By Derek Fenwick
Senior Director of Human Resources
I am happy to share the exciting news that we have decided to change our HR system from UKG (Ultipro) to Paycom. I want to give you a high-level preview of what you can expect as we work on this transition over the next few months.
But first – You might be asking, “Haven’t we been working toward using UKG more? Why are we changing now?” Those are great questions, and I’m excited to share the answer.
Last summer, JoLynn Munro asked me to lead an effort to evaluate whether UKG was the best system for our business needs going forward. This was prompted by the fact that our contract with UKG renews this June. Opportunities like this to make major shifts only come along so often, so we were compelled to act now. Due to our legacy pricing, project budget, and enterprise needs, I honestly did not expect to find another system that we could seriously consider. But as with many things in life, when you enter a new challenge with a curious and open mindset, you can discover possibilities you never imagined.
After several months of work evaluating different systems and countless hours put in by leaders of our HR, Talent Acquisition, Payroll, Finance, and Benefits teams, along with feedback from Operations and other company leaders, we determined that while UKG was helping us survive, what we really want to do is thrive. And the more that we learned about Paycom and its capabilities, the more we were convinced that Paycom is the system that can help us thrive.
You will soon learn much more about the details of what you will experience inside Paycom. Many of the capabilities are similar to UKG, only with better workflow and more intuitive design. This was a big factor in our decision – making the employee experience as smooth and easy as possible. This is possible in Paycom because they have built their entire product in-house with the same programming code, as opposed to UKG’s approach to add new capabilities by acquiring companies with products that don’t naturally talk to each other, resulting in a clunky user experience.
Another factor in our decision was the added features and capabilities that we could get with Paycom that were either cost-prohibitive or not available with UKG. Many of these features are admittedly more exciting for those of us working in the system behind the scenes, but there are also many features that our front-line employees will love. Here are just some of the features that we will roll out over time:
As you can see, there are a lot of new features and capabilities that we expect will make life better for front-line employees, managers, and home office team members. We have long had a goal to create a better end-user experience with our HR system, and we have taken steps in the right direction in recent years with UKG. However, through that work, we’ve also come to realize that UKG has built-in limitations that will never allow us to meet the high standards for employee experience that we aim to achieve. The great news is that all the work we have been putting into UKG as an organization has prepared us even more to make this transition. We cannot wait for you to experience what is possible with the right system that truly meets our business needs.
We have high expectations for our transition to Paycom, and we are excited to get started. We also recognize that this is a big change, and that it is not the best timing for more change considering the big Net Health changes that many of you are experiencing. Our implementation team will work closely with both Paycom and field leaders to ensure a smooth transition that is phased in over time. We expect we will be ready to begin introducing you to Paycom as soon late April, with a goal of being out of UKG completely by June when our contract ends. We will share more about the timeline and our rollout plan as details get solidified. Until then, please continue to enter information into UKG just as you are today. We will transfer everything from inside UKG over to Paycom, so that makes this a great time to make sure your information is up-to-date, and all your goals have active updates on them.
Thanks for the work you do every day, and I look forward to introducing you to Paycom soon!
