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The need for a system
In 2001 Tayside Contracts held all of its personnel data on a combination of manual files, Access databases, Excel spreadsheets and an outdated Payroll system. This meant that HR information was not only difficult to readily acquire, but was often disjointed and unreliable. Most importantly, the existing manual and computer systems offered little in the way of sophisticated management reports. Producing reports of any kind entailed a long process of data gathering: gleaning what was required from a range of different sources, which increased the possibility of management information being inaccurate or insufficient to fully inform key management decisions.
Tayside Contracts decided that an HR system was required to restore confidence in its HR data and reduce the amount of time wasted on consolidating information for reports. In particular, Anne Skelly, Head of Personnel Services, required an efficient and reliable means of recording and accessing critical data, to produce reports on recruitment and retention, training & development and sickness absence management.
The system
Tayside Contracts chose Snowdrop as its HR systems supplier in 2001, after a year-long options appraisal and selection process. The Personnel Unit’s initial requirements were reasonably basic. However, it soon became apparent that Snowdrop also offered a range of sophisticated functionality that could bring significant longer term benefits to enhance the Personnel Unit’s ability to achieve its key business objectives.
Tayside Contracts decided to implement the full range of HR solutions: Spring (recruitment); Evergreen with establishment functionality (personnel records management); Fountain (training administration and employee development) and Fountainexecutive (succession planning). Tayside Contracts also bought Crystal Reports, a third party reporting tool and Snowdrop Workflow, an interrogative tool that delivers information via e-mail.
Benefits
A key benefit for Tayside Contracts has been the production of a range of more sophisticated standard and ad hoc management reports to inform the business-critical decisions of its Corporate Management Team. Absence reports are automatically generated and e-mailed from Evergreen to managers on a monthly basis and sickness absence/medical appointments reports are e-mailed on a weekly basis. This information can be used by managers in return to work interviews and appraisals, serving to keep both them and employees in the loop, whilst reducing the administrative pressure upon HR. Previously sickness records were held in manual files that line managers had to request from HR, which also ran the risk of records being lost or mislaid. These reports can now be quickly produced from Evergreen, at the click of a button.
Management information that was not previously available can also be provided on recruitment and retention, such as applications requested and returned and the source of enquiries. This enables HR to identify the success of various media channels used for advertisements.
In general terms, the entire recruitment process has been significantly streamlined. As Tayside Contracts recruits a large volume of cleaning and catering staff each year, reducing the level of administration in this area has been invaluable.
Snowdrop’s ‘default recruitment process’ ensures that through a series of templates, letters are routinely produced that previously needed to be amended and photocopied. Interviews are also automatically scheduled. Applicants can now be moved smoothly towards acceptance or rejection, with those selected seamlessly transferred from the recruitment to the HR database – as all information appears on the same interface.
Snowdrop’s U-Access module was introduced in 2005. Currently access is restricted to ‘read only’ access to line managers, who can log on to view training, absence, appraisal and disciplinary information. They can also view vacancies and monitor how many applicants are applying. Despite an initial culture shock, line managers now have a much greater awareness of the kind of information they need about their employees. This has generated interest in what else they can gain from the system – essential for buy-in to, and ownership of, the software.
Many of the line managers have also asked to view Snowdrop Reports via U-Access – an encouraging step forwards. The HR team will soon be holding a promotional day to internally endorse U-Access, when it will provide line managers with information about where they are now, the different modules in use and any reports they can expect to run in the future.
Snowdrop has also been the backbone in providing everything from very basic to very sophisticated management reports. Snowdrop provides the facility to produce reports based on job history, length of service hourly rates and financial projections, in relation to the records held.
Advice to others
Angie Dodds, Personnel Project Manager, advises those looking to implement HR software to know what they want from the start and exactly how to manage the project. Teams should make sure they gain buy-in from all stakeholders, especially board level associates, who are initially likely to view the purchase of an IT system as just another organisational expense.
With regards to transferring information, Dodds recommends screening your data before getting it put in to the system – especially if acquiring HR software for the first time, when data downloads are not possible. Tayside Contracts employed two full-time clerical assistants for two years to get everything recorded. Dodds warns that this needs to be a properly managed process from the outset: identifying your needs and establishing the project scope, best undertaken by those that have a vested interest in the system. HR should also keep in mind that this is an opportune time to have a spring clean of data and make sure that the new system really does spell a fresh start.
One means of raising the system’s profile, is to ask employees to check their records with reports drawn from the software. Within Tayside Contracts this validation exercise served to heighten awareness of the system across the organisation and also provided reassurance to line managers that the personal data was accurate. However, Dodds does speak with caution about using reports in this way and advises HR managers to be mindful that this can also highlight problems in information, which may in the short term have a negative impact on the perceived credibility of the system.
On the whole, however, now that tangible benefits and efficiencies have been demonstrated, feedback from management at all levels has been extremely positive. One manager has commented: “I now have pretty much all the relevant employee and management information I require at my finger tips. I do not have to contact Personnel on a regular basis as I had to previously and the system is now very much part of the mainstream and central to everything we do, in all aspects of people management.”
To find out more about the personnel and recruitment modules that Tayside Contracts use, please click here.
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Knowledge Transfer Partnership
