Luxury Hotel Group Delivers Unforgettable Travel Experiences with Smarter HR

Unforgettable experiences in bucket-list locations are the trademark of Noble House Hotels & Resorts. The family-owned company operates 25 award-winning hotels and resorts in beautiful surroundings— from the sun-soaked Florida Keys and the snow-capped mountains of Wyoming to the wine country of Napa Valley.

In business since 1981, Noble House is a success story in an increasingly challenging hospitality sector. The emergence of the gig economy has intensified the battle for talent in a space that has historically seen exceptionally high turnover rates—yet when people join the Noble House team, they tend to stay.

So, what’s the secret behind successful retention? The company knows that a great guest experience comes from a great culture behind the scenes—one that inspires dedication among employees and ultimately increases tenure. Fostering that culture is a key objective for the group’s 50-strong HR team.

Carlyn Sanchez, Corporate Director of Human Resources, explains: “Values are so important to us. We champion diversity and equality, we celebrate the work of every employee as if they were family members, and we help them to develop professionally. The impact of this approach has been fantastic—we have people that have worked for our hotels for more than 30 years.”

Of course, putting these values into practice requires the right tools, and that’s where Paylocity comes in. Building on its 15-year history as a user of the Paylocity platform, Noble House has recently rolled out new functionality to develop a five-star employee experience that outshines any competitor.

The Challenge: Staying Sharp in a Challenging Market

With competition for talent in the hospitality industry heating up, Noble House decided to rethink its employee benefits, consolidate its HR systems, and enhance internal communications.

New Competitors Threaten Talent Acquisition

The flexibility offered by the gig economy and other competitors has created new challenges for Noble House. Carlyn explains: “Tips and gratuities are so important for many of our employees. In the past, they had to wait for their biweekly paycheck to access those funds. Meanwhile, in the gig economy and at many local restaurants, they could work a shift and get paid immediately.” To remain an employer of choice, it was essential for Noble House to offer its employees similar perks.

Such a competitive job market also heightened the pressure on the company’s recruitment and onboarding processes. “We can’t afford delays when contacting good candidates or bringing them on board. If we don’t act quickly, they’ll find roles with other employers,” adds Carlyn.

Disconnected Systems Increase HR Workloads

Noble House first deployed the core Paylocity platform 15 years ago, but until recently, its HR team also relied on several other disconnected systems for surveys, background checks, and learning. “We spent a lot of time manually transferring data between interfaces,” adds Carlyn. “We decided to consolidate the environment to make things much quicker and easier for our HR team.”

Outmoded Communications Leave Room for Improvement

The older systems brought other problems, too. The content in the learning platform was outdated, while limited reporting made it difficult to track the completions of mandatory training. Similarly, running payroll involved tedious data entry and double-checking of pay rates and bonuses.

There was also room for improvement in how Noble House communicated with employees. For many announcements, individual locations simply posted paper flyers in the cafeteria or next to time clocks. “We wanted a more dynamic, company-wide approach,” adds Carlyn. “This would help us to build engagement and connections between employees in different locations and roles.”

The Solution: Checking In with a Five-Star Solution

Expanding its use of Paylocity enabled Noble House to simplify and accelerate key HR and payroll workflows, reduce manual tasks, and offer employees more flexible payment options.

Noble House saw the smartest approach was to extend its use of Paylocity to replace multiple legacy systems and provide a central, integrated environment for HR and payroll.

Minimizing Friction During Talent Acquisition

At the start of the employee journey, Noble House now uses Paylocity’s Recruiting and Onboarding modules to customize workflows for each hotel. The HR team contacts candidates via built-in email and text messaging tools, while pre-filled forms make life easy for new hires. Paylocity’s Integrations allow the company to access its background check system with just a click. And with Video, Noble House enhances job postings with slick videos that offer a behind-the-scenes look at its resorts.

Streamlining Processes and Ensuring Fair Compensation

With the Payroll and Time & Attendance modules, Noble House has reduced manual inputs and improved the accuracy of paycheck and bonus calculations for different roles and locations. Some hotels use Scheduling to simplify shift planning, while an integration with a third-party labor management tool supports data-driven workforce forecasting.

The recent addition of On Demand Payment has been another game-changer, enabling employees to access a portion of their earned wages before payday. “The approval process when employees request funds is fully automated, so there is no extra work for our team,” notes Carlyn.

In addition, Noble House uses Insights & Recommendations to pull reports on Affordable Care Act (ACA) contributions, paid time off (PTO) accruals, and mandatory training completions. With Performance and Compensation, the company plans to implement more structured appraisal processes to help employees develop and ensure compensation plans are fair.

Building Connections Across the Company

With the Community module, Noble House now has an enterprise-wide collaboration hub. The company uses it to announce companywide news, such as upcoming benefits enrollments, while each location publicizes its own events and employee work anniversaries. Noble House also uses Surveys to gather employee feedback through annual surveys, exit interviews, and new-hire check-ins. And using Learning, the company runs mandatory training, employee wellness, and professional development sessions.

The Results: Service with a Smile

Noble House now has the agility to combat threats from competitors and has built a supportive work environment based on diversity and inclusion that encourages retention and quality service.

Offering More Flexibility Helps Attract and Retain Talent

With Paylocity, Noble House offers a stronger employee value proposition that matches the flexibility promised by the gig economy and other competitors. On Demand Payment has been key, as Carlyn notes: “We highlight On Demand Payment as a perk in our job ads, and we have seen high usage among employees. It really helps us compete against other large hospitality companies.”

Paylocity’s Employee Self-Service portal and Paylocity Mobile App also increase flexibility. Rather than having to check with the HR team, employees now pull pay stubs and tax documents and request PTO while on the move. “PTO requests used to mean printing paper forms,” recalls Carlyn. “Digitalizing the process improves our sustainability, another major focus for us.”

More Agile Hiring Minimizes Risk

Smarter, automated processes in Paylocity help Noble House to fast-track recruitment and onboarding. In Florida, for example, the company must complete additional steps using the Federal E-Verify system during onboarding. An interface in Paylocity removes the need to toggle between the systems and keeps the whole process to less than seven minutes. “The speed Paylocity gives us reduces the risk that we will miss out on preferred candidates,” adds Carlyn.

Creating a Culture That Empowers Everyone

Paylocity helps Noble House to put its core values into practice. Video updates from leaders posted on Community improve transparency, and stronger communications mean stronger connections across the company. Learning provides more opportunities for employees to gain skills and improve their mental well-being. And training on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility helps foster a supportive culture that empowers every employee. The platform that Paylocity provides allows Noble House to live up to the company's core values for the employee experience.