Payroll to the rescue

It’s said, "neither hail, nor rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night can stay" your U.S. mail delivery. The saying could also be said of a team at PeaceHealth during some unprecedented winter weather in the Pacific Northwest.

When a major snowstorm threatened to arrive during payroll week, Delores Johnson and her payroll staff at PeaceHealth's System Services Center in Vancouver devised a plan to make sure payroll could be completed, no matter what.

Hours before the looming storm hit, everyone on the team worked hard to get things in place so payroll could be finished the following day—the most critical time of a payroll week.

That night, about a foot of snow fell in the area. The next day, Delores and eight of her crew braved the elements to get to the office and make sure paychecks went out on time.

Easy? Nope. One thing after another snowballed to cause potential delays. The small band finished the payroll process (whew!) only to learn the mail service vendor had closed due to the weather.

Undaunted, they hunted for stamps, finding 500-plus, but still 78 stamps short of what they needed to complete the mailing. They called a nearby post office to lick the problem, only to learn the stamp machine was broken.

Not to worry. Fortunately, they were able to head out on the frosty streets to the nearby Fred Meyer to purchase the additional stamps and deposit the entire mailing in the closest postal box for delivery by U.S. mail.

The final hurdle was mailing direct deposit notices, which were picked up by the mail service a day late, but not a dollar short—the money was in the bank!

As a former long-time nurse, Delores knows nurses step up all the time to meet a patient need. While not a life or death situation, a timely paycheck is pretty important to almost everyone.

The payroll team literally went the extra mile—in snow tires, no less—to make sure fellow caregivers were paid on time. Heartwarming.