Trucking Company Switches Lanes with Paylocity

The Shift

At the beginning of 2020, Beemac Trucking handed over the keys to Paylocity for their HR and payroll solutions. Beemac’s Chief Financial Officer Jeff Gilmore had worked with Paylocity two times previously with other companies and knew, without hesitation, that they could simplify and streamline processes that would trickle into other areas of the business. “The ease of production is better with Paylocity,” says Jeff. As Beemac grew exponentially — topping the Fortune 5,000 charts for fastest- growing companies and best places to work lists — they needed to effectively and efficiently recruit, retain, engage, and communicate with existing employees and new candidates.

Payroll Under Pressure

The challenges of Beemac’s complex payroll system led Jeff to look for a new HR and payroll provider. With a blend of commission-based, hourly, and salary employees, there were more than four different payrolls to review, some processed weekly and some biweekly. “It’s not a straightforward payroll process,” explains Jeff. “But with Paylocity, there aren’t as many hurdles to jump through. From a payroll processing standpoint, I think it’s robust, and I am happy with that.”

This is Jeff’s third time switching to Paylocity at different companies, so he is familiar with the capabilities of the platform.

Communication Across State Lines

The trucking industry is vital to keeping the country and economy running. With employees spread across the country moving quickly and many without company email addresses, it can be tough to ensure that everyone gets the critical information they need. Jeff turned to Community, Paylocity’s social collaboration and internal communications platform. He leveraged the tool to share important messages during the COVID-19 pandemic, new hire pictures and information, open enrollment updates, and more. Jeff says, “It’s still pretty new, so we aren’t using it quite as much as I would like, but we’ll get there. In less than six months, we have 70-75% of employees regularly using and engaging with the platform.” HR Generalist Ana Salas agrees, “We definitely use Community a lot. We post everything in there. It's pretty helpful, and employees use it a lot.”

Packing Up Performance

Beemac’s annual performance review time rolled around when Paylocity had been in place for less than six months. Jeff explains, “We’ve actually used Performance Management for the first time in May 2020. There was a bit of a learning curve. Overall, we were able to get everyone’s performance review done, uploaded, and stored in-house. We’re starting to leverage Journals, so we can document these types of conversations throughout the year, and when we sit back down in six months, we can see that documentation.”

Benefits Adoption

Implementing a new software solution can cause many companies to hesitate. Concerns about timing and change management can be daunting, but Jeff had previous positive experiences transitioning to Paylocity. After a smooth implementation, Beemac even had an easier annual benefits open enrollment period. Jeff leveraged the Employee Self-Service Portal, allowing him to link to the open enrollment page and upload any guides or additional information needed, making it visible right where employees go to clock in or request time off. He also leveraged Community to post open enrollment updates and deadlines. “We used Paylocity to do our first Benefits open enrollment, and it was paperless,” says Jeff. “Everyone enrolled on the portal and all the information got downloaded into the system. It worked out well.”

Paving the Path with Partnership

The long-standing relationships Jeff has built with Paylocity have helped him get the system into high gear at Beemac. He explains how the implementation process is always an adjustment, but he is pleased with the level of responsiveness he receives. “I’m very happy with the replies we get from our account manager. Right now, we meet every other week. I really have trust in our sales manager; hence, this is why this is my third implementation. I feel very comfortable with him, and he is very honest. One of the biggest changes I am noticing is that with my previous providers, if I had an issue with time and labor, I would go to that person. For payroll issues, the payroll person, and so forth. At Paylocity, I just go to my account manager, and they hand it off to the right people and find the information. It’s much easier and saves me time.”

Training the trainer has been a fairly smooth process too. When Ana started about six months after the implementation of Paylocity she needed to get up to speed. “I'm one of those people that if I don't do it for myself, I won't get to learn it,” says Ana. “So I always appreciate when I’ve needed help, the Paylocity client services team will walk through it with me. Some cases are situation-specific, but for the most part, all the tools, and all the articles that I've read have been pretty straightforward and getting me to a place where I need to be to help everyone in the company.”

Beemac employees find Paylocity much easier too. “Employees are coming to me a lot less with questions on where to find their paystubs or W-2s. I think as employees get more used to it and get more comfortable, there will be even less.”