HR, People & Culture, Payroll & Finance, Payroll Basics

From 3 Days to 3 Hours: Painting Efficiency into HMG Paints

Published

October 6, 2026

Updated

October 7, 2026

1 min read

At a glance

Company

HMG Paints

Location

England

Employees

200

Explore this case study if:

You are curious about how Employment Hero can transform outdated HR & payroll systems
You are looking for ways to reduce time spent on payroll admin
You are wanting a solution to address all your HR needs all in one place

For nearly a century, HMG Paints has been a forerunner in industrial paints. Their paint has been trusted in the most demanding environments – from shredding rubber in motorsports to exploring the stars in aerospace. With continued growth of their business, they still hadn’t found an HR and payroll system that could quite keep pace with their ambition. That was until they found Employment Hero. Now, they’ve reduced time spent on payroll by over 80% and put their focus back on the people, not the paperwork.

One platform. Many success stories

Work smarter, together. Employment Hero’s impact goes beyond just the HR team. Here’s how Employment Hero has transformed HMG Paints at every level.

Leadership's Perspective

Manager's Perspective

Employee's Perspective

Steve Hutton, Operations Director at HMG Paints, on reducing payroll processing time and providing an all-in-one solution. (01:51)

Steve’s journey at HMG Paints started at 17. He’s seen the full evolution of operations from paper trails to digital tools. Steve shares how Employment Hero completely reshaped how their team handles HR and payroll. From reducing a 3-day payroll process to just 3 hours, to giving employees full access to their leave balances and performance appraisals via the app, it’s been a total game-changer.

Paddy Dyson, Marketing Director and Luke Czarnobay, Colour Lab Manager at HMG Paints, on how Employment Hero provides a single source of truth, making their roles more efficient. (01:43)

Paddy and Luke reveal how going digital with Employment Hero made everything from leave management to appraisals faster, smoother and way less admin-heavy. With everything now in one place (desktop or app), managers can see who’s off, track sick leave, review appraisals and get on with their day in record time.

Lewis Whalen, Management Accountant at HMG Paints, on the easy-to-use Employment Hero Work app. (00:53)

Lewis shares how Employment Hero helped ditch the manual forms and bring everything people-related into one simple system. Whether it’s submitting leave requests, accessing payslips, or signing documents, the team now does it all from the app. No more chasing forms. No more HR treasure hunts.

The challenge

Outgrowing a manual system

With over 200 employees, a warehouse to manage, and plenty of health and safety aspects to consider, relying on paper-based HR processes led to inefficiencies, errors and unnecessary administrative burden. Their payroll system, in particular, was out-dated, and time-consuming.

Key challenges included:

Manual payroll processing: Calculating overtime and deductions from printed timesheets was time-consuming and prone to errors, delaying payments and limiting employee visibility into their records.
Inefficient leave management: Paper-based holiday requests led to errors, inaccurate leave balances, and added workload for both employees and HR.
Lack of managerial oversight: Managers had no real-time access to data, making team scheduling difficult.
Restricted employee access: Employees had minimal control over their HR information and lacked a central platform for engaging with HR.

The solution

An all-in-one platform

By rolling out an end-to-end, AI-powered HR & payroll solution from Employment Hero, HMG Paints said goodbye to their papered past forever. They partnered with Employment Hero to implement a comprehensive all-in-one Employment Operating System (OS) that integrates payroll, HR management, employee engagement tools and more into one intuitive platform. One system. Everything employment.

Payroll from three days to three hours

When it came to carrying out monthly payruns, the transformation was immediate. HMG Paints reduced their payroll processing time by over 80%. The newfound efficiency freed up valuable resources, allowing HR to focus on strategic initiatives rather than administrative tasks.

“Employment Hero has allowed us to go from a three-day process down to a three-hour process. That hands back so much invaluable time.” – Steven Hutton, Operations Director

The key to unlocking efficiency

In addition, with an Employment Operating System that puts HR and payroll all in one place, workflow efficiency has drastically improved. Wage slips, appraisals and reports are now easily accessible, reducing administrative burdens and allowing HR to be more proactive, rather than reactive.

“It’s making my workflow a lot more efficient with HR and payroll being all in one place. I’m not looking for reports anymore—the reports are coming directly to me. It lets you focus more on the proactive side of HR management. And it makes managing your staff very, very easy.”

The impact

Smooth, streamlined and seamless operations

Employment Hero’s powerful all-in-one Employment Operating System (OS) made an impact across HMG’s entire employment process, from hiring to HR, payroll and more.

Now HMG Paints can focus on what truly matters: supporting their employees and driving the business forward. Through Employment Hero, HMG Paints has:

Reduced time spent on payroll by over 80%.
Put the focus back on their people, not tedious paperwork.
Allowed for more pro-active HR management.
Implemented efficiencies in vital reporting.

“Employment Hero has allowed us to put our HR focus back on the people of the business, not on tedious paperwork.”

The world’s first Employment Operating System from Employment Hero

Employment Hero’s Employment Operating System is more than just a platform–we’ve taken the traditional isolated aspects of employment and integrated them into a seamless, human and AI-powered solution that empowers employers, employees and job seekers alike. Find and hire top talent with SmartMatch, seamlessly onboard new hires, automate complex payroll, drive employee engagement and more.

See what you could do with the world’s first Employment Operating System.

One system. Everything employment.

Speak to an employment specialist