Griffith College is one of the largest independent higher education institutions in Ireland, with four campuses: two sites in Dublin, one in Cork and one in Limerick. Founded in 1974, the college now has a student population of close to 8,000, offering courses in accountancy, business, computer science, design, drama, law, music, and more.
The College has 300 direct employees, but staff numbers are much higher, with close to 1,000 many part-time lecturers and other staff. When HR manager Daniela Dana joined in 2022, the college had been using a different HR operations platform, but it hadn’t been using many of its features due to cost considerations. For this reason, the College decided to look around the market for a platform that would offer the right mix of capabilities and price to better suit its needs. It found a new provider and initially engaged with the software developer directly from the United States.
However, the team was still learning about the features of the platform and needed close support. This quickly proved impractical due to time zone differences that made it difficult to work closely with the assigned project manager during the implementation process.
Superior support
That’s when Griffith College discovered Grouper, which was familiar with the platform and crucially could offer superior support that the College needed. As a busy HR leader, Daniela appreciates the speed of response and not getting “lost in communication”, which can be an occupational hazard with some technology vendors.
“Grouper are based in Ireland so, from our perspective, it was a lot easier in terms of the communication and the support we needed. They’re very effective, they answer all our emails in a timely manner. They follow up and, if we need, they organise meetings to discuss issues, and they resolve them effectively,” Daniela says.
Focused on customer service
Daniela appreciates how Grouper is “highly focused on customer service”, because this is very important to her. The team is able to find solutions bespoke to the needs of Griffith College. Even now, she contacts Grouper two or three times a week by email, and they meet on Zoom every fortnight.
“What makes Grouper stand out to me is, we jump on a call and we have the chance to overcome that barrier in communication you can get with emails, or sending tickets to be resolved. In my experience from previous roles, we used various packages and ticketing took a while to get a response. Many times, you’re lost in communication, sometimes things are perceived differently, and you don’t understand each other. Whereas now, the communication is very good. We can talk openly with Grouper and we can all come up with suggestions. It’s a collaborative way to resolve issues.”
Communication style
As a HR professional who is accustomed to dealing with people every day, the type of interaction matters a lot to Daniela. “When you have that personal interaction with people, when you communicate face-to-face, even if you’re on a Zoom call, you get a sense of what type of support you’re getting and who’s giving it. Whereas if you write an email to someone you can’t put a face to, the perception is totally different.”
This personal aspect also helps to overcome a big stumbling block with a lot of B2B software-as-a-service providers. “In reality, you will never find software to perfectly serve your needs, no matter how much you pay. Companies have different needs: that’s a reality. But having the capability to adapt and discuss and come up with changes and collaborate to resolve issues, that’s the most important thing. That leads you to where you want to be, in terms of using the software.”
Efficiency and productivity gains
Now that Daniela can to get the most from the HR platform, combined with the close support, she says it has made a significant difference to her working routine. The platform automates tasks like onboarding and offboarding employees, and it’s made communication between different teams far easier – which is especially important with the college dispersed across four campuses. Sharing information through a single, integrated platform makes communication much easier and faster. “It’s all done by a click. That amounts to a big saving of time: one day’s work a week,” she says.
This efficiency means Daniela is more productive in her role. For example, she recently designed in-house training to upskill managers. “I couldn’t have done that if I didn’t have the headspace to focus on the content of the training or a matter that an employee brings to my attention… if you’re able to focus on a single task, without having to worry about 100 other tasks, that’s a plus already. Now I have time to do things I couldn’t do before,” she says.
