Is It Time to Modernize Your HR Operation?
What if there was a software program that would save 50% total HR time, 90% in payroll processing time, and 8 hours onboarding time for every new employee -- would you be interested? If the answer is yes, keep reading.
In business for more than 75 years, Wagstaff, Inc. (Spokane Valley, WA), is a recognized leader in the design, development, supply, and service of the systems and equipment required to produce primary aluminum ingot and billet using direct chill (DC) casting methods in casthouses around the world.
Wagstaff, Inc. is a family owned, American engineering/manufacturing leader in the global aluminum industry.
Despite its successful track record for nearly 8 decades, Wade Larson and his team at Wagstaff knew they needed to fix some inefficiencies that were costing them precious time and talent. At Wagstaff, like most manufacturing businesses, the production line is the center of the world. Everything revolves around the process of turning raw materials into finished products. As a result, the value of functions like Human Resources, which don't have a direct link to production, is often underestimated.
Wagstaff used to have that mindset.
Wade Larson, Chief Human Resources Officer, recalls: "Before I came on board, the HR department was never seen as a strategic function. The HR team spent most of its time on processes and paperwork and had little input into decision-making."
Wade wanted to change the perception of HR within Wagstaff -- and the first step was to modernize the team's systems and processes.
Wagstaff Billet Casting Systems are the foundation of high-quality billet production.
"We had about 15 systems handling different HR processes, and we did a lot of work in spreadsheets," he says. "One of my goals was to integrate and automate everything. That was the only way to free up our team to do what HR does best, which is take care of our employees." Larson made the decision to switch Wagstaff to Paylocity to help solve multiple problems.
As a manufacturing company, Wagstaff faces fierce competition for skilled labor. Any delays in recruiting increase the risk of losing good candidates to competitors. Since the whole recruiting process was manual, that risk was ever present. Onboarding was another obstacle, as new employees typically spent their entire first day filling out paperwork.
Starting with recruiting, Paylocity fully automated Wagstaff's hiring process -- everything from job descriptions and placing ads, to making job offers can now be done with a few clicks, saving at least five hours per week. The system also sends automatic reminders to HR and managers if an applicant hasn't been seen within 48 hours. "Those touchpoints save us potential candidates," says Wade.
The time savings in HR tasks have led to a significant improvement in productivity.
Onboarding is also automated and includes integrated video, so new employees can now complete all their onboarding tasks and training before their start date. As Wade puts it: "Nobody likes spending their first day with HR. Having no wet signatures and no paperwork on day one is a big win."
Wagstaff now uses Paylocity for time and attendance, allowing employees to punch in, manage sick time, or make vacation requests with the Paylocity Mobile App. "The missed punch issue is just gone," says Wade, "That's hours and hours of time that we've saved with Paylocity."
In manufacturing, every moment that an employee spends away from the factory floor has a negative effect on productivity. At Wagstaff, whenever an employee needed to see their manager for a question or speak with HR, they had to leave the production line and walk to another building -- a loss of 15 to 30 minutes of productive work time.
As the role of HR continues to expand, HR teams need to bridge the gaps across their organizations to fuel collaboration and help employees connect with their work and each other.
With Paylocity's Performance tools, managers can manage ongoing one-on-one meetings with their employees on their phone or tablet without taking employees away from the production line and impacting productivity. And as employees are now accustomed to using the mobile app daily, the HR team can send out surveys and promote employee self-service -- further reducing the need for lengthy detours to HR.
Looking at the positive impact of Paylocity on Wagstaff, Wade comments: "My best estimate is that with Paylocity, we've reduced our total HR workload by 50%. And because managers aren't spending so much time on performance evaluations, I'd estimate we've saved at least 10% of their time too. When my payroll person can run payroll on her tablet from anywhere, and it just works -- that's pretty cool"
The time-savings aren't just improving productivity -- they are liberating the HR team. Wade comments: "We had a qualified accountant stuck doing payroll full-time. Now she's able to take on much more interesting work. That's good for morale, and good for her career too." The extra time allows HR to be a strategic partner to other business units. Plus, there's additional time to focus on culture and employee engagement, which helps reduce turnover.
VIDEO: Wagstaff Spotlight -- Fabricators
From a digital strategy perspective, Wagstaff has been able to retire 10 legacy HR systems and hundreds of spreadsheets. Better yet, as Paylocity is a cloud-based system, it only needs a fraction of the support as before from Wagstaff's internal IT team. "Paylocity works so well because it was built on cloud technology from day one -- it's not a legacy system that's been dressed up for the web," says Wade.
In the bigger picture, Paylocity is helping Wagstaff's HR team play a more strategic role in achieving business outcomes.
"Today, HR is a fully integrated and highly trusted function," concludes Wade. "The CFO, the CEO, and the President all rely on HR. We're now in the right place to deliver what our organization needs -- and that wasn't the case in the past. I've always wanted a single system that I can use to integrate and automate everything in HR. With Paylocity, I've finally got the system I was looking for. It's like finding 'HCM Zen'."
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