Best in class benefits administration technology platform that would become the blueprint for modern benefits enrollment and administration. However, it was not immune to the HR software challenges that growing companies commonly face.
This benefits administration company frequently had problems processing its payroll as it grew. It often overpaid taxes and its payroll software provider did little to help.
“It seemed like something would come up every time,” said the Manager of Total Rewards. “The problems seemed to grow and we couldn’t get the support we needed.”
As the Manager of Total Rewards and the HR department started considering if they could find a better solution for processing their payroll, their finance team began questioning if they could get a more efficient time-keeping solution. Given that the company bills clients for hours worked, they needed a time-keeping system that allocated time to clients efficiently.
So, their leaders decided to consolidate its payroll and time-keeping functions into a new human resource information system (HRIS). It went on to choose and implement Ceridian Dayforce HCM and related modules.
Client
Best of breed benefits administration technology platform that helps companies improve outcomes for employees and businesses through its benefits administration software, which integrates with most payroll and HRIS systems as well as with other HCM technology. A company can tailor this company's platform to its businesses so that it conforms to their organization’s plans, processes, and formats.
This company has grown to more than 600 employees across the United States of America.
Challenges and objectives
This company switched to Ceridian Dayforce because of problems it was having with its previous payroll software and HRIS. It seemed as if the company received notices of payroll problems every week.
At one point, they had overpaid a total of $10,000 in taxes in four states. Not only were the payroll problems significant, but they also lingered. The vendor that had provided them with both its payroll software and HRIS did not resolve the problems.
Meanwhile, the finance team wanted to pay less for time-keeping software. But a new solution would have to be able to allocate billable time to clients the way that they needed.
In addition to deciding to replace its payroll, HRIS, and time-keeping solutions simultaneously, they chose to add onboarding software as well. They hoped to improve the employee experience while increasing organizational efficiency.
They would eventually implement the following Dayforce HCM applications.
- Dayforce HCM Platform to transform the employee experience and enable better decision-making.
- Employee Management to combine all data into a single record.
- Self Service to save time for HR by letting employees easily access and update their personal data.
- Payroll to continuously calculate net pay and speed processing.
- Time & Attendance to show people’s time worked while saving money and improving compliance.
- Compensation Management to provide more data that could be used in deciding how to reward and retain people based on factors that matter.
- Document Management to make storing and accessing files easier.
- Dashboards to combine workforce data to uncover trends, assess benchmarks, and create presentations.
- Custom General Ledger to improve accounting functions.
Providence Technology Solutions would assist them in implementing Ceridian Dayforce HCM and related modules.
How Providence helped
Providence Technology Solutions helped them beat its go-live target of July 1, 2020, even though the implementation started later than anticipated. They had expected the implementation to start in early January 2020. But it did not begin until late February 2020.
The Providence team knew so much about Dayforce HCM that it took them a while to realize that Ceridian had assigned an implementation partner to wor with them. “It makes sense because every consultant that works on the product gets better with it,” she said.
The implementation started with them working with one project manager. But Providence replaced that PM early in the implementation.
“We were struggling with her. But before we brought it up we were told she was no longer there and that we had a new PM,” the Manager of Total Rewards said. “The fact that Providence’s leaders were aware of the fact that it wasn’t a good fit and that they would take care of it without us pushing for it made a huge difference.”
The implementation proceeded smoothly under their new project manager. “He was very good about keeping us on track,” the Manager of Total Rewards said.
The Project Manager was so good at it, that they went live on June 24, a week before its targeted go-live date.
“That had a lot to do with our team and getting things to everybody on time. But Providence also kept us updated,” the Manager of Total Rewards said. “It made our project super-smooth.”
Providence quickly resolved any issues that arose. “Whenever we had something that we couldn’t figure out and needed more complex assistance, our Project Manager helped,” the Manager of Total Rewards said.
The Project Manager saved this company significant time and effort by reducing the number of payrolls that they would do both in their old system and their new. They had initially been told that it would have to run parallel payroll from the end of April until they went live on July 1. But the PM arranged for them to get one more set of file updates by early June so that they would only have to double-enter payroll for a few weeks instead of a couple of months.
“That made a huge difference in implementation,” said the Manager of Total Rewards, who had worried about the pressure that a prolonged period of parallel payroll would put on her three-person team.
The Manager of Total Rewards knew well the types of challenges that implementations could present. She had been through large implementations at companies that she had worked at before. “I always tell people there is never a 100%-smooth implementation,” she said.
But the this implementation was smoother than most, she said. “In the grand scheme of things, people have been paid correctly and benefits have been deducted properly.”
Any post-go-live problems were minor, like job titles that had not been updated.
Results
Employees and executives alike were pleased by the efficient transition to Dayforce HCM. “From the user perspective, they’ve forgotten we’ve done an implementation,” the Manager of Total Rewards said.
Executives liked running the company’s first cycle of merit-based pay awards through the Dayforce Compensation Management module. The only request for improvement was to make the rewards letters that employees receive look better.
Leaders have also been adapting to the new Dashboards. Overall, the executives have given good feedback to HR, the Manager of Total Rewards said.
“We’re more nimble than we were before,” she said. “We can work like we want to.”
The company’s payroll problems are gone and it is keeping time as efficiently as it would like.
Providence Technology Solutions is a certified provider of Ceridian Dayforce HCM integration and implementation services.
Contact us online, by email at info@theptsteam.com or by calling 904.719.8264 if you would like to learn more about our work with this benefits administration technology company and to discuss how we could similarly help your organization through our Ceridian Dayforce Practice and HCM Implementation Services.
