Orion Media
About Orion Media
Orion Media is a group of 5 radio stations, based in the Midlands. We employ approximately 140 people and have a team of freelancers and casual workers to help support our business as flexibly as possible.
We acquired the business just over 12 months ago, due to the sale of the stations from a much larger media group, and have been working towards our mission to be ‘Kings of our own Backyard’ ever since.
Pre Cascade
We implemented Cascade as soon as we could after we took over the stations. Prior to this, the former company used Sage HR and Payroll.
As we had just taken over the group, we had no HRIS in place. A lot of information was being temporarily stored on spreadsheets, which was not ideal. This spurred us on to find a flexible and easy to use HR system quickly.
There is only one person in the HR team and they are responsible for entering and updating data, running reports and navigating employees around the self service system, so the priority for Orion was to have a system that was logical, easy to use and ‘unbreakable’. The flexibility of the reports was also an attraction, and the potential to create workflows to help employees and the HR manager to action processes on time without having to put it in their diary!
The Decision
We decided to install Cascade as our HR information system, as other providers we evaluated were less flexible and easy to use.
The continued support from the helpdesk has also been a great asset, solving very simple queries to more complex problems.
“We save approx 2-3 hours per week by using the Cascade functions as opposed to the manual spreadsheet system we used before”
Claire Younghusband, HR Manager, Orion Media
The Project
Cascade managed the project closely and effectively with both Orion’s HR and IT department. Our Account Manager regularly updated us with progress reports, and gave us a tangible gant chart to monitor the project and plan our own activity around it.
Upon completion of the installation, the training received on the system was excellent. They covered all of the key areas, using our real data to make it relevant and comprehensive to Orion.
Throughout the installation and beyond, I feel Cascade were very supportive in communicating actions and helping resolve queries in a timely way. We have also recently upgraded the version of Cascade we use, which was – as expected – a seamless and well planned installation.
Summary
Implementing Cascade into our business has helped us provide a better service to employees and to monitor our HR processes, making sure that each process is carried out in full.
We have a system we are very proud of, which makes employees and line managers lives easier - from booking a holiday and changing their address to monitoring the induction process for new starters, and monitoring sickness more closely.
Since there is only one system administrator at Orion, it has allowed reminders to be set and reports to be generated at the click of a button, saving time and making the HR department a lot more efficient. Implementing Cascade’s HR system has superseded Orion’s expectations, and I would definitely recommend it as a solution to other organisations.
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