North Carolina General Assembly

Supporting 170 legislators, each of whom can hire their own office staff, alongside housekeeping, cafeteria, police, and administrative employees, means HR activity never stops. Annual hiring surges at the start of each legislative session, combined with frequent year-round employee changes, made a modern, integrated HR system critical to keeping operations running smoothly.

“Because each Assembly member can hire their own office staff, someone could be hired without being entered into the HR system for a few days, and then the HR team has to catch up,” says Garrett Dimond, a legislative services project manager for the North Carolina General Assembly. “This work is like supporting 170 individual companies, and it’s important that we offer personnel service to the members.”

The North Carolina General Assembly previously used an on-premises core HR management system, in place for more than 20 years, that the vendor no longer supported. Specific HR functions, such as payroll, were hosted on separate, siloed systems. The lack of integration between the systems meant that many processes relied on paper. The HR and payroll teams often needed to enter data manually into multiple systems.

For a replacement HR system, the Assembly’s legislative services and IT staff evaluated options in a competitive bid process. This process led to the selection of Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud.

Although the Oracle HCM solution met the Assembly’s requirements for HR and payroll functions, two additional factors were critical in the decision. First was Oracle support for integration with other systems, important to North Carolina because of the extensive customization in its employment processes and rules. Second was the foundation Oracle offered to support broader business processes, which will help the organization’s operations become more agile.

“Oracle didn’t just give us a new HR technology solution; it also helped us create a new solution for business processes,” says Dimond.

Because the Assembly’s IT team lacked Oracle experience and needed help with required system integrations, North Carolina chose Mythics for consulting assistance. Mythics led the implementation of the recruiting module in Oracle HCM Cloud, as well as the technical effort to convert data from the legacy system. Mythics also worked with Oracle consultants to develop 12 custom system integrations and three custom reports.

“The knowledge of integrations and Oracle solutions in the Mythics team was very important to us and helped us in going through the system transition,” says Kelly Stallings, the project’s technical lead.

“Mythics provided responsible, confident, well-trained individuals who took ownership of our needs and issues, and worked quickly to solve them,” adds Dimond. “It was a well-qualified team and one that was always agile and got the job done.”

The Assembly’s Oracle HCM Cloud solution went live on January 4, 2021. Dimond describes the deployment as “textbook,” even as it was completed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The new HR system easily passed a critical test when all employees were paid correctly on the first payday after implementation.

Oracle HCM Modules:

• Global HR
• Recruiting
• Payroll
• Time and Labor
• Absence Management

Integrations:

• ADP payroll and benefits system
• North Carolina State Retirement System
• Healthcare marketplace for state government
• North Carolina Accounting System
• North Carolina Department of State Treasurer

Time savings.
Integration of the recruiting module with Oracle Global HR saves the HR team time and supports easier interaction with legislators. Other system integrations also save time by streamlining tasks for employees, who can often enter their own information online. The IT team saves time because Oracle manages and maintains the core HCM solution in the cloud.

Mobile support.
Giving employees access to information and tasks on their mobile devices, especially for entering timesheets or viewing paycheck stubs, reduces use of paper-based processes.

A single system for everyone.
A common HCM system across all Assembly divisions enables collaboration among HR and administrative staff.
A standard payroll schedule. With a single payroll solution for the enterprise, the Assembly now supports a semi-monthly payroll schedule for all employees.
Improved employee experience. The convenience of HR self-service tools on mobile devices produces a better user experience for all Assembly employees.

“The new system improves employee morale and deepens their connection to the General Assembly because they have easy access to all of their payroll and benefits data,” says Dimond.

The North Carolina General Assembly achieved its goals for a new, modern HR system. The Oracle HCM Cloud solution offers capabilities that better serve the Assembly’s dynamic employee base. And by extending the solution beyond traditional HR functions, staff across the organization can work together more easily and improve processes that underpin Assembly business.