Brennan Ashleman, Executive Director of Daybreak Ministries in South Carolina, was juggling payroll and HR alone until ERG took over. Within 30 days, he went from sleepless nights worrying about missed payments to having reliable processing, a staff portal, and an HR resource library. The personal support gave him peace of mind his employees were taken care of.
Hi, I'm Brennan Ashleman. I'm the Executive Director of Daybreak Ministries. We're a faith-based nonprofit. Uh, we're a pregnancy medical clinic, so we exist to meet the needs of those facing unplanned pregnancy or those maybe who don't have the necessary resources when they are expecting a baby. And, uh, we seek to minister to them and help them find from prior to birth through that experience and even beyond, whether that's through pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, STI testing, or even material services providing diapers, formula, things of that nature. And so we meet the needs of those here in the Midlands of South Carolina. When it comes to payroll and HR, as a nonprofit, for us it really boils down to sometimes we just don't have the resources at our disposal for things like that, whether it's the, the financial demand for quality HR and payroll services or just the staffing to be able to do that. In the nonprofit world, we wear a lot of different hats, and so when we found ERG, in fact, when ERG found us as a result of them just making it a priority to give back to the community and get involved in organizations that their team is passionate about, we got connected and realized that there was a very quality service that was available to us that we would be able to afford as an organization. And so when ERG got involved, what we, what we recognized very quickly is we knew we were going to get quality payroll services and that that was going to allow us to be able to just have a more seamless process as it relates to taking care of payroll on a week-to-week basis. What we didn't realize we were going to get was the level of customer service that we're provided on a regular basis, as well as the HR services that have come along with it. For me as an executive director, to be able to have access to a database that gives me everything from forms and templates to somebody I can reach out to, whether that's through a performance management conversation and trying to just gauge what do I need to do here, how do I handle this, might there be any employment relation type risks and things like that. I had no idea that we were going to have access to that level of quality services, so it has been a huge advantage for us as an organization. Not to mention the fact that I am able to provide my staff now too with access to a system that they can log in, they can check their pay stubs, they can— they have access to resources as well, and so It really went above and beyond what we thought we were going to be getting. You know, when I think of ERG as well, it's that personal touch too. You know, as I said, here at a nonprofit, we wear a lot of different hats, and there's times when we might, say, forget to run payroll. And you don't want to do that. You don't want to mess with your people's paychecks. And so there have been those moments where I've had to call and say, "I need help." And the fact that they have every time been able to take care of us and make those things happen to ensure that people are paid on a timely basis. It gives me a lot of relief, helps me to sleep at night as the executive director, knowing my people are going to be taken care of.
