The Results
Civtec aims to provide a work environment that’s second to none, and as the people and culture manager at this fast-growing infrastructure company, Josie Keucke hits this target for her 300-plus employees with the help of BambooHR®.
BambooHR® is a Strong Solution for the Full Employee Lifecycle: “We went through a procurement process that quickly landed on BambooHR because we were wanting something that was the full lifecycle—from applicant tracking right through to exiting, as well as effective onboarding, reporting, and employee data.”
Announcements Create a Connected, Family Feel: “One branch, sixty people. Easy peasy. But with 300 people in four branches, to get a consistent and clear message out so that everyone’s receiving the same information is really important...The ability to share information to a whole team or to particular departments of our team is something that we really like from BambooHR.”
Employee Self-Service Makes Life Easier: “[Any new software] has to add value to the user. If you’re asking someone to do something and it makes their life harder, you’re going to get resistance…Make their life easier, then it’s just a no-brainer for them… [With the BambooHR Mobile app], suddenly...they’re like, ‘Sweet! This is a great tool! Now I can apply for leave on my phone, see how much leave I’ve got, access my employment documents, see my payslips, and clock in and out!’ Explain the why, sell the story…Most people will do it if they know the benefit.”
The Challenge
Josie Keucke joined Civtec in 2018 as an HR team of one, when the only branch (now headquarters) was in Hamilton, New Zealand and the employee headcount numbered in the sixties. Today, Civtec has more than quadrupled its workforce and added three more branches—Tauranga, New Plymouth, and Christchurch.
The future of New Zealand spells even more growth for the infrastructure and utilities company.
“We’re growing as a country, so there’s a lot more pressure on our utilities,” Josie explains. As the people and culture manager responsible for accommodating that growth at the personnel level, Josie quickly recognized that the company’s spreadsheet and paper-based process simply had to go, not only for compliance concerns, but to coordinate effectively with a growing, multi-location team.
In addition to offering a single source of people data and the ability to go paperless, Josie wanted a system that hourly field staff could use themselves to apply for and calculate leave, clock in and clock out, and view company announcements from a single portal. In short, she wanted HR software that does it all, which led her to BambooHR®.
The Solution
The BambooHR® Mobile app, employee self-service, and a single secure database for mission-critical information help Josie keep Civtec’s growing workforce connected and coordinated.
Convenient Employee Self-Service and Easier Payroll with the Mobile App: “When I first started, [employees] were literally just calling payroll [to request leave and check leave balance]. [With employee self-service through the app] payroll is now spending a lot more time on exception management than data entry.”
Compliance Peace of Mind Through Paper-Free Processes: “We have to record and retain annual and sick leave applications [per New Zealand law], so we literally had ring binders full of leave forms. That really concerned me from a process perspective...We went from a spreadsheet and paper-based process straight to BambooHR, and now we hardly have any paperwork...So definitely from a compliance perspective, we’re in a better place.”
Seamless Coordination with a Centralized Data Point: “When you’ve got 60 employees, it’s pretty easy to know who’s who, what their role is and employment details...but when you’ve got 300 staff across all branches, it’s hard to have the same level of knowledge about the individual. So the ability for our managers to have information at their fingertips about their team is definitely key.”
Multipurpose Time Tracking Solution: “When we were looking at time tracking systems, we ended up spending time and money to develop BambooHR because we needed our staff to integrate with just one app [for announcements and time tracking]…The majority of our workforce is field staff, which means the majority of our team is hourly [and] uses time tracking the most…From the employee’s perspective, it’s easier for sure.”
