· News

Cheshire firm plumps for electronic workforce system

Manufacturer Brunner Mond, part of Tata Chemicals, is to roll out a new workforce management system across its two UK plants, which produce chemicals such as soda ash, sodium bicarbonate and calcium chloride.

The system, which has been provided by Staffordshire-based Crown Computing, is based on new electronic time clocks and contactless ID badges. It will replace existing paper-based processes for access control, clocking on and off and activity tracking.

It is hoped the new system will give Brunner Mond immediate visibility of the location of some 500 staff, 300 contractors and visitors across its two large sites in Cheshire. In the event of a potential emergency, this will enable Brunner Mond to provide a faster response, with detailed information about the number and location of employees in the affected areas.

The incident response team will also be able to ascertain without delay whether or not all staff concerned have assembled at their respective muster points.

Lesley Lightfoot, payroll and HR manager at the firm, said: "Improving health and safety at our plants was the primary driver for rolling this out, but we are expecting to see many additional benefits, which will have a positive impact both on our employees' working lives and on our overall business efficiency."

Staff will be clocking in and out using their badges, with their time and attendance data being calculated and fed directly into the company's payroll systems. In this way, processes such as out-of-hours payments can be automated, cutting administration time and cost while ensuring staff are paid more quickly than was previously possible.

Employees can access the system through a web browser and request leave, check their remaining holiday allowance or view payment transactions online.

Line managers can use the system to administer shift swaps, register absences and authorise leave or time off in lieu. The system will also help avert breaches of regulations such as the Working Time Directive by alerting managers when employees approach the regulatory limit.