Smooth Integrations & Service Pave the Way for a Close Partnership

Increasingly, business leaders are seeing value added to their bottom lines by prioritizing their own people and internal culture above profit and even their customers. Michael Gretczko of Deloitte tells HR Technologist, “The workforce is the backbone of any organization, so their engagement and loyalty are paramount to the success of the bottom line.” And as companies see growth, it can be extremely challenging to maintain the small-business culture that employees and leadership have come to value immensely. 

For Sullivan Tire and Auto Service, preserving the close-knit culture instilled by Bob Sullivan when he founded the business in 1955 is vital. For more than 60 years, Sullivan Tire and Auto Service has been on a mission: Provide the best possible services and treat employees, customers, and suppliers like family. Fulfilling its mission has translated to great success.

Today, Sullivan Tire proudly operations more than 100 locations across five states with 1,300 employees. Such rapid expansion led to the company quickly outgrowing its manual processes and an increasing disconnect between departments. Sullivan Tire needed a business solution that not only solved these specific challenges, but also was a scalable, mobile-friendly, easy-to-use, self-service option for employees.

Seeking a Solution

To address the urgent need for greater efficiency, Sullivan Tire implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365, a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that transformed its customer engagement. But the company’s existing HCM solution could not integrate with it. Despite working with its previous vendor for a decade, the company needed a provider that could better meet its evolving HR needs.

After reviewing proposals from several platform providers, one stood out. The review committee, led by Sullivan Tire’s HR Generalist, Cortney Barkdoll, found that Paylocity could seamlessly integrate with Dynamics 365, while streamlining operations through a web-based platform and providing an improved employee experience. To top it off, Paylocity’s exceptional, personalized customer service also came closest to matching Sullivan Tire’s own focus on close, family-like relationships. 

The partnership paid off immediately as Paylocity worked with Sullivan Tire to customize a two-phase implementation process that allowed the small HR team to onboard solutions at a comfortable pace with minimal disruption. Barkdoll was impressed with Paylocity’s best-practices approach and reliable timelines and milestones. Paylocity followed the project delivery plan at each stage, helping Sullivan Tire roll out the HR & Payroll product first, with Benefit Administration following a few months later.

Paylocity helped Sullivan Tire take a previously time-consuming and frustrating benefits enrollment process to a frictionless and intuitive process for employees and HR. In fact, the company estimates Paylocity helps its two-person HR team save about 200 hours of administrative time annually.

 “We did open enrollment through Paylocity Benefits and that streamlined the process a lot for us,” said Laurie Fadden, Manager of Employee Development at Sullivan Tire. “Benefit enrollment used to be paper-based. Now employees just go in and elect whatever coverage they want.”

 Saving Time and Headaches

Paylocity’s Self-Service Portal also enhanced the employee experience by providing instant access to personal information. Employees can log in via any browser or use the Paylocity Mobile App to enroll in benefits, set up direct deposit, change tax information, and if needed, sign up for COBRA coverage. What’s more, the portal’s customizable homepage gives Sullivan Tire another tool for communicating benefit and seasonal information to its employees.

Continuous growth has also led Sullivan Tire to rely more and more on timely, accurate reporting to stay informed and in compliance. This makes it critical that systems communicate efficiently, updating data across the board. 

Seamless integration for 401(k) contributions and other electronic actions improve data exchange with benefits vendors. And thanks to employees’ convenient, intuitive access to benefits, Sullivan Tire has seen enrollment increase significantly.

A True Partnership

The program’s success could not have happened without Paylocity’s personal attention and the same responsive customer service that defines the culture of Sullivan Tire. As Barkdoll explains, “Having a dedicated Paylocity team member is really beneficial because they get to know about us and know our intricacies and what we do differently.”

 The result of that close relationship and a robust platform is a solution that suits Sullivan’s unique needs today and sets them up for future success as well. “I really like that they are constantly innovating and adding to their products,” Barkdoll said. “Others try to sell you a product out of the box and you have to fit into that box. With Paylocity, it’s the other way around.”

Scalability, seamless integration and service have earned Paylocity high praise from Barkdoll and others at Sullivan. Paylocity’s openness to feedback and its continuous search for better ways to serve its clients inspired Sullivan to welcome Paylocity into the family. 

 Learn more about how Sullivan Tire successfully partnered with Paylocity to drive efficient processes using our HCM platform. 

Date Posted: August 12, 2019