Founded in 1977, Unity House of Cayuga County is a private, not-for-profit human service organization. They provide vital services and support to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, mental illness, and substance use disorders.

Approaching their 50th anniversary, Unity House employs a staff of over 400, across multiple locations, to support their mission.

A workforce as large as Unity House's is inevitably complex. Unity House requires intricate payroll routing, but they struggled for years to find a provider that could accommodate them. Early on, they used large, well-known payroll companies, but found their systems glitchy—to the point where punched time would simply disappear from employee timesheets.

They partnered with Complete Payroll in 2011 to gain more customized support, and never looked back!

Well, almost...

In 2016, previous leadership made the decision to switch to another one of Complete Payroll's larger competitors. 

As is so often the case, the large competitor made promises they had no intention of keeping. Moreover, they utilized a sub-standard software platform that was difficult to navigate, and even harder to troubleshoot. 

"Their system was, in my opinion, a bit clunky. It seemed like it was a platform built on another platform, built on another platform. So in order to correct anything they would have to go back to the basics."

- Sara Bilinski, Chief People Officer

The final straw came at year-end when the competitor flat-out refused to process Unity House's W-2s because the nonprofit transferred its own taxes. Bilinski refers to this experience in 2016, simply as "The Blip"

"Basically I want to just forget it. Forget that whole year." - Sara Bilinski

In Payroll Country, you may not be a client for life, but you're certainly a neighbor for life. 

When Sara and Unity House came to us and told us about the larger provider refusing to process their W2's, we did what we would do for anyone: we helped.

"It's awesome. Totally awesome, how they just swooped right in and took care of our problem, and got us right back in like nothing had happened."

– Sara Bilinski

By helping out our old friends, Complete Payroll not only saved the day, we saved a great relationship. We onboarded Unity House as a return client in 2017, and they have been with us ever since!

Managing a workforce of nearly 400 requires not just a lot of great tools, but the ability to customize those tools. Fortunately, with our powerhouse platform, isolved, and a support team in Complete Payroll dedicated to backing it up, accommodating Unity House's specific needs was right up our alley.

Customized Time & Attendance

Because employees often pick up shifts at different locations, Complete Payroll's Greg Nasso customized Unity House's time clock to automatically calculate and charge overtime to specific departments based on varying rules—saving the HR team hours of manual calculations.

"I always ask him 'Hey, can you sprinkle some fairy dust and take care of that?' And he responds: 'Fairy dust sprinkled'."

- Sara Bilinski

Applicant Tracking System (ATS) & Onboarding:

By integrating their Applicant Tracking System (ATS) with isolved, Unity House has entirely eliminated paper applications. New hires are pushed directly into the platform, completing all their onboarding online.

Share and Perform

Unity House recently adopted isolved's Employee Engagement Software module, Share & Perform, to transition their performance evaluations entirely online, cutting Sara's desk paperwork in half. Benefits Coordinator Becky Kilmer notes that the platform centralizes everything, from employee directories to benefit links.

Predictive People Analytics

Using Predictive People Analytics™️, Unity House tracks their internal statistics, and they are building historical data within the platform to eventually forecast long-term hiring trends and organizational needs

For Unity House, the ultimate value lies in the personalized, responsive support they receive from the Complete Payroll team—including Andrea, Claire, Todd, and the Gregs: Davy & Nasso.

Whether it is catching a payroll batch that was accidentally processed early or customizing an overtime calculation, the Complete Payroll team is always a quick email or phone call away.