After an ownership change, Emerald Site Services needed to streamline its HR and payroll processes, find a quality healthcare plan without significantly increasing costs, and do it all in a short timeframe. Learn how BBSI’s flexibility and unique problem-solving approach rose to the occasion.
Under the best circumstances, changing payroll, HR, and benefits systems can be a significant challenge. Considerations are countless when it comes to finding the right solution for a growing company that wants to maximize employee benefits, safety, and compliance, all without significantly increasing costs.
Now, imagine throwing an ownership change into the mix. That’s precisely the situation Emerald Site Services found themselves in back in January 2023.
Emerald’s Principal, John Donahue, and Office Manager Tina Sorensen needed a new HR solution, payroll system, and benefits package, and they needed it all in a short time frame, as the ownership change meant their current benefit plans were soon to expire.
Going from a large company of around 700 employees to a much smaller operation with only 25 employees as part of the ownership change meant finding cost-effective solutions. They also had unique payroll challenges that their chosen vendor would need to accommodate. John and Tina aimed to streamline all these services under one roof to minimize business interruptions and keep processes as simple as possible.
Tina found BBSI through a mutual contact's referral. After a few conversations with BBSI’s representative, Dave Wills, Tina and John felt confident about choosing BBSI as their HR, payroll, and benefits provider.
Thanks to BBSI’s responsiveness, commitment to flexibility and deep understanding of business strategy and partnerships, BBSI helped Emerald achieve their transition goals.
With BBSI, Emerald was able to:
Today, Emerald and BBSI are proud partners and look forward to a future of mutual growth.
Here’s how it all happened.
Emerald Site Services is a specialized sitework construction company based primarily in Northern Illinois with operations extending into Wisconsin, Indiana, and parts of Michigan and Ohio. Since 2004, they’ve provided a full range of services to their client base, including initial construction site preparation and final project closeouts.
Over the years, they’ve become experts in a complex field and earned the reputation as a company that thinks outside the box. Today, their services include stormwater management, general contracting of site work services, specialty excavation work, full-service landscape maintenance, and many other environmental tasks and projects.
Emerald prides itself on its status as an industry leader, and its long-term partnerships with many diverse clients attest to this. Emerald’s client base includes municipalities, public utilities, railroads, engineering firms, and national home builders. These customers rely on Emerald for its unique combination of specialty experience and extensive knowledge.
Tina Sorensen is Emerald’s Office Manager. She is responsible for the company’s accounting, payroll, and benefits. Tina has over 30 years’ experience in the accounting industry, 15 of which have been in management positions.
She also possesses a strong background in payroll processing, client cultivation, and recruiting for executive-level and high-level IT positions throughout the Chicagoland area.
Tina’s personal contact led Emerald to BBSI, and her expertise in evaluating payroll and benefits companies was instrumental in Emerald’s choice.
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John Donahue is the Principal of Emerald. He graduated from Marquette University and began his career as a sales manager with a commercial landscaping company in 1991.
John eventually became Director of Sales and Senior Project Manager for the company, overseeing public projects and land development.
John started Emerald Site Services in 2004. He has spent the last twenty years growing it into an industry leading company that is known for his teams’ diverse skill sets and their ability to form long-term partnerships with various kinds of customers.
Until recently, Emerald was part of a larger umbrella corporation that owned several companies. This simplified the HR, payroll, and health insurance processes, but it also removed some flexibility in terms of choosing options that were right for their operation.
That all changed quickly in January 2023 when Emerald was acquired from their parent corporation. With freedom comes great responsibility, and Emerald quickly found themselves facing significant challenges.
The ownership shift introduced new issues for critical background business functions like HR, safety, healthcare, and payroll solutions that Emerald previously didn’t need to worry about.
Unique characteristics of Emerald's business and workforce further complicate these operational areas. Some employees earn different rates for different tasks, while others work in multiple states, making payroll and workers’ comp calculations even more complex.
Emerald needed a strategic partner who would help them reclaim control over operations without sacrificing efficiency.
In terms of health benefits, Emerald knew they wanted access to competitive rates and to have everything taken care of by a single company.
“Our biggest challenge was coming from a bigger company which was partially self-funded on health insurance. [There is] buying power that comes with having 700 or 800 employees versus 30.”
- John
Emerald didn’t want fragmented solutions that could take extra time or resources. They also needed to ensure they found a vendor who combined deep expertise with a wide breadth of knowledge, similar to their own company.
“We evaluated numerous payroll and healthcare providers to address the complex needs arising from our recent acquisition. Our goal was to find a ‘one-stop shop’ capable of simplifying our previously fragmented approach, which involved managing multiple vendors.”
- Tina
Finally, they needed everything done quickly. Their benefit plans were set to expire in less than 3 months. They needed a new system in place before then, and they needed it done without a significant interruption to their daily operations.
Despite all of these challenges, Emerald knew this was the perfect opportunity for innovation and process improvement. So, they started weighing their options to find the best fit for a new strategic partner.
The search took a lot of work. Emerald found many companies to be pushy in their sales tactics or completely inflexible in their product offerings. After crossing several companies off the list, Emerald was referred to BBSI by a mutual contact, and they were quickly impressed by BBSI’s unique approach.
With the short time frame, Emerald wanted to gather as much information as possible, as quickly as possible. Dave Wills from BBSI made this easy with a flexible and detailed product offering that met all of Emerald’s needs.
“Dave outlined what the services were, we chatted a bit on the phone, and then he came in and talked to us about what BBSI does and what they offer. BBSI was very responsive, which was refreshing. With some of the prior companies I had spoken to, they were a little bit more difficult and wanted a lot of information before we even signed on the dotted line.”
- Tina
Dave’s straightforward and energetic proposal directly addressed Emerald’s needs, demonstrating BBSI’s commitment to understanding their company’s unique goals and challenges. This was a distinct contrast to the other providers they’d spoken with.
As a company that understands the value of strong, long-term business relationships, Emerald greatly appreciated Dave’s professionalism and ability to deliver on promises. Ultimately, this confirmed their decision to go with BBSI.
“The decisive factor in partnering with BBSI was their exceptional attention to detail and responsiveness. Their ability to promptly address our urgent needs for new solutions and their patience in navigating us through our numerous inquiries solidified our confidence in their service.”
- Tina
Confident that BBSI shared their long-term strategic vision and that they’d be forming a relationship with a company that understood the value of mutually beneficial partnerships, Emerald was relieved to end their search.
Today, Emerald Site Services is certain that BBSI was the right choice.
BBSI was able to help them achieve all of their transition goals with minimal business disruption, and set them up for the future with a system that will seamlessly scale alongside them.
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BBSI’s custom payroll solutions simplified Emerald’s unique payroll challenges.
“This adjustment allowed for a more fluid management of varying employee pay rates and tasks while ensuring we remained compliant with evolving labor laws. Their foresight in recommending these changes exemplifies how BBSI's strategic interventions have led to tangible improvements in our business operations.”
- Tina
One of Emerald’s goals in streamlining HR, payroll, and benefits was reducing the time spent on repetitive and labor-intensive tasks. If left unchecked in any business, these critical functions can completely devour the schedules of employees who could be devoting their attention to strategy and business growth.
In this respect, BBSI’s assistance has had a significant impact.
“BBSI's support has allowed our company to redirect focus towards strategic growth areas, such as market expansion and enhancing our service offerings. By taking over the complexity of payroll and HR compliance, we've been able to concentrate resources on innovation and customer satisfaction.”
- Tina
When it comes to workplace safety and compliance, risk management is another business-critical function that can’t be overlooked. Our deep insights and experience working with businesses across a variety of industries mean we know the challenges that lurk over the horizon and how to help our clients avoid them.
“BBSI's assistance has streamlined payroll processes, ensured compliance with new labor laws, and enabled more efficient management of variable employee pay rates. This has directly improved our operational efficiency and reduced administrative burdens.”
- Tina
Having completed their search and feeling confident that they made the correct decision, Emerald looks forward to a future of continued success and simplified scaling with BBSI.
Scaling alongside BBSI is easy, thanks to our one-stop shop. Rather than relying on multiple companies to provide different services at different rates, BBSI streamlines the process, meaning we’re always ready to scale our products and services based on our customers' needs.
Emerald is working with BBSI on other projects now, including an employee handbook and developing a safety program to ensure all employees understand safety from day one.
Finally, Emerald is confident that they’ve found a partner ready to support them whenever and however they need it, including helping them spot the invisible problems they may not have noticed until they became major issues.
BBSI specializes in flexible solutions for businesses of all sizes, which is why we were an easy choice for Emerald Site Services, and why we’ve been successful in helping clients in all 50 states solve complicated HR, payroll, and benefits challenges for decades - even in short time frames.
Our flexibility and problem-solving ability are part of our broader business philosophy, centered on finding ways to help our clients in their times of need.
We primarily value building trust with our clients, which leads to recurring business and long-term relationships. We’ve learned that the key to forming these successful, long-term relationships comes down to being there for you. We focus on finding solutions instead of getting hung up on rigid processes, because mutual growth is more powerful than short-term profits.
If you’re in a tight spot and need help with payroll, HR, or benefits, or if you’re just looking around to see what business solutions are out there, BBSI would love to hear from you. Let us know what you think you can improve on, and one of our localized business experts will provide potential solutions.