As LightForce scaled and its operations grew more complex, manual HR processes risked slowing the business down. 

For one, the orthodontic technology startup manually managed schedules and tracked attendance for its hourly employees, who build the company’s orthodontic  brackets in a factory. “It was all through Google Sheets and Slack workflows, which was kind of a disaster,” said Glenn Lemieux, LightForce’s Operations Manager. 

The scheduling spreadsheet wasn’t always updated to account for planned time off, making it difficult to rejigger shifts for employees cross-trained in different roles. “If I wanted to move people around, I’d come in and disrupt the work they’d already been doing and move them to a different area,” Glenn said. His team also had to check individual timecard punches for every production employee to monitor attendance—which became entirely too burdensome at the company’s size.

There were also frequent miscommunications about approved overtime shifts. Some employees made late-night requests for early-morning overtime the next day. “I’m not seeing that because I’m more than likely asleep already,” Glenn said. The employees, assuming the requests would be approved, then had to decide whether to show up for shifts on their own, and in some cases the company didn’t need them.

LightForce managed time and attendance through its former HRIS, but found the solution incapable of keeping up as headcount grew. “When we had 30 employees, it met our needs,” said Laura Downey, LightForce’s HR Manager. “Then we hired 100 people in a year, another 100 the next year, and were expanding faster than the technology could support. We ran into a lot of headaches.”

Among the headaches: a manual onboarding process that LightForce’s HR Generalist Shawn King said was “tedious all around for everyone involved,” and the need to double-check accuracy of payroll information and input changes ahead of pay runs. 

What’s more, LightForce began hiring manufacturing and production employees in Costa Rica in double digits at a time. Since the former HRIS could only support its US-based workforce, the company managed its international team in spreadsheets. 

“We were looking for a single source of truth for our global team,” Laura said.

In the summer of 2023, LightForce left the former HRIS and joined Rippling. Now, the company has a one-stop shop for scheduling, time and attendance tracking, and a full-scale HRIS—along with a platform that supports its growing international team. 

“The workflows alone are game-changing for us,” Laura said. “Rippling has really been able to support the uniqueness of our company. It’s been instrumental in bringing us to where we are now.”

Rippling has really been able to support the uniqueness of our company. It’s been instrumental in bringing us to where we are now.

Laura Downey

HR Manager at LightForce

LightForce took scheduling out of Slack and spreadsheets and into Rippling, which allowed the operations team to efficiently assign shifts that met production needs. 

“I manage 80+ people right now by myself. It’s a lot to keep track of,” Glenn said. “Rippling has been a huge help.

Since Rippling’s Scheduling feature integrates with its HRIS, the company now has full visibility over employees’ time off, meaning Glenn can move around shifts to accommodate demand—so that employees cross-trained for different skills can pick up whatever task is most necessary to carry out, whenever it’s needed. 

“I can schedule ahead and make sure I’m assigning employees to areas that’ll have more work,” Glenn said. “They’re more productive and we’re able to get work through the factory more efficiently.”

I manage 80+ people right now by myself. It’s a lot to keep track of. Rippling has been a huge help.

Glenn Lemieux

Operations Manager at LightForce

Rippling helped LightForce monitor attendance in real-time. Glenn cited the platform’s “points” feature, which accumulate based on violations like tardiness and absenteeism, as a helpful tool that encourages employees to stay compliant.

 “We’re seeing people making sure they’re staying within the means of what they’re scheduled for,” he said. “The points feature inside Scheduling  has been big. I love it so far.”

LightForce can also proactively manage overtime. Instead of employees making last-minute overtime requests, Glenn used Rippling to create policies that restrict employees who have already hit overtime from signing up for open shifts without his approval. In addition to giving LightForce’s administrators more visibility over approvals, the revamped process helps reward productive employees with extra shifts when they want them.

“We want to make sure we’re giving people who are coming in, being productive, and care about their work opportunities to make more money while benefiting the company,” Glenn said.

With their prior HRIS, onboarding each new employee involved 30 minutes of manually distributing and collecting forms, inputting information, and creating new profiles, followed by hour-long meetings with new hires on their first day to finish setting them up. With Rippling, the hour and a half process was reduced to minutes.

“I remember getting up extra early when we had eight or nine new employees starting in one day,” Shawn, (LightForce’s HR Generalist) said. “Whereas now we have them set up far in advance. It’s no problem.”

Rippling also allowed LightForce to cut payroll processing time from an hour to 10 minutes, ridding the need to constantly double check data, manually update employee information if they move or change roles, or do any manual calculations if an employee started halfway through a pay period.

With Rippling, LightForce has a single source of truth that supports its entire workforce within the US and internationally, keeping pace with growth every step of the way. 

“While we grew, Rippling technologies were also growing and expanding,” said Laura (LightForce’s HR Manager). “Rippling has been really successful in our different employment types, payroll, and time and attendance in different countries.”

• Faster HR processes: With Rippling automations, LightForce onboards new employees 45 times faster and runs payroll six times faster.
• Efficient scheduling: LightForce established more accountability with its hourly employees and foresees enhanced productivity and lower labor costs in the months ahead.
• 600 employees, 6 countries, one unified platform: LightForce now has a single, all-in-one HR platform to manage its growing, global team.