Senior Director, Store Payroll Execution and Workforce Management

Ross Stores•Dublin, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Sr. Director of Store Payroll Execution and Workforce Management (WFM) will lead all activities related to the forecasting and allocation of Store Payroll to all Ross and dd’s store locations, as well as our workforce management system. Specifically, the Sr. Director will oversee the management of the Store Payroll budget throughout the year, to ensure that stores have the appropriate amount of payroll needed to cover all workload, as determined by our standards-driven labor model. As part of this, the Sr. Director will also oversee our WFM system, which handles labor scheduling, labor forecasting (by work center), and compliance with all state and local pay and scheduling laws (overtime, sick pay, predictable scheduling, etc.). In the coming years, the Sr. Director will lead a project to replace our current WFM system with a modern, cloud-based WFM system, and will partner cross-functionally with teams from several departments (IT, Store Operations, Legal, HR, etc.) through requirements, design, build, pilot, and rollout. The Sr. Director will interact frequently with senior leaders (SVP, GVP, and VP) of other stores functions (the Field, Corporate Finance, Operations and LP) to ensure that the new system provides maximum benefits for all stores. The Sr. Director will initially lead a team of 6, including 2 direct reports. This team will expand as the WFM replacement project begins.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required with demonstrated superior college performance with a focus or concentration in Finance, Operations, Accounting, or a similar analytically-focused field.
Minimum of 10 years post college experience with demonstrated success at increasing levels of responsibility
Strong level of curiosity, enthusiasm, and a passion for learning
Previous experience in finance and operations for a brick-and-mortar (stores-based) retail company
Successful track record leading large, cross-functional, high-visibility projects and new system rollouts (beyond just the technical implementation)
Equal comfort with both operations and analytics
Outstanding analytical ability – must have a data driven approach to solving problems. Requires very strong quantitative skills, a good sense of how to dissect problems and a strong ability to “connect the dots”
Track record of successful team development – managing a team to high levels of performance and developing team members for growth and advancement
A clear understanding of basic financial, statistical and economic concepts
Excellent communication skills – must be able to clearly communicate results and implications of analysis in both verbal and written (PowerPoint) forms
A detail-oriented approach – must pay very close attention to details and have the drive to get things right
Relationship Building - needs to be able to build effective working relationships with a broad range of peers and executive leaders across different functions
Strong fundamental business technical skills – must be Excel and PowerPoint proficient and have an ability to learn new business process software applications (Hyperion, DART, Flash Sales).
Must be trustworthy with confidential information

Nice To Haves

MBA strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Accurately allocate payroll to all Ross and dd’s locations each month
Oversee the running of the labor model and the subsequent calculations that generate the allocation
Ensure accurate projections for wage rates, attrition, and the mix of hours worked between full-time and part-time retail associates
Partner with the Method Improvements team to ensure that any adjustments to labor saves (or labor adds) are captured accurately each month
Manage and track payroll spend throughout each month, including flex payroll, plan adjustments, and plan reimbursements for incurred sick pay
Oversee the daily publication of payroll status (i.e., how each operating zone is tracking relative to plan)
Each pay period, ensure an accurate reconciliation of actual payroll spent between DART/EDW and the General Ledger
Manage and track spend from payroll reserves (including RVP reserves, sick pay reserves, and new store reserves)
Oversee the forecasting of store payroll, to ensure that actual and projected payroll spend are captured within the company forecast
Capture not only our “ongoing” spend, but also any non-recurring adjustments (e.g., additional payroll that is spent to support sales on key days, business disruption pay during extended store closures, or mid-month changes to our merchandise protection strategy)
Refine our forecasting process to achieve greater accuracy, and call out material risks to FP&A
Partner as needed with the Sr. Director, Store Payroll Planning and Budgeting on budget variance explanations (monthly and quarterly) and other ad hoc analyses as needed throughout the year
Oversee labor scheduling through our Workforce Management system, and develop strategic direction for in-store scheduling based on the evolving needs of the business
Oversee updates of the annual WFM calendar to ensure that all events, holidays, holiday operating hours, extended operating hours, and special programs (e.g., Peak Register Coverage) are properly configured in the scheduling system
Oversee modeling and assess chain-specific concerns related to store operating hours and Department hours changes (e.g., cashier, sales floor, cash office, stock, etc.)
Partner with the Method Improvements Team to model store process changes which impact store associate scheduling (for example, changes in self-service fitting room hours). Assist in analyzing schedule/workload impacts of said projects.
Become an expert on our current WFM system, and lead training sessions for new Field Leaders on scheduling best practices.
Identify and implement improvements to the configuration of our WFM system and SDM (Store Data Management) tool
Optimize the store sales forecasts that are generated by our WFM system across all stores
Choose the appropriate forecasting algorithm at different times of year, taking guidance from back-testing analysis
Recommend and implement over-rides to avoid forecast bias for unique events impacting select stores (e.g., weather-related closures, one-time spikes in business due to non-recurring factors, etc.).
Partner with the Planning function to ensure that the latest company-level sales projections are reflected in individual stores’ sales forecasts
Forecast sales appropriately for newly-opened stores, reflecting extra traffic during their grand opening period
Lead the future replacement of our current WFM system with a modern, cloud-based WFM system
Hire, onboard, and train new team members to support this multi-year project
Build relationships with partner / stakeholder teams in other departments at Ross, and ensure that their needs are met by the new system.
Work closely with 3rd party consultants on all phases of the project, from the initial vendor assessment through requirements, design, and build
Co-create executive-facing project update materials for the project Business Advisory and Steering Committee
Partner with Field Leaders, HR, and the Store Communications Team on change management, training materials, and guides to drive adoption and build expertise in the new system
Oversee future changes, updates, and enhancements to our WFM system, particularly those related to scheduling laws (e.g., predictable scheduling ordinances) or changes to store operations (e.g., self-checkout registers or self-service fitting room installations)
Thoroughly understand the requirements of all scheduling laws that impact select stores
Partner with HR, Legal, and Store Operations to align on an operationally viable compliance strategy
Help train store leaders on scheduling compliance, including updates (as needed) as new leaders are hired in (or transfer into) certain markets
Develop a high performing team. Coach and develop the team to maximize performance and value addition to the company while maintaining high morale