KEY HRIS BENEFITS
- On-time and on-budget implementation and upgrades
- Dramatic time savings resulting from streamlined processes and procedures
- Bottom-line savings in administration and personnel costs
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 1,200
COMPANY PROFILE
Allen Samuels Auto Group is among the top dealership groups in America, offering seven lines of automobiles in nine Texas cities. The company began operations in 1983 with one dealership and has grown to regional prominence in the 20 years since.
THE CHALLENGES
Faced with an increasingly complex payroll as the auto group expanded its market coverage, Allen Samuels’s HR and payroll staff was challenged to manage employee needs for its geographically distributed workforce while controlling costs. Additionally, because auto dealerships sell a product of significant value, numerous financial incentives, some of which change frequently, are provided for salespeople.
The combination of complex payroll needs such as incentive pay for demos and bonuses, tax administration, and customized payroll deductions, along with a 20 percent annual growth in employees, required extensive management and man-hours.
Yet with a staff of only two, the payroll department found itself buried in details and unable to concentrate fully on other employee needs such as benefits and reporting.Another example of a unique requirement typical of the auto industry is “flag hours” — a billing standard that determines how long a repair should take relative to the specific service. Automotive technicians are compensated based upon the service that is assigned flag hours, which may exceed the actual number of hours worked. If an automotive technician completes a repair in less time, he is compensated for the standard flag hours designated to the task.
Lastly, requirements of the previous payroll vendor placed undue burden on headquarters and satellite office staff. Payroll figures needed to be collected, confirmed, and corrected manually – first at headquarters, then at each of the company’s 11 locations. Costs for overnight shipping, time needed to review payroll for each employee, and the manual corrections required prior to submitting final payroll consumed five business days.
THE SOLUTION
Ultimate Software UltiPro streamlines and automates an increasingly complex payroll process for Allen Samuels. The company’s plans to acquire new dealerships combined with its historically aggressive market expansion resulted in annual employee growth rates exceeding 20 percent.
The efficiencies realized through Ultimate Software enabled the company to gain an 85 percent productivity increase and eliminate the need for new hires in payroll administration. The software-intuitive interface meant newly hired staff could manage payroll with minimal training.
Additionally, because of the reduced workload, HR and payroll administrator Gail Hegar was free to expand her scope of responsibility to embrace more strategic HR issues for employees.”UltiPro’s speed and ease of use allow my department to easily manage the company’s expansion. Payroll that once required five working days of oversight for each pay period now needs only 1.5 days,” said Hegar.UltiPro has automated the detailed calculations of employee earnings. UltiPro’s ability to manage flag hours and demos helps Allen Samuels to easily reward its automotive technicians. They, in turn, are motivated to provide excellent customer service while contributing to the continued growth of the company.
Additionally, each paycheck clearly spells out one source of income and individual reductions, significantly reducing the questions received from the field during each pay period. With UltiPro, Allen Samuels’s employees find their paychecks easy to understand.
