From Three Weeks to One Day: How Terryberry Helped Transform a New Hire Experience

For HR leaders, technology should make it easier to focus on people, not create more work managing systems.

That was the challenge facing an innovative, growing global technology company. Every new employee meant more manual work for HR and up to three weeks before anyone could celebrate them using the company’s recognition programme. All because of a seemingly small administrative gap where the payroll, HR systems, and employee recognition programme weren’t connected.

Today that wait is down to just one day.

As an organisation that operates globally, this company prioritises creating a consistent employee experience where people feel valued and connected across locations from the moment they join.

The company had a modern HR and payroll system serving as its central source of employee data. It also had a recognition and engagement programme. But the two weren’t connected.

Until each new hire was added manually, the recognition programme didn’t know the employee existed. This meant new employees were waiting weeks before they could give or receive recognition.

The lack of integration created friction at precisely the moment the company needed to be building connection. For the HR Director, this meant valuable time was spent on administrative delays instead of the more meaningful work of:

• Building culture
• Creating a sense of belonging
• Helping employees feel connected to the organisation
• Supporting retention
• Helping the company achieve its broader business goals

The company connected its HCM/HRIS platform to Terryberry’s Be Engaged platform, which features recognition, benefits, rewards, well-being, and employee listening all in one place.

Through the API integration, employee data now syncs automatically into Be Engaged every night, and employees access the platform directly from their payroll system through single sign-on.

When a new employee is added to the company’s HR system, that information flows into Be Engaged the very same night, avoiding any duplicated work.

The difference is simple:

The integration reduced the delay in celebrating newly onboarded employees from approximately three weeks to just one day. According to the HR Director, the value wasn’t in simply eliminating a manual administrative process; it created several meaningful outcomes.

Recognition Starts Sooner

New employees can be recognised within a day rather than waiting weeks, creating positive moments almost immediately after someone joins. They also have the opportunity to build connections by recognising those who help them learn the business.

Culture Starts on Day One

Recognition gives leaders an immediate opportunity to reinforce the behaviours, values, and culture they want new employees to experience.

Belonging Begins Earlier

Being recognised and welcomed into the organisation’s recognition experience helps new employees feel part of the team.

Onboarding Becomes More Engaging

Because employee data is automatically available, the organisation can also initiate its onboarding survey sequence through Be Heard, Terryberry’s employee listening module. That allows the company to begin listening to employees earlier in their journey rather than waiting until later in the employee lifecycle.

HR Can Focus on Higher-Value Work

With employee data syncing each night automatically, the HR Director no longer spends hours manually maintaining employee records in another system. Instead, she can spend that time on what matters most: building culture, retaining employees, and helping the organisation achieve its business goals.

The integration streamlined the complete onboarding process, but the real value came from getting the employee integrated into the company culture faster.

A new employee can be recognised sooner. Onboarding can begin with listening. Leaders can start reinforcing culture immediately. And the HR team spends less time managing technology and more time focusing on its people.

For this client, optimisation meant helping a HR leader spend less time managing a process and more time building a culture where people feel recognised, connected, and valued from day one.

The true opportunity lies in making employee experience capabilities surrounding existing systems (like records, payroll, and benefits) work better together.

Terryberry’s integrations are designed to do exactly that.

Organisations reduce administrative friction when employee data flows automatically from core systems into Terryberry. This crucially allows for more timely opportunities to recognise, listen to, reward, and engage employees, which are all activities that drive employee engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty.

The best technology integration helps people do more with data rather than just moving data faster.