Mepco HRM helped Naapurin Maalaiskana consolidate personal data into a single system

Naapurin Maalaiskana Oy has been using Mepco HRM since 2019 to handle the company’s payroll and HR management. Naapurin Maalaiskana uses Mepco through Accountor HR Solutions’ software service, in the context of which the supplier is responsible for the system’s functionality and data security, among other things.

Naapurin Maalaiskana produces Finnish poultry in the regions of Southwest Finland and Satakunta. The company’s philosophy is to do things slightly better all the time, and to produce high-quality Finnish chicken in a sustainable manner.

Taking responsibility for payroll processing to serve the company in the best way possible

Naapurin Maalaiskana had previously outsourced payroll processing to an accounting firm. HR Specialist Tuija Kantoluoto, however, found outsourced payroll processing to be the wrong choice for the company. According to Kantoluoto, the collective agreement for the food industry is quite challenging, which is why growing companies, in particular, would be best served to take full control of the payroll processing activities and services.

“Having payroll processing in the hands of our skilled payroll administrator, who is equipped with a good payroll system, has helped us avoid a lot of stress,” Kantoluoto points out.

Thanks to the shift in payroll processing, Kantoluoto finds that all tasks from report preparation to wage discussions and other matters requiring quick reactions can now be completed much more flexibly than before. In any case, the company needed to check all hours forwarded to payroll processing, which is why it was found smarter for the company to handle the entire process.

Mepco was not the cheapest solution but it was the best

As the staff of Naapurin Maalaiskana began to consider which payroll software to choose, they ended up organising a competitive bidding process for a few options. Tuija Kantoluoto had prior experience with the Mepco payroll system since the accounting firm used to calculate the company’s wages and salaries with the Mepco system. Kantoluoto felt that the Mepco payroll software was easy to work with.

“Considering all the pros and cons, Mepco was absolutely the best of the solutions in the running. We asked large and small companies as well as system specialists for user experiences, and Mepco got the best feedback,” Kantoluoto says in summary.

One of the most important benefits of the Mepco solution was the HR section that could be added to the same system. According to Kantoluoto, external requirements, such as the GDPR, made the company opt for a system that processes personal data within one system only.

“The modern way does not involve preparing copious Excel spreadsheets and moving data manually from one place to another. Especially in the context of personal data, the GDPR necessitates a solution that is as centralised as possible for processing personal details. This was one reason for choosing Mepco,” Kantoluoto says.

Kantoluoto mentions that Mepco was not the cheapest solutions on the market but, from the user’s perspective, the company has been happy with the investment.

The Mepco payroll system makes the payroll administrator’s work easier by reducing manual tasks

Merja Kiesi works as a payroll administrator for Naapurin Maalaiskana and has now had the opportunity to learn about the Mepco payroll system for the first time.

“The Mepco payroll system is convenient and easy to use. There are of course some things I miss from the previous payroll software I worked with, but Mepco has a lot of features that other systems have lacked,” Kiesi says.

“The ability provided by the Mepco payroll system to transfer employee hours into the payroll software easily as files reduced manual work a great deal. In addition to this, Mepco can be conveniently used to create and use a variety of reports as needed,” Kiesi says, detailing the system’s benefits.

“After a year of experience, the system is now familiar enough for us to consider better ways of doing things and to look deeper into the system’s intricacies and more advanced features. Since the work is interesting, you are always motivated to learn and try out new things, even if things go wrong,” Kiesi says with a laugh.

“Mepco includes plenty of reporting possibilities and ready-made reports. Some additional training would be in order for us to take full advantage of the functionalities,” Kantoluoto says in summary.

HR management system assists supervisors in day-to-day tasks

In addition to the payroll component, the overall solution used by Naapurin Maalaiskana also includes the Mepco HRM system. The deployment is currently under way, and the solution has already been introduced to supervisors for the first time.

“We want to provide specific and accurate information to production supervisors who manage large numbers of employees, so that they can access employee-related information themselves through Mepco,” Kantoluoto says.

“We find that the HRM solution will provide a wealth of opportunities after deployment and enable us in HR and payroll management to focus even more on operational development. It will also provide supervisors with tools to support their work,” Kantoluoto points out.

 Tuija Kantoluoto also sees Mepco’s recruitment module as an interesting solution for future developments. “The recruitment module would be good for us since we have quite a bit of seasonal recruitment. We could reduce the manual transfer of data by collecting it in the same database so that we could directly access the details of those we actually recruit,” Kantoluoto says.

It is a joy to work with Accountor’s consultants

The HR and payroll consultants of Accountor HR Solutions get nothing but praise from Tuija Kantoluoto and Merja Kiesi. “Wonderful people – not once have they been at a loss. They are true experts in their field,” Kiesi says.

“The proactive cooperation with sales and consultants has been a great thing for a smaller organisation with a million things going on at once and no time to stop and delve deeper into specifics. The Accountor specialists had a truly professional approach to their work,” Kantoluoto says with satisfaction.

In cooperation with Accountor’s payroll consultant, Merja Kiesi completed the deployment of the Mepco payroll software in two months instead of the normal three.  “It was easy to learn the ropes of the system in the context of the project and the consultant provided excellent support. Still, I learned a lot through mistakes, too,” Kiesi says, summarising the process.

Naapurin Maalaiskana Oy has been changing the Finnish poultry market since 2013. The company was established by a few enthusiastic entrepreneurs, who started out very small. Now, the company employs more than 200 people and its turnover in 2019 stood at roughly €46 million. Naapurin Maalaiskana Oy is part of the Nordic Scandi Standard group.