Trojan Holdings streamlines onboarding for 1,700 seasonal workers

Trojan Holdings is one of Queenstown, New Zealand's most diverse employers. The privately owned company operates across tourism, transport, and property-related industries, managing businesses ranging from ski fields and hotels to transport operations and rural services.

Across 17 legal entities, the organisation employs around 2,300 people throughout the year. About 1,700 of those employees are seasonal workers who join the business annually.

For Group HR Manager Kerry Stevens, that level of workforce movement makes hiring and onboarding a critical operational process. And for years, managing it relied almost entirely on manual processes that simply weren't built for that kind of scale.

When seasonal hiring meets manual processes

Speed and accuracy are non-negotiable when you're hiring hundreds of people in a matter of months. Yet before Dayforce, Trojan Holdings was doing it the hard way.

"Prior to Dayforce, our systems were quite fragmented," says Stevens. "We had a lot of paper, photocopying, and scanning. We had a lot of emails, and shared network folders as a way of managing all of the things that we had to manage."

In practice, that fragmentation meant a new employee's details might be entered into different systems up to eight times. Each duplicated entry was another opportunity for error and another delay in getting someone ready to work.

At the same time, the onboarding experience new employees had didn't reflect the quality of the brands they were joining.

Stevens wanted to streamline operations, reduce administrative load, and create an experience that felt as polished and professional as the brands Trojan manages.

One system, one record, one source of truth

To make that shift, Trojan Holdings implemented the full Dayforce platform.

"For us, it was really important that all the data stayed in one place," says Stevens. "So we're using the full suite of Dayforce modules, from recruiting through onboarding, through core HR, payroll, time and attendance, and also modules like learning, compensation management, and engagement."

Managing workforce operations in a single system with a single employee record has been particularly valuable for a business with a large returning seasonal workforce. Many employees come back year after year. With Dayforce, their employment history remains accessible, helping the organisation maintain continuity while simplifying rehire processes.

At NZ Ski, one of Trojan Holdings’ largest businesses, the operational pressure of seasonal hiring is especially intense.

"As a seasonal business, we employ 1,300 seasonal staff across over 100 roles within three months, and they have to get up to speed very quickly," says Daniel Mee, HR Manager at NZ Ski. "Dayforce has enabled us to take something that is quite complex and make it quite simple."

The Dayforce Learning module has also transformed the way employees prepare for their first day. Because NZ Ski's workforce travels internationally, following the ski seasons from the northern hemisphere to the southern, delivering training through a mobile platform means new crew members can complete inductions wherever they are in the world, before they arrive on site.

"With the learning module, we've been able to give people a sense of what it's going to feel like to work for us before they arrive," says Stevens.

1,700 people onboarded with zero pieces of paper

What was once a complex combination of documents, emails, and manual steps is now fully digital. Trojan Holdings now recruits, onboards, and manages its entire seasonal workforce without printing a single page. And because Dayforce serves as the single, trusted employee record, workforce data can also support automated IT provisioning. A new hire can have full system access within 15 minutes of being hired.

"Previously, we had paper everywhere," shares Stevens. "And now we recruit, onboard, and manage 1,700 people a year without a single piece of paper. The transformation has been enormous."

The change has also changed the first impression employees have of the organisation. Instead of receiving employment agreements through the mail, new hires now experience a seamless digital process that reflects the quality of the brands they represent.

"I think we've gone from being a rather traditional, old-school company — in terms of sending employment agreements through the mail — to becoming quite polished and professional, which is more in line with our customer brands," says Stevens.

For managers, the change has been equally meaningful. Freed from the administrative burden of processing paperwork and chasing signatures, they can now focus their time on leading their teams.

"Dayforce has created a more crew-centric experience and really reshaped our first impressions. It's given time back to our managers to redirect their energy to leading teams," Mee adds.

Looking ahead: insights, efficiency, and AI

With the transactional foundations firmly in place, Trojan Holdings is turning its attention to the strategic work that sits beyond day-to-day HR operations.

"We really think about AI in two horizons," Stevens explains. "The first will be the ability to improve, streamline, and automate basic processes. The second horizon will be where we can use AI to get fresh insights as to how to make the business better."

At NZ Ski, Mee has similar ambitions.

"We're really looking forward to what Dayforce AI can bring to the business in terms of insights and in terms of better people making decisions, which will lead to a better overall strategy and really lift our business to the next level," says Mee.

For Stevens, the relationship with Dayforce extends beyond technology. Trojan Holdings is part of Dayforce user groups and charter groups, with connections to product owners and developers that give the company a real sense of involvement in Dayforce’s direction. "We see Dayforce as a value partner, rather than just a vendor," he says.

Words of advice

For organisations facing similar complexity — large seasonal workforces, multiple entities, or paper-heavy processes — Trojan Holdings' experience highlights the benefits of using new technologies to rethink how you work.

When implementing Dayforce, Trojan Holdings resisted the temptation to simply digitise its existing processes. Instead, they used the project as an opportunity to step back, challenge their ways of working, and configure the platform around a better future for the organisation.

"Dayforce offers the opportunity to envisage a better future, rather than just locking in the past or codifying the way things have been done manually. We wanted to take advantage of that."

- Kerry Stevens, Group HR Manager, Trojan Holdings