Every day, I have the incredible fortune of collaborating with our customers. There is no greater joy than making connections—whether that’s meeting a customer for the first time or reconnecting with someone with whom I have a longstanding relationship. Partnership is deeply personal to me. It’s rooted in trust and transparency. It’s about meeting people where they are, understanding them as humans, and finding ways to move their missions or businesses forward, successfully, together.
I recently spoke with two UKG customers—EmpRes Healthcare and Semper Solaris—about the importance of their UKG partnerships and how those relationships are key to their overall success.
How does UKG partner with your organization to ensure you are heard, supported, and best positioned to succeed?
Arieshia Williams, SHRM-CP, HRIS manager, EmpRes Healthcare
EmpRes Healthcare has a whole team—what I call our “UKG Tribe”—that is constantly in communication with us, assessing our needs, working through cases, and offering experienced partners to help with product enhancements and large projects, as well as including us in events such as the UKG HR & Payroll eSymposium, UKG Huddle, and UKG Aspire, where we can continuously learn and connect with UKG experts, partners, and fellow customers. Our Tribe includes the UKG support team, the UKG Insiders program, the UKG Learning Community leaders, and those who manage the UKG Community as a whole.
Jessica Sullivan, payroll and benefits manager, Semper Solaris
Semper Solaris is a veteran-owned solar company, and providing exemplary customer service is extremely important to us. We want every customer to feel they are receiving only the best support and service, and we want our employees to feel the same way about our company. The same can also be said about the companies we choose to do business with. We view UKG as an extension of our team, and our success with UKG technology directly impacts how our employees feel about the experience we provide every day. When I have a question or need assistance, I know I can count on the team at UKG to find an answer and be there for me.
"We view UKG as an extension of our team."
Tell us about the support you receive from UKG. Why is it meaningful to have a partner committed to supporting your short- and long-term business goals?
AW: Our UKG Tribe is dedicated to ensuring we have the most up-to-date information and are utilizing our UKG solution to its fullest potential. For example, our sales executive and executive relationship manager (ERM) work in sync to not only understand our business, but our business goals. EmpRes Healthcare operates in the post-acute care and senior living world as well as home health, home care, and hospice. It’s essential that, when we communicate a need, concern, issue, or dream function for our UKG solution, there is a whole team that can conceptually understand the “why” behind the request. Because our UKG Tribe already understands our business and our unique needs, that eliminates the need for much explanation. This is the true value of the UKG post-acute team that was built specifically to support our industry, cohesively.
JS: With UKG, we’ve had the opportunity to gain a lot of relationships, not just with our account manager, but with others within UKG that service or help us. The ability to establish those relationships and always have a positive person to connect with has been extremely helpful. I don’t hesitate when I have a payroll question the night before payroll submission—I know I can pick up the phone, get someone from UKG on the line, and get answers or help right away. That, to me, is the true definition of a partner: someone who is willing to go above and beyond to ensure our business needs are met in an efficient and effective way.
What are your favorite parts of your relationship with UKG?
JS: Relationships are built to last, and this is how I would describe the relationship between UKG, Semper Solaris, and myself. Each person we have met throughout our UKG journey is someone who continues to maintain contact with us. From the sales team to support to account management, these relationships are strong and reliable. The confidence I have with the UKG team to either assist me, point me in the right direction, or be a reliable source to better our solutions is immense.
“With UKG, I know I am not ‘just a customer’… my UKG team wants to know me.”
AW: With UKG, I know I am not “just a customer” and EmpRes is not “just a business.” Whether I am attending a UKG event or on a call with my UKG Tribe, I am surrounded by people who know who I am: They know my background, they know I have a child, they know I recently bought a house. The best part is, not only do they know all about me, but they want to know me, and they beautifully share that information with others at UKG who are also supporting my company. That means, when I get on a call to meet new people for the first time, the UKG team already knows who I am, and wants to know how my daughter’s first day of kindergarten went. That’s powerful and really drives home the fact that UKG lives up to its mission, “Our purpose is people.”
