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Newell Rubbermaid, which is the holding company, an American company, doesn't actually manufacture
any product, anywhere in the world. What happens is that they have a number of different companies
under their banner and those companies range from an excess of over 100 years of trading
up to more recently about 30/40 years of trading, The type of employees that we would have within
in the company are blue collar and white collar. Mostly now, it is white collar but the blue
collar side is still very active here in Fradley Park, the main office. We no longer have night
shifts in operation but we have a standard day shift, a variety of shifts within the
white collar side to suit the needs of the company and we have a standard 6-2 to determine
alternating shifts in operation. The system has been in place quite some years and was
getting to the point that the clocks themselves would have not been able to be maintained
and at the same time we were conscious there were different flexibilities we needed from
the system to help us achieve certain things in attendance and disciplinary tools. We chose
to go the way we have because we wanted the flexibility of being able to show to the employees
particularly there holiday balances which the upgrade now enables us to do. The clocking
no longer is a swiping system it’s now the special cards where we simply walk up and
tough the screen and that’s a lot better and we have a lot less clocking errors as
a result. As far as the work load of HR and payroll I wouldn't say it has reduced the
workload but it has certainly added a lot more of accurate information particular in
the blue collar side where their paid a salary, but also they are paid by the hour for lateness
deductions, absence deductions and overtime payments. If the system is being used effectively,
which it now is and accurately, that information is fed directly into payroll so the necessity
for accurate clockings are very very important. As far as reducing workload, I wouldn't say
it has but because of how we using it we are getting a lot more from the system. Managing
shifts, basically because the whole system manages all shifts because obviously it advises
of lateness, absences and any anomaly’s what is good about it is, that when we run
the weekly reports which we now do for blue and white collars, particularly blue collars
we issue reports down through the supervisors on the shop floor. and we would do this on
a weekly basis so they could see exactly what has happened give any approvals on stuff they
may have been missed and also to approve any overtime that has been put into the unapproved
overtime sector according to our rules. This is very useful because it means that when
we come to do the interface to payroll we can be virtually 99% sure that the information
is correct. It also obviously issues to go to senior managers to show people who are
continually coming in late and to show time off etc. What we also find is that we also
now use the tool the alert module. Which from within the HR world, the the alert module
although it does repeat itself on occasions obviously because of the number of issues
of absences and lateness. What we find is that it alerts us to check individual’s
records very very well and that was an invaluable asset within the upgrade. For the administration
and HR side we use it pretty much as I said previously it assesses greatly. It has reduced
an awful lot of paperwork going up and down because we now get emails through for different
approvals etc and the reports that we produce is really very good and when it comes to disciplinary
for example we sent out reports to show from the alert module the people who are coming
close to verbal warnings, written warnings etc and because it stores and advises us,
we haven’t got to run reports over and over, it actually alerts us with the look out. It
does save us an awful lot of time. The employees themselves, basically as long as they clock
accurately that’s all they have to do. They can see on clocking each time their holiday
balance and they can also call that up on the screen on the functional keys if they
wish to. But on the whole that’s all they have to do they just have to be accurate in
their clocking and obviously advise us in advance of you know, holidays, know absences
so that they can get approves absences so the system doesn’t show unapproved absences
got them all in there in advance. The employees using the system basically again we just say
– Clock accurately and make sure that you don’t miss a clocking. For administrator
which is myself and the team in HR all have access we find it now quite user friendly.
On the old system we had less opportunities of getting reports out now with the alert
module we’ve got a lot more flexibility and were very happy! As far as the employee
are concerned initially when we upgraded and changed to the new clocks etc there was as
always within Blue Collar a little bit of concern and were we trying to – was it like
Big Brother watching you sort of thing and this was an issue with our white collar who
previously weren’t required to clock as accurately as they do now. But now they see
the reasons why were doing it, and also we use it to promote them to clock accurately
as a health and safety aspect for emergency evacuations and when we point out they must
clock accurately to assist that if there is a situation where we have to evacuate we use
the clockwise system for role call bases. So that has helped us to get any uncertainty
away from them. The attitude now is really quite good what they do like is being able
to see every time they clock, what holidays they’ve got available – so that if an
error has been made they can see it in advance that really is one of the main things that’s
helped get it settled. I Find H to be exceptionally well knowledgeable
within the product very very supportive and basically whatever you ask for when he is
on site you always get it. I believe he is a huge asset to your company and certainly
the relationship between out IT people as well as myself with him is very very good
and that’s really one of the main things I think why we did the upgrade with you opposed
to looking elsewhere because we know that he is extremely supportive and knowledgeable.
I guess the value is absenteeism has certainly been address and reduced very dramatically.
I will say in the last 12 months although we haven’t had the upgrade in for that time
we did begin to use different reports more effectively for absenteeism and lateness and
that has been reduced by a very large percentage in some areas it has approved up to 30 /
35% which is very very good. The numbers of times now that HR have to put the naughty
hat on is gone down an awful lot because we are now able to use and provide information
to the employees why there is a problem with their attendance. Because of this I would
say not in the white collar, bur blue collar side, productivity will have improved for
sure because if you have got less time when people aren’t accurately doing their job
then obviously productivity suffers because of it and we think are doing very well. I
would say that now where we are with the system, we’ve now got managers can now see on a
weekly basis a different reports we produce for attendance etc etc, and I think that because
they now can see exactly what is happening a week later for their own department and
indeed historically when we ask for information we can actually produce them statistics reports
very very quickly and that’s obviously definitely a plus and yes definitely a benefit to the
company. Since the upgrade were able to do a lot more
reporting and report period times whatever as we do. So certainly I think the upgrade
have proven there is a lot more to Softworks than we originally had in the package that
was originally here when I arrived. And the level of support I now get when i have a reason
to call with a query or problem it’s resolved mostly on that call. Certainly I would endorse
the system as such because of the use we have of it. That to say what you need to do before
deciding any system is to see the system that’s on offer actually in a working environment
because if it’s in a working environment and you can have a site visit you can see
how that company is using the system and whether really what you want to do is part of it.
To answer your question the advice is to see ait working to ask questions of the administrator
/ HR people whoever is using it in that company, how they are using it and see if it meets
what you want to achieve because if not when you install it obviously that’s when you’re
going to have problems