Why Healthia Group Enjoy More Control Over Payroll

Renowned as one of Australia’s largest private allied health organisations, Healthia Group supports people across the country in their pursuit of an active, healthy lifestyle. Since listing on the ASX in 2018, Healthia has grown significant networks of optometry, podiatry, and physiotherapy clinics, operating more than 300 clinics across Australia and New Zealand.

Before foundU, Healthia ran a decentralised payroll process. They needed a comprehensive, all-in-one system that could bring their processes under the one roof and ensure they could meet the complex reporting challenges they had to address.

Tess Blumke, an Operations and Human Resources team member, reports that foundU has given them more visibility and control over payroll than ever before.

The full scope in one system

Healthia manages a complex workforce of nearly 3,000 employees across more than 300 allied health practices.

Before implementing the foundU platform, Healthia ran a decentralised payroll that required each of these practices to operate as a franchisee and manage their own employee onboarding, scheduling, and payroll.

Payroll was also managed through a separate system that was not linked to other workforce management functions.

“The system that we used prior to foundU was strictly payroll – we wanted the full scope of HR, payroll and scheduling in the one system,” Tess said.

Implementation at its best

The company’s initial approach was to find a solution that would work across all their clinics. Tess reports this required a lot of market research and due diligence.

“The person in charge of finding a new system undertook extensive online market research, really taking the time to understand payroll platforms and the options available,” Tess said.

“For us, we had so many individual organisations and companies join Healthia Group that we could see what had and hadn’t worked for them which made it easier.

“The great thing about foundU that we could see, against other platforms, is that it is much more diverse.”

After choosing foundU, Healthia undertook an extensive implementation process to introduce the platform across their venues.

“Introducing new systems are always a challenge,” Tess said.

“foundU made this so much easier for us. The team that we work with are awesome, and it’s unbelievable how much time and support has been given to get everything up and running. They were invaluable to us – we wouldn’t have been able to operate the platform, let alone pay people, without the input and time they gave us.”

The power of native payroll

Implementing foundU has empowered Healthia to manage their workforce much more efficiently.

“We have so much more visibility and control over our payroll than we ever have, and that’s a significant feature,” Tess said.

“The fact that we don’t need to do anything other than go into the system and hit approve for payroll to be processed is incredible.

“Other features like leave accrual and having that live for employees to be able to interact with through the employee app, is fantastic. Plus being able to use templates to copy schedules week to week, then being able to have it live and interactive for staff is a huge thing for our practices.”

The platform’s ability to interpret enterprise agreements and awards has also made a significant difference to their payroll.

“We have multiple enterprise agreements and awards – we have staff who work under retail, manufacturing, warehouse awards, and so on,” Tess said.

“The foundU platform has that flexibility to be able to create custom roles and positions, something which I’d say many other systems couldn’t manage.”

Tess also says that the support of the customer success team has been invaluable in managing their workforce.

“The fact that if something is going wrong, we can call them, and they can fix it for us is remarkable,” Tess said.

“And just the fact that when teams say that things aren’t quite working, we can call them straight away and if they don’t have a solution, they’re working on a fix.”

“Also, every clinic is unique and does things a little differently, foundU can accommodate those differences."

“By having the full scope of foundU across the Group, from contract amendments right through to payroll and reimbursements, it makes a huge difference to our employees and managers, and how they feel about the business.”

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