Goodwill Southern California supports employees and its mission

As one of the largest Goodwill members in North America, Goodwill Southern California (GSC)’s mission is to transform lives through the power of work. Selling donated goods along with new merchandise, the organization supports a retail and social enterprise that offers training and job placement to empower individuals facing significant employment barriers. For those wanting a career in retail, GSC runs several robust training programs through its stores. Of its 79 stores, 42 have what GSC calls “enclaves” – a group of three or four employees – each with a job coach, taking them through the workings of retail from merchandising to running the register.

Dedicated to fulfilling GSC’s mission are over 3,000 employees – or ambassadors as GSC calls them. They know that every $5,000 generated online or in store equates to helping someone off the streets. Lean, efficient ways of working are therefore essential to maximizing what the organization can achieve within the community. “The harder we work, the better we do, the more of our neighbors we can help,” says Craig Levra, EVP and COO of Goodwill Southern California. “Our team is laser focused on getting that done, daily.” That laser focus, the altruistic mission, and the work GSC delivers, is all supported by technology.

Helping conquer complexity with technology

While GSC is part of the non-profit movement, on the operating side it identifies as a retailer. “We’re charged with maximizing revenue and earnings every day,” says Levra. Yet, unlike its peers in the retail world, 96% of GSC’s revenue is driven by donated items. “The most unique thing about our business is that everything we get is in a quantity of one,” he adds. Not knowing what quantity of donations will arrive from day-to-day presents another challenge, and how donations are received, recorded, and priced must all be considered.

In addition to the complexity of supporting its mission through donation-based retail, the State of California has some of the strictest, most comprehensive employment laws in the U.S., making it a challenging environment for employers to navigate. GSC holds itself to an equally high standard when it comes to taking care of its ambassadors. “Everything we do is done through the lens of respect,” says Levra. “We treat everybody as we want to be treated.” In operational terms, that means being mindful of scheduling, work-life balance, and working conditions.

To help manage this complexity, create meaningful efficiencies, and support its mission, GSC decided to partner with Dayforce. The organization now uses the platform to power all timeclocks, performance reviews, vacation and sick leave, overtime pay, and onboarding.

Supporting ambassadors, supporting the community

While technology supports the operational side of GSC, it is also fundamental to a smooth and cohesive ambassador experience from the moment they join the organization to when they graduate on to new opportunities.

From day one, individuals can access video content taking them through the onboarding process – an intensive three-day course that readies them to work in-store and consolidates their cultural immersion and engagement. “So, you’re not only up to speed very quickly about all the services we provide, but more importantly you know what's expected of you when you join Goodwill Southern California,” says Levra.

Ambassadors are able to access the Dayforce platform from anywhere via the mobile app – using it to track their schedules and stay connected, particularly around training. Educational content is designed to help build job skills, enhance employability, and improve success in the workplace, especially given GSC’s planned rate of turnover in prepping ambassadors for the job market.

GSC also uses the Dayforce platform for 90-day reviews and performance evaluations: an intuitive user experience and configurable features allow managers to effectively oversee and reward the performance of ambassadors. Meanwhile the visibility into ambassadors’ schedules helps GSC facilitate accurate time tracking and manage compliance with legal requirements while also improving work-life balance.

Partnership and data to drive strategic planning

In May 2023, GSC partnered with Seequelle – an authorized Dayforce Client-Side partner – to implement Dayforce Advanced Scheduling. Prior to using the Dayforce platform, GSC managed store schedules and staffing based on fixed hours tied to each store’s size and tracked everything in Excel spreadsheets – it was a major challenge. The fixed schedules didn't account for actual customer or donation flow, resulting in inefficiencies and wasted labor hours that GSC simply couldn’t afford.

Seequelle successfully led GSC through a pilot-to-enterprise model of implementation, allowing the organization to develop in-house champions and continuously refine training and implementation based on real-time feedback. Starting with two pilot stores at both ends of the performance spectrum, Seequelle delivered six to eight weeks of robust training.

The implementation also involved a massive amount of data from multiple sources being migrated into the Dayforce platform. “Seequelle was instrumental in making sure that all the data we were providing was where it was supposed to be,” says Levra. Feeding in point-of-sale data highlighted times of peak demand enabling GSC to schedule ambassadors’ shifts according to need. “Dayforce technology plays a key role in helping us think about whether we have the right people assigned to the right tasks at the right time,” says Levra.

The same is true when it comes to donations, with GSC now able to track when they are received and coordinate the movement of products between locations, while also contributing items to GSC’s e-commerce site – GoodwillFinds.com. As a result, each store is visited by at least one truck per day, and as GSC converts to an all-electric truck fleet it intends to leverage the solution to optimize battery life and help meet sustainability goals.

“All these metrics tell a story,” says Levra. “It allows us to pinpoint by location, by category, by ambassador, what's working, what's not working, and what we’re going to do about it. The Dayforce platform is that precise.”

Seequelle’s deep focus on customer delivery in the HCM space and its ability to bridge technology with business needs has been fundamental to the success of the Dayforce partnership for GSC.

“What really helped with this project from day one was having frank, open conversations and making clear that we’re in this together,” says Wilfred Gomez, President and Co-Founder of Seequelle. “We’re an extension of the team.”

Helping improve both revenue and compliance

For many years, GSC’s approach to retail was “more is better.” “The more you got out there, the more you hoped you’d sell,” says Levra. “Thankfully, we don't operate that way now – instead we strive to create a boutique shopping experience in every store.”

Eight weeks into Dayforce Advanced Scheduling going live, a quarter of GSC’s stores began generating 5% more revenue with fewer labor hours. “We’d been spending too much time in front-line work, too much time merchandising in some locations, so we reallocated those hours,” says Levra.

Sales per hour have so far improved by 10% and the team continues to drive down overtime, lunch penalties, and Fair Workweek penalties, helping improve compliance with legal requirements. It’s a shift that Levra largely attributes to better scheduling. “And we're scheduling to fit the need,” he says. “Now, our best stores are at 93% scheduling efficiency, and our worst stores are in the 70 to 75% range – so the results are positive.”

So much so that the team is intent on expanding its use of the Dayforce platform. “The flexibility and capabilities of the Dayforce suite are unmatched,” says Levra. “We constantly talk about ways we can leverage even more of what the platform provides.”

A bright future, together

GSC’s mission to transform lives through the power of work aligns deeply with the Dayforce mission to make work life better. And by leveraging Seequelle’s expertise, GSC has delivered in the Dayforce platform a solution that not only streamlines processes but also helps anticipate future business challenges, boosting scalability and sustainability. “Seequelle’s been a great partner in helping us think our way through and maximize the value that the Dayforce platform brings,” says Levra.

Looking ahead, Seequelle remains committed to evolving with the market’s demands, providing holistic services beyond just implementation, including change management and ongoing support. “Dayforce stays at the cutting edge when it comes to HCM,” says Gomez. “That fits our delivery model, because we love to learn – and we too want to stay cutting edge.”

Reflecting on the success so far, Gomez is magnanimous. “Everyone involved was able to partner and focus and get the job done to produce these amazing results,” he says. “The three of us joining forces to produce something greater than the sum of its parts is something that should be celebrated.”