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Over the course of 30 years, Des Nedhe Group evolved from a small construction outfit into a diverse organization with multiple businesses across Canada. Des Nedhe's primary mission is to provide economic and employment opportunities to all members of the English River First Nation in Northern Saskatchewan. Striving for self-reliance and self-governance, they sought to reduce dependence on government funding by expanding their ventures. Today, their portfolio includes retail, professional services, marketing, sales, construction and investments in drone and defense technology, financial services, and more.
But as they were growing, they soon realized they didn’t have the infrastructure to support their desired growth. They chose Criterion as their ideal human capital management (HCM) solution, capable of handling Des Nedhe's unique complexities, such as:
- Operating as a 100% indigenous-owned group not governed by federal legislation.
- Managing both wholly-owned companies and an investment arm.
- Operating in various locations across Canada while adhering to multiple union regulations and industry standards.
With Criterion HCM, Des Nedhe Group transformed their paper-based system into a fully digital infrastructure, significantly improving payroll, talent management, and HR data handling. We spoke with Lacey Unrau, VP of Human Resources at Des Nedhe Group, to learn more about their journey.
Challenges
Des Nedhe and the English River First Nations have a massive footprint in Northern Saskatchewan, in regions historically known for hunting and trapping. The discovery of some of the world's richest uranium deposits in the early 2000s led to extensive nuclear mining on traditional lands, now supplying much of Canada's uranium for its nuclear reactors, and providing carbon-free electricity to some of the country’s most populous regions.
But the youth in their band were moving away from traditional lifestyles. In that, Des Nedhe saw an opportunity to offer more appealing livelihoods. They began to introduce them to the mining and construction industries, branching out into other career and occupational streams in various industries and sectors through diversification over the years.
To achieve their goal of becoming a top-tier national organization, Des Nedhe recognized the need for a strong HR foundation. They brought in Lacey Unrau to spearhead these essential changes.
Some of their most critical challenges included:
- Lack of Visibility - The company struggled to generate accurate employee lists or reliable demographic data from their system of spreadsheets. This made strategic planning and compliance a real difficulty.
- Inefficient Payroll - Des Nedhe's HR and payroll systems were archaic, and their inefficient methods posed significant organizational and financial risks. Managing payroll was particularly cumbersome, with two full-time employees handling up to 150 workers' time sheets manually, converting them to Excel for calculations before inputting them into another system. This time-consuming process was prone to errors and inefficiencies, pushing employees toward burnout. This was only made more difficult by varying pay schedules across different groups.
- Complicated Labor Rules - With employers in multiple locations and employees across Saskatchewan (in different provinces and territories, with some working remotely), Des Nedhe dealt with a lot of complex rules related to HR and payroll. They had to navigate multiple unions and labor relations governed by collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). Each had unique wage tables, pay rates, overtime rules, and deductions. Adhering to these complex labor rules was critical to avoid grievances and legal issues, and ensure compliance.
The sheer volume of work (combined with the risk of errors) made Des Nedhe Group’s existing system unsustainable. They needed a game-changing, comprehensive HCM system to transform their operations and support their ambitious growth plans.
Solutions
Des Nedhe Group launched an extensive search for the ideal HCM system, evaluating several options. They narrowed their choices down to three finalists: ADP, BambooHR, and Criterion HCM. After a thorough analysis, Criterion stood out for its comprehensive capabilities and balanced approach to both payroll and HR. "When we had all three of them stacked side by side, Criterion was really the one," Lacey explained.
“It’s an [HCM] system that will grow with you — and it built the flexibility where we could have multiple employers and configure each employer a little bit differently to suit its own business needs. I don’t think we had as much flexibility with the other two.” - Lacey Unrau, VP of HR
Des Nedhe Group began implementing Criterion HCM in May 2021, with the HR module as their initial focus. By December of that year, they were operating at full capacity with the HR, Payroll, and Talent Engagement modules. The transition process involved extensive testing to ensure the system met all their requirements. Because of the diverse nature of their industries and employees, configuration needed to be meticulous.
Overcoming Setbacks With Criterion
This process was not without its challenges. Just before going live with testing for one of their largest contingents, Des Nedhe Group faced a major setback: they lost both of their payroll specialists within a two-week period. Despite this disruption, payroll had to continue without interruption — and the nuances required from an employment and compliance perspective left no room for error.
In response, the team at Des Nedhe Group, supported by Criterion, managed to pick up the payroll processes within a week. They continued with the pay cycles, finalized testing across four to five pay cycles, and successfully went live slightly ahead of schedule with a high degree of confidence.
"Without Criterion, we wouldn’t have been able to do it.” - Lacey Unrau, VP of HR
The system’s automation capabilities were so effective that even losing two key employees did not impede the process as other HR professionals picked up the slack. After a year and a half, Des Nedhe Group had a need that resulted in hiring a dedicated payroll specialist — but the efficiency gained through Criterion meant this individual was only needed part-time for payroll, allowing them to contribute to the finance team as well.
“As trying as getting a company from a paper-based system to something like an HRMS system [can be], you get your energy and efforts tenfold [with Criterion], if not more, just in the dividends of so many different efficiencies.” - Lacey Unrau, VP of HR
Results
Since using Criterion, Des Nedhe has reported several positive impacts on their organization, including:
Automated Payroll Processing
What once required two full-time employees now demands only a half-time equivalent. With Criterion, Des Nedhe Group was able to reduce labor costs for payroll without sacrificing accuracy or efficiency.
“To take something so complex for a diverse range of employers, employees, and employee arrangements, and be able to pick up payroll without a hiccup [is incredible].” — Lacey Unrau, VP of HR
Criterion’s automation of payroll processes also minimized missed pay periods and reduced errors by over 90%. Lacey says most errors now stem from human mistakes rather than system or payroll flaws. Plus, pay statements and stubs are consistently accurate, and the time off functionality has been a significant improvement to their time tracking and payroll workflows.
“It’s amazing — the efficiencies that we’ve found, the confidence that people have in their pay, the ability to access their pay statements now…it’s just astronomical, it’s extraordinary!” - Lacey Unrau, VP of HR
Streamlined Payroll Management and Union Compliance
Managing payroll for multiple unions and locations under various collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) is a complex task. Des Nedhe regularly handles different types of agreements with particular project locations or jurisdictional requirements in Saskatchewan — from standard employer-to-union arrangements, multi-employer agreements, and multi-union setups with unique structures.
With Criterion, managing these rules is much easier, and virtually error-free. The built-in certified rate functionality has been instrumental in managing these complex labor rules and their difficult payroll calculations. The granularity of the employee groups and locations in Criterion helps keep everything organized.
“The certified rate functionality of Criterion is something that I'd highly recommend, especially if you’ve got multiple locations, multiple unions, multiple disciplines under different unions. The more complex it is, it’s worthwhile.” — Lacey Unrau, VP of HR
Criterion's automated payroll calculations and processes have proven reliable. The system’s ability to identify union positions, wage ranges, and certified rates with precision ensures compliance with various CBAs across multiple jurisdictions. This has allowed Des Nedhe’s HR team to focus on other important aspects of their business.
Enhanced Custom Reporting
One of the most significant benefits Criterion brought to Des Nedhe is the ease of reporting. In the previous system, accessing reliable data was incredibly challenging. Now, the reports generated by Criterion (such as remittance and labor reports) are comprehensive and available within seconds, offering a wealth of actionable information.
“It is incredible. Just to have that capability alone and the diversity of reports and information at your fingertips — it’s worth its weight in gold for a business…They’ve done a phenomenal job on the reporting structure.” - Lacey Unrau, VP of HR
Access to All Employers Within One Database
Criterion’s single database and unified interface allow Des Nedhe to configure multiple employers differently while accessing them all through a single sign-on (SSO). With this setup, each wholly-owned business has its own profile, and administrators can manage all of them without signing into each company separately.
The platform allows organizations to set up security profiles to control access to specific levels, ensuring that only authorized personnel can view or manage certain datasets. It even allows administrators to configure relationships, so an employee at one company can even be set up to report to a manager at a different company. Des Nedhe now uses Criterion to easily manage different employer tax numbers, benefits packages, vacation accruals, holiday pay, and legal requirements across all their subsidiaries.
“When we do our reporting to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), or remittances for benefits, we [can] have that singular identification or separation where you can disseminate your data and see what’s coming from who.” - Lacey Unrau, VP of HR
Complete Library of Training and Documents
Criterion has also helped Des Nedhe digitize all their onboarding modules and training materials. The system’s structure provides employees with easy access to company resources, policies, and programs at the click of a button. Plus, employee self-service features enable staff to track their time and access necessary information like T-4 tax slips (similar to US W-2’s), Record of Employment (ROE) Statements, employment documentation, individual training and educational certification and more, adding to the overall efficiency of the platform.
“Everything is so structured and set up in company resources. All of our documents, a lot of our programs, and policies are there at the click of a finger. Not just the training, but also the [whole] library to access info.” - Lacey Unrau, VP of HR
Unparalleled Flexibility
As a platform, Criterion’s configurability allows Des Nedhe to manage virtually any challenge that comes their way.
“There is a high degree of customization with your custom fields. So if there are additional data points that I need to be able to capture, I can do that.” - Lacey Unrau, VP of HR
The platform’s flexibility even enables some of Des Nedhe’s employers to use Criterion beyond its intended purpose, such as in a project management capacity. By leveraging the project and task component, they can pull reports, utilize custom fields for billing and charge-out, and reconcile all invoices back to clients with ease.
Continuous Intelligent Customer Support
Along with these host of features, Des Nedhe benefits from Criterion’s continuous and responsive customer support. Weekly meetings with Criterion help them discover new capabilities, promptly address any issues, and push the boundaries of what the system can help them achieve.
“That’s one of the nice things about Criterion — when you give feedback or feature requests, they really take it to heart from a self-improvement and advancement perspective, too. I think that’s amazing.” - Lacey Unrau, VP of HR
Discover How Criterion Can Meet Your Organization’s Unique Needs
One of Des Nedhe’s mottos is “We’re always forging new paths.” At Criterion, we’re proud to be a partner in forging those paths with them by helping them transform their HR and payroll systems to better serve their overall mission.
Des Nedhe Group’s journey is just one story of a company achieving better outcomes by handling their complexities with Criterion. We’ve helped several other First Nation organizations, nonprofits, and businesses with intricate structures across Canada (including Quebec) tackle HR challenges that seemed impossible. Criterion's robust, flexible, and comprehensive human capital management platform is designed to support diverse and dynamic organizations in achieving their goals.
Ready to achieve more with a partner that cares about your success? Book a demo to see how Criterion can improve your organization in virtually every way.
