Animal Rescue Center Finds its Perfect Match for HR Efficiency

Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh (HARP) is on a mission to ensure that animals receive the love and care they both need and deserve. Over its 150-year history, the nonprofit organization has helped more than one million animals, including 20,000 in the last year alone.

Dan Cody, Executive Director at HARP, explains: “We were formed following the merger of two organizations that pioneered animal welfare in Pittsburgh. Today, we run two centers for veterinary care and one for wildlife rehabilitation, and two shelters where we support and find forever homes for domestic animals. Plus, we run education programs to inspire the local community.”

To keep its extensive operations running smoothly, HARP has 110 full-time and 10 part-time employees working across its sites. Alongside them, more than 600 volunteers dedicate upwards of 40,000 hours each year to the organization, helping with everything from walking dogs and petting cats to clinical services, administration, fostering and fundraising.

“Our work takes a lot of effort and person-hours, whether we’re taking the dogs out or matching them with a loving companion,” confirms Dan. “But it’s most definitely worth it when we see the positive impact that we make on animals and their new owners!”

When you’re focusing on changing lives, the last thing you want is to be bogged down by complex systems and draining admin. So, when HARP hit challenges with its previous HCM platform, it was time to switch course. And this time, the organization found the perfect partner: Paylocity.

 

The Challenge: Paws for Thought

Keen to break free from the limitations of the previous system, HARP looked for a solution that would lighten the load on HR, unlock efficiencies, and help to nurture collective goals.

Building Shared Purpose and Engagement

First and foremost, HARP is an organization driven by a strong purpose: caring for animals and ending suffering. But other than a rarely used SharePoint page, the organization had no platform to communicate key goals to employees and to foster engagement and shared purpose. “We have a lot of moving parts as an organization, and keeping everyone heading in the same direction can be difficult,” explains Dan. “We wanted a system where we could share the key pillars of our mission and our big challenges with everyone, as well as celebrating great work.”

Overcoming a Limited Legacy HR System

On top of high costs, HARP ran into a host of operational issues with the previous HR platform. For example, pulling strategic and financial reports involved hours of complex data manipulation, while limited integration capabilities meant managing 401k contributions was another time-consuming manual task. Similarly, the tools for allocating hours and shift scheduling proved unreliable and difficult to use, and customer support from the vendor was rarely up to scratch. As Olga Herrera, Senior Director of HR, notes: “We could never get hold of someone when we needed help.”

New Objectives: Efficiency, Mobility, Agility

The impact of these limitations was that Olga was spending too much time on low-level tasks and workarounds. “I am a HR department of one, so I have a lot on my hands,” she confirms. “I wanted to find a partner that could take the load off my shoulders and help HR to run more efficiently.”

Another key item on the wish-list was intuitive mobile capabilities, as Dan notes: “We have a young employee base, who are used to working on their phones and using social media. And for many tasks, they are on their feet working with animals rather than sitting behind a computer at a desk.”

 

The Solution: A Successful Adoption

When a volunteer recommended Paylocity, HARP decided to explore the platform and was quickly blown away by the collaboration tools, ease of use, and support structure.

Celebrating Commitment and Achievements

With Paylocity’s Community module, HARP has a central hub to share goals, celebrate employee birthdays, and highlight great work. “Community is phenomenal,” says Olga. “It’s just like a Facebook wall where we post news and shoutouts, and employees can connect with each other.” Similarly, HARP uses Recognition & Rewards to provide bonuses for high performance. “We have aligned achievement badges in Paylocity with our values, and we give each department a monthly budget for gift cards,” adds Olga. “It was easy to set up, and people love the concept.”

Offering Flexibility and Trust to Employees

Today, HARP employees clock in on the Time & Labor module via the Paylocity Mobile App. “In the past, we placed timeclocks in specific locations, but that felt overbearing,” says Dan. “The geofencing option in Paylocity offers more trust: once people are on site, they just punch in on the app.” The organization also uses Scheduling to ensure shift coverage for veterinary and administrative roles. “Paylocity helped our departmental heads to color code and plan everything,” adds Olga.

Simplifying Core HR Workflows

Furthermore, HARP has streamlined hiring with the Recruiting and Onboarding modules. “Our new hire packets are more comprehensive than in the old system,” explains Olga. “Plus, I-9 forms are now easier to gather, which simplifies compliance.” HARP also uses integrations with third parties for background checks and drug screening, plus a connection to HighMatch to optimize talent identification.

As well as using Benefits Administration to manage employee health plans, HARP uses an integration with Empower to exchange 401k plan data. “Things are so much easier with Paylocity,” continues Olga. “Our accountant doesn’t have to spend time manually manipulating data.”

HARP has also launched 60-day reviews in Performance. “We can automatically notify managers to schedule reviews, and inform employees to do a self-evaluation,” says Olga. “And we love the succession planning feature in Paylocity. This will help us keep knowledge in the organization.”

 

The Results: A Great Match

The move to Paylocity has empowered HARP to focus on its core mission. With less time spent on admin, there is more time to concentrate on what counts: helping animals in need.

Reinforcing Organizational Values and Purpose

The employee engagement tools in Paylocity have enabled HARP to build a great culture and ensure alignment with its values and mission. Olga notes: “When we first saw Community, it was exactly what we were looking for. It helps us communicate our core goals and what we stand for as an organization to employees. Most HCM platforms offer payroll and onboarding, but only Paylocity could deliver the capabilities to strengthen engagement and nurture collective purpose.”

Driving HR Efficiency and Productivity

With core HR tasks from time allocation to managing 401k plans now streamlined in Paylocity, HARP is achieving valuable time savings every day. “Everything runs faster now,” says Olga. “Payroll is phenomenal—at first, we couldn’t believe how easy it is. We just hit a button and it’s posted. And we can pull data for our monthly newsletter in seconds when it used to take ten minutes. Paylocity has lifted a huge amount off my shoulders. Overall, I am saving around four hours every day.”

HARP has also unlocked valuable cost savings with the switch to Paylocity. “As a nonprofit organization, we try to save money wherever we can, and we can’t afford to spend too much for too little in return,” adds Dan. “That was a problem with the previous platform provider, but with Paylocity we are saving a lot.”

Gaining Strategic Insights and Transparency

Finally, the Data Insights module gives HARP an in-depth picture of workforce demographics and turnover to guide strategic decisions. “Paylocity breaks everything down so nicely, so I can relay that information to our board,” says Dan. “The data gives us concrete evidence to inform our workforce management strategy. Plus, we receive a lot of grants, and we need to track where the money goes—whether it’s veterinary care or whatever. Paylocity ensures we can be transparent.”