With the lack of integrations with other vendors from their previous HR & payroll provider, Green Lawn Fertilizing/Green Pest Solutions realized they had more than 15 opportunities to automate connections, saving hundreds of hours in painstaking manual processes. Eventually, Green Lawn Fertilizing/Green Pest Solutions decided to weed out their system and plant roots with a new platform.
Green Lawn Fertilizing/Green Pest Solutions is an industry leading high growth company with its busiest time running from February through October. Every January the team recruits and onboards approximately 75 new hires and brings back at least 60 furloughed employees. The crushing workload of a manual recruiting and onboarding process took more than six weeks. From keying in names and addresses to scanning in resumes to running background checks, the team was buried in paperwork and data entry.
“The market is competitive, and the timeframe is tight. If we miss the mark on recruiting, then we’re not going to get our workforce up and running in time to meet the demand. The process was outdated and not scalable. People would fill out paper applications, and you were left to enter it into the system which left a huge margin for error all around.”
Michael Heiner , Vice President of HR
Not only was the company combatting tight timelines and heavy competition during the recruiting and onboarding process, but the HR team also had to ensure all employees were up to speed on their compliance training. Keeping track of course completions was an ordeal, as they needed to hold live training sessions for both new and seasoned employees. “We would really fumble on the best way to conduct an annual refresher such as preventing harassment, distracted driving, and more,” explains Michael. “Especially during the pandemic, we needed a way to ensure everyone had completed courses without the high-touch, close contact of an in-person session.”
Green Lawn Fertilizing/Green Pest Solutions’ recordkeeping process was tricky as well. Despite annual reviews and their rigorous awareness of compliance requirements, their previous system could not integrate with benefits or other systems. Michael says, “The problem was that all our systems wouldn’t talk to each other and things could be easily missed. The amount of time spent cross checking information was painstaking. We needed a system that could integrate with benefits and legacy systems, as well as help monitor compliance.”
That's when Green Lawn Fertilizing/Green Pest Solutions turned to Paylocity for a modern approach. “The streamlined processes reduced the potential for a lot of errors that used to happen by uploading spreadsheets,” says Michael. “The best part is that we were able to go paperless. When an employee fills out an application, if hired, that information flows right into their employee record. That alone has saved us so much time and made things more accurate.”
The breadth of integrations that Paylocity offered ensured the team at Green Lawn Fertilizing/Green Pest Solutions was more efficient. “We were able to integrate our 401(k) provider Voya, Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), Blue Cross Blue Shield, Colonial Life, and more,” says Michael. “Everything is automatic and feeds into the payroll system. These connections were huge for us as they save us lots of time, all these processes have been simplified, and we can access everything we need from one place.”
In the past, mandatory, one-day training sessions with the entire workforce were the easiest way to meet their required compliance training. However, during the pandemic this wasn’t an option.
“The best part is that we were able to go paperless. When an employee fills out an application, if hired, that information flows right into their employee record. That alone has saved us so much time and made things more accurate. ”
Michael Heiner, Vice President of HR
Enter Paylocity’s Learning Management System (LMS), which gave Green Lawn Fertilizing/Green Pest Solutions a customized, virtual training solution. The training was assigned to all new hires automatically as part of their onboarding experience, and the HR team could easily track completion. “We didn’t have any way to track compliance before,” says Michael. “Being able to assign and track mandatory courses has made our life much easier and much more effective and efficient.”
Having an all-in-one solution allowed employees to communicate with each other from their mobile device, even while on the road. Community, Paylocity’s social collaboration and communication tool, opened doors for employee engagement and recognition. Employees could now celebrate each other anytime, anywhere, using Paylocity’s peer-to-peer recognition tool, Impressions. Michael says, “What wowed me was how quickly the employees started utilizing Community and Impressions. The optimization and adoption from the employees have been really engaging!”
Green Lawn Fertilizing/Green Pest Solutions also uses Paylocity's On Demand Payment to let employees have access to earned wages before their scheduled payday. Michael says, "We need to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to talent acquisition, so having On Demand Payment helps us do that. We know workers want that flexibility so being able to offer it can help differentiate us, especially with being on a biweekly pay schedule. The day we rolled it out we had half a dozen people use it immediately. We’re thrilled we can offer it through Paylocity, and it doesn’t require any extra work for our team.”
“Everything is automatic and feeds into the payroll system.”
Michael Heiner, Vice President of HR
The simple change of automating the time and attendance process has had a major impact on Green Lawn Fertilizing/ Green Pest Solutions’s ability to work smarter and faster. The shift to Paylocity's all-in-one platform eliminated the need for eight different systems. This change saves the HR team and employees approximately 1,400 hours per year, not to mention the added cost savings of removing duplicative products.
Having systems that integrate together has been a game changer for Green Lawn Fertilizing/Green Pest Solutions. Paylocity’s Recruiting and Onboarding helps them reach candidates faster, while saving the HR team an additional 200 additional hours in entering new hire data. With only a few months to find, onboard, and train workers, saving so much time is invaluable. Paylocity's On Demand Payment is adding an attractive benefit to Green Lawn Fertilizing/Green Pest Solutions's recruiting and retention efforts in an industry with steep competition.
By shifting to an all-in-one platform, Green Lawn Fertilizing/ Green Pest Solutions is able to go paperless and eliminate waste. For the first time, all of their systems are connected and synched to share data easily. Employees are able to get the information they need quickly and communicate with each other wherever they are - all from their mobile device. Having access to everything in one place gives the HR team confidence in the data and saves them another 150 hours a year by streamlining their integrations with benefits. They also feel much more confident with Paylocity's comprehensive compliance support. With Paylocity’s dedicated service and support, Green Lawn Fertilizing/Green Pest Solutions has confidence to continue growing for years to come.
Payroll doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does have to be right. Stay compliant, collect employee data, and streamline tax filing – all while putting time back in your day with our automated payroll software. With the assurance of an error-free workflow, you can get back to what matters most – your people. Learn how our modern solutions get you out of the tactical and back to focusing on the bigger picture.
