Uniting is embarking on a transformation of its personnel management systems by partnering with Dayforce, beginning with payroll before expanding into additional functions.

The Australian not-for-profit organization, which employs around 12,000 staff members, initiated this transition about 18 months ago in response to the impending obsolescence of its Preceda payroll system.

During the Dayforce Daybreak conference in Sydney, Chief People and Strategy Officer Dr. Anat Hassner emphasized that the payroll upgrade would serve as the foundation for a comprehensive transformation of the organization’s people management systems.

Uniting’s leadership was motivated to pursue this transformation after successfully addressing issues in recruitment and retention. Dr. Hassner shared her experience: “When I joined Uniting, we faced a workforce crisis with a shortfall of 1,000 employees. Leveraging my background in transformation, I implemented strategies to enhance recruitment and retention right from the start.”

Seeing the positive impact of this process led the CEO to appreciate the potential of organizational transformation and the commitment it demands from top leadership.

The initial focus on payroll is due to the necessity of replacing the existing system, but there are plans to extend the Dayforce platform to cover various people management functions. This aims to reduce the risks and administrative burdens associated with managing staff while simplifying interactions for employees in areas such as payroll, scheduling, and training.

Dr. Hassner’s team developed a compelling vision to illustrate how a unified platform could enhance the experience of frontline employees. They created two personas, Sarah and Jeremy, to narrate the challenges faced by staff when interacting with multiple systems for tasks like accessing payslips, submitting hours worked, and completing training. Currently, employees struggle with using five different systems, which diminishes their experience and complicates communication with the organization.

Looking forward to the implementation of Dayforce, Dr. Hassner outlined the future benefits for Sarah and Jeremy, including improved career growth opportunities and better mobility within the organization. This vision helped gain the board’s and CEO’s support for the Dayforce initiative.

Uniting is collaborating with Deloitte on this transformation, with Glen Detering, the HR transformation partner at Deloitte, indicating that Uniting is nearing its first go-live phase in the new year.

The integration of payroll and rostering functions within a single platform aims to streamline operations and mitigate risks associated with staff compensation, especially as regulations evolve. Dr. Hassner highlighted that recent changes stemming from the aged care royal commission have intensified the need for clarity in distinguishing pay for direct versus indirect care roles.

“Previously, our workforce was treated uniformly, but new regulations necessitate differentiated wages for direct and indirect caregivers,” she explained. While Dr. Hassner welcomed the wage increases for caregivers, she noted that the implementation presents significant challenges from an administrative standpoint.

With complexities arising from award conditions and enterprise agreements in Australia, ensuring accurate payroll has become increasingly difficult, especially with upcoming regulations on wage theft. Dr. Hassner stressed the need for close integration between payroll and rostering systems to prevent underpayment, noting that the existing manual reconciliations were unsustainable.

Reflecting on a previous reconciliation exercise that involved a massive dataset of 66,000 payroll entries, she underscored the necessity of a unified platform for payroll and rostering. “Manual reconciliation is not an efficient use of our time. Our priority should be serving our customers and supporting our frontline teams, rather than getting bogged down in administrative tasks,” she said.

Ry Crozier attended the Dayforce Daybreak conference in Sydney as a guest of Dayforce.