Case Study: Carers Queensland

About Carers QLD

• • Employees: 600
  • Location: Brisbane

Carers Queensland has been working to advocate for equal rights, opportunities, and enhanced outcomes for families for the last 30 years. They work within and value our local community, responding to unmet needs with care and respect, assisting those who are disconnected through high-quality personalised support.

Challenges:

• • Needed an HR system to meet the multiple requirements of the organisation
  • Moving from different forms to one digital solution for driving better management for daily tasks
  • Lacking a complete database system for tracking employees
  • Reducing admin time and paperwork

“Carers was building an employee base from 200 employees to 600 employees and needed an HR system which would meet the multiple requirements of our organisation, including all the people-related functions such as personal employee data life cycle changes, position establishment and management, licences, performance, training, workplace health and safety, operations, onboarding, and recruitment.

Before using EmployeeConnect, all our daily work was transacted via word processing, pdf, and spreadsheets to keep track of which person was in which position; paper copies of everything; all documents were scanned and uploaded to our intranet for electronic distribution.

We hired an extra 400 staff via manual processes; conducted recruitment with handwritten notes for interviews; sent out letters with onboarding packs in the mail, and requested the new employees to post or deliver them back. This was expensive considering the time it takes to collate paper and postage.

It made managing the workforce quite difficult for our HR Team and upper management. Data collection and management was a lot more difficult, which was maintained by the Database Team and Quality Officer.”      – Madonna

Solution:

• • Employee data streamlined and centralised
  • Paperless onboarding and induction
  • Documenting ongoing team support

“We started work with EmployeeConnect in early 2019, developed the core product with Workflows, integrated with ADP Payroll, and developed the Performance Reviews for Probation and Annual Performance Reviews. We implemented the Recruitment module so that now all Recruitment is managed via the system and it is integrated with Seek.com.au.

We have forms that deal with Overtime; Study Leave Approval; Conflict of Interest Forms and Parental Leave, so that our staff can pass these requests onto management and payroll where required. We have set up Exit Interviews and First Impression Surveys to assess staff satisfaction/dissatisfaction.

These enabled the HR Team to work from home; for staff to put in leave and manage their employment from home during lockdown. We could put on staff through onboarding whilst we worked from home and have relevant items go to Payroll so that they could be processed. The staff like the system a great deal. They find it easy to manage and it is logical for them. ”        – Madonna

How has the ‘Onboarding’ module in EmployeeConnect solved your problems?

“Onboarding has been a game-changer. It enabled the business to keep hiring when we were all working remotely during lockdown from March 2020 to August 2020. It ensures new employees see all Policies and Procedures on their way into the organisation and they have to accept them, so this is a good way to start their employment from an Industrial Relations standpoint and from values; expectations; Policy and Procedure standpoint. It enables new staff to onboard from the comfort of their home where they have access to documentation required to commence employment with Superannuation details; bank account details, etc. We find the onboarding very reliable.”       – Madonna

How has the ‘Recruitment’ Module in EmployeeConnect solved your problems?

“This was a core requirement of our CFO so that Positions and People; Budget; could be managed effectively with regard to the funding we receive for each of our Programs. This is very important for us to keep track of so we don’t overspend. The fact we have all Recruitment within the system has been very helpful; candidates applying directly within the system. Once the Request to Appoint Workflow is approved, it ties the Recruitment function to the Offer and OnBoarding functions and is a very effective tool in sourcing candidates who become new staff.”        – Madonna

How has EmployeeConnect positively impacted your Employees & Managers? Which function do they like most?

“It has had a positive impact. It is an expectation of a modern organisation that we would have a system such as this for managing our business. The Managers find it quite intuitive. Employees understand it and find it intuitive to use. They see it as a relevant and viable tool they use daily.”       – Madonna

What aspect of EmployeeConnect is the most appealing to you?

“It helps us to manage our people and business requirements in one place. To use workflows to push requests and manage them all the way to Payroll. It is the core basic part of the system we need but all other areas are important too in a comprehensive system.”       – Madonna

Benefits:

• Enabled the transition to remote work
• The Recruitment process is managed through the system and integrated with SEEK
• Employees are able to utilise self-service, while managers can easily track and approve workflow requests

“Managers have a clear view of their staff and who is in their team. The Company Directory is an excellent resource for the company and gives insight into when a team member is on leave through the red/green light system. The Company Documents has been a real winner with all areas of our business able to access all documents published by the organisation for all areas and functions. Time Sheets are housed within EmployeeConnect, which are attended to fortnightly by staff and managers.

It encompassed all of the HR modules/requirements for position management/people; org chart; workflows; life cycle changes; performance; workplace health and safety; training. It is configurable to a great extent by ourselves as System Administrators so that we can add drop downs and change forms to suit ourselves. We find it a very effective tool.

It is vast; meets the core criteria; helps us run our business efficiently; gives our staff control over their basic employment needs; Workflow is amazing – can’t live without it.

The organisation can see the steps and follow the process for setting up the system requirements with the help of EmployeeConnect consultants, no matter what module it is. We have very close relationships, and we value this relationship very, very highly. “       – Madonna