Macadamia Farm Management uses Employment Hero to provide meaningful employee benefits

About Macadamia Farm Management

Established in 1987 in Bundaberg, Queensland, Macadamia Farm Management (MFM) provides specialist farm management services to the macadamia industry. Their clients range from first-time macadamia farmers and established local farmers, through to global businesses who engage their services to develop new orchards.

Being the industry leader that they are, Macadamia Farm Management has experienced rapid growth over the past five years.

Expanding from 75 to over 230 employees within that short period, the company is projected to reach 300 employees by 2025. With a commitment to employee wellbeing and efficient HR practices, MFM turned to Employment Hero to support their growth, streamline their operations and make them an employer of choice within the region.

We spoke to Tanya McCombe, HR Manager at Macadamia Farm Management to understand the transformational impact that Employment Hero has made to their business.

The Challenges…

Manual processes and efficiency

Before Employment Hero, MFM’s HR processes were manual, time-consuming and often overwhelming, with employee data managed via Excel spreadsheets and physical files. Tanya explained the inefficiencies.

“We were managing employee files from manila folders and Excel spreadsheets. As you can imagine with 230 employees, there’s a lot of human error that can happen within a spreadsheet.”

With the huge growth they had already experienced, as well as their continuing growth plans on the horizon, they knew they had to improve their HR and payroll processes to keep up with the demand of their rapidly scaling business. They turned to Employment Hero to help streamline their operations.

An ongoing challenge with recruitment and retention

With a large workforce, MFM needed to differentiate themselves to retain and attract new employees in a competitive job market. They wanted to look beyond just salary and lean into a range of other areas where they can add value for their staff, especially as performance and salary review time was quickly approaching.

They also wanted to provide their team with a range of employee benefits to help reduce the impact of the cost of living crisis.

“We’re coming up to our wage review time and the rising cost of living is a concern for everyone. If we can’t pay that dollar value, how else can we give back to the employee? We want to give the tools to people to make their pay go further through extra perks, so they don’t feel like they need to look for another job”, Tanya said.

That’s why finding HR software that could provide these benefits was a top priority for Tanya, and by adding value for employees outside of their regular pay, they could attract – and keep – the best talent for their business.

Solutions…

Powerful HR and payroll software that streamlines processes and reduces time spent on administrative tasks

With a growing team and new starters joining regularly, Tanya wanted to improve how things were done at MFM so she could stop spending time on time-consuming HR admin.

With a seasonal workforce and one that’s made up of a considerable number of working holiday makers, they were constantly onboarding and offboarding employees – which was proving to be a very time-consuming and admin-heavy task.

When MFM implemented Employment Hero, they instantly saw the time savings, as well as the improved accuracy when hiring and onboarding new employees.

“What used to take us over an hour to onboard one employee, now takes us 5 minutes with Employment Hero”, Tanya said.

“It’s really streamlined our efficiency. To give you a bit of an example, we’re looking at onboarding 11 backpackers shortly to help with planting. Rather than 11 hours of onboarding work, we’re dramatically reducing that time. It’s benefited us considerably.”

This once admin-heavy task has now transformed into something that can be done in just a few clicks, and Tanya loves the ease of it all.

“This was previously a very manual process with a lot of calls and texts. But now, it’s just managed in one place. Even with the onboarding checklists, I no longer have to reach out to the manager and say ‘make sure you do this’. It’s all managed through one stream”, Tanya said.

Providing employees with meaningful benefits in a cost of living crisis

We’re all feeling the impact of the cost of living crisis, and it’s on everyone’s minds right now. That’s why Tanya was looking for an HR platform that could provide her team with perks and benefits that actually make a difference to their financial wellness.

So much so that our Benefits offering is what initially attracted MFM to Employment Hero. Tanya emphasised the importance of having meaningful benefits for her team.

“The rewards and benefits Employment Hero offers is what first captured my attention, more so than the platform itself.”

Tanya loved how our employee benefits and in particular, InstaPay, allows their team to access earned wages before payday. And because it’s money an employee has already earned, there’s no interest, credit or late fees involved.

That means Tanya can offer her team the option to use InstaPay to manage bills between fortnightly pay cycles, handle emergencies and budget for events like Christmas and birthdays. It was something extra that would help differentiate the business from others in a competitive market, all while positioning themselves as a great place to work.

Tanya shared, “If I can access my pay early… that’s going to provide us a point of difference to other businesses out in the marketplace, especially during recruitment and wage review periods.”

Tanya also highlights how providing her employees access to cashback offers and discounted gift cards can help her team reduce cost of living pressures.

“Our employees can access gift cards at a discounted rate, and with cost of living the way it is, every dollar saved helps.”

With Employment Hero Benefits in the Swag app, her team can put money back into their pocket with up to 20% automatic cashback on purchases from leading retailers like Agoda, The Iconic and Adore Beauty. Plus, employees can save on their daily coffee, groceries, fuel and more with card-linked offers on hundreds of Australia’s favourite retailers. It’s a win-win for everyone.

A game-changing way to attract, hire and engage top talent in their business

Everyone wants to attract, hire and retain great talent for their business. Tanya knew that Employment Hero could help her bolster her employee value proposition (EVP), i.e. the balance of rewards and benefits that a company offers its employees in return for their amazing performance within the workplace.

In a competitive environment, Tanya was looking for something that could provide candidates with a range of benefits they could get excited about.

“We needed to create that point of difference for us – one that we can sell at the recruitment stage to potential employees.”

They were also looking for HR software that could help them compete with the big guys, as they’d continually find that they were losing great candidates to bigger businesses who had higher than market average salaries and big-business employee benefits.

“The key thing that continually comes up is we’ve got to compete with a lot of different industries that are able to pay higher rates than us. It’s one of the things we see and feel from the recruitment process right through to a day-to-day basis,”  Tanya said.

That’s why being able to offer a range of benefits and perks alongside a great employee experience was a game-changer for the MFM team. They could go into the interview knowing they had a way to help their team make their money go further.

“We want to create a point of difference that is tangible. If a candidate goes, ‘well if you’re not able to pay me $35 per hour, but I can access discounted gift cards, or my pay early, that’s a compelling offer.’” 

But it’s not just the employee benefits that Tanya loves, the MFM team also introduced a range of other benefits, including a reward and recognition program where they incentivise their team for great work and reward them with Hero Points – which can be used to access all the discount offers and in-app perks on Swag.

“Having a reward and recognition program in place, means we can incentivise certain roles, and offer Hero Points as part of that program. Our team can then use that dollar value online with Swag, that’s a big deal. That’s going to provide us as a point of difference to other businesses out in the marketplace and improve our hiring and retention”, Tanya said.

Employment Hero is helping growing Aussie businesses attract and retain great talent by giving them a competitive edge

Macadamia Farm Management is in an exciting period of growth, and we couldn’t be more excited to support them on their journey. Not only have they improved their HR and payroll processes with Employment Hero, but they’ve also created a package of unbeatable perks and benefits for their team, meaning they can attract and retain standout talent in a competitive market.

Tanya and the MFM team understand that to retain and attract great talent, you need to nail your employee offering and clearly communicate it. They’ve thought beyond the baseline employment and salary, and defined additional perks that make working for them so special – and it’s powered by Employment Hero.

When you sign up to Employment Hero, your subscription automatically unlocks some of the best big-business benefits on the market for your team, including:

• Perks: Treat your team to the best perks ever! They’ll enjoy exclusive deals and cashback offers from top brands such as The Iconic, Myer, Virgin Airlines and many more.
• Everyday savings: Your team can save all year round on everyday essentials. We negotiate the best deals with leading providers for healthcare, energy, fuel, groceries and more.
• Earned wage access: Your team can get paid on their schedule by streaming a portion of their earned wages when they need it, without disrupting your normal payroll processes. This could help pay off a mortgage quicker, or eliminate the stress of an unexpected bill.
• Support financial wellbeing: Empower your team with the tools to budget better. Pay Split lets your team decide how much of their pay they’d like deposited into their accounts, while our Stash accounts help your team build budgets and save.
• Celebrate, together: Recognise great work or reward special milestones with Hero Points. These can be linked to your company values, reinforcing what makes your business different. Your team can spend or save their Hero Points to purchase something that’s meaningful to them.

Keen to see how much time and money you can save with Employment Hero on top of the extra benefits you can offer to your team? Take a look at our return on investment (ROI) report. 

If you’d like to explore how Employment Hero can transform your HR and payroll processes so you can focus back on doing what you do best, connect with one of our business specialists today.