The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.
In order for an organization to achieve its maximum potential and growth objectives, it needs a fully engaged and productive workforce. A new generation of HCM systems and technologies are allowing businesses to be more agile while continuously facilitating employee engagement and productivity. Digital and decision-support advances in compensation, learning, payroll and workforce management applications are allowing HR to improve responsiveness to business needs and stay in compliance with more complex regulations. With organizations competing for a shrinking pool of available top talent at the same time baby boomers are exiting the workforce, new artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities can improve employer brand value by providing a personalized, relevant and rich experience to both candidates and employees.
Ventana Research selected The Parking Spot for the 14th Annual Digital Leadership Award for HCM its use of UKG Giving Pro and how it helps workforces support society and in challenging times for others in the country.
In order to attract the best people and remain competitive, organizations need to demonstrate that they support employees’ philanthropic and community efforts. This is a critical piece to ensuring a positive employee experience, which furthers retention and engagement objectives. While employees helping others is good for society at large, it’s also good for business. When a company demonstrates that it cares about causes its employees care about, that sense of caring is contagious. People are increasingly seeking out employers that share their values and lead with a sense of corporate social responsibility. UKG felt they had a unique opportunity to send a beacon for the idea of work being more than just “work” — it is about people.
The Parking Spot, the leading near-airport parking company in the United States for over two decades serving more than 20 major airports with 40 parking locations, wanted to innovate in a way that cuts to the heart of how people care for one another. Corporations typically support charitable causes with internal giving campaigns. However, the traditional paradigm is one where the campaign encumbers many manual processes, such as having to participate in a survey, needing to pay by credit card or having to sign up for a pledge and be billed later. All these factors were barriers to widespread participation, making it difficult and costly to launch and scale charitable giving campaigns effectively.
With tremendous upheaval impacting millions of lives, there is a tremendous need to support charities facing unparalleled demands for services combined with strains on fundraising by shaking up the traditional model for charitable campaigns. UKG recognized the imperative to launch Giving for free to its thousands of customers in the United States and Canada. This philanthropic solution is integrated into its award-winning UKG Pro HCM solution, offering organizations seamless, convenient opportunities to make an impact when and where it is needed most.
UKG Pro Giving allows organizations to extend their community impact exponentially while strengthening employee engagement — a crucial element of business success. The platform has replaced cumbersome manual processes in the typical giving model with seamless technology, making it simple for HR leaders to establish a campaign and convenient for employees to contribute through their desktop or mobile app.
Transparency and integration are key factors in Giving’s success. Campaign managers have ongoing visibility into the total amount raised across all campaigns, individual campaign results, participation levels across their workforce and individual employee-specific donations. Comprehensive information such as this in the hands of HR leaders makes it possible to establish, monitor and promote new campaigns at a moment’s notice.
UKG has enabled organizations looking to launch and scale charitable giving campaigns to raise over $3 million in support of the causes that impact their communities. Within its own organization, UKG has used Giving to raise money in the fight against COVID-19, address issues of social inequity, help the victims of natural disasters and support a number of nonprofits — raising more than $1 million in 2021. In addition, through giving on UKG mobile applications, employees were able to give to organizations to address racial injustice, ethnic crimes, storm damage and to American Red Cross. UKG also established a relief fund for employees severely impacted by the pandemic. Those affected can receive financial support through an Employee Relief Fund, which UKG has continued beyond COVID-19 by establishing the PeopleInspired Giving Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization to help those in need during tough times. In the early days of the pandemic, UKG also partnered with its employees in donating to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP) Global COVID-19 Response Fund, Action Aid, Save the Children, Feeding America and the International Rescue Committee, which provides personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators and ICU equipment, training for frontline healthcare workers, and infection prevention and control activities around the world.
Leaders within The Parking Spot leveraged UKG Pro Giving to successfully launch a campaign in support of Black History Month. Prior to Giving, the company collected employee donations through cumbersome and unsecure methods, such as cash jars sitting at parking lot kiosks, the activation of credit card readers for in-person events and employees using cash apps to transfer money to executives’ personal accounts. With Giving, the company embraced technology to streamline its employee giving strategy. Giving enables The Parking Spot’s employees to donate in a way that is meaningful to them. For example, one employee decided he was able to give $1 per day for the duration of the February campaign, for a total of $28. The ease of giving through the app is evident in the response from The Parking Spot’s employees. The giving journey has been educational and inspiring and, at the executive level, the company is proud to have embraced a technology that amplifies its culture.
HCM applications and technology is a software category in need of innovation and optimization. UKG addresses the challenges of providing the opportunity for workforces to help in societal manners in a simple and flexible manner through contributions. Organizations with the need to engage their workforce and support giving will appreciate having the ability to have it integrated into their HCM applications.
Organizations looking to maximize the value of its business and technology investments across its people and processes should consider how HCM can optimize its digital potential. If you have not examined how UKG can help your organization, it is well worth your time. Congratulations, Mary Ruberry at The Parking Spot, for your leadership.
Ventana Research offers expertise and research-based guidance on utilizing human capital management applications and information to ensure the maximum return on workforce investments and programs. Our insights will guide your organization to improved HR business processes, more actionable insights and an understanding of when to take advantage of emerging digital innovations across the HCM systems landscape. Change is required to maintain competitiveness and to enable business resilience and workforce readiness to achieve the outcomes your organization deserves.