Fixing a toothache for a growing dental organization when their top HR exec departs

Situation

A high-growth dental service organization in the Midwest had already engaged Growth Operators to providing outsourced finance & accounting services when its top human resources executive left the company just prior the annual open enrollment period. The company, owned by a PE sponsor, was aggressively expanding via multiple add-on acquisitions, and its human resources was already stretched to capacity.

Asking an already-stretched human resources staff to take on open enrollment was not an option. Nor was slowing down the company’s aggressive growth engine. They needed a solution – fast.

Execution

The company’s CEO already knew Growth Operators well – one of our Growth Operators was serving as the company’s Interim Controller at the time. She informed the CEO that Growth Operators also provided outsourced Human Resources services and we could help right away. The CEO engaged Growth Operators to provide outsourced human resources leadership while they recruited a full-time executive. One of our Growth Operators stepped in as the Interim VP of Human Resources, and:

• Quickly worked with management to gain alignment on the benefit offerings
• Designed and implemented a scalable open enrollment process by engaging a benefits broker whose online enrollment portal integrated with the company’s payroll & HRIS system
• Completed open enrollment for over 300 employees in 22 locations
• Developed and implemented new scalable processes for employee reimbursements, review and approval of timecards and payroll, and commission payments in partnership with the accounting & finance team
• Supervised two recruiters during a time of high turnover and aggressive hiring goals
• Developed a weekly recruiting scorecard for company executives
• Partnered with regional managers on employee relations matters and investigations
• Completed year-end ACA reporting, distribution of 1095 documents, and W-2’s.

Result

Losing a top human resources executive is rarely, if ever, convenient. But losing one during annual open enrollment when you’re integrating several acquisitions and preparing to integrate many more can derail a company’s growth momentum.

Four months later, the company onboarded a new human resources executive. In the meantime, by turning to Growth Operators, they not only completed open enrollment in record time, but they got a new and improved open enrollment process that could scale with the company’s growth. They also got other process improvements that streamlined the manual, time-consuming aspects of their payroll & expense cycle.

At Growth Operators, it’s not in our DNA to just go through the motions and do the minimum. We’re passionate about growth – in fact, it’s in our name. When given the opportunity to help a company deal with an issue that feels as painful as a toothache, we like to fix it and be the anesthetic that makes it painless.