Head north out of Chicago and one hour’s drive will bring you to the Village of Mundelein. With a reputation as one of the most desirable places to live in the whole of Illinois, Mundelein today is a vibrant, progressive, and diverse community of nearly 32,000 people.

At the heart of the flourishing neighborhood are passionate residents, successful businesses, and a well-run municipal government that manages everything from public safety, fiscal affairs, and economic development to local amenities, infrastructure, cultural events, and tourism.

Lynne Monroe, formerly HR Director and now Deputy Village Administrator, explains: “As an organization, we have multiple departments: police, fire, public works and engineering, finance, building, and administration. Having been responsible for HR and now IT, I see the value and importance of creating and supporting a dedicated workforce and equipping people with the IT devices needed for their roles.”

When Lynne arrived at the Village of Mundelein nine years ago, she quickly identified areas for enhancement in the payroll and HR field. Drawing on her experience with another municipality, she launched a program to introduce smarter ways of working using Paylocity.

“I wanted to implement an innovative solution that would help us to streamline our operations,” continues Lynne. “I used Paylocity at the Village of Lindenhurst, and learned how advanced and powerful the platform is. Honestly, it’s difficult to call out just one standout thing about Paylocity: it’s helped us improve efficiency across the board, in both HR and IT.”

The Challenge: Out with the Old

With 200 employees to manage, the Village of Mundelein recognized that manual processes were no longer doing the job. Lynne set out to find a best-in-class platform to transform HR and payroll.

Legacy Processes Increase HR Admin

To handle many core HR tasks, the Village of Mundelein previously relied on antiquated, inefficient methods. For example, the finance team was printing out pay stubs and sending them to employees via inter-office mail. Similarly, onboarding and performance reviews involved stacks of paper forms. “Things were very old-school,” explains Lynne. “We didn’t even have a HR platform or portal where employees could check their leave allowances. That was all managed via spreadsheets.”

Varied Workforce Creates Complex Payroll

While the Village finance team was using a software system to manage payroll, the process was still highly challenging. “There are a lot of intricacies and nuances in our payroll,” continues Lynne. “On the one hand, it’s a relatively standard process to pay administrators working nine-to-five roles. But our police officers and firefighters are typically on union contracts, with different rules to comply with around pay scales, overtime, pensions, and deductions. It creates a lot of complexity.”

Spreadsheets Hold Back IT Management

To support employees, the Village maintains a stock of IT devices and operational equipment, including laptops, cell phones, iPads, and uninterruptible power supplies. In the past, the Village managed this inventory using spreadsheets, with a limited level of detail. “We didn’t have a clear view of who had what, or when warranty periods were ending,” says Lynne. “As a result, we didn’t know exactly what we needed to replace each year, and budgeting was quite imprecise.”

Next Step: Digitize, Automate, Optimize

Lynne’s team planned to modernize processes spanning the entire employee lifecycle, replacing paper with efficient digital operations. “Something had to change,” she adds. “We were reaching 200 employees, so we wanted to automate as much as possible. For example, we wanted a more flexible way to manage workflows such as clocking in and out.” 

The Solution: Efficient HR from Recruitment to Retirement

The Village of Mundelein assessed several vendors and selected Paylocity for its innovation and all-in-one capabilities, deploying the full suite of HR and IT management tools.

Flexible Time Tracking, Automated Payroll

With Paylocity’s Payroll module, the Village of Mundelein has automated its pay and tax processes. Lynne explains: “The implementation team helped us work through the nuances, applying correct overtime, vacation, and tax settings.” Alongside this, the Compensation module has proved useful for managing pay rises aligned with costof-living increases. Furthermore, the Time & Labor module enables department heads to select their preferred clock-in methods: kiosks and geofenced mobile apps for the public works team, and desktop browser logins for administrators.

Replacing Stacks of Paper with Digital Forms

To advertise open roles, the Village uses Recruiting, while Onboarding captures digital forms and I-9s from new hires. Plus, employees can acknowledge receipt of policy documents in the system and enroll in benefits programs. “We use Paylocity’s survey tools extensively,” notes Lynne. “Our fire department even gathers feedback from the public to support strategic planning.” Meanwhile, Lynne uses Learning to assign safety and cybersecurity training to employees, and track completions.

Gaining Full Oversight Over IT Inventory

In the Asset Management module, the Village now manages all IT inventory, with assets linked to relevant employee records. “What’s great is that the Paylocity system automatically assigns devices to new hires, and notifies IT to collect them when the employee retires or leaves,” says Lynne. Likewise, the Access Management module automatically enters new-hire data into Microsoft Entra ID, and prompts the IT help desk to create user credentials for Microsoft 365.

Enhanced Reporting and Employee Reviews

Using Data Insights, Lynne can track headcount, turnover, labor costs, and demographics over the year. Meanwhile, the Performance module has digitized paper-based processes and helps managers track employee progress. Benefits Administration allows employees to select and manage preferred health plans online, while Community lets them connect with colleagues. “We’ve even created a Mundelein Marketplace in Community,” adds Lynne. “People can sell second-hand items in there.”

The Results: Helping the Village to Thrive

With Paylocity serving as its first HCM platform, the Village of Mundelein has developed modern, more robust and efficient HR and IT processes to support its flourishing community.

Phasing Out Antiquated Workflows

Today, the Village of Mundelein benefits from faster, smarter HR processes in Paylocity. For example, payroll is now managed fully by HR in the platform without support from finance, and runs more efficiently. The system has also eliminated the need to print and mail pay stubs to employees. “We have gotten back 50 percent of our time, simply by removing paperwork,” explains Lynne.

In addition, Paylocity’s in-depth reports have enabled the Village to improve strategic planning. “We have gained a better understanding of our current demographics, headcount, seniority, and future workforce needs,” says Lynne. “When we launched an early retirement incentive to help us manage departures, the reports enabled us to see down the road. The automated payroll reports also help us to manage payment of union dues.”

Enhancing the Employee Journey

The all-in-one Paylocity platform has improved the employee experience, too. “Asking people to hop between systems creates frustration,” adds Lynne. “With Paylocity, everything is in one place: training, benefits, pay stubs in the Employee Self-Service portal, and more.” The new onboarding experience has received particularly positive feedback. “Nobody has to sit down with a stack of forms on their first day anymore,” says Lynne. “New hires can complete their onboarding at their own pace before they start, then spend day one with their colleagues.”

Granular Insights Enable Smarter Budgeting

The Village also now has much greater control over its IT investments and operational equipment. “We can monitor devices at a granular level, including tracking which assets will reach end of life and need replacing over the next year,” notes Lynne. “With that precise data, we can create a more accurate budget.” In addition, automating user provisioning for Microsoft 365 has eliminated timeconsuming back-and-forth emails between HR and IT. “We are saving at least two hours every week on IT admin with Paylocity,” concludes Lynne.