LL Roberts Group Saves Client $250,000 A Year

LL Roberts Group needed a cost-effective workforce management solution for its clients that would save time, improve accuracy, and reduce the cost of labor. With TimeWorksPlus and TimeWorks Mobile, clients automate timekeeping to free management and payroll managers to do more strategic work, make better labor decisions and eliminate manual entry mistakes.

Challenge

As the regulatory environment for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) gets more complex, companies across the country are increasingly turning to firms like LL Roberts Group (LLRG) to help. LLRG’s team of trained professionals are committed to providing business owners and managers with quality and cost-effective Professional Employer Organization (PEO) service solutions including payroll, tax administration, human resource support, and safety and risk management.

As a full-service PEO, LLRG also offers its clients “Time Systems”—a solution that uses SwipeClock’s TimeWorksPlus and TimeWorks Mobile for automated time and attendance. SwipeClock’s workforce management solutions are fully integrated with LLRG’s payroll system, which saves time, increases accuracy, and reduces costs for its customers.

“Time Systems is a great competitive differentiator and way that we can add value to our traditional PEO services,” said Marlene Blume, Information Systems Manager for LLRG. “With SwipeClock we can attract more customers, grow our business with existing clients, and keep clients longer by providing a complete workforce management solution.”

Solution

As an example of the cost savings that are possible with automated timekeeping, one of LLRG’s clients saves $250,000 annually using Time Systems with TimeWorksPlus. The client has more than 300 employees and 30 plus locations throughout Texas. Employees were on the honor system for reporting time to the payroll department through various paper-based methods.

This approach created two problems. The first issue was that collecting time from every employee took an inordinate amount of time, even for two full-time payroll employees. The second problem was that the owners had no way of telling whether the payroll was being paid on actual hours worked. While the majority of employees are honest, studies show that a significant amount of time submitted isn’t accurate. Employees arrive late, leave early, and take long breaks. They also forget or approximate in and out times in their favor. They’re not dishonest, they’re just human.

“After doing a comprehensive study, the amount of overtime being paid compared to the industry average was outrageous,” said Chris Roberts, Director for LLRG. “When all the numbers were totaled, we found the company could save $250,000 a year in payroll costs. That is a significant amount for any size company, let alone an SMB.” After seeing the amount of savings, the company asked LLRG to rollout Time Systems using TimeWorksPlus with a verification clock system.

Given a large number of locations, LLRG decided the best approach was to do a phased rollout over 90 days. This allowed management and employees to adjust to the new system, learn about the differences by having the manual and automated processes run in parallel, and make needed adjustments as the automated system was rolled out. While there was pushback from about 10% of their employees, over 2-3 weeks everyone adapted to the new timekeeping system and appreciated its benefits.

Preparation and training were key to ensuring a successful rollout. After the clocks were installed, LLRG held training sessions at each location so both management and employees could learn how to use the new system. In addition, a process called finger mapping was used during the sessions so that the clocks could be set up quickly and easily at each location. As new employees join the company, the process takes place at headquarters allowing workers to clock in and out at any location.

Results

With the system up and running, the results have been even greater than expected. In addition to achieving cost savings of $250,000 a year, the two full-time payroll employees reduced more than two days of work to just 30-60 minutes every payroll period by not having to call each location, follow up with managers and employees for time sheets, and enter information manually.

Automating the process freed payroll managers to do more strategic work for the company. The company can also make better labor decisions by having data such as who is approaching overtime and who has more time to work. And finally, payrolls are more accurate because most manual entry mistakes are eliminated.

“Needless to say, our client was ecstatic,” said Blume. “They couldn’t believe that they didn’t make the change sooner.”

See it in Action

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