Case Study
Denton Plastics chose Xenium as their complete HR, payroll, and benefits solution in 2011 for the same reason most of our clients do. Their leadership wanted to focus on running their business, not HR. But what they gained went far beyond HR management.
They found a long-term, trusted partnership which helped foster business growth and, ultimately, prepared them to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.
About Denton Plastics
Denton Plastics does far more than recycle. They are innovators in their industry creating eco-friendly solutions for their clients. They help businesses create new products which are easier to recycle. Their lab develops custom plastic resins from recycled materials for each client’s manufacturing needs, and they develop end-to-end recycling strategies which turn raw material into new revenue streams.
Since 1983, they’ve been on a mission to make sustainable business practices a win-win solution where doing the right thing for the environment is rewarded with business growth.
Manage HR or manage the business?
When Nicole Janssen was transitioning from her role managing HR to Vice-President of the company in 2011, she wanted to focus on leading the company forward in innovation. As she explains,
I have ideas about what I want to do with my company, but if you’re bogged down in the weeds, dealing with an HR issue, you can’t do that.
Nicole knew from experience that the demands of HR, payroll, and benefits administration are endless, and she could see two specific threats to Denton Plastic’s future. . . .
Time
If she didn’t find a way to outsource HR, innovation would quickly take a back seat to tasks like tracking changes in regulations, updating handbooks, and tracking PTO.
Efficiency
Denton Plastic’s HR infrastructure was fractured. Payroll, legal updates, and benefits were all provided by separate vendors, which made HR more difficult to manage.
Xenium’s Complete HR + Payroll Service
The Complete HR + Payroll program was developed by Xenium to relieve small to mid-sized businesses of the burdens of HR. It provides a complete solution for HR, payroll, and, if optioned, benefits administration.
Denton Plastics now had an outsourced, dedicated team of specialists in their corner. They had a dedicated HR Business Partner to manage their overall program, and they also had a Payroll Specialist and Benefits Manager leading the charge for those areas. These three leaders would be supported by Xenium’s full team of more than 80 specialists and experts.
HR Business Partner
HR
Xenium built critical infrastructure like the employee handbook and kept the business updated and compliant with changes in regulations. Also, Denton now had coverage for the hiring and onboarding process as well as guidance in managing problems with employees.
Payroll Specialist
Payroll
Denton now had all of their HR and payroll functions united under Xenium’s software platform. The waterfalls of paperwork which accompany any change in an employee’s status were now automated and integrated across all HR and payroll functions.
Benefits Manager
Benefits Administration
Denton’s leadership team was now free from the burden of benefits enrollment and managing changes in coverage for employees.
I was able to take a big step back and rely on someone else, completely trust then to help run the company in terms of the HR side and the employees. It’s also a huge weight off to make sure that all the legal items and all the new laws that are passed are always up to date.
Nicole Janssen, President, Denton Plastics
The Benefits of a Trusted Partnership
Denton came to Xenium for the one-stop-shop HR solution, but they found there were far more benefits to the growing relationship.
Trust Built
Nicole was surprised by the level of care Xenium’s team provided. She noticed how when a difficult employee issue would come up, her HR Business Partner, Lacey, would arrive on-site to guide her team through it. As Lacey explains,
It’s really important to get to know our clients right out the gate. So, building a relationship with the key stakeholders has been really important – learning about their leadership team, attending leadership team meetings, even coming out for staff meetings where it’s appropriate.
People know who my kids are. They’re asking about what’s going on in my life. We know employees here who have, you know, dealt with health issues or progressed in their career path here.
Trust Rewarded
Building this kind of relationship and trust has led to a culture where managers at Denton have a trusted sounding board for all things HR. They will often proactively reach out to Lacey and her team before things become an issue.
Denton has a long history of low turnover and long-term loyalty from employees. By building important infrastructure and having people dedicated to caring for their team members, their workplace culture grew even stronger. Employees could sense the care which was being provided. As Nicole explains,
Xenium definitely feels like an extension of our team and part of the family. I mean, there’s a reason that I give a lot of people’s Xenium’s name and refer Xenium as an HR company. Over the years, they’ve become friends of ours. It’s not just a working relationship.
An HR foundation built for unprecedented times
Xenium and Denton Plastics had worked together for nearly a decade by the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.
Now the President of Denton Plastics, Nicole would need to rely on years of trust built between her team and Xenium’s to navigate the uncertain road ahead.
Denton Plastics is a manufacturing facility, and it didn’t have the advantage of being able to send everyone home to work remote.
And as we’ve mentioned above, Denton’s success relied in no small part on a tight, cohesive team which had worked together for years. The thought of losing long-term employees and their institutional knowledge of their innovative practices was unthinkable to Nicole,
We’re definitely a family business. For example, our shipping department, between the three of them, they’ve probably worked here a total of 70 years.
At the same time, there was the challenge of developing brand new safety policies and practices to allow employees to return to work. Nicole explains,
We had to come up with new plans to create part-time work for some of our employees – furloughs for some of them. Xenium came in quickly and helped. They quelled people’s fears and helped us create a program. So, we ended up keeping all our employees.
Outsourced HR as a driver of business growth
Over the years, Nicole has recognized many ways in which outsourcing Xenium’s services has contributed to Denton Plastic’s growth.
Bandwidth to focus on business growth
What we’ve figured out here is that we don’t need to be the HR professionals. Our company would’ve missed out on business opportunities without the time Xenium’s given back to us.
Developing growth strategies
When we do our strategic planning, a lot of times when I look at goals regarding employees, I’ll reach out to Xenium and make sure that we’re in the same range as other companies our size.
Recruiting talented team members
I think we also would’ve missed out on some really great people that we’ve hired. Xenium has definitely had a big part in supporting the growth of this company.
Do what you do best.
Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time promoting Xenium because of I believe in what they do. I like going out and talking to my colleagues in the industry and say, “Listen, what are you doing with your business? I’ve heard it’s been a struggle. You’re having these issues with employees . . .
You need to take that out of your hands. You need to find someone who’s an expert so you can do what you do best, running your business.
– Nicole Janssen, President, Denton Plastics
The demands of HR and Payroll are endless. We provide a complete solution for both, so you can focus on what you do best – growing your business. Read More
