74. Payroll and HR with Tiffani Johnson Artwork

Loaded: The Hahn Ready Mix Podcast

A podcast for the employees of Hahn Ready Mix

Loaded: The Hahn Ready Mix Podcast

74. Payroll and HR with Tiffani Johnson

July 27, 2026 • Griffin Hahn & Andrea Meier • Episode 74

0:00 | 20:48

Andrea and Griffin welcome Tiffani Johnson to the pod to talk all things payroll.

Plus Lex's athletic anxiety and Chris Jurgens wins the world cup.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Welcome to Loaded, the Hahn Ready Mix podcast with Andrea Meyer, Griffin Hahn, and producer Lex.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

How's it going today?

SPEAKER_02 0:16

We're all here. Full house. We're all here.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

And Tiffany Johnson. How are you?

SPEAKER_03 0:21

I'm good. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Good. Uh thanks for being on the pod.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

Yeah, thanks for inviting me.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Well, what's what's new? What's going on today?

SPEAKER_02 0:29

It's actually race day.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

So it's race day. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

This will this will come out after the race, but today is actually the Bix relay race. So we're Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Hopefully everybody saw Lex's news segment when he got to respond to how we won the. Oh, yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

We're counting on Lex to be the anchor and to have some TV time too.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Team spokesman. Guys, I can't wait. Are you going to lose on purpose?

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Lose on purpose.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Yeah, I might pull the groin halfway up the hill. It's clear we're going to win, and he's going to be like, eh, no, I'm going to lay down.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

So many activities. You have a triathlon coming up too, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Yeah. So all right. So this is coming out Monday. So this coming Saturday, Sam and Jeremy and Zach have they're doing the Musketeen triathlon they did last year. And myself and my wife and Chris Chumley, for those that remember him, are going to have a competitive.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

You couldn't stand it watching on the sidelines. You had to get showing it.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

I didn't watch last year, but I just thought it would be fun to beat them and then competitive actors. And Chris, who's a great swimmer. And I've been trying really hard at biking. So hopefully. Hopefully it'll be good. So Lex Lex is going to do it too, but he's he's thinking about not because he's too scared that I'll beat him in an athletic endeavor. That would just be un you know, unconscionable. So um Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Well, I can't wait till next week for an update on this uh the outcome.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Well, by the time we record next week's episode, we won't have done it yet.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Oh, so two weeks.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

That's that's the difficulty with our record on a Thursday, uh post on a Monday schedule. It's close to real time, but not we s we lose weekend events. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

All right. I had a couple reminders this week. Um first, just to we we talk about um doing your DVIR, your pre-trip and post-trip every day, but there are so many other things that we need to think about in the morning that are beyond just the mechanics of the truck. Like, do I have my scraper? Do I have my hard hat?

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Do I have the correct shoots on my truck?

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Will these shoots work on my truck? Yes. All good questions. So just uh run yourself through that checklist every morning and be sure, especially if you're hopping in a different truck.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

So many necessary pieces to make it go well on the job. And we had a few misses this week, so we want to get back on track with that. Um we had a good time to review and remind ourselves about uh uh keeping close care of our property and making sure that empty buckets are picked up and put away where they go, uh totes have to be marked or thrown away when we're done with them. Um just getting any trash off the property properly disposed of, keep keeping the dumpsters properly maintained, just closed.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

I didn't know that, but that's important actually for our environmental plans that the lids need to be closed on outdoor dumpsters uh if they have a lid.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Yep. We're we're diligent about those things, but there's always things that we can do better. And and we count on everyone to be looking at that all the time. So yeah, it's not just one person's job to make sure the dumpster lids are closed. We're all we're all in on that project.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

And then the last thing that I had was uh as we're in the heat of summer here and uh with kids going back to school and labor day coming up, I know there's a lot of people trying to squeeze in vacations and time off. And so the sooner you can get those requests in, the better off we all are. We had five different people call off at the last minute one day this week, yeah, all on the same day. And that is a disaster for our planning.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

So it didn't go well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

We want to be flexible with everybody and get them the time off. So as soon as you know you need to be off, if you let us know, that makes it so much easier for us to work around it. So just a reminder to get those planned early. Same thing with orders. If there's any customers that happen to be listening, the sooner we know about your order, the better off we can plant for that too.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

I'm not aware of any customers that regularly listen regularly listen.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

Not regular, but I think there's been a few customers that have said they said they listen.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Yeah. The only announcement I had was uh to to finally wrap up the whole World Cup thing. Chris Jugens did win on a tiebreaker over Dubs. Uh congratulations to Chris. And I looked it up, and Dubs did win the Fantasy Football League and the March Madness. So he's been on quite the right.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

You won a winner.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Where where were you ranked on the list of World Cup?

SPEAKER_00 5:18

I think I got like fifth.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

So almost last.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Well, there were like 18 people that signed up, including your husband, and then about 10 of those stopped participating.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

So So you were the most committed to to not place in the top three?

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Uh no, I think we had eight to ten folks that were trying. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Well, better luck with a triathlon, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Yeah, yeah. We'll see. So all right. Well, Tiffany, should we hop into this?

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Yep. Sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

All right. You're excited? All right, good. A few months ago when you started, we uh kind of announced that you would join the team on the podcast. We said we'll have her on once she gets her feet under. Yeah. Um here we are.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

True lucky day. Skell me.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Yeah. So uh yeah, so four months in. How are things going?

SPEAKER_03 6:09

I feel like I have a system down now. Um, everything that I have to track, I have processes for, and I try to stay up on it. I over-communicate with Andrea. She loves that.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

She's a big fan of overcommunication. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:23

Yep. And then Marla and Angela have been a huge help. Any questions that I have and going through different processes and making sure I'm up to date on everything. Aaron Powell Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

So we should probably tell people exactly what it is that you do in case they don't know, right? So you're the payroll coordinator and HR administrator, right? Yes, that is correct. The proper titles, I guess. Yeah. Very official.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

That's what nice things around here.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you're the first line for a lot of uh folks' questions about their paychecks or or things like that, right? So that's um that's where I I think it's really important to have you on here and and so people can get to know you. So that's that's great. Okay. So let's uh let's hit the background. Where are you from? How'd you come here? Let's hear your life story in uh 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_03 7:09

Okay. Um so I'm from Rochelle, Illinois, which is about an hour and a half from here. Um a lot of people don't know where that's at. So if you know where Rockford is, I'm about 25 to 30 minutes south of there.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:22

Um I lived there my whole life. And then I ended up, I was actually in banking for 10 years. I worked at a few different banks. And the reason why I came out to Quad Cities is because my boyfriend lived out here at the time. And so I ended up moving out here. I worked at TBK Bank for a little while.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 7:44

Um, and then I had my daughter in 2024, and I became a stay-at-home mom for nine months. And then after that, I was an office administrator at TSR Concrete Coatings, they coat floors, basically. Um, and then I saw this job on Indeed, and I do have my bachelor's degree in organizational management, which aligns with this position that I applied for. And I I paid for my degree, so I should utilize it. And the recruiter reached back out to me, and that's how I got the position.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Well, wonderful. Well, we're really excited that you're here. Yeah, I'm glad to be here. It's been an awesome first four months. So that's great. So you you worked in kind of an adjacent industry a little bit with the codings, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

But when you first saw uh a job at a ready mixed company, like what went through your mind about that?

SPEAKER_03 8:36

Like, was that um well it was funny because I never recognized the trucks and then I started working here and I see them everywhere. I was like, okay. Honestly, it's different because the coatings compared to actually pouring concrete.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

The coatings, they're out there doing it all day. I know our guys are out in the heat too, but at least they're they get some air conditioning in the trucks and um can go back and forth with loads.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

So yeah, that makes sense. What's kind of like surprised you the most, or where what's been the steepest learning curve for you um since joining?

SPEAKER_03 9:12

Um so the surprise is the process. There's a lot more details and involved than what I would have thought.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

And we haven't even subjected you to my concrete 101 yet.

SPEAKER_03 9:22

No, I have not seen that. Um the learning curve, I would say, would be just like learning payloadity more. We use payloadity at TSR, but not to the extent of what it is here. So just learning how to do payroll in the system and then learning the processes of how everything is done here, I would say. So but now I have it.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

That's great to hear that we utilize the software more than someone else because that's always the question. We're always like, we have all these different softwares. Like, what are we getting everything out of them that we could? So I'm uh at least it's anecdotally good to hear that we're we're at least one other company is doing looks.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Yeah, for sure. What's something you wish you knew day one that you've learned? I know it's only four months in, right? But like, is there something that we should be telling other people that start with us?

SPEAKER_03 10:15

Uh I haven't really felt that. I feel like the training is very involved and detailed. I do have noticed that um each day that I learn more, it makes more sense as to why I'm doing what I'm doing. I like the background of like why I'm doing this. How does this help?

SPEAKER_02 10:32

I have something that she should have learned day one. Uh she's very polite and she'll send a message when she wants to meet with people and that she if this is like a bunch of hungry wolves here. You have to butt in line and get in my door right away.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Like just barge in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

You you take priority, so you can kick anyone out and come in at any time. But thank you.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

I am.

SPEAKER_03 10:57

I always message can I talk to you for a second?

SPEAKER_00 11:00

Yeah. Always yes. If you need to talk to Andrea and I'm sitting in her office, just be like come in and just like kick me out. Just say get. Okay, okay, sorry. So perfect. Let's talk about the payroll process, right? And what you have to do. So what has to happen behind the scenes to get paychecks to be correct, right? It's not as simple of a process as I think most probably would assume.

SPEAKER_03 11:25

No. So basically Monday mornings, the supervisors need to approve their time cards. And if they don't approve it, usually by like 10 o'clock, I send a message out.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Reminder. Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 11:37

So please approve them so I can start payroll.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

So for any supervisors listening, save Tiffany a step and make sure you don't forget.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

It is hard. I know like Monday mornings are a rush for everybody to get back into the swing of things. So I know that is hard timing, but they're there. Like anytime on Sunday, if you're just sitting around, you could scroll through and approve those. Yeah. Before you even get to work on Monday morning. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

It's an idea.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Sunday work is my favorite.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

But if it's something you don't have to do on Monday, if I can take it off my plate when I know I'm busy.

SPEAKER_03 12:11

Yeah. Yeah, it definitely helps. And then after they approve their time cards, we have an Excel sheet that calculates everything. So I pull all the hours from Digital Fleet and I pull all the hours from Paylocity and then it puts them into a spreadsheet. And then I have to go through it's called the time card comparison spreadsheet. Um, and I match up digital fleet and payloadity hours. Uh, because we do have issues with digital fleet not fully bridging to pay lossity. So I have to go through if someone switches trucks and change their time clocks in payloadity.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

So it could be a process, or if someone jumps in a truck that doesn't normally drive, then I have to delete out their hours in digital fleet. After that, I run a report and I see if I balance. I have to be under 0.75. Um, if I'm under that, I'm okay for the week. If not, I have to figure out where the variance is.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

And that's a that's a double check too for like the two-hour show-up pays or holiday hours. You know, there's just a lot of other little pieces that go in there that aren't always standardized in the time card every week. Seems like every week there's something that's special.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

There is, yeah. Especially with holiday pay or overnight work benefits. There's a lot that goes into it.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

So once I finally get that done, then I send it off to be approved. Once it's approved, then I do the final submit and then paychecks get their Friday.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Perfect. Uh what's what's like a question that a lot of people come in? Like when people come to ask you questions about their paychecks or or just even any general HR stuff. Like what do people ask and and what do you see the most?

SPEAKER_03 13:55

Um, I would say the most that I see is benefit questions. I know it is um overwhelming to look at all the different plans that we offer and trying to figure out what works best for their family or themselves. So I do get a lot of benefits questions over actual paycheck sub questions. And another one when we're hiring people, tax forms. That's another one I get. I know that's also confusing. So just being able to help them go over that and pick what's best for them and to take away their stress and to know how much it would pull each week. Yeah, that I just think that's very important.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Well, I have to say you do a great job. You know, I don't um, because you sit right outside my office, right? So if anybody needs to ask you a question, that's where you sit, is right and you come in the front door of the office just to the right. And uh I think you do a a great job of because a lot of times people are confused or potentially stressed out. And and you do a really nice job with being really helpful and informative on what they need. Or or or if it's something you're like, I gotta look this up, but I'll get back to you, whatever. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

Yeah. I like to go to Andrea. I like to hear how those questions have evolved too, because before Pelocity, your desk would have been a hotspot for time off. Like they were filling out a paper time off request. Okay. So that would have been across your desk 10,000 times a day. Yeah. And they also had no way to check if their time off was approved or not. So having that all in Paylocity is a big improvement. Also, people being able to go into Pailocity and view their pay document or make changes in there saved you from having to do all those address changes and so many things. So yeah, that's I'm glad to hear that the questions that are still coming to you are now not those super common things and are things where we actually want to have that human interaction and help people. So yeah, I definitely agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Are there any things that like you're kind of surprised people don't ask more or that we we wish people would come and talk to you more about?

SPEAKER_03 15:50

Um I would say just to make sure you're they're actually looking at their pay stubs. I feel like a lot of people are don't even pay attention to it. And if something's not right, then you need to say something so we can fix it. Everything's fixable.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

It's just Yeah, we we want everything to be right. Yeah, yeah. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

It happens. It's happened here. It happened. My husband messed something up on his benefits at his company last year and we didn't notice until December. So then when they fixed it in December, it was like a huge chunk.

SPEAKER_03 16:18

Right. Yeah. Yeah. So I definitely, if something is not right, please come to me and tell me, and we will get it fixed.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Yeah, wonderful. What's like the most satisfying kind of problem to solve? Like what gets you like felt like you've made an impact, right?

SPEAKER_03 16:33

Um, I feel like going back to benefits that really helps. And then even pay lossity, the simple things. They're locked out of their account, they can't get in, they need their password reset. So just helping in any way that I can, or even helping coworkers. Um, if they have a big project, I don't mind stepping in and helping out to get it done faster.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

Yeah. Wonderful. Let's say that someone is looking at their check right now and something seeds off. What's the first step? What should they do?

SPEAKER_03 16:59

My thing they either text me or call me. Obviously, if it's more like a huge concern to come in and talk to me in person so we can get it figured out. I will say I don't take the payroll phone home.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:12

So um, once I leave for the day, it's here just in case if I'm off the next day, anyone else in the office can still get through to the drivers. But please reach out whether it's in person or text or phone call.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Did we say the payroll phone publicly or do we not want to on this?

SPEAKER_02 17:28

I think we did before. I think we put it in the notes. Okay, we'll do that.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Okay, we'll put the pay the payroll phone number in the notes again. So um, if anybody doesn't have that, they have the ability to get to you. Oh, Kai is really sad about something.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

I also think along those lines with if people are looking at their paycheck, there's so many things that are confusing, right? Like there's a the deduction codes that are just like a four letters that might not make any sense to you. Even if you don't think something's wrong, if you just want to know what that means, it's totally fine to come in and ask that question. Like we're happy to help you understand what you're looking at on that paycheck because it is confusing. I also think the way that we do the tax forms now is very confusing. Used to be very simple with just like your number of exemptions and that whole process has changed. So if there's something you don't understand, don't be afraid to come in and talk to us. Yep. Talk to Tiffany. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Well, and that's a you know, I think there's an understanding that you've been here four months and you're not gonna know every answer to every question. But that's where um, you know, Tiffany can help escalate to to to Andrea or whoever else might be able to help. But we'll get to the bottom of whatever it is, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:38

Right. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Hopefully we have all 150 employees listening. You know, so you it's your pulpit. So what would you like to tell people about yourself or about the the role you fill, or you know, that you want them to know?

SPEAKER_03 18:54

I would just say if you need help with anything to come to me. Um I I don't know. I don't know what to say for that.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

I would say I'll answer that. You're super helpful. And yeah, uh I think people shouldn't be scared or or embarrassed to come see you or anything like that, right?

SPEAKER_03 19:13

Like that's no question is dumb to me.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:15

I will answer anything.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:17

Chances are if you have that question, someone else probably does too.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

So I have no It's either already been asked or it's something we we should we should kind of know, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:27

So a couple other payroll-related topics that we haven't talked about yet that I think are important for people to know that they can talk to Tiffany about are if you have any changes to your child support, if you have changes to your taxes, changes, any kind of wage garnishments, if you know that's coming or you think something should be changing with that, she's sort of the go-to person for that. She also coordinates a lot of the follow-up drug screens, the random drug screens, the med certs, you're keeping track of your MVR if you get any, you know, speeding tickets or moving violations. Uh, she's constantly monitoring those MVRs and making sure that everything stays current with all of that. So if you anticipate any problems or have questions about that, she's your first stop for those things.