For The Outlaw Group, adventure isn't just a service—it's the fabric of their business. As a collection of Colorado-based tourism companies offering everything from whitewater rafting to ziplining to ski rentals, success hinges on delivering exhilarating outdoor experiences. But behind the scenes, an operational challenge typical to seasonal companies always loomed: a workforce that swells from 50 employees in the quiet shoulder seasons to more than 200 during the summer peak. This constant fluctuation created a significant administrative burden.
“Everything we do is highly, highly seasonal,” says Alison Mathes, CEO of The Outlaw Group. “That has always come with a huge administrative lift. When you have a very small core team, the people who are the brain bank and the critical decision-makers can't be spending days at a time dealing with administrative hurdles.”
Hitting the limits of manual processes.
Before Workday, The Outlaw Group’s HR and payroll processes were a patchwork of disconnected systems. The team relied on ADP for payroll, spreadsheets for benefits and absence tracking, and other disparate tools for scheduling and time tracking. This fragmented approach was time-consuming and prone to error.
Onboarding dozens of new employees each season was an all-hands-on-deck effort involving manual data entry across multiple platforms. “If one of them got missed, payroll gets submitted, and now you're going back and hunting down that manager, and then hunting down that employee,” Mathes recalls. The tipping point came when the company reconfigured its HR and finance departments, merging them into a single, more cohesive unit. “We literally eliminated the possibility for our staff to dedicate that much time to these admin tasks,” Mathes explains. “So we found a better solution.”
We saved about 80 hours this spring. My core team would run through fire to save two weeks of their lives during that period.
CEO, The Outlaw Group
A scalable platform for today and tomorrow.
The search for a new platform led The Outlaw Group to evaluate several options, but Mathes was looking for more than just a replacement. The company needed a long-term partner for growth and simplicity. Initially concerned that Workday might be too large for their needs, Mathes was eventually won over. “As we went through our final evaluation, that switch in my brain flipped,” Mathes says. “Workday can be the right size for us today, in addition to being with us as we grow.”
With a hard deadline to replace their expiring payroll contract, the company embarked on a rapid, two-month deployment with the help of implementation partner ThreeLink. The strategy was to triage, focusing on the absolute essentials for launch—payroll, HCM, benefits, and absence—while tabling other features for later. “We couldn't afford to fail, because people still expect their paychecks,” Mathes notes. The focused approach paid off, with the team going live on schedule.
As a small organization, failure wasn't an option, especially with our payroll contract expiring. Using Workday GO, we went live in less than two months and hit our firm deadline right on time.
CEO, The Outlaw Group
Empowering people to deliver peak experiences.
Moving from a patchwork of separate systems to a single platform for its people data, The Outlaw Group has fundamentally changed how it operates. The impact was immediate. During its first spring onboarding season, the new system saved the team an estimated 80 hours of administrative work.
That reclaimed time has been a game-changer. By automating administrative tasks and providing employees with self-service tools, Workday has freed up frontline managers to focus on what they do best, leading their teams and ensuring guests have the best outdoor adventures. “That person is not signing up for a paperwork job,” Mathes says of the company’s managers. “They're signing up to be out there with their teams.” This renewed focus has translated into tangible results, including improved employee and guest satisfaction scores.
Leaning on our ThreeLink team was absolutely critical, start to finish. They were fantastic; they got us through it.
CEO, The Outlaw Group
Charting the course for future adventures.
The benefits extend beyond daily operations. The leadership team now has instant access to critical labor data, allowing for much faster analysis and decision-making. “The reporting for our labor budgets is right at my fingertips now,” Mathes says. “It’s three clicks, so I've got the information I need.”
Looking ahead, The Outlaw Group plans to deploy Workday Recruiting and Time Tracking to further streamline its operations and support its growth strategy. With a solid foundation in place, Mathes is confident in the company’s ability to expand into new ventures. “I'm very excited to have all the data I need accessible in Workday,” Mathes says. “It will help us make sure new business streams start strong right out of the gate.”