Griffith College is one of the largest independent higher education institutions in Ireland, with four campuses across Dublin, Cork, and Limerick. Founded in 1974, the college now has a student population of close to 8,000, offering courses in accountancy, business, computer science, design, drama, law, music, and more.
The College has 300 direct employees, but with close to 1,000 part-time lecturers and other staff, the overall workforce is considerably larger. When HR manager Daniela Dana joined in 2022, the college had been using a different HR platform but had not been taking full advantage of its features due to cost considerations. The College decided to look around the market for a platform that better matched its needs at a competitive price.
However, the team was still learning the features of the new platform and needed close support. Working with a vendor in a different time zone quickly proved impractical, making it difficult to collaborate effectively during the implementation process.
That is when Griffith College discovered Grouper, which was familiar with the platform and, crucially, could offer superior support from an Irish base. As a busy HR leader, Daniela appreciates the speed of response and the absence of that 'lost in communication' feeling that can be an occupational hazard with some technology vendors.
"Grouper are based in Ireland so, from our perspective, it was a lot easier in terms of the communication and the support we needed. They're very effective, they answer all our emails in a timely manner. They follow up and, if we need, they organise meetings to discuss issues, and they resolve them effectively," Daniela says.
Daniela appreciates how Grouper is highly focused on customer service, which is very important to her. The team is able to find solutions tailored to the needs of Griffith College. Even now, she contacts Grouper two or three times a week by email, and they meet on Zoom every fortnight.
"What makes Grouper stand out to me is, we jump on a call and we have the chance to overcome that communication barrier you can get with emails. In my experience from previous roles, we used various packages and ticketing took a while to get a response. Many times, you're lost in communication. Whereas if you write an email to Grouper and you don't get it right the first time, they'll be back in touch immediately," she says.
As a HR professional who is accustomed to dealing with people every day, the type of interaction matters a great deal to Daniela. The personal aspect also helps to overcome a significant stumbling block with many business software providers. "In reality, you will never find software to perfectly serve your needs, no matter how much you pay. But having the capability to adapt, discuss, and collaborate to resolve issues, that's the most important thing."
Now that Daniela can get the most from the HR platform, combined with the close support, she says it has made a significant difference to her working routine. The platform automates tasks like onboarding and offboarding employees, and has made communication between different teams far easier, which is especially important with the college dispersed across four campuses.
This efficiency means Daniela is more productive in her role. For example, she recently designed in-house training to upskill managers. "I couldn't have done that if I didn't have the headspace to focus on the content of the training. If you're able to focus on a single task, without having to worry about 100 other tasks, that's a plus already."
