Dayforce helps Foundry Commercial build a blueprint for generational success

For Foundry Commercial, a full-service commercial real estate company with more than 5,000 associates across 16 states, growth is not just about expanding into new markets or adding new lines of business. It’s about building something meant to last.

“Our mission is to be a generational company that's based on people, purpose, and performance,” says Tyler Nelson, CFO.

“Generational” is not just a catchphrase for Foundry. The firm is unique among commercial real estate companies in that 60% of the organization is employee-owned. 

“People who are partners in our business actually own part of the company, and we are preparing for them to retire at some point,” says Brandy Garnero, Chief Human Capital Officer. “When they do retire, we have to be ready to pass that on to that next generation.”

The firm has doubled in size every two to three years, driven largely by the acquisition of senior living projects, which Foundry not only owns but operates. Branching into senior healthcare meant taking on 4,600 hourly employees and skyrocketing HR complexity. When it became clear that their existing processes were not up to the task, Foundry partnered with Dayforce, implementing the full suite of Dayforce products as well as Managed Services for payroll and benefits.

Dayforce: A single source of truth and a partner you can trust

The Dayforce platform offers HR, payroll, benefits, workforce management, talent, and learning in a single platform. With trusted workforce data in one place, leaders spend less time reconciling information and more time on strategy and relationships.“Prior to partnering with Dayforce, we had several different systems that housed a lot of different talent data. It was really hard to pull all of that information together to help make decisions around our talent,” says Garnero.

Kristina Colantonio, Partner, Senior Vice President, Human Capital, continues, “With the partnership of Dayforce, we now have all of that in one system. We can see it all, we can go through and look at it, we can challenge certain pieces of it with AI to ensure that it is accurate. We can trust the data — I trust it enough to go to my CEO with suggestions about the team. Prior to Dayforce, we couldn’t really trust the data and it took so much time that there were frustrations on the team. With Dayforce, the administrative needs of our team are probably 50% less.”

It’s not just trustworthy data that drives Foundry’s relationship with Dayforce, it’s also trust in the partnership with Dayforce as a whole.

“For me, the most important thing when we were looking for a new HRIS was the partnership, hands down. It was the customer service and the partnership,” says Colantonio. “Our team touches absolutely everything in the Dayforce suite, and having a partner who we know we can call at the drop of a hat is everything.”

“Dayforce leads with relationships,” says Garnero. “They have a wonderful product, yes, and absolutely that was a component of it. But it's really about their culture. It's about their relationships. How they treat each other, how they treat their customers — that's very much aligned with Foundry and our culture and our mission.”

Streamlining pay and benefits with Managed Services

Before Dayforce, payroll was Foundry Commercial’s biggest pain point.

“We have very complicated 24/7 shift differentials from a payroll perspective,” says Garnero. “We chose Dayforce managed services as our partner because we were having such significant issues with just paying people accurately and on time and making sure that their benefits were correct. When we partnered with Dayforce, we felt that they were bringing expertise to the table that we did not have internally. And we knew that as we grow, they could scale with us.”

Dayforce Managed Services has significantly increased payroll efficiency and reduced errors, saving time and money. But, for Garnero, the benefits go deeper:

“It's allowed the payroll people that we do have to focus on higher-level tasks,” she says. “They're not as stressed out or working the long hours that they used to work. It's awesome to see them actually get joy out of the work that they're doing.”

Dayforce On-Demand Pay: From the frontline to the bottom line

In addition to Managed Payroll, Foundry Commercial also implemented Dayforce Wallet, an on-demand pay solution that helps employees access earned wages when they are needed. Wallet ties pay access to approved time, improving payroll accuracy while reducing administrative friction.

Garnero was skeptical at first, fearing workers might be accidentally paid for time they had not earned. That fear never materialized. In fact, because Wallet requires managers to approve pay requests, it actually solved a problem the team had been facing — getting managers to approve timesheets.

The results have been stunning. In the first year, frontline turnover dropped by 35%, resulting in $1.2 million in cost savings.

“There was a moment probably six months in when I ran a report and I actually thought it was wrong,” Garnero says. “The lift in retention was already beginning to show.”

On-demand access to earned pay helps reduce financial stress, but it’s not the only Dayforce product making a difference in the work life of Foundry’s frontline workers. Dayforce Time & Attendance allows employees to swap shifts and bid for extra shifts without the hassle of countless person-to-person texting.

Dayforce has helped improve Foundry’s bottom line and the experience of its frontline healthcare workers, which in turn benefits the residents of Foundry’s senior living communities. The money saved has been reinvested into programs and facilities. Meanwhile, improved employee satisfaction means improved care — something critical to the organization’s vision.

“There is nothing more personal than somebody going into one of our communities,” says Garnero. “Providing the care, providing the dignity, the respect, is really, really important, and it is part of the culture.”

Recruiting, learning, and succession planning

Dayforce has been a great recruiting tool, allowing Foundry to compete across multiple industries for non-skilled labor, says Garnero: “Our time to fill roles has reduced from 44 days to 32 days with the use of Dayforce Recruiting.”

Of course, finding good people is only part of the picture. For a generational company like Foundry, the key is developing those people, supporting their growth, and preparing them to lead.

“Dayforce Succession helps us create reports around who may be ready for the next role in succession and what things we need to be thinking about from a skills gap standpoint to get them to the next step in leadership,” says Colantonio.

In the past, Foundry has used other learning platforms to support associates’ growth, but there were problems with adoption. Extra platforms, extra log-ins — it all just meant extra friction. With Dayforce Learning as part of a single Dayforce platform, there’s a single sign-on for associates, and a single source of truth for managers.

“Having recruiting, performance, and learning and development in one platform, and having all that data at our fingertips allows us to plan and make stronger workforce decisions. We are able to understand where our associate came from, when they came in, and look at their resume and their skills. We can dive into what they're interested in and areas of development to create personal plans that include learning tracks. So, you're talking about this one system that really pulls everything together,” says Colantonio.

“For me, it's exciting,” says Garnero. “I get to make sure that those next-generation leaders are ready — that we're giving them the exposure that they need so that when these opportunities come up, when our partners leave the organization because of retirement, they're ready to step into those different roles.”

A partnership and platform built for the future

“Dayforce is absolutely helping us do the work we’re meant to do,” Colantonio says. “Dayforce continues to take administrative tasks off my plate and give me the ability to be much more strategic with my partners. I can focus on relationships and doing the work that I love to do.”

“We know that Dayforce is working to maintain and update their product in a way that's going to be scalable if we have 1000 employees or if we have 100,000 employees. As we try to move really fast, it gives us a lot of peace of mind that we've got something that can keep up with that,” says Tyler Nelson, CFO.

That is the future Foundry is building toward — one where the business can move with more confidence, managers can spend more time leading, and employees can focus on the work, relationships, and care that matter most.