Mornington Peninsula Shire

Customer story highlights

• Consolidated four separate HR and payroll systems into a single, integrated platform.
• Increased efficiency, reduced payroll workload and improved accuracy.
• 87% of employees rated TechnologyOne HRP as "good," "very good," or "excellent" in ease of use.
• Improved reporting, transparency, and user experience across the organisation.

About Mornington Peninsula Shire

Mornington Peninsula Shire (MPS, or ‘The Shire’) is one of Victoria’s most scenic and expansive local government areas, covering 723 square kilometres with 192km of coastline. With a population of over 170,000 residents, the Shire operates from three main offices in Rosebud, Hastings, and Mornington, as well as multiple satellite sites and hybrid work environments.

Learn more about Mornington Peninsula Shire on its website.

The challenge: disconnected and inefficient HR and payroll systems

As one of the largest local government areas in Victoria, the Shire’s People & Culture (P&C) team manages a workforce of over 1,000 employees.

This many people working across such a diverse set of roles, from administration to field operation, required a seamless, efficient, and integrated HR and payroll system—something the Shire didn’t have.

According to Team Leader – People Services, Carly Amado, the previous disjointed approach constantly led to inefficiencies, errors, and a significant administrative burden.

"Staff had to update their address in one system, log leave in another, and complete training in yet another,” she said.

“The clunky experience meant people avoided using the systems altogether, which impacted data accuracy and efficiency."

Mornington Peninsula Shire relied on multiple, disconnected systems for its HR and payroll functions, leading to issues such as data duplication and too much manual work.

In fact, Vicki Martin, Team Leader - TechnologyOne Change and P&C Systems Implementation at MPS, said payroll required a daily integration file, adding extra unnecessary work.

“There was a lot of double handling, manual processes, and slow response times, putting pressure on our People & Culture team,” Ms. Martin said.

The Shire needed a modern, integrated solution to unify HR and payroll operations, eliminate inefficiencies, and improve the employee experience.

The solution: a fully integrated HRP system

To address these challenges, Mornington Peninsula Shire selected TechnologyOne HRP, an integrated SaaS+ human resources and payroll solution.

HRP allows you to manage the entire employee lifecycle from hire to retire, with HR, payroll, finance, and reporting all in a single platform.

"We sought an enterprise-wide solution, a single source of truth, that could centralise all HR and payroll functions,” Ms. Martin said.

“TechnologyOne provided an end-to-end integrated platform that could improve business processes and the employee experience.

“In the words of our CEO John Baker, ‘having the right technology to support business processes and customer experience improvement is critical’.

“Partnering with TechnologyOne enables our people, systems, and processes to deliver positive customer experiences—both internally and externally."

The project officially kicked off in November 2022, and the new system went live in October 2023.

Overcoming challenges in implementation

Like any large-scale transformation, the rollout of TechnologyOne HRP at Mornington Peninsula Shire wasn’t without its challenges.

Two months before go-live, the project suffered a major setback when the dedicated TechnologyOne consultant fell ill and became unavailable.

With a hard deadline to exit their old system, the Shire had no choice but to prioritise payroll implementation as a result.

"We lost traction on our project for nearly eight weeks, right when we needed the most progress,” Ms. Martin said.

"We had to pivot quickly—our number one goal became ensuring our 1,000+ employees would be paid correctly and on time."

TechnologyOne stepped in by providing two additional consultants, and the Shire’s internal team went into full problem-solving mode.

Despite the time constraints, the team successfully met the deadline.

The results: increased efficiency, improved employee experience

Since implementing TechnologyOne HRP, Mornington Peninsula Shire has seen significant improvements in payroll efficiency, reporting accuracy, and overall user experience.

“Creating position changes is now about 1,000 times more efficient than before. Payroll no longer requires daily integration files, which has allowed us to reduce payroll headcount,” Ms. Amado said.

"The increase in system transactions is another positive sign—staff are actively using TechnologyOne because it’s easy and efficient.

“It’s not just about reducing workload; it’s about improving engagement and data accuracy."

According to MPS, 87% of surveyed employees rated the new system implemented by TechnologyOne as either ‘good’, ‘very good’, or ‘excellent’. Additionally, 100% of staff rated its security as ‘good’ or ‘better’ compared to the previous system.

“We used to have 20 different forms for various changes—now, we have one dynamic form that adjusts based on user input. It’s streamlined, intuitive, and far easier for staff,” Ms. Amado said.

“Although training was minimal (due to the interrupted rollout), the system was so intuitive that employees adapted quickly.”

What’s next for Mornington Peninsula Shire?

With TechnologyOne HRP fully operational, the Shire is now focusing on further automation and analytics.

“We’ve brought in a dedicated resource to build dashboards and push scheduled reports to more stakeholders,” Ms. Amado said.

“We’re also working on expanding automated workflows for internal transitions, onboarding, and offboarding."

For other councils considering making a significant change like Mornington Peninsula Shire did, they provided the following four tips to ensure a smooth transition:

• Have a dedicated implementation resource—ideally, someone with internal knowledge of your processes.
• Run three parallel pay runs before go-live to ensure confidence in the system.
• Keep the implementation simple—don’t overcomplicate the build.
• Engage with the TechnologyOne customer community and user groups for support and best practices.