Bringing clarity, connection and confidence to HR: How Thermon transformed its people operations with Workday and Strada

An interview with Kim Scambilis, HR Operations Manager, Thermon

Thermon, a global leader in industrial process heating, has been partnering with Strada since 2019 to modernize and simplify its people operations. When Kim Scambilis joined the company, Thermon had recently gone public but didn’t yet have a unified understanding of its global workforce. Basic questions like “How many employees do we actually have?” required manual outreach to more than a dozen entities. 

Workday became Thermon’s foundational step toward gaining visibility, consistency, and the ability to manage its people with confidence.

Watch our interview with Kim Scambilis, Thermon

Building structure from the ground up

Before Workday, Thermon’s HR team had to manually collect data from 15 different operating companies just to produce a simple headcount report, a process that took weeks and required extensive validation.

Today, that same report takes 10 minutes. Workday has standardized fields, unified the global data set, and given HR the credibility of being seen as a data‑driven partner to the business.

Kim described a turning point: where Sarbanes‑Oxley backup, once a painful, multi‑week task became readily available in Workday for the first time.

“Strada really acts as our partner. When we need to implement something new or don’t have expertise in an area, they’re always right there — coaching us, supporting us, or rolling up their sleeves to do the work with us.”

Kim Scambilis HR Operations Manager, Thermon

A partnership that scales with Thermon

Thermon operates on a lean HRIS team with just Kim and one analyst supporting 1,700 employees worldwide.

Strada provides Thermon with a flexible support model combining an hours‑pool Application Management Services (AMS) structure, event‑based SOWs for targeted initiatives, and expert coverage across Integrations, Payroll, Talent, Peakon, Adaptive and more. An approach that gives Kim’s team exactly what they need, when they need it.  

The integration team has been essential, especially during open enrollment cycles and vendor transitions. When Thermon’s recently acquired company could no longer rely on its legacy ADP timekeeping system, Strada delivered Workday Time & Attendance for two new locations in under 12 weeks, preventing major operational disruption

Kim notes that this flexibility ensures Thermon can continue evolving without overwhelming its internal resources.

“We’re a global company with 1,700 employees and a two‑person HRIS team. Strada is key to helping us scale.”

Kim Scambilis HR Operations Manager, Thermon

Elevating the employee and manager experience

Before Workday, employees used paper pay stubs and had limited insight into their own data. Managers had no centralized view of their teams. Today, everything lives in Workday.

This shift has transformed how people work at Thermon:

• Managers can see team data at a glance, anniversaries, birthdays, reporting lines, merit history
• Employees have access to their information on-demand
• Engagement insights from Peakon drive real change
• Talent processes are more structured and data‑driven

“From zero employee experience to everything in one place — it has fundamentally changed how our people experience Thermon.”

Kim Scambilis HR Operations Manager, Thermon

Talent, recruiting, absence and workforce planning

Thermon’s next phase is ambitious and driven by real business needs.

• Workforce Planning: Rapid organizational change has led to an explosion of spreadsheets. Even with Adaptive in place, position planning still requires manual reconciliation across Excel, Adaptive, and Workday. Kim sees Workday Workforce Planning as the next logical step to eliminate fragmentation.
• Talent: Kim is focused on building structured visibility into internal mobility, succession, skills and aspirations, areas managers struggle to track without a digital foundation.
• Recruiting: Still running hiring processes in Excel, Recruiting is likely to become the next major Workday investment.
• Global Absence: Currently live in the U.S. and Canada but planned for expansion once acquisition activity stabilizes.

Advice to others beginning their Workday journey

Kim has worked in HR technology since the 1990s — long before cloud systems existed. Legacy platforms required costly customization for every policy change. Her advice is simple:

“Take small bites and just do it. And get a good partner.” For Thermon, that partner has been Strada, helping their small HRIS team deliver big outcomes for a fast‑moving global business.