Case Study: NWEA (education nonprofit) achieves 1,200+ hours saved and streamlined HR & payroll with Paylocity

Educational Technology Nonprofit Aces HR, Saving Over 1,200 Hours a Year with Paylocity

NWEA, a Portland-based nonprofit focused on educational assessment with about 1,150 employees, was hampered by manual payroll and fragmented HR processes that made it difficult to track DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility) metrics and consumed valuable HR time. In 2017 NWEA selected Paylocity for payroll and HR — deploying Paylocity’s Performance Management module, payroll automation, onboarding, and employee self‑service — to standardize reviews, consolidate data, and reduce paperwork.

Paylocity automated payroll and HR workflows, rolled out Performance Management tools, and enabled employee self‑service, giving managers and employees direct access to documents and benefits. The result: 1,200 administrative hours saved annually from streamlined performance management, more than 100 hours saved via automated recruiting/onboarding, a 75% drop in employee requests, payroll processing reduced to about 1.5 hours, over 50% lower open‑enrollment admin, fewer errors (≈1 hour saved per new hire), and DEIA teams able to track retention and hiring data — freeing HR to focus on strategic priorities.

NWEA

Jaime Freeman

Director of HR Operations and Total Rewards