Hancock Structural Steel Improves Work/Life Balance for HR Team
Hancock Structural Steel, a Northwest Ohio fabrication company, revamped its HR processes under new leadership by adopting digital HR technology to streamline tasks like timekeeping and hiring, aiming to reduce long work hours for its sole HR staff, improve employee benefits, and address labor shortages without expanding the HR team.
Hancock Structural Steel, LLC is a full-service fabrication facility located in Northwest Ohio with more than 35 years of experience in the steel industry. The company specializes in structural steel fabrication, steel erection, miscellaneous steel fabrication, project management, design, sublet detailing, and transport services.
The business originally operated as a general contractor and fabrication operation run by a father and son team. In 2021, the general contractor business was sold, with the son taking over the fabrication shop as CEO. Anne Pfleger, Director of Operations, saw this as the perfect time to revamp the company’s HR processes.
“Because we were now a smaller company, we took a year to redo everything, including getting our own 401(k) and insurance for our employees. We had the opportunity to do things a little bit differently, including looking for technology. We were used to using paper before but were ready to brave the new world of HR technology.”
Challenge
As a smaller company, with Pfleger originally the only one doing HR work, Hancock Structural Steel needed solutions that would make processes faster and easier, saving her from putting in 13- to 14-hour days.
“It was top of mind to find better ways to complete some of my tasks in reduced time because there are other things that I need to be focusing on. We needed a solution that could take stuff off my plate.”
An important objective was using technology to do the heavy lifting with HR processes and tasks to avoid hiring additional hard-to-find employees.
One challenge was manually entering paper time cards into payroll. Pfleger needed to move the company’s staff to a digital solution. The new CEO supported adopting technology to save time and money and improve processes, including timekeeping and hiring diverse candidates.
“As everybody knows, we have a major labor shortage and we’re trying to find ways to get the word out about our available positions, including outside of our immediate area.”
Solution
The company first implemented Arcoro’s ExakTime time tracking solution, followed by the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and onboarding.
ExakTime
The initial software interest was digital time tracking, as paper time cards were inefficient. The cloud-based solution shortened the payroll process. Hancock Structural Steel uses Foundation software for payroll, which ExakTime integrates with.
“That really excited me even more. The integration with Foundation made the decision even easier.”
The company also uses ExakTime’s geofencing and cost code features for shop work. The geofence is set at the shop’s address, and workers clock in on site and assign themselves a job code. Pfleger is notified if workers try to clock in or out from outside the shop.
Once time cards were digitized, Pfleger could focus on other HR tasks.
ATS
Arcoro’s ATS is used to post jobs to multiple job boards through one system, saving time and expanding the reach to a more diverse group of candidates.
“Being able to post to diverse job boards is hugely important for our company’s EEO status. We must be recertified around every six months to a year, that includes filing monthly reports that track our recruitment efforts. Because we’re able to expand our reach with the ATS, that’s another ROI.”
Onboarding
Once hired, candidate information is automatically transferred to onboarding. Digitizing the process allowed workers to fill out paperwork themselves, freeing up Pfleger’s time and reducing the time new employees spend on paperwork.
“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of turnover due to bidding wars for talent between construction companies. With onboarding, if a new employee doesn’t work out, I haven’t wasted hours and hours of time manually doing paperwork.”
Pfleger also appreciates that she no longer has to manually update forms required for new employees, as the system updates them automatically.
Implementing Arcoro’s solutions gave Pfleger much needed work/life balance. Her work hours returned to normal, giving her more time to volunteer with NAWIC.
“I’ve been able to reduce my work hours, so I now have time to myself and more time to devout to NAWIC. I look forward to discovering other ways Arcoro’s HR Technology can save me time in other aspects of my job responsibilities. Having a better work/life balance and reducing your work stress makes you a happier employee.”
Goals
- Time savings
- Drive efficiencies
- Move from paper-based time cards
- Speed up time to hire and finding diverse candidates
Results
- Moved from paper time tracking to digital, saving hours of time
- Expanded job postings, reaching a more diverse talent pool
- Candidate information flows directly into onboarding, eliminating data entry time
- New employees fill out their own onboarding paperwork without sitting in the office
Solutions Used
- ExakTime Time Tracking
- Applicant Tracking
- Onboarding
- Learning Management System
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