

Self-Service and Video Communication Tools Empower Employees

One of the biggest concerns for the Human Resources team at Piggly Wiggly was how the system would be received by employees. “Many of our employees are computer literate,” expressed Gregg. “Though, there are just as many others who push away from a computer at every instance.”

Human Resources personnel at Piggly Wiggly prepared their employees by sending letters, putting information about electronic benefits management in their employee newsletter, and suggesting places where those without a computer could go to use the system. “We let them know that if they couldn’t do it on their own, we were just a phone call away,” explained Gregg. Benefitfocus also helped with the transition and continues to provide support today.

The Benefitfocus Platform has been well-received by everyone at Piggly Wiggly. Not only has it saved time and effort by eliminating redundant tasks, but employees are also pleased, citing the system’s clarity and ease. “A lot of our fears proved to be unfounded,” declared Gregg. “Our employees are a lot more computer-savvy than we had given them credit for, and the feedback has been very positive.”

Piggly Wiggly is taking advantage of several other applications that are available on the Platform, including the Personal Health Assessment application. The company also utilizes Benefitfocus Video as a Service™, which allows Piggly Wiggly to include custom video content on its HR InTouch App in both Spanish and English. From a message from the president to videos showing how employee owners have benefited from the Piggly Wiggly Fit N Healthy program, these videos make the site fun and informative for employee owners.