Auto Group Drives Success with Smarter Talent Identification and Management

When your business depends on connecting with potential customers and closing sales, how do you maintain the highest standards of service? For Tim Dahle Auto Group, the answer is simple: great people and great culture, a formula that has helped drive success for more than 50 years.

With 13 dealerships across Utah and Colorado, Tim Dahle Auto Group specializes in selling well-known vehicle brands such as Ford, Mazda, Infiniti, and Nissan. The employee base is split between salespeople in the dealership and service technicians in the workshop.

Dale Jakins, HR Director at Tim Dahle Auto Group, explains: “We think that we’re a pretty unique place to work: a third-generation family business where everyone knows the owners. But employee attrition is a major challenge across the auto sales industry. To counter that, we’re aiming to reshape and enhance our talent identification and management strategy.” 

To support its HR operations, Tim Dahle Auto Group recently switched HCM providers. But the new Paycom solution came with a confusing user experience and unexpected challenges for the team. The big question was whether to re-implement or take a new approach.

“Inevitably, there were concerns that people would feel fatigue about changing systems again so soon,” adds Dale. “What really mattered to us was the level of service. When we looked at the options, Paylocity stood out as a vendor that offered a real partnership. This was my fourth Paylocity implementation, and every time has been a great experience.”

 

The Challenge: Taking the Brakes Off

The limitations of the previous Paycom platform impacted everything from payroll efficiency and accuracy to the employee experience, reporting, and benefits administration.

Clunky Systems Confuse HR and Employees

Soon after the deployment, employees faced problems with the system. “It just wasn’t user-friendly,” explains Dale. “In auto sales, you’re constantly switching between customers and handling issues with your team. You can’t afford to spend time navigating a clunky system.” On top of this, the reporting tools were limited. “It took a lot of time to prepare and check the data,” says Dale. “Even the naming conventions for reports were confusing.”

Inefficient Payroll Soaks Up Extra Time and Resources

Running payroll in the system was also a time-consuming, labor-intensive process that involved three full-time employees and multiple spreadsheets. “We pay our people a combination of hourly and flat rates, so payroll can be complex,” explains Dale. “When the process takes too long, people become concerned about possible errors. But whenever we raised issues with Paycom around data extraction issues, we felt they were more concerned with trying to sell new features rather than offering a fix to our specific issues.”

Inconsistent Hiring Processes Hinder Talent Identification

Meanwhile, many dealerships preferred to follow their own paper-based processes for recruitment, rather than using the clunky system. “Our hiring processes were very inconsistent and fragmented,” adds Dale. “Some steps were digital, some were on paper, while people were using personal Indeed.com accounts to advertise open roles. Ultimately, we had no clear visibility over which dealerships were hiring for what roles, or the performance of the recruitment pipeline.”

Manual Work Creates an Uninspiring Day-One Experience

Onboarding was another inefficient paper-based workflow. “Once we hired someone, we would schedule a day for them to come in to complete the paperwork,” notes Dale. “It wasn’t a great experience for them or our team.” Similarly, managing benefits involved multiple data entry steps following every payroll. “We were updating spreadsheets, then manually sending data to our 401(k) provider. It was another reason why we had three FTEs for payroll,” adds Dale.

 

The Solution: Joining the Fast Lane

After gathering feedback on potential solutions from payroll administrators, recruiters, and employees, Dale and the Chief Financial Officer selected the hands-down favorite: Paylocity. 

Predictive Analytics Helps to Optimize Recruitment

With Paylocity’s Recruiting module, Tim Dahle Auto Group has one place to manage and track all steps in the hiring process, from connecting with candidates to sending offer letters. “We’ve stepped up our recruitment game in just a few months,” explains Dale. “The feedback from managers has been excellent, especially for Paylocity’s prebuilt integrations with various job boards.”

The company is also using an integration between Paylocity and The Predictive Index to incorporate insights from behavioral science to help identify the best talent for roles. “We’re excited to use The Predictive Index,” notes Dale. “Our company leaders are following our progress closely.”

Streamlined Payroll Eliminates Laborious Manual Work

Furthermore, Tim Dahle Auto Group has transformed the experience for new hires with the Onboarding module, replacing paperwork with digital processes. The company then uses Workflows & Documents to automatically launch training for new salespeople in the Learning module. 

Using the Payroll module, Tim Dahle Auto Group has streamlined the pay process. “Our managers can now enter variable pay rates directly into the system, reducing the workload for the payroll team,” explains Dale. Plus, an integration between Paylocity and Empower has simplified benefits management. “Our 401(k) data flows seamlessly from Paylocity to Empower as soon as we process payroll, eliminating time-consuming manual work,” confirms Dale.

Proactive Feedback Enhances the Employee Experience

Meanwhile, Paylocity has helped Tim Dahle Auto Group make life easier for employees. Salespeople and service technicians can access HR information and clock in and out on the fly via the Paylocity Mobile App. Also, the company uses the Community collaboration hub to announce corporate events, such as outings to Salt Lake Bees baseball games, and engage with employees.

In addition, Tim Dahle Auto Group has reshaped its employee management processes with the Performance module. “Previously, we tended to only record performance issues,” says Dale. “Now, we can document professional development goals and hold more positive conversations with employees. We’ve gone from a reactive to a proactive approach with Paylocity.”

 

The Results: Hitting Top Gear

With Paylocity, Tim Dahle Auto Group has swept away inefficiencies and complexities and helped to streamline operations. 

Lifting Company Performance by Identifying the Best Talent

Perhaps the biggest impact of Paylocity has been in recruitment. With the new platform, Tim Dahle Auto Group has reduced time-to-hire from days to hours, while integrations with more than 10 online job boards enable the company to cast a wider net in the search for talent. And with The Predictive Index, Dale expects to take a more scientific, data-driven approach to hiring. “We’ll match candidate’s motivations and strengths to specific roles,” adds Dale. “We’ll get a better quality of hire, which will help to boost company performance and reduce attrition.”

Boosting Operational Efficiency with Streamlined Processes

For Dale and the HR team, Paylocity has unlocked many other valuable efficiencies. For example, just one FTE can now manage payroll for all locations. “We have reduced the risk of errors, which ensures more timely paychecks,” explains Dale. “And two FTEs can now focus on more strategic projects and work beyond the payroll duties.” Similarly, quicker, digital onboarding means the company can engage new hires from day one, running orientation sessions instead of filling out paperwork. 

Accessing Strategic Insights with Faster Reporting

The switch to Paylocity has also made reporting much quicker and simpler. Using Insights & Recommendations, the company can pull data on turnover, recruitment, demographics, salaries, and headcount to guide strategic decision-making, along with simple things such as employee work milestones and birthdays. “It’s so easy to access the data in Paylocity,” adds Dale. “I can pull a report in five minutes that used to take 45 minutes, without having to trawl through the data.”

Dale concludes: “We have also made valuable cost-savings totaling $100k by moving from Paycom to Paylocity. We are definitely getting more value for our dollar: we have a great partnership with Paylocity, a more powerful all-in-one platform, and more efficient processes.”