Merging Local Governments

A group of small counties in Ontario was consolidated into one larger county, a move that involved over 600 employees. StarGarden helped enable a smooth, efficient transition.

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Merging counties = HR and Payroll Challenges

When local governments amalgamate, the process brings many HR and payroll challenges. So how do you merge legacy systems, paper systems, and complicated collective agreements into one streamlined system? The new Payroll team had to face several challenges:

Combining multiple sites' data
The employee count was a moving target as resources were continually re-organized
Verifying accuracy of the information
Getting the new system up and running to meet a strict deadline
Uncertainty about the number of people the new county would be responsible for
Lack of resources available to the implementation team

The county relied on StarGarden team to guide them through the time-pressured situation

How did StarGarden help?

StarGarden consultants created Pay and benefits templates to keep the calculations for the various groups in order
They systematically entered groups of employees into the system
They then set up a lab for users to test the employee data for accuracy and get familiar with the StarGarden system

Despite the constant changes and obstacles, StarGarden helped the County meet its implementation deadline! StarGarden was also able to:

Streamline HR and Payroll processes
Accommodate pay and benefit calculations required by the various groups
Avoid a lot of customizations
Transition knowledge to the core user team
Provide in-depth training to ensure optimal ongoing performance

Amalgamated Ontario county running unified HR and payroll on StarGarden

Government merger

Merging local governments into one payroll system

Amalgamation is one of the hardest things you can put an HR and payroll team through. When a group of small Ontario counties merged into one, StarGarden helped them bring more than 600 employees, multiple legacy systems, and several collective agreements into a single payroll environment, and meet a tight go-live deadline. Here is how they did it, and how you can plan for the same.

600+

Employees moved into one system

Multiple

Counties merged into one

Facing an amalgamation of your own? Our government merger guide breaks down the HR and payroll planning behind a transition like this.

Get the Government Merger Guide

The challenge

Amalgamation collides legacy systems, paper records, and competing collective agreements, usually against an immovable deadline. The new payroll team had to manage:

Combining data from multiple sites
An employee count that kept shifting as roles were reorganized
Verifying the accuracy of the merged information
A hard deadline to get the new system live
Uncertainty about the total headcount the new county would manage
An implementation team stretched for resources

How StarGarden helped

StarGarden consultants guided the county through the pressure with a staged approach: building pay and benefits templates for each employee group, loading those groups into the system in a controlled sequence, and standing up a test lab so users could validate their data and learn StarGarden before go-live.

Behind those moves sat careful planning for sequencing, data validation, and training under a hard deadline, the part most teams underestimate. That planning approach is exactly what our government merger guide walks through, step by step.

The results

The county met its deadline, and came away with more than a working system:

Met the implementation deadline despite constant change
Streamlined HR and payroll processes
Handled the pay and benefit rules of every employee group
Avoided heavy customization
Transferred knowledge to the core user team
Built lasting capability through in-depth training

Take the chaos out of your next big HR and payroll change. See how StarGarden can help.

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