Balfour Beatty Rail
Balfour Beatty Rail Projects streamlines employee timekeeping with Kronos
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Balfour Beatty Rail Projects Ltd (BBRP) is the market leader in the design, project management and construction of complex rail projects both in the UK and Internationally. The organisation undertakes both the remodeling and upgrading of existing rail infrastructure and the construction of new systems.
At BBRP, Kronos Workforce Central is saving time and reducing paperwork by enabling the organisation to introduce more efficient processes. From payroll preparation to preparing tenders, Kronos ensures vital data, that previously took hours, weeks and even months to collate, is now just a mouse-click away.
Kronos has a part to play in every part of the BBRP business; however the system is not entirely new to the organisation. The relationship started in 2003 when Kronos was used predominantly to carry out an activity analysis of time with employees recording their working hours on a separate paper timesheet.
During 2005, BBRP agreed on a more strategic direction for the Kronos system, in order to provide greater operational benefits. The plan was to create a centralised Kronos system that would contain all labour data across the organisation and allow a single point of entry for all working hours data.
Benefits Summary
Significant decrease in payroll processing costs over the last 3 years
18 days a month ( 31 weeks a year) saved by the finance team in processing employee time and attendance data and cost allocation across the business
30,000 paper timesheets/attendance sheets per year eliminated from the T+A process
In addition to Payroll and HR Kronos now feeds other business critical applications including Finance and Health and Safety systems.
Phased implementation path
The implementation roadmap for Kronos has accelerated since 2006 with the addition each year of new modules and functionality to support the business. Head of HR for Rail Shared Services which supports BBRP, Sue Acock, explains the phased development plan, "We had a clear strategy for how the system would progress over time, but decided early in the process that too much too soon could be difficult to control. Following a manageable maturity curve, we've invested in the system to add in functionality to manage holiday accruals, health and safety requirements and project costing in 2007 and in 2008 we introduced PDA's for time recording and built our payroll interface."
Integrating payroll
The Project Manager for BBRP Business Systems was responsible for integrating Kronos with the Northgate HR and Payroll system for the whole of BBRP and Signalling Solutions (SSL). He explains, "The Kronos implementation has accelerated over the last 12 months and is now used by over 1,100 employees. It’s an extremely flexible system, has been well received by staff across the board and has standardised many of our internal processes. We now have a standard, integrated business approach to time management instead of multiple, disparate, manual paper processes"
Streamlined time recording
Employees across multiple sites are now required to complete an electronic timecard using either the corporate intranet or, a hand-held PDA. Worked hours are then transferred directly into Kronos, approved in Kronos by a manager and passed seamlessly through an interface into payroll. Sue Acock explains, "We've seen payroll error rates reduce as a result of electronic time capture and transfer to payroll. Kronos now gives us a single, accurate and comprehensive data collection system that provides a single point of data entry for each payroll transaction and cost allocation. Our payroll process is more streamlined, with less of an administrative burden and we've seen an increase in accuracy and improved reliability. Overall, the entire process is more efficient."
Simplified pay rule configuration
One of the key benefits of the system has been to simplify the management of nine separate payrolls and 48 different pay rules across the organisation. Prior to Kronos, each payroll had its own system, method for time recording and paperwork. Adopting Kronos has allowed a standard approach across the organisation for all payrolls, greatly simplifying payroll administration when staff transfer.
Greater visibility to working hours and absence
A single data source for all working hours and a system that operates in real-time also ensures that BBRP has immediate access to accurate data across all sites. Managers now have the up to date, accurate information they require to calculate labour costs when preparing tenders and potential attendance problems can also be identified sooner, with managers able to spot absence trends, by directly accessing the Kronos system.
Sue Acock explains, "Our standard approach to absence management and the facility for managers to monitor their staff in real-time, makes it extremely difficult for absence to go un-noticed. The next step for us is use the Kronos Attendance Module to measure a new absence policy that BBRP are launching."
Significant reduction in administration
A more efficient, automated process for collecting working hours data has resulted in a significant reduction in the time taken both by payroll administrators and the finance team. The organisation estimates that 18 man days per month (31 weeks a year) have been taken out of the process.
Business acceptance of Kronos
BBRP has been particularly encouraged by the positive response to Kronos from within the business. All new systems have a learning curve and it's sometimes difficult to convince everybody that change is necessary and a positive step for the business. The newly streamlined processes however have demonstrated to employees that things such as overtime can be paid more promptly and automated timesheets mean fewer payroll errors.
Eliminating paper
The system is also helping to ensure that the business is a paper-free operation by replacing time sheets, each one of which can incorporate several written copies. Balfour Beatty estimates that over 30,000 paper time sheets per annum are removed from the process.
Future developments
The relationship with Kronos is an important factor in ensuring the continued success of the system, "We very much see the relationship with Kronos as a partnership," says Sue Acock. "They know exactly what we need to achieve with the system, help us to stretch the system where possible and support us when we’re ready with new modules and additional functionality. We have an open and honest relationship with the Kronos team and look forward to their support as we grow the system through 2009. From April 2009 we are extending our use of Kronos to overseas project staff in Brazil, Chile, Australia and New Zealand, who will submit timecards remotely using the company extranet"
The BBRP Operations Director, concludes, "It is marvellous to achieve all this with a single system. Kronos will be of tremendous benefit to all employees, managers and the business as a whole. And we’ll continue our investment in the system with plans to introduce roster planning, absence management and the management of KPIs in real-time."