From Seven Systems to One: How Grange Co-op Modernized Workforce Operations Across Eight Retail Stores

About Grange Co-op

Founded in 1934, Grange Co-op is a farm and ranch cooperative headquartered in southern Oregon. The organization operates eight retail stores open seven days a week, alongside a production facility, distribution center, and business office. As the only organic feed mill in Southern Oregon and Northern California, Grange Co-op has approximately 300 to 350 employees at any given time, including a significant seasonal workforce that ramps up each spring. 

The company runs a complex operation with a lean HR team at its center. That team — Louise Young, Director of Human Resources, and Amanda Humphrey, Employee Services and Compliance Specialist — is responsible for payroll processing, benefits administration, time and attendance oversight, compliance, and assists with employee relations across the full organization. About 40 percent of the workforce is on variable-hour schedules, shifts change week to week, and the business is open seven days a week. Chelese Allen is the Recruiting & Retention Specialist who does all administration of the Recruiting app in Rippling, as well as screens applications and onboards all new hires through Rippling. Sean Pfister is the Professional Development & Training Specialist who administers the LMS in Rippling and builds the training modules.

The Challenge

When Louise and Amanda joined forces to overhaul Grange Co-op's HR operations, they inherited a fragmented stack. The company relied on four separate platforms to cover timekeeping, payroll processing, HR records, and scheduling. For any employee enrolled in benefits, that number jumped to seven — each one requiring manual data entry.

Every new hire meant manually entering the same information into each platform. A single address change required updates across all of them. PTO hours had to be downloaded from the HRIS and typed by hand into the payroll system. The time clock software — TimeclockManager — was, in Louise's words, "from the Jurassic period." Ceridian, their payroll platform, was an outdated version with no meaningful reporting. Sage handled HR records, but was difficult to customize, and their customer service was "really horrible."

Scheduling was its own problem. With 40 percent variable-hour employees across eight retail stores, store managers urgently needed a better tool. The team eventually tried Deputy when they first moved to Rippling, but found it to be such a nightmare that they couldn't stick with it.

Compliance was a concern. There was little visibility into lunch break violations. Overtime calculations were challenging to manage. Benefits uploads to their 401(k) vendor had become an "insane amount of workarounds" as that vendor upgraded its platform.

And payroll — their most critical recurring task — was taking more than three full business days to complete each cycle.

The Solution

Grange Co-op demoed several systems before making a decision. None of the others came close.

For a four-person HR team managing 350 employees across multiple locations, work schedules, and pay structures, consolidating everything into a single system wasn't a preference — it was a requirement. Rippling's ability to bring HRIS, payroll, time and attendance, scheduling, and benefits under one roof made it the clear choice.

Seven systems become one

The most immediate transformation was consolidation. What had required seven separate systems now lives in one. When an employee's information changes, the changes are reflected across the platform. Hours flow automatically from time and attendance into payroll — no downloading, no uploading, no retyping.

Payroll cut from three days to one

With automated imports and built-in safeguards replacing manual data transfers between systems, the payroll process that once consumed three days of Amanda’s week now can be done in a single day.

Accuracy and compliance, finally within reach

With less manual entry comes fewer errors and more visibility into what's happening across the workforce. Employees now enter their own information through self-service; managers review and approve changes; HR maintains oversight. Lunch break compliance is now trackable. Overtime calculations are now handled automatically.

Before Rippling, Louise and Amanda knew their practices were at risk of being non-compliant — they just didn't have the tools to fix it. That has changed.

Store managers elevated to true team leaders

With Rippling in their hands, store managers across all eight locations are now managing their teams at a higher standard. Attendance tracking — which wasn't done at all previously — is now a baseline expectation. Scheduling is more efficient. And managers are more actively involved in the hiring process through streamlined communication that wasn't possible before.

Time reclaimed for the work that matters

Perhaps the most meaningful outcome is what Louise and Amanda are doing with the time they've gotten back. Rather than spending their days downloading reports, manually entering PTO, and reconciling data across platforms, they're now leading a full job description overhaul, a compensation review, and a brand-new training program with a custom course catalog.

The Partnership

For Louise, the platform is only part of the story. When Amanda needed help building a complex labor report, a Rippling support representative stayed on through three separate extended calls until the report was exactly right.

"I really appreciated her level of service," Amanda said. "It was awesome."

Louise and Amanda also attended Rippling on the Road in Seattle, where the in-person connection reinforced what they'd experienced in the product.

What's next

Year three at Grange Co-op is about scale. The cooperative is focused on building training programs that didn’t previously exist, with Rippling’s LMS at the center. With a new training specialist on the team, the HR team is building a full internal course catalog—covering everything from compliance requirements to manager development. Possible store expansion is also on the horizon. As the organization grows, the HR team is counting on Rippling to scale with them—without forcing them back into the weeds of manual administration.