Customer Success:
City West Country
Industry
Retail
Company Size
500+ employees
Products
PeopleHR
How City West Country cut time-to-hire by 40% and went fully paperless with Access PeopleHR
City West Country (CWC) is a privately-owned motor retailer with more than 40 years of experience in the Southwest of England, with an annual turnover exceeding £368 million, CWC is ranked as the 47th largest dealer group in the UK. Operating across twelve locations under brands including Mercedes-Benz (cars and vans), smart, BYD, Chery, Maxus and Tangelo, the business employs around 700 people across retail, fleet sales, vans, servicing, and repair. Central HR and payroll teams also support sister company Carparison.
Managing HR across a multi-site, multi-brand operation of that scale demands a system that is fast, flexible, and genuinely easy for managers and employees to use. We spoke to CWC’s HR Manager, Leanne Massey, about why they chose Access PeopleHR and what has changed since going live.
The challenge
Before Access PeopleHR, CWC’s HR team had no integrated ATS or communications platform, and limited analytics capability. Reports took up to ten minutes to load. People data lived in spreadsheets, and amendment and leaver forms came in by email, creating compliance risk and administrative drag.
I wanted a one stop shop: a HR system with an ATS, a comms platform, and data analytics at a click of a button. That wasn’t possible with our previous provider.
Implementation
CWC rolled out in structured stages: People and Engage first, followed by ATS and Screening, with two dedicated internal project leads. Migrating 700 employees’ records was a significant undertaking, but it gave the team the opportunity to audit and cleanse their data, leaving them in a stronger compliance position than before.
Joe was a fantastic consultant who made training a breeze. The helpdesk support has been second to none, always timely and always helpful.
The results
Recruitment
The ATS has given hiring managers and HR shared, real-time visibility of all candidates, improving coordination and accountability across the business. Automated acknowledgements and status updates keep applicants informed throughout the process, a responsiveness that has contributed to CWC being recognised as a responsive employer on Indeed. Average time to fill has dropped from 18.5 days in January 2025 to 11 days in January 2026. With admin reduced on both sides, hiring managers can focus on their teams while HR pursues more strategic activity, including proactive sourcing on LinkedIn.
Screening and compliance
Access Screening has created a clear end-to-end workflow from offer to onboarding. Prior to implementation, document completion rates for non-regulated paperwork such as CVs and interview forms sat at around 65%, creating a persistent cycle of chasing and follow-up. Since August 2025, 100% of regulated documents returned to CWC have been fully complete, eliminating that burden entirely and reducing the risk of errors associated with manual processes.
People analytics and LogBook
Reports that once took up to ten minutes to load are now instant. People analytics that previously required hours of spreadsheet work are available at the click of a button, giving the HR team and senior leaders real-time visibility of key metrics including absence, turnover, retention, and headcount. Business review packs that once took ten hours a month to compile and board report analytics that required a further four hours are now produced in moments - a saving of at least two days of admin time every month.
LogBook has replaced paper forms and email attachments across a wide range of processes including one-to-ones, appraisals, probation, amendments, leavers, exit interviews, and training logs. The system's capabilities have also enabled the development of new resources, including a medical log for employees, a pregnancy checklist and guide for both employees and managers, with a wellbeing and support passport and menopause action plan currently in progress. Workflow automation sends reminders and chases outstanding information, removing another category of manual follow-up from the team's workload.
Communications
CWC has gone completely paperless and now reaches every employee across all twelve sites simultaneously through a single communications platform, regardless of role or location.
100% I would recommend Access PeopleHR. It’s modern, easy to use, and continuously developing. The support is worth its weight in gold. We’re still at early stages, but I’m so glad we made the transition.
Could Access PeopleHR do the same for your business?
City West Country’s experience shows what is possible when HR, recruitment, screening, and people analytics work together in one place. If you are managing a multi-site team and want to reduce admin, speed up hiring, and get better visibility of your people data, Access PeopleHR is built for businesses like yours.
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