Logistics Specialist Repositions HR to Deliver More Strategic Value

With the rise of e-commerce, pressure has never been greater in the logistics sector. Warehouse operators need speed and agility to boost performance and keep shipments moving. Fortunately, Total Warehouse is on hand to help them pick, pack, dispatch, and deliver rapidly.

Based in Anaheim, California, Total Warehouse offers a full range of materials handling equipment, from forklifts and pallet jacks to conveyors, racking systems and cutting-edge autonomous mobile robots and self-guided vehicles, plus finance packages and fleet management.

Total Warehouse is always looking to streamline operations to drive growth. However, 18 months ago, the company was facing major HR and IT challenges: slow onboarding processes, stacks of administrative work, and even potential security risks. The arrival of Jessica Aguirre as VP of HR heralded a new approach.

“At that time, we were largely relying on a system that made us tear our hair out, plus a lot of manual workarounds,” explains Jessica. “We couldn’t deliver the strategic value that the business needed from HR, so we decided to rethink our systems and processes.”

The solution was close at hand: Total Warehouse had already deployed Paylocity, although at that time, the company was only using the Payroll module. “We realized that everything we needed was in Paylocity,” adds Jessica. “Rather than adding another system, we simply rolled out the whole Paylocity platform. It’s a one-stop shop for HR that enables us to achieve operational excellence.”

 

The Challenge: Taking Stock of the Situation

Soon after arriving at Total Warehouse, Jessica built a plan to get out of the administrative weeds and focus on the big picture. The key was to streamline the tasks that consumed so much time.

Manual Access Management Slows Onboarding

Total Warehouse is hiring all year round, but provisioning access to IT systems for new starters was a fragmented process. Jessica would notify IT, who manually created accounts and passwords. “We had one IT person,” says Jessica. “If they were unavailable, there were delays. Our average setup time for new hires was four days.” Employee offboarding created challenges, too: if IT overlooked a message from HR, user accounts could remain active, creating security risks. “A competitor was recently hacked and couldn’t pay people for weeks,” adds Jessica. “Security is that important.”

Legacy Processes Create Added Cost and Complexity

To handle many other core HR tasks, Total Warehouse was still tied to inefficient and labor-intensive ways of working. For example, running background checks on selected candidates involved switching between multiple systems and completing various data entry steps. Likewise, to reward high performers, the company would purchase and mail out gift cards every month. “Sending out gift cards wasn’t the best approach from a cost-efficiency perspective,” notes Jessica.

Furthermore, the HR team managed paid time off (PTO) requests from all 150 employees via email, entering the details into tracking and payroll systems. And every day, HR received employee queries on how to access benefits systems, along with requests to reset passwords for IT systems.

Administrative Overload Drains HR Productivity

Ultimately, this left Jessica and her team overloaded with low-value work. “When I arrived, around 85 percent of my time was spent on basic administration—whether it was PTO requests or updating people’s tax details or addresses in our systems,” she explains. “We wanted to focus our energy on strategic questions. For example, we need to find time to connect with employees and build policies and processes that will help to reduce turnover and make us a more resilient business.”

 

The Solution: Picking a Unified HR and IT Platform 

Harnessing the full potential of Paylocity has enabled Total Warehouse to automate the tedious, manual work, and improved the day-to-day experience for HR, IT, and employees. 

Automation Simplifies Access Management

The Access Management module in Paylocity has helped Total Warehouse to transform onboarding and offboarding. Simply adding or removing an employee in the HR system automatically generates or shuts down accounts in IT systems, such as NetSuite, Outlook, and DocuSign, with no need for HR to contact IT. Plus, employees enjoy access to all systems, including benefits platforms and Employee Assistance Programs, via one single login. “The single sign-on concept makes life much easier for employees, as they don’t have to remember multiple passwords,” says Jessica.

One-Click Integrations Eliminate Manual Working

The Recruiting and Onboarding modules have also helped to streamline hiring. For example, new hires can complete compliance forms online before their first day, while an integration with a background check system eliminates manual work for HR. “With Paylocity Marketplace, we can connect with so many systems with a single click,” says Jessica. “Other platforms promise that, but there are normally lots of technical hoops to go through.”

Intuitive Self Service Empowers Employees

With the Employee Self-Service module, employees can manage PTO and update personal information, without going through HR. Plus, employees can use the Paylocity Mobile App to clock in. “The mobile app has been a huge help for our workforce in the field,” adds Jessica.

Digital Processes Streamline Rewards Programs

To celebrate employee achievements, Total Warehouse now harnesses the Recognition & Rewards module. “We announce our employee of the month in Community, then send a digital gift card,” says Jessica. “Paylocity helps us track what we send and manage our budgets for rewards.”

Powerful Analytics Deliver Detailed Insights

Both Jessica and HR Generalist Karen Esparza use the Data Insights module to pull reports on payroll changes, overtime, PTO, turnover, hiring patterns, and more. “The analytics tools in Paylocity are great,” says Karen. “With many HR platforms, you need to be a business intelligence expert to create reports. Paylocity makes it easy to gather insights.”

 

The Results: Stacking Up the Benefits

With Paylocity, Jessica and Total Warehouse have realized their vision for more efficient and productive HR operations, capable of delivering real value to the wider business.

Accelerating Onboarding and Strengthening Security

Even relatively simple steps in Paylocity have made a big impact at Total Warehouse. For example, the company now provisions IT accounts for new hires inside four hours, rather than four days. And automated shutdown of accounts when employees leave helps to mitigate the risk of security breaches. “Before we added Access Management, we were having conversations about potentially adding four more IT people,” adds Jessica. “Paylocity helps us handle the workloads without adding to headcount—it’s a fantastic tool for businesses that don’t have huge IT resources.”

Saving Time and Delivering More Value to the Business

The combination of automation, employee self-service, and single sign-on functionality has helped to dramatically cut administrative workloads. “I can count on one hand the number of requests for password resets we’ve had over the last year,” notes Jessica. “All that hassle has gone.” With the time saved, Jessica and Karen can concentrate on higher value work. “We have reduced our admin workload by around 40 percent. That allows us to focus on coaching, strategic initiatives, and truly partnering with the business. It’s exactly the transformation that HR leaders are looking for.”

Enabling Data-Driven Decisions to Drive Business Success

The reporting tools in Paylocity are helping Total Warehouse to make informed decisions to build a more resilient business. For example, insights into PTO trends have enabled Jessica to develop new policies that will help to control overtime costs. “We analyzed how short-notice PTO requests impact the amount of overtime we pay,” she explains. “Based on those reports, we implemented new policies that will reduce sudden PTO requests that can disrupt our operations.” Furthermore, the company has recently added the Headcount Planning module, which will support smarter recruitment strategies, and reduce the risk of over- and understaffing