HR Management System

01The challenge:

HR retyped every form, and new hires waited nine days to work

PeopleFirst places caregivers and support staff with families and clinics, and employs about 850 people across six branches. New hires filled out a paper packet at the branch, which HR retyped into three systems. Leave requests arrived by text to supervisors, and a shared spreadsheet was the only record of who was off.

Each of the five HR managers spent the first half of the day chasing signatures, reconciling leave and keying pay changes into the payroll provider. Reviews happened when someone found the time, and a new hire typically waited nine days between accepting an offer and a first paid shift.

02What we built:

One record per employee, with every form, request and review attached

The React front end sits on Node.js services and a PostgreSQL database that keeps one record per employee. Onboarding is a checklist the new hire completes on a phone: tax forms, ID upload, e-signed policies and direct deposit. Each finished step moves the file forward and notifies the branch without anyone retyping it.

Keycloak handles sign-in and roles, so caregivers see their own records, supervisors approve their teams and HR sees its branch. Leave accrues by policy, review cycles open on each work anniversary, and approved pay changes reach the payroll provider through its API every night. The stack runs in Docker on infrastructure PeopleFirst controls.

03What changed:

Three hours back each day for every HR manager

Each HR manager gets about three hours a day back, measured over the first two months against their own time logs. New hires now go from accepted offer to first paid shift in two days, down from nine, and leave balances are correct without a spreadsheet to reconcile.

Pay changes are entered once, and reviews go out on schedule because the system opens them. The platform belongs to PeopleFirst outright. After a four-week pilot at two branches, the code, Docker images, admin rights and setup notes went to their IT contractor, who now adds users and leave policies.