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 but also 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, says it was 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,” she says. “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,” she says. “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 thing on Pfleger’s plate was manually entering paper time cards into payroll. She needed to move the company’s staff to a digital solution. The good news was the new CEO was on board with adopting technology to not only save time and money but improve the company’s processes. This included not only improving the timekeeping process but also finding 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” says Pfleger.
Solution
The company first implemented Arcoro’s ExakTime time tracking solution and then followed up with the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and onboarding.
ExakTime
Pfleger says the company’s initial software interest was digital time tracking because using paper time cards simply wasn’t efficient. But she soon found out just how much this cloud-based solution could take off her plate, including shortening 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 she took care of digitizing time cards, she could focus on other HR tasks.
ATS
Arcoro’s ATS is used to post jobs to multiple job boards, all through one system, making it a huge time saver for Pfleger. The expanded breadth of the postings also allowed the company to reach out to a more diverse group of candidates.
“Being able to post to diverse job boards is hugely important for our company’s EEO status,” she says. “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. Taking the process digital, Pfleger was able to put the task of filling out paperwork into the workers’ hands. Adding onboarding not only freed up Pfleger’s time but new employees now don’t have to spend a couple of hours finishing up 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 the forms required for new employees. “The forms are updated automatically in the system, and that’s another time saver for me,” she says.
Implementing Arcoro’s solutions gave Pfleger some 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.”
“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
Modules Used
- ExakTime Time Tracking
- Applicant Tracking
- Onboarding
- Learning Management System
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