hr & payroll bureau software case...

HR & Payroll BureauSoftware Case Study

Brethertons Solicitors LLPEstablished legal practice Brethertons Solicitors LLP is one of the largest law firms in the Oxfordshire and Warwickshire areas. Currently employing 200 staff, the team is rapidly expanding. But keen to uphold its Investors in People Gold standards, Brethertons sought a trusted HR and payroll software partner to ensure the delivery of outstanding personnel services and support the company’s long-term growth plans.

Client BackgroundBrethertons is an award-winning, full-service law firm with solicitors practising in Rugby, Banbury, Bicester and London. Clients span everything from small owner-managed businesses to large multinational companies, and families to individuals.

Whatever the nature of Brethertons’ work, the focus is to always provide a high quality service. And having successfully fulfilled this goal for the past 200 years the team has continued to grow; by 20% in 2011 and a further 18% in 2012.

But as a professional organisation, and with a similar level of expansion anticipated for 2013, it is crucial to maintain the provision of outstanding HR services for employees. Brethertons has a positive internal culture that supports the well-being, involvement and development of staff, and their engagement, motivation and reward ensures extremely low turnover levels.

Pre CascadeBrethertons is a forward-thinking organisation, keen to remain one step ahead of competing legal firms and also technological advances. Brethertons’ HR professionals found their existing system visually unappealing and difficult to use, and were

discouraged from logging on to the system as a result. The associated customer support was limited and unresponsive, meaning the team struggled to achieve the desired functionality and software efficiencies. It was considered nothing more than an electronic filing cabinet.

The ChallengeFollowing completion of a HR in Law survey, Brethertons found that they managed more people, per head, than any other law firm. Of course such a lean HR to staff ratio was reaping economic benefits for the organisation, but Brethertons knew it was important that this was not to the detriment of employee engagement, wellbeing and retention.

The HR and payroll teams therefore sought a more proactive and intelligent solution that would:

• Encourage the creation of best practice processes that support the organisation’s goal to continually improve

• Heighten procedural efficiencies, allowing managers more time to engage and motivate their teams, and thus safeguarding retention rates

• Continue to provide manager and employee self service functionality, but ideally with more flexibility and access control than their existing system

• Remove the significant administrative headache that Brethertons’ HR and payroll teams were experiencing when utilising the existing ‘clunky’ system

• Prevent Brethertons from over-recruiting. The ideal ongoing scenario is to employ more HR staff to take on important personnel roles rather than simply administrative tasks

• Support Brethertons long into the future.

HR & Payroll Bureau Software Case Study

Visit www.cascadehr.co.uk for more information

In terms of the type of supplier, Brethertons sought a well-established, knowledgeable organisation with a varied client base, yet specific insight into the legal sector. It was also important that the supplier worked with companies of different sizes – Brethertons did not want to be the largest nor the smallest client within the provider’s portfolio.

After speaking to several industry peers and undertaking extensive supplier research, Brethertons’ HR Associate, Elaine Hamblett prepared a tender document to help standardise the ensuing selection process. Cascade was one of three shortlisted suppliers invited to demonstrate the product and service. Elaine was also invited to visit Cascade’s offices to get a better feel for the company, and client reference sites to understand how they use Cascade and what level of support would be provided if something was to go wrong.

The DecisionCascade was selected as the provider of choice because:

• Cascade provides both HR software and a payroll bureau service – Brethertons considered it imperative to find one supplier to satisfy both requirements

• Cascade is a cost-effective yet configurable product that can easily evolve to meet Brethertons’ ever-changing needs and objectives

• The system proactively prompts processes and encourages change – it will not hold Brethertons back

• It is an intelligent management tool that is much more than just a databank. With Cascade, Brethertons can increase their HR and payroll headcount according to their business strategy, not simply to undertake administration

• The Cascade team is long-standing – new recruits reflect company expansion not staff turnover. Brethertons deemed this a sign of a successful company that echoed their own standards of professionalism and dedication to employee retention

• The HR solution can be cloud based and so offers Brethertons future technological flexibility.

It became clear that Cascade satisfied the criteria of the HR and payroll teams, but budgetary

sign-off was still required from the board. However the business case for Cascade was in fact very strong. It was clear that workflows could add value and improve efficiencies in wider areas of the organisation, for example operational management. Cascade very much aligned with Brethertons’ goal to invest in ‘next generation technologies’.



Elaine Hamblett, HR AssociateBrethertons LLP

The ProjectSystem set up

Getting up and running with Cascade was a very smooth process – but this is also a credit to Brethertons. Elaine and her colleague Kendrah Greenway, HR and Finance Administrator placed a great deal of importance on data accuracy, and realised how crucial it was to get everything right in this early project phase. Six years’ worth of data was extracted from the current system and cosmetically cleansed before being inserted into Cascade’s data transfer spreadsheet. Elaine felt this spreadsheet was easy to use and the ability to add extra fields meant the migration could be tailored to their organisational requirements.

The implementation was very straightforward, with Brethertons especially pleased with the limited impact that Cascade had on existing infrastructure. Elaine continues: “From the outset we had a structured and well-managed project schedule, and the expectations of each party were clear. Our IT department actually kept asking if there was anything they could do to assist with the project because they couldn’t believe they hadn’t been called in to help.”

Cascade’s system training was consistent, with the same product consultant working with Brethertons’ HR and payroll team as they prepared to go live. The training sessions used live data rather than dummy information, which Brethertons could practice on before their next meeting.

Bureau set up

To ensure the foolproof set up of the payroll bureau service, Cascade completed parallel runs which occurred simultaneously with those of the existing payroll provider. This gave both parties the confidence in the other and ensured the Cascade team knew Brethertons’ specific payroll scenario ‘inside out’ by the time the service went live.

Kendrah explains:

“The level of interaction with Cascade’s payroll experts is fantastic – it feels like a luxury to have them involved. Their payroll expertise is incredibly impressive, which has allowed us to put our full trust and confidence in the service.”

“For example, when we had a query regarding an employee’s change in tax code notification, I didn’t question the guidance that the bureau team provided, whereas my previous provider would be less confident in their response. They are proactive too, and look to add value at every possible opportunity. Thanks to Cascade we always know what possible payroll problems or opportunities are on the horizon.



Kendrah Greenway, HR & Finance AdministratorBrethertons LLP

“The benefit of using Cascade’s fully integrated HR and payroll solution as a bureau service is that any changes that are made in the HR system are reported back to us through a payroll adjustment report. This comprehensive summary includes all pro rata calculations for new starters, leavers, company sick pay and even the P32 reconciliation. I usually check the copy payslip report and if I see an amount that I am unsure of, the answer will be in the payroll adjustment report along with the calculation used.”

A happy client?Having spoken to Brethertons one year on from the implementation of Cascade’s HR software and bureau service, the feedback was incredibly positive. Brethertons’ partner Deborah Atkins offers some examples: “With Cascade we are reassured that the technology exists to help us with even the most complex or otherwise time consuming of tasks. For instance we have to complete numerous regulatory and compliance checks for different employees, and to do this without Cascade in place would be a particularly challenging job. We can sleep easy at night knowing everything has been done that needs to be done, and nothing has been overlooked.

“We have also started to establish best practice procedures that not only ensure we do everything we need to – they save time too. We are continually recruiting for instance, and now a workflow guides us through the process, with the employee undertaking tasks of their own too. Everything is very streamlined.

“When you consider this, plus the time we save by not manually inputting overtime or calculating sick pay, the administrative relief on our HR and payroll teams is vast.

“We are continually designing more workflows to further increase our efficiencies but already we are saving hours per week.”

An experienced account manager has been designated to work with Brethertons for the duration of the working relationship with Cascade. Deborah commented: “He quickly grasped exactly what our business was all about and as he began to talk to us more about workflows we had several ‘light bulb’ moments.

“The service desk is also superb. The team possesses a phenomenal amount of knowledge, and no query ever feels too big or small. We also like the library of helpful documents that are available on Cascade’s client portal”



Deborah Atkins, PartnerBrethertons LLP

Most of the time we know what we are doing but the guidance notes provide us with peace of mind when we’re doing something for the first time.”

Considering the added value that Cascade provides Deborah continues: “It is great to network with similar organisations at Cascade’s client user groups, and we always come away having learned something. We even benefit from talking to companies that are very different to us, because it encourages us to think about what else the software can do. “With Cascade we feel somewhat future-proofed. When we were continuously approached by auto enrolment pensions providers for instance, we knew without giving it a second thought that Cascade would be able to take care of us when it came to introducing functionality for this legislative development.

“Cascade is definitely the right fit for our business.”

Cascade’s payroll quality manager Joanne Knowles concludes:

“Brethertons has been a great client to work with for many reasons. They appreciate the importance of data accuracy and cleansing, their team is well structured and hard-working, and they are not afraid to ask relevant questions when they need our help. This ensures they get the most from their HR and payroll solution, which is exactly what we want for our clients.”



Waterperry Court, Brethertons LLP

The Robbins Building, Brethertons LLP

hr & payroll bureau software case...

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