Stacy Hahkala Lisa Hodges Judy Angela George Korn
CMHA Fort Frances Provides mental health services in five communities 32 employees Implemented Quadrant Workforce three years ago (HR, Payroll, Scheduling, HR Suite, QHRnet)
Brain Injury Services, Simcoe County Provides community support to people living with the effects of an acquired brain injury through outreach programs and leisure education activities 15 employees Went live February 2010
Kawartha Participation Projects Provides supportive housing and outreach attendant care to 135 clients 150 employees (union and non-union) Implemented Quadrant Workforce in July 2010 (Payroll and QHRnet) Currently implementing HR Suite
Minto Counselling Centre, Cochrane A community mental health organization providing a range of services to adults 18 staff Implemented Payroll and HR in late September 2009; went live November 2009
80 unionized staff CMHA Niagara Provides contracted financial management services for: Oak Centre Alternative Community Support, which has nine permanent staff and went live January 1, 2011 with Payroll, HR Suite and QHRnet; Consumer Survivor Initiative of Niagara, with approximately 15 employees, primarily part-time; went live January 1, 2011 with Payroll, HR Suite and QHRnet; and Distress Centre of Niagara, which offers 24x7 hotline support, crisis support, etc., and has 13 employees; went live April 1, 2011, with Payroll and HR Suite Went live April 1, 2011 with HR Suite, QHRnet, and at the end of October with Scheduling
Independent Living Centre, Waterloo Region An attendant services organization providing outreach and assisted living services to 235 consumers with physical disabilities Approximately 250 staff Also using QHRnet Went live with Payroll in April 2011 and Scheduling in August 2011
Training and Support Time Savings Reduced Manual Processes HR & Employee Relations Anywhere, Anytime Access
I would say it has cut down the amount of time we spend processing payroll and calculating reports by at least two days a week, which is a major, major time. I m saving so much time. I used to work weekends before the quarterly reports were due. I knew my weekends were gone because I needed to separate all the costs, etc. Now it s done at the push of a button. I can t imagine now even thinking about going back to the way things were. Instead of taking me two days to do payroll, I can have one of our company s payrolls done in 20 minutes. That s how quick and easy it is it s such a time saver. Time Savings
I know I was a little apprehensive - not just me but my finance assistant - to call people for help. We thought we would have to wait forever and it would be frustrating but the support is quick and fast. After you have done the payroll processing for a while, when you get the chance to go to the reports training you have these aha! moments and you say, why couldn t we have had something like that before? The HRIS team has figured out the right way to roll out the training; it s after you have had some experience and a chance to look at some of the online and canned reports that you go to the custom reports training. It really is an aha! moment; it brings the whole system together and helps you understand how customizable it is for your own needs and the information you need to pull out information for your funder and for management. Training & Support
Our staff love it. They love the fact it s all automated so it doesn t matter if they are in the office or seven hours away; they can pull up their paystub at any time. The other aspect that is a really neat benefit is human resources management: for example, absenteeism data is at our fingertips; complicated six-10 week and on-call schedules are produced as a template and exported into Excel for all stakeholders. I m finding there are all these wonderful hidden gems that are supporting our human resources management. HR & Employee Relations
For the agencies where the payroll process was still manual, the prospect of direct deposit and electronic pay statements, especially for consumer staff who have to report to their Ontario Disability Support Benefit worker monthly, QHRnet was like manna from heaven. We knew at the time of the demo that this is the solution we were looking for; not only did it satisfy the concerns we already had, it opened our eyes to so much more we could be doing to minimize a lot of the manual stuff we had in house. After two years with Quadrant Workforce, I have to say hands down not only the software but absolutely the support that comes with it are second to none. Reduced Manual Processes It s user-friendly. It lays your payroll out in the way it needs to be done-step-by-step. It s not like you are jumping all over; it is just one step at a time, and once you complete that, you move to the next step. It keeps you organized and where you need to be; it s wonderful.
The remote access is wonderful for us. I really was very unsure of that in the beginning. I really didn t like the idea the software and my data weren t going to be sitting in my organization. It took me a while to get my head around that. But it means if I m working outside my office I can remotely log in and get the information I need. Our supervisors on call like having that ability as well because they can get scheduling information at their fingertips. Anywhere, Anytime Access
Q: Did anyone move from an outsourced payroll provider? If so, did you find your costs increased or decreased? A: Lisa: They decreased immensely because you don t have that monthly fee that the bank charges you to run your payroll plus [additional fees] such as report fees. We found that we can manage that. We re able to set it up in a way we can run it so we can specifically look at itemized things. We went from a manual system and even though it was outsourced, it was only giving us [certain information] and from there you have to do your quarterly reporting and get all your hours and your stats. The cost of reports is really where we are seeing our savings.
Q: How long has QHR been around? A: HRIS team: For 15 years and it s Canadian. For more information on QHR, click here.
Q: Can someone comment on their experiences using the software when you have salaried staff and unionized hourly staff? A: Judy: We have hourly non-union staff as well as salaried non-union staff and union staff, so we have three situations. When the system is set up, it s set up with different employment groups. We have an employment group called union and one called non-union, and with the unions there are specific wage grids and different levels. The HRIS support staff has set up a special bank called seniority hours bank, so again, at the push of a button we have real-time seniority information. Processing payroll is very similar for union and non-union staff, so it s all the same kind of learning. The support centre was very helpful in helping us set up the very unusual nuances we needed for unions. It was just set up as a different employment group.
Q: Can the system do retro pay increases and adjustments to benefits automatically? A: HRIS team: Yes, it does it well. It also takes into consideration those organizations using the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) and can do your retro for the current and prior pension year as well.
Q: Can the system track vacancies, productivity, sick time and overtime? A: Stacy: Yes. Basically the HRIS software will track your vacancies for you, your productivity, sick time, vacation, lieu and bereavement time - any type of time you want to track, it will do it for you. If you tell the HRIS implementation team what you need it to do, they will configure it to do that. It s a very intuitive system and it can be customized. Judy: We also implemented the Scheduling module and one of the interesting features of Scheduling is how it handles vacancies. We have 24x7 programs here, and when someone calls in sick and can t make their shift, we have to call up that vacancy by seniority. Quadrant Workforce has a system set up in Scheduling so you can identify the vacancy and who would be available based on Employment Standards Act (ESA) rules. It will show you everyone available to take the shift by seniority and you can even track whether or not an individual accepted a shift offered to them and how many times an individual refused a shift. We re finding it s a very interesting tool to manage personnel who get their foot in the door in a relief position, never take any shifts and then apply for an internal posting.