Customer Story: Ralph’s Radio Ltd. – Growing their business and serving their team with Analytics insights

Upon his brother's retirement from their family-owned business, Ralph's Radio President Tim Rurak was intrigued to learn more about accounting within the organization – and more specifically, the opportunities available within their already-successful partnership with Payworks.

"I'm a data-driven guy, and initially became interested in Analytics to understand more about the connections between our company's various line items," explains Tim. "It's important for all business owners to be able to analyze our costs and determine where we're making money, and where new opportunities lie! Sometimes you get into the habit of thinking 'well, this is how we do things'… but we should all be open to considering '…but what if we tried them this way too?' I wanted to make sure I was making strategic, fact-based decisions."

Ralph's Radio credits their decades of success to how they treat people – both their clients and their own staff (some of who have worked for the organization for over 30 years!). Not only could more business intelligence benefit the bottom line; it could also help Ralph's Radio to be a better employer to a more engaged team of employees – a key consideration in the organization's decision to add Analytics to their Payworks service offering.

Since 2020, Payworks Workforce Analytics has empowered Ralph's Radio to identify previously hidden – and potentially lucrative – opportunities to improve their operations. Analytics plays a critical role for them not only in developing but also in adjusting their business strategy as they continue to examine ever-evolving data and gain new intelligence about their organization.

Each quarter, Ralph's Radio runs the company's payroll history against project invoices, sales records and more ("in just minutes") to identify their top-performing staff and client accounts. Analytics allows team members to contribute to the growth of the business more strategically, as they aren't spending their days generating reports.

Analytics is also allowing for better alignment between the operations of Ralph's Radio's two locations – not only in product pricing, but also in travel costs for serving clients outside of the Lower Mainland and across Vancouver Island. "We've set up the flat rate we pay our technicians for travelling as its own payroll element," shares Tim. "In Analytics, we can quickly pull this information against project histories to determine how much we're spending to send our technicians out on the road – and have adjusted our rates accordingly."

Analytics also plays a key role in connecting various roles within the business to each other. Instead of each team member being siloed within their defined role, Analytics allows each person to understand the business as a whole on a data-based and strategic level.

This reporting has illuminated unexpected opportunities to invest in training, adjust rates and more, which Tim reports "is already improving our business and our profitability."

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted every business, but for Ralph's Radio staff whose compensation includes commissions, any decrease in work hit their personal bottom line. Tim and his managers used Analytics year-to-date comparisons to determine who was feeling this pinch the hardest and subsequently offer support. "Analytics allowed us to be proactive in reaching out to our staff, and everyone was so appreciative that we did," says Tim.

Tim had his managers coming to him asking who they're getting to do their reports, and he told them he could teach them how to do it; Cindy from Payworks taught him how to do it in less than five minutes. "Now we're referring to the reports all the time – everyone with access to the data is engaged and looking for these new opportunities as well."