Tailored for efficiency: How Shona Joy dressed up HR

A fashion house transforming workforce management

Shona Joy is a fashion label renowned for its timeless, hand-painted prints and nostalgic silhouettes that speak to Australia’s coastal style. Since its founding in 2000, the brand has evolved from the backdrops of Bondi Beach and Paddington Markets into a globally recognised fashion label. But as the company grew, so too did its HR and payroll challenges.

With more than 250 staff across design, head office, retail and warehouse operations, Shona Joy’s People and Culture Manager, Adriana Nedic, knew that their manual processes couldn’t scale with their ambitions.

“Our HR system was entirely paper-based; we had printed leave forms, physical folders for documentation, and handwritten timesheets. It was incredibly time-consuming and difficult to manage.”

Administrative complexity was affecting efficiency across the board, and it was clear that a change was needed. Fortunately, Adriana had used Employment Hero in a previous role and was confident that the platform could solve Shona Joy’s HR pains – she led the charge to bring Employment Hero on board.

The HR and payroll landscape before Employment Hero

Before implementing Employment Hero, the HR team at Shona Joy was bogged down in paperwork. Leave requests had to be printed, signed and physically filed. Timesheets were written by hand and walked between offices for approval. Onboarding new team members involved multiple emails and printed forms.

“We were spending so much time on repetitive admin tasks –it was unsustainable. We needed to move from folders and forms into a digital future.”

Shona Joy’s Accountant, Henry Shen, faced similar inefficiencies on the payroll side.

“I had to walk around the warehouse to get our casual employees’ timesheets signed. Then I’d manually enter everything (hours, pay and tax details) into our payroll system. It was prone to errors and incredibly inefficient.”

With no automation, no central system and no real-time visibility for employees, the manual setup was creating bottlenecks that affected productivity.

The new way: One system. Everything employment.

Everything changed when Adriana introduced Employment Hero. The platform now powers Shona Joy’s HR, onboarding, payroll, compliance, performance management, time tracking, and reporting – all from one central dashboard. Adriana calls it “a complete people management system” and says that the impact has been nothing short of transformative.

Employment Hero has also revolutionised Shona Joy’s onboarding process. New hires receive their login credentials via email and can complete all necessary documentation, contracts, policies and forms online before their first day.

“When we bring on temporary warehouse staff, I just enter their email and the system takes care of the rest. For returning casuals, previously entered details are saved, making re-onboarding a smooth and error-free experience.”

A seamless and transparent employee experience

Since implementing Employment Hero, the experience for both employees and managers has completely changed. Through the Employment Hero Work app, the entire team now has access to their leave balances, payslips, contracts and onboarding documents right from their phones.

“Most of our staff have the app downloaded and they use it regularly to check leave balances or submit requests. It’s made things so much easier, faster and more transparent.”

For managers, the platform provides a central dashboard where they can oversee their teams, approve leave and recognise employee achievements with shoutouts.

“The visibility we now have across our teams is incredible,” Adriana added. “Managers can see everything they need at a glance, which helps with engagement and oversight.”

Payroll that stitches it all together

The fashion industry often involves casual and part-time workers, which can make payroll processing especially complex. With Employment Hero Payroll, Shona Joy has drastically simplified these processes.

“Now I just check the submitted timesheets and click once,” said Henry. “The system calculates gross pay, net pay, PAYG and super –it’s all automatic. It’s amazing how much time we’ve saved.”

Employment Hero’s redundancy pay feature has given Shona Joy confidence in their compliance and accuracy.

“Previously, I had to manually calculate redundancy payments by going to the ATO website and checking rates. Now, the platform does it all for me, it’s accurate and fast.”

No looking back

Shona Joy’s journey with Employment Hero highlights the power of digital workforce management. By moving away from fragmented, manual systems, they’ve created a connected, transparent and future-ready workplace.

“Employment Hero has helped us streamline so many of our processes, we haven’t looked back. It’s convenient, secure and compliant.’ 

Make work easier with Employment Hero

Even in creative, fast-paced industries like fashion, Shona Joy’s experience is an example of how modern HR and payroll tools can eliminate inefficiencies and boost engagement. With Employment Hero, they’ve simplified admin and empowered their people.

Ready to simplify your HR and payroll?