Request a Demo
Talent Management Employee Experience Human Resources Data Insights

Auto Group Seals the Deal for Faster Recruitment and Stronger Culture

Case Study
August 28, 2026
Matt Doyle Headshot

By: Matt Doyle

Senior Marketing Manager | Customer Advocacy

For nearly half a century, Sam Pack Auto Group has been the place to go for new and used vehicles in Texas. Specializing in the Ford, Chevrolet, and Subaru brands, the company offers a huge range of cars, sports utility vehicles, and trucks, plus flexible finance and vehicle maintenance.

Based in Dallas, Sam Pack Auto Group today has six dealerships and 1,100 employees, from sales executives closing deals in the showroom to vehicle technicians handling oil changes and repairs. What binds this diverse workforce together is the unique Sam Pack Auto Group culture.

Meagan Gooch, On/Offboarding Specialist in the HR & Payroll Department, explains: “Sam Pack Auto Group is such a special place to work: our founder still leads the business after 46 years, and there is a real family feel to the business. We’re focused on helping our employees to develop professionally and to enjoy their work, as happy employees create happy customers.”

For the HR and Payroll team at Sam Pack Auto Group, there is always a packed agenda, whether they are identifying and onboarding new talent, calculating commission and bonuses for sales teams, or planning company events. To steer through the complexity, the company has harnessed Paylocity as its human capital management (HCM) platform for several years.

“We’re working in a fast-paced environment, where managers from different dealerships are continually calling and emailing with requests,” continues Meagan. “Paylocity gives us one place to manage all HR and payroll, and that makes our lives much easier.”

“Without a doubt, Paylocity is one of the easiest HCM platforms to use out there. When we talk to our industry peers, they often raise problems with their systems that we never face with Paylocity.”

Sherrie Brawner, Human Resources & Payroll Manager, Sam Pack Auto Group

 

The Challenge: Choosing a New Model

To manage high-volume recruitment and onboarding, as well as complex payroll, Sam Pack Auto Group wanted a powerful, scalable HCM platform that would accelerate and streamline processes.

Hiring and Onboarding at Speed and Scale

Recruitment is an almost year-round process for Sam Pack Auto Group, creating a large workload for the HR team. “Some sales roles have high turnover, so we’re regularly searching for new talent,” explains Sherrie Brawner, Human Resources & Payroll Manager. “We want to fill those roles as quickly as possible.” But for every hiring, the team must complete multiple steps: posting open roles, assessing candidates, running background checks and drug screenings, and more. “Our goal is to make the process as seamless as possible, both for us and the candidates.”

“Whenever I phone Paylocity with a request or question, they will either give us a solution then and there or get the right expert to call us straight back. The communication and support are always great, and it feels like Paylocity has got our backs. That’s what we want from our partners.”

Meagan Gooch, On/Offboarding Specialist, HR & Payroll Department, Sam Pack Auto Group

Connecting a Large-Scale Workforce

Coordinating operations and maintaining a unified culture across all six dealerships create communication challenges for the HR team. “Not all of our employees are sitting behind a desk and have access to a work email account,” adds Meagan. “Our salespeople are often taking customers out for test drives, while our technicians are in the workshop repairing vehicles. We need a reliable way to communicate with all our people, and to keep them updated about changes to HR processes and policies, upcoming company-wide events, and initiatives at individual dealerships.”

Ensuring Accurate Employee Paychecks

Managing payroll brings difficulties, too, as different employee groups each have their own unique pay structure. For example, salespeople earn commission and bonuses that vary based on performance and profits, while vehicle technicians earn a flat rate. “Ensuring accurate pay is so important, but it requires complex calculations each month,” notes Sherrie. One key requirement for the company’s HCM platform was therefore tight integration with its dealer management system (DMS), to enable seamless exchange of data on sales and completed service tasks.

 

The Solution: Hitting the Ignition

With Paylocity, Sam Pack Auto Group has one integrated platform to manage and optimize recruitment, onboarding, payroll, employee communications, and more. 

Streamlining Talent Acquisition and Onboarding

To manage every step in the hiring process, Sam Pack Auto Group uses Paylocity’s Recruiting module. “We start with creating job descriptions and adding relevant questionnaires,” explains Meagan. “It’s a very intuitive workflow in Paylocity.” The company can then assess incoming CVs and schedule interviews in the system. “Our managers can track the status of every hiring in Paylocity, from posting open roles to phone interview stage and then background checks,” notes Sherrie. “One of our favorite capabilities is being able to text candidates. People are so much more likely to respond to a text message these days than pick up the phone for a call.”

Following recruitment, Sam Pack Auto Group harnesses the Onboarding module to collect signed documents and support new hires in their first steps with the company.

Minimizing Complexity During Payroll

Meanwhile, the Payroll module in Paylocity helps Sam Pack Auto Group to simplify calculating paychecks for salespeople, vehicle technicians, and salaried employees. “We integrated Paylocity with our CDK DMS system,” adds Sherrie. “That enables accounting and sales information to flow seamlessly into the payroll system, and helps us to maintain accuracy.”

Communicating Across Multiple Locations

In addition, Sam Pack Auto Group uses the Community hub to promote company events. Meagan notes: “Everyone can see notifications in Community, irrespective of whether they have a corporate email address. For example, we announce the dates for the car show that our founder runs each year, and for awards ceremonies at dealerships that celebrate the work of our sales teams.”

Furthermore, the Paylocity Mobile App enables employees to clock in and out, view paychecks, find tax forms, and check Community—all while on the move. “Everything is laid out in front of you in the app,” says Meagan. “You can find your W-2, for instance, with a couple of taps.”

 

The Results: Putting the Business in Drive

The deployment of Paylocity has set Sam Pack Auto Group on the road to more efficient and productive HR operations and higher employee engagement.

Recruiting Faster and Smarter

Using Paylocity, Sam Pack Auto Group can move fast during the hiring process and fill open roles without delay. “Paylocity saves us a lot of time during recruitment, and enables us to pinpoint the best candidates and get them through the door quickly,” says Sherrie. The integrated nature of the platform enables the company to move candidates into Onboarding and Payroll, with only a few clicks. “We can onboard around 20 people every week in Paylocity at peak times,” continues Meagan. “The one-stop shop aspect of Paylocity means we can handle all hiring and onboarding tasks, including background checks and drug screening, without ever leaving the platform.”

Builder a Stronger, Unified Culture

The Community hub has proved extremely useful for bringing people together and fostering a sense of unity across all six dealerships. “Our Community posts help to ensure that everyone knows what’s going on within the company, and that they all feel part of the unique Sam Pack culture,” explains Meagan. “The levels of engagement on posts have been very positive, and people are leaving comments just as they would in a social media platform. And for us in HR, we can track the number of views and comments on each post, and see which departments are getting most involved.”

Enjoying Responsive, Dedicated Support

Finally, the customer support from Paylocity has been another highlight for Sam Pack Auto Group, as Sherrie concludes: “I am 100% satisfied with the service that we receive from Paylocity. Our account manager is very generous with his time, and will always go the extra mile to support us. Out of all the many benefits we get with Paylocity, the service is a real standout.”

“I can always find exactly what I need in Paylocity. All our employee records are stored in one location rather than being spread across multiple filing cabinets, so we can quickly pull consistent data to answer requests from managers.”

Meagan Gooch, On/Offboarding Specialist, HR & Payroll Department, Sam Pack Auto Group

About the Author

Matt Doyle Matt Doyle Senior Marketing Manager | Customer Advocacy

Matt Doyle is Senior Manager for Marketing at Paylocity, where he leads the client reference, advocacy, and review programs. He drives client success storytelling through case studies, testimonials, videos, reviews, and content that showcases how Paylocity's unified platform solves real challenges — such as unifying HR, IT, and Finance, by streamlining onboarding, improving employee engagement, and enabling strategic HR.

26-06010001-hr-edge-full-width

Take the edge off your HR team 

Partner with someone who “gets it.” Our HR Edge program gives you the extra boost to rise above the competition. From consulting needs about the latest legislation to crafting eye-catching job descriptions, HR Edge is your back-pocket tool to success. Find out how the day-to-day assistance of HR Edge keeps you compliant and helps you attract and retain top talent – without draining your resources.

Get HR consulting

Want to explore on your own?

See Paylocity in motion

Experience our platform with this self-guided tour and see how innovation drives you forward.

Laptop with screenshot of platform