3,500-Employee Hospitality Company Transforms People Management for North American Workforce with UltiPro

Concord Hospitality Introduces New HCM Practices with UltiPro

Ultimate Software (ULTI), a leading cloud provider of people management solutions, announced today that Concord Hospitality Enterprises Company, a hotel management and development company with a portfolio that includes more than 80 hotels across the U.S. and Canada, has transformed its people-facing practices since deploying the UltiPro solution.

Concord Hospitality operates its hotels and resorts under such well-known brands as Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Starwood, and Choice Hotels. After Debra Punke moved into the role of vice president of human resources, she realized she had an opportunity, with the right technology, to deliver business efficiencies while impacting the company’s relationships with future and current employees. Since activating UltiPro in July 2011, Punke and HR Director Mark Gifford have unified their companywide people management processes and improved the way the company connects with its workforce.

“The very first contact new associates have with Concord is through UltiPro, and it’s our primary method of employee interaction throughout the complete employee lifespan,” said Punke. “UltiPro has given us tools for more communication with applicants and improved collaboration between HR and hiring managers about open positions. Before UltiPro, we had 80 individual business units in the U.S. and Canada with different methods and processes for talent acquisition. Today, we are operating as one unified, synchronized business. The streamlined process with UltiPro is faster and repeatable. The overall result is we can identify and hire new associates more quickly than before, and the new hires already know a little about Concord and our culture before they have ever begun. UltiPro helps us present a much better first impression of our company.”

After being hired by Concord, employees use UltiPro to learn about the businesses processes that impact them and prepare for work. Using an online onboarding package that Concord can configure, new employees follow a step-by-step guide through the orientation process, including the completion of required government and procedural forms. UltiPro also helps manage logistical details before new employees arrive for the first day of work. Automated task notification with built-in reminders ensures a documented, auditable process — eliminating the need for HR to track down colleagues and vendors to confirm the right provisioning has been set up for the new hire.

For example, IT can be alerted to provide a computer with network access, and facilities can be notified to assign a work station and order a telephone for the new employee. Tasks can also be assigned to external vendors, such as a business card vendor or cell phone provider. By providing a positive onboarding experience for its employees, Concord Hospitality is enhancing engagement within the organization while reducing labor costs and saving time for HR staff.

“Before UltiPro, the onboarding process was rather unstructured, different from location to location, and mostly manual,” said Gifford. “By using UltiPro to quickly onboard our associates, we’re able to make them productive more rapidly, notify everyone who is impacted by the arrival of the new employee, and conduct this process very professionally and consistently.”

Concord’s thousands of employees in North America now rely on UltiPro to access their personal HR information and to initiate changes to their selections for benefits, direct deposit, beneficiaries, and more. “We have used other systems, but our employees have really bought into UltiPro because it’s very easy to use,” said Gifford. “We think adoption for Ultimate’s technology is high because our employees find UltiPro is actually beneficial to them. It truly is a people solution, not just another piece of software.”

By using UltiPro as its single solution of record to manage its people, Concord’s executives, HR team, and managers now have the advantage of complete visibility into employee information, which can be used to evaluate and improve productivity, monitor and control manpower costs, and even make forecasts about future trends or Concord’s workforce.

“We believe it’s important to use a centralized approach for HR, benefits, and payroll, especially for a business like ours with a large workforce in many locations,” said Gifford. “The comprehensive data in UltiPro combined with its flexible reporting tools allows me to have a business impact because I can slice and dice analytics and then deliver useful data for decision-making.”

“When HR makes a change in systems, it doesn’t just affect HR,” said Greg Swick, chief sales officer at Ultimate Software. “The tasks and actions that have traditionally been associated with HR are now being managed by stakeholders throughout the organization, and UltiPro was designed with this shift in mind. We have created people technology that is easy to use and navigate. And we provide HR teams and executives with the power of holistic HCM information to help them sustain and grow their business. Concord Hospitality is a great example of a company that recognizes how the latest technologies can increase employee engagement and productivity, and then add value to the overall business.”

View more of Concord Hospitality’s comments on Ultimate and its technology at http://youtu.be/OWdD1rQq1n4
About Ultimate

Ultimate is a leading cloud provider of people management solutions. Built on the belief that people are the most important ingredient of any business, Ultimate’s award-winning UltiPro delivers HR, payroll, and talent management solutions that seamlessly connect people with the information and resources they need to work more effectively. Founded in 1990, the company is headquartered in Weston, Florida and has more than 1,400 professionals focused on developing the highest quality solutions and services. In 2012, Ultimate was ranked #25 on FORTUNE’S “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. Ultimate has more than 2,300 customers with employees in 115 countries, including Adobe Systems Incorporated, The Container Store, Culligan International, Major League Baseball, The New York Yankees Baseball Team, and Texas Roadhouse. More information on Ultimate’s products and services for people management can be found at www.ultimatesoftware.com.

UltiPro is a registered trademark of The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. All other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.

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