How OpenWorks Reduced Manual Work by 25% with Lattice HRIS

Gerald Sexton, VP of People and Culture at OpenWorks, believes that scaling a people-first organization hinges on a winning combination of a great culture, meaningful values, and the right tech. 

He joined the facilities management organization in early 2024 to prime OpenWorks’s people processes for upcoming growth and maximum scalability. 

“[OpenWorks] has been around for approximately 40 years,” Gerald says. “Our culture is fantastic — we've got values that we live by, and we’ve got great bones. [But now, it’s about getting] the company to the next level.”

The Challenge: Sustaining a People-First Culture at Scale

For OpenWorks, “getting to the next level” is a multi-year strategy involving an expanded service offering and footprint. Its success hinges on hiring the best talent, preserving the company’s culture at scale, and building a modern, streamlined HR tech stack to match the organization’s velocity of change.

“OpenWorks has really aggressive growth goals for the next several years,” Gerald says. “From a people and culture perspective, our goal is focused on bringing in the best talent, and developing people so that they can perform in their jobs — not only in a productive way, but also in a repeatable and scalable way. We really care about building a culture of excellence, and enabling the folks that join our company to be the best versions of themselves.”

But nothing about OpenWorks’s previous HRIS provider helped achieve that aim. Data visibility and connectivity was poor. Leaders and managers found reporting, managing time off, and running payroll to be clunky. And the lack of self-service functionality had Gerald’s small team feeling overwhelmed and fielding employee requests day-in and day-out.

“Top to bottom in the tech stack we had previously, there was a general drain, duplication of effort, and a ton of manual work to get the basics that we needed,” Gerald says. “Every single question had to be routed through my team [for help] in finding basic information. It was creating a lot of friction and rework.”

Implementing Lattice: Unmatched Connectivity, User Experience, and Customer Support

When Gerald started the search for a new HRIS and payroll provider, he had a few key criteria:

• Intuitively designed interface that works seamlessly for both backend users and employees
• Increased data flow and connectivity to unify people processes and systems across the organization
• Customizable workflows and automation to streamline people processes
• Advanced reporting workflows and real-time insights

User experience played a huge part in Gerald’s decision. Gerald didn’t just want a new HRIS for the good of his team — he wanted employees to feel empowered to use it, too.

“Many large legacy systems are bolted together — they don’t operate like a modern system,” Gerald says. “Lattice is the opposite. It's easy to find information. And while employees may not cheer about getting a new HR system, they’ll be happy that they can find their pay stub, ask questions, and answer requests via workflows that they couldn’t before.”

Lattice was already OpenWorks’s provider of choice for employee engagement and performance management. But the real clincher for choosing Lattice HRIS? Our award-winning sales and support teams.

What stood out to me about Lattice was the feeling of talking to real people who believed in their product, and really wanted to do the best for their customers. That was the biggest differentiator.

Reducing Manual Work by 25% via Workflows

To sustain a great culture and employee experience at scale long-term, Gerald knew he needed to diagnose the root causes behind the inefficiencies in OpenWorks’s people processes. Manual work was a huge contributing factor.

“Manual tasks are probably the least favorite part of any HR person’s job…[and] Lattice has reduced our team’s burden by at least 25%. By taking advantage of pre-made workflows and creating a few custom ones, we’ve been able to reduce email requests to update information (address and name changes), as well as drive better engagement through automated messaging to managers for things like employee birthdays and anniversaries,” Gerald says.

“At a glance, these might seem simple, but they’ve allowed us to save time and move to a paperless process…and we are just getting started.  [Our custom] workflows take single-touch tasks and combine them [with automated] notifications or tasks within the system. Routine tasks like promotions or off-cycle increases are now much more streamlined. And now I can track them all in one place,” he adds.

Lattice’s fully customizable workflows and automations have meant huge speed and efficiency gains, freeing up Gerald’s team to focus on delivering greater value — like delivering a personalized welcome to all those new hires. 

“Onboarding new employees is one of the most important things to get right,” Gerald says. “In our previous system, it took about half an hour to upload each new hire. In Lattice, it only takes a few minutes. We can continue to edit and update it as we grow to match new messaging and new processes.

“The results have been amazing — the reduced rework and automations [have alleviated] my team’s [HR workload]. Our onboarding experience is now much more personalized — it’s warm and welcoming. That’s created a huge uptick in our engagement scores for new hires.”

Increasing Visibility Into Company Performance and Engagement by 30%

Implementing Lattice hasn’t just improved visibility in backend HR processes — it has also transformed how managers engage with employee performance and engagement. Lattice’s integrated user experience enables maximum data flow and visibility across the whole employee lifecycle, connecting siloed HR processes and creating greater alignment.

“Lattice [has given us] a documented and connected approach, from the highest level of a company goal, all the way down to what an individual is contributing,” Gerald says.

Managers now have real-time insight into how their teams can work at their best, significantly increasing their autonomy and ownership over team processes.

“Manager visibility into performance at a system level has drastically improved with Lattice — it’s at least 30% better than what it was before,” Gerald says. “That might be even more if you consider the overall frustration level when people can’t find the information they’re looking for. 

“With Lattice, our managers have a very easy way to see performance according to goals or key performance indicators (KPIs). They can see prior reviews in a way that doesn’t require HR to step in and show them where the information is, or walk them through what it means. It’s a much better experience.” 

Impact of Lattice: Streamlined People Processes Built to Scale

Since implementing Lattice HRIS and Payroll, Gerald has built a much more connected, streamlined people operations experience at OpenWorks. This has been a game-changer for full organizational alignment on goals, processes, and key employee data and documentation.

“Reporting is so much cleaner and easier. Our employees actually have a place where they can find policies and documents, record time off, and find the information they need,” Gerald says. “Through each department, we have a lens on how to improve the company. I have a way to track it, get feedback, [and] tie reviews to different things. To have all that in one easy-to-use place — that’s super meaningful.”

But one of Gerald's biggest wins is that he’s now able to focus on more high-impact work.

“The punchline for streamlining HR processes is I get to be a more strategic leader and less in the weeds about the day-to-day running of the business. We chose Lattice HRIS as a system that would scale with us. If you like easy implementation, a frustration-free HRIS experience, and efficient workflows and access for your employees, Lattice is a no-brainer. 

“It’s the pillar of our tech stack. It has leveled up our game and pushed us into the digital HR space. OpenWorks is very excited to be a part of building a people-powered future with Lattice.”