It's essential for all companies to effectively manage holidays and leave. It helps ensure all team members get the leave they are entitled to, keeping them refreshed and motivated, and keeping the business on the right side of employment law.
Scheduling and tracking leave can be done more accurately and easily using a software solution that integrates payroll and leave management with other HR functions.
When inbound tour operator Pacific Destinations (NZ) Ltd wanted to improve and modernise their HR practices, they looked for a system that would deliver more than just leave- or performance-management software.
“We were looking for a complete HR solution,” says Russell Wakeling, Pacific Destinations' Financial Controller. “We needed a system that could do both those things, and MyHR’s offer of software plus people was the most comprehensive HR offer we could find.”
Pacific Destinations has around 50 staff providing travel management services for international visitors to New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, and Australia.
Prior to signing up with MyHR, the New Zealand-based company had been handling their HR in-house, with the management team preparing contracts, documents being filed on the company server, and performance reviews and payroll communication being done on an ad-hoc basis.
“Over the past few years, with growth of the business and legislative changes, it exposed a lack of expertise in the HR area,” Russell says. “We made do by getting expensive legal advice when needed, but I suggested we look at MyHR as a cost-effective and thorough solution to our HR needs.”
Easy integration and employee self-service
MyHR's software is seamlessly integrated with Pacific Destinations' payroll provider – iPayroll – and all employees have a centralised, self-service MyHR account with their personal data and employment documents.
“The interface with iPayroll is great, as it provides our people with a one-stop shop on all matters HR- and pay-related,” says Russell. “The system provides a really easy way to apply for and manage leave.”
MyHR pulls live data from iPayroll, so employees and managers are always seeing accurate, up-to-date leave balances and calendars. Once the employee applies for leave, their manager gets a prompt to either approve the request or contact the person. When leave is taken, the data automatically syncs with the iPayroll and the system applies the correct amount to the employee's leave records and wage payments.
“It’s totally autonomous and it's eliminated the irregularities and double-handling errors we've encountered in the past,” says Russell.
Find out more about why it's important to manage leave properly.
Hit the ground running
Russell was also impressed with how easy it was for the company to start using MyHR.
“It was a piece of cake,” he says. “We simply provided a payroll spreadsheet and the MyHR team took care of the rest, collecting all our outdated employment agreements, company policies, and other documents, and pre-populating our account with the entire team’s historical records.”
MyHR provides new, fully-compliant employment agreements and job descriptions for each team member and the seamless integration with iPayroll means that when Pacific Destinations hires a new employee, a record is created in iPayroll using the information from the new employment agreement.
Simple transformation
Implementing MyHR has been transformational for Pacific Destinations, delivering efficiencies to the business and increasing employee engagement.
“MyHR has provided a more user-friendly and dynamic interface with our payroll system, and it's made it easier for management to manage leave across the business,” Russell says. “Plus, it's given us peace of mind knowing we are compliant and up-to-date in the HR area.”
Pacific Destinations has a growing business in Australia, and Russell says MyHR's expertise will assist them even more across the Tasman.
“The three bullet-points for me, to summarise MyHR, would be: on-point software, extremely cost-effective, and amazing support.”
WATCH THE FULL PACIFIC DESTINATIONS CASE STUDY CLIP