Based at the 16,000-seat Delta Center in Salt Lake City, the Utah Mammoth is the newest franchise in the National Hockey League (NHL). Just two years into its journey, the franchise has already achieved rapid organizational growth and rising success on the ice.

The Mammoth story began when the Smith Entertainment Group, owner of the Utah Jazz basketball team, acquired the assets of the Arizona Coyotes team and received permission from the NHL to operate as a new franchise. After launching in 2024 as the Utah Hockey Club, the team rebranded to the Utah Mammoth following a fan vote and reached the Stanley Cup playoffs in its second season.

In those two years, the Mammoth has put in the work to develop its brand, engage and energize a new fan base, and scale up its growing operations. For example, the franchise built a state-of-theart 146,000 sq ft training and practice facility in just 12 months. Likewise, the Mammoth has launched community initiatives and is connected with corporate sponsors and partners.

One key partnership has been with Paylocity. The Mammoth implemented Paylocity’s human capital management (HCM) platform to manage recruitment, employee development, payroll, tax filing, workforce management and more in a single, integrated system.

Amy Gunn, Director of Payroll explains: “Paylocity has been a fantastic partner to the Utah Mammoth. Their team is very committed to helping us succeed, and the platform has enabled us to grow and evolve our operations significantly and create a great experience for our employees.”

The Challenge: Going on the Offensive

With big ambitions on and off the ice, the Utah Mammoth looked for a HR and payroll partner that could help to build fast, efficient, and agile processes, and support rapid expansion.

Ramping Up Hiring and Onboarding

Following the relocation to Salt Lake City, the Utah Mammoth launched a major expansion drive. To move fast, the franchise looked to streamline its hiring, onboarding, and training processes, ensuring new employees were embedded in the team’s culture from day one. The Mammoth needed to fill a diverse set of roles, from media specialists and events coordinators to custodial teams and back-office administrators. “As we were looking to grow exponentially, we needed to think strategically and automate hiring and onboarding processes wherever possible,” explains Amy.

Conquering Payroll and Tax Complexity

One consequence of the franchise’s growth was that managing payroll and taxes was becoming more challenging. “Filing taxes is one of the toughest parts of my role,” notes Amy. “We have remote workers across the country, so we need to comply with tax rules in 35 states. That means getting our data 100% correct, which takes a lot of effort.” The Mammoth initially used a payroll tool implemented by the previous ownership, but this required a high volume of data entry and manual processing. “The system was quite fragmented, so we were keen to upgrade,” adds Amy.

Mapping Objectives and Requirements

With eyes on the future, the Mammoth began to scope out specifications for a new HR and payroll platform. “We wanted an integrated solution so that our people wouldn’t face the hassle of having to access multiple systems,” says Amy. Furthermore, the franchise was keen to empower employees to manage their own data and HR admin, rather than relying on the People and Culture team. Strong support during the implementation and beyond was also essential. “Switching your HR and payroll platform isn’t just a technology change, it is a major operational shift,” explains Amy

The Solution: Signing a Proven Performer

The Utah Mammoth worked with Paylocity to roll out the new platform, migrate data from the legacy system, and design new processes for talent acquisition, HR administration, and more.

Attracting, Developing, and Managing Talent

Using Paylocity’s Recruiting and Onboarding modules, the Mammoth has built an efficient, scalable hiring pipeline. Cheyenne Inman, Director of People and Culture, explains: “Paylocity makes it easy to track and manage incoming applications. We’ve also created customized onboarding packets in the system that help to ensure we receive all the correct information from new hires.”

Once settled in their roles, employees complete ongoing training in the Learning module. “We use the preloaded compliance courses in Paylocity, and we have added our own leadership and professional development training,” continues Cheyenne. “It’s easy to upload materials, and it’s great that people can access learning resources without having to log into a separate system.”

Meanwhile, Cheyenne uses Data Insights to monitor the big picture: tracking headcount, hiring rates, retention rates, employee demographics, and labor costs.

Accessing Expert Support for Handling Tax

With the Payroll module and Paylocity’s Tax Services, the Mammoth ensures accurate pay for employees and complies with state and federal tax rules. “Paylocity delivers great support for tax preparation and filing,” says Amy. “They provide expertise for all states, help us track our tax liability, and minimize the risk of errors.” Amy also sees potential for Paylocity’s AI capabilities to help simplify tax compliance in the future. “We’ve used AI throughout the Paylocity platform and have seen the Paylocity Ignite AI as an early adopter, and I think the new tools will help us navigate a lot of challenges effectively,” she adds.

Empowering Employees with Intuitive Self-Service

Furthermore, the Paylocity Mobile App and Employee Self-Service portal enable Mammoth employees to take ownership over their information. “The intuitive selfservice tools allow our people to manage their benefits, personal information, direct deposit details, and tax independently,” explains Cheyenne. The self-service portal is another area where Amy sees a big role for AI, as she notes: “Using AI to help people complete W-4 forms or understand their paychecks will be really useful.”

The Results: Shooting for the Goal

While the Utah Mammoth builds momentum on the ice, the partnership with Paylocity is helping the franchise develop a winning team in the back office, fueled by efficient HR and payroll.

Simplifying HR with an Integrated Platform

With Paylocity, the Utah Mammoth benefits from an all-in-one HR and payroll platform that minimizes operational complexity. Amy explains: “One of the biggest plus-points of Paylocity is having all functions—payroll, talent management, performance, and onboarding—in a single unified platform, with all the modules synced together. That eliminates the need for HR to juggle multiple systems.”

Boosting Employee Satisfaction and Retention

The integrated platform, along with the self-service capabilities, also helps to enhance the employee experience. “Rather than having to interact with a frustrating patchwork of systems, everything is there for people in one place,” adds Cheyenne. “It’s so convenient. They can do everything in Paylocity, whether it’s checking pay stubs, compliance training, or performance reviews. That level of convenience and ease of use helps to improve employee satisfaction and retention.”

Reducing Administrative Workloads

The switch to Paylocity has also enabled the People and Culture team to save time and operate more efficiently. For example, cutting manual data entry has saved around three hours during every payroll cycle. Enabling employees to handle routine administrative tasks via the self-service portal has unlocked a 15% time saving and allows the People and Culture team to focus on more valuable strategic work rather than simply fielding support requests and troubleshooting.

Continuing to Expand the Mammoth

Similarly, streamlined recruiting and onboarding workflows have saved five hours every week, and ensure new hires are integrated into the franchise quickly. In fact, more scalable, robust processes across the board have enabled the Mammoth to continue to expand operations at high speed. Amy concludes: “Over the last year, we have doubled our full-time employees, and tripled our part-time workforce. Agile recruiting and reliable payroll processes in Paylocity has helped us accelerate the growth of the Utah Mammoth.”