Lush entrusts its payroll to SD Worx

06 April 2018

SD Worx, a leading provider of global Payroll and HR services, has been chosen by cosmetics retailer Lush to run the company’s payroll. SD Worx will start with payroll operations for 4,500 employees, including all 102 of the Lush stores across the UK, it's manufacturing, support and digital teams, as well as for 300 employees in the manufacturing arm of the business in Germany. Upon successful implementation, there is the option of expanding the deployment to further global markets that are reviewing their payroll offering, with Lush’s UK team often leading the way in such initiatives.

In the UK and Ireland, SD Worx will implement the payroll software HRevolution to manage Lush’s payroll. This cloud-based software that is constantly updated according to changing legislation, ensuring that Lush remains compliant at all times. This is expected to be fully operational in the UK and Ireland by August 2018.

In Germany, SD Worx started implementing its payroll software ACCURAT HCM for 300 employees in Lush’s manufacturing businesses. Here, Lush will also fully integrate SD Worx’s Protime time and attendance management software into its payroll operations. Lush expects this comprehensive approach to lead to significant productivity improvements. Manual interventions won’t be necessary anymore, as HRevolution and Protime are fully automated.  The implementation in Germany will be operational by July this year.

Flexibility and seamless integration

According to Aaron Mudd, European Pay and Benefits Manager at Lush, the support provided by SD Worx will be invaluable. “Our general position as a business is to build and run our own systems internally, but to do so for a critical function like payroll would have been far too complex and risky. Our previous solution was simply not working and we had to make a change for the benefit of our employees - this is why we chose SD Worx. With SD Worx taking care of the aspects of payroll such as legislative updates and IT requirements, the team at Lush will benefit from increased productivity and be able to focus on doing what it does best, day in, day out.”

With flexibility a crucial requirement, the availability of open API was a key reason why Lush chose to partner with SD Worx. This capability means that Lush can adapt the solution to its own needs and ensure that it is seamlessly integrated with existing systems. A good example of this is the single digital site Lush is developing for all employees to manage tasks such as their own training or holiday requests. Once completed, the site will work in tandem with SD Worx HRevolution, saving time and money for Lush and its employees, demonstrating Lush’s capacity as a digital business.

A collaborative approach

Doug Sawers, Managing Director SD Worx UK & Ireland commented, “We see the agreement with Lush as more of a partnership than a traditional customer-vendor relationship. This is where the team’s collaborative approach has been essential and, as a result, we have delivered a system that suits the specific needs of Lush’s business. This is what we call customer centricity. Their digital mindset is aligned with our core values at SD Worx, being a digital leader, and we are delighted to be working with such a successful business full of incredibly talented people.”

The news also underlines SD Worx’s positive trajectory as a global business. Jean Luc Barbier, Vice President SD Worx Global Solutions said, “The agreement with Lush is a perfect example of the continuous progress that SD Worx is making in the international market. We are committed to growing our services around the world and through our network of high-class partners. The multi-national commitment that Lush has demonstrated through this deal is a strong indicator of the impact we are having internationally. This is exactly the type of project we want to be part of.”