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Employment Hero as Greenlight Insurance’s Best Policy for Everything HR
At a glance
Company
Greenlight Insurance Brokers
Location
Rotorua, New Zealand
Employees
40
Product
HR Software – Platinum
Read this case study if:
- You’re a growing professional services firm managing HR with paper-based processes.
- You’re spending too much time on onboarding, leave management and contract generation.
- You want to empower employees with self-service tools and free up time for high-impact work.
About Greenlight Insurance Brokers
Founded in 1987, Greenlight Insurance Brokers is a trusted provider of general insurance across New Zealand. With a client base of nearly 6,000, they primarily serve small to medium-sized businesses in industries such as forestry and transport. Headquartered in Rotorua and with sites across the country, Greenlight has become a trusted name in risk management for businesses, no matter their industry or region.
Greenlight is known for its reliable, tailored approach to managing risks in specific regions and industries.
Behind Greenlight’s growing workforce of 40 is Jane Oldham, People and Performance Manager, who leads the company’s entire HR function. From day one at the company, Jane set out to modernise and future-proof HR at Greenlight, starting with a smarter approach to managing people and HR processes.
Closing the books on clunky processes
Before Employment Hero, HR operations at Greenlight were completely manual. Employee records were stored as physical documents or unstructured digital files. Processes like onboarding, leave requests, and contract management were inefficient and time-consuming.
“There were hard copy files and soft copies just kept on our system. It hadn’t really had the time invested to become organised.”
Leave applications were submitted via Word documents that employees would print, sign, scan, and email to Jane, who then manually logged each request into her Outlook calendar. The situation was similar when it came to creating contracts and onboarding new hires.
“It was incredibly manual. Just keeping on top of who was off and when was a full-time task in itself.”
“Editing Word templates, saving PDFs, printing and signing documents, chasing signatures. It was exhausting and repetitive.”
Why Employment Hero got the green light
To overhaul these legacy processes, Jane began her search for a solution that was both flexible and reliable for a growing business. That search led her to Employment Hero.
“I Googled top-rated HR systems, and Employment Hero kept coming up time and time again. I was already familiar with the brand just through word-of-mouth and so I wanted to take a look for myself. After doing a solo demo, I really liked what I saw,” Jane shared.
After trialling the platform herself, Jane invited Greenlight’s leadership team to join a demo to see it for themselves. Their response made the decision easy.
“They were completely onboard. The benefits were obvious to everyone straight away — it was exactly what we needed.”
Once the decision was made, implementation was simple and stress-free.
“It was actually an enjoyable experience. The support team was responsive and helpful – we wished we’d done it sooner”
Leave applications and contracts, done in minutes
After implementing Employment Hero, Jane quickly saw the value in time savings and process improvement. Contract generation, once a manual task that required hours of tweaking, now took mere minutes.
“Now it takes three minutes to send a contract. New hires have told me the onboarding process is just so easy and fast.”
With Employment Hero’s self-service model, employees can now access everything they need – contracts, leave balances, policies – directly through the app or web portal. Leave requests, once a multistep task, now take seconds.
“The employee app is a huge win. If someone’s out of the office or on leave, they can still submit a request and see their balances without needing to ask me – it’s really taken the load off”
“It’s taken a huge burden off my plate. I get far fewer questions about policies, leave, or entitlements because people can just look it up themselves.”
Even the rollout across the wider team was a success.
“You always brace for complaints when introducing a new system, but there weren’t any. It was seamless. People were excited about how easy it made their lives.”
Building culture and community
Beyond streamlining admin, Employment Hero has also contributed to team culture. The platform’s automated milestone features, like birthday and work anniversary reminders, help Greenlight celebrate team members more consistently.
“It’s the little things, but it really does make a difference. It helps make sure people feel acknowledged and valued.”
Another standout aspect of using Employment Hero has been Hero Connect, the platform’s user community and support hub. As a sole HR practitioner managing everything from onboarding to engagement, having a place to turn for quick answers and peer insights has become an essential part of Jane’s workflow.
“Sometimes you see someone ask a question that you’ve had in the back of your mind for weeks. It’s like someone else has done the thinking for you.”
Insuring a smarter way to work
For Jane, the biggest benefit is the freedom for her to focus on more meaningful, strategic work, rather than getting bogged down in repetitive admin tasks.
“You won’t know yourself once you make the switch. It really does feel like a weight’s been lifted off your shoulders.
“You set it up once, and it just works. It’s not something you have to constantly manage – it ticks along quietly in the background.”
“Plus I really like how they’re [Employment Hero] constantly updating their software, and letting us know what’s new. It’s not just sitting there stale, there’s always something new and exciting we can trial with the team.”
Want to experience Employment Hero for yourself?
Employment Hero is your all-in-one Employment Operating System for HR, payroll, and recruitment built to simplify compliance, automate admin, and empower your people. From onboarding to offboarding, we streamline every step of the employee lifecycle so you can spend less time on processes and more time scaling your business.
Want to see how companies like Waterware are transforming their HR operations and driving real business impact? Book ademo with our business specialists today.
