Bibby Distribution
Bibby Distribution enhances HR efficiencies with Kronos solution
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About Bibby Distribution
As the UK's leading independent logistics company, Bibby Distribution combines an impressive portfolio of services with a unique business approach and a genuine commitment to excellence. The company has 70 operating centres with several million square feet of warehousing space, employing over 2,600 staff, supported by over 1,500 vehicles and utilising sophisticated computer system capability.
"With the new HR and payroll systems in place the process of paying 800 employees will become fully automated, providing accurate and timely pay. Kronos has already halved the number of pay queries we had and this will be reduced further once we take another level of manual process out of the system." Lois Gorry, HR Manager, Bibby Distribution
Kronos at Scunthorpe
Bibby Distribution and Re-Vision Logistics were awarded a joint five-year contract with independent buying consortium “Nisa-Today’s” to deliver ambient products to over 500 Nisa-Today’s members with around 3,000 delivery locations in the UK. The logistics operation is based in a purpose built 650,000 sq ft warehouse in Scunthorpe where the Kronos system is used by approximately 800 employees working across all functions including warehouse operatives, transport drivers and administration.
Workforce Management challenge
Bibby had previously used an older, legacy time and attendance system. The system had been perfectly suitable when the operation was smaller and the terms and conditions of the employees much simpler, but as the operation grew, and employee pay rules became more complex, the company recognised the need to update the time and attendance system. James White, Company Secretary, Re-Vision Logistics explained, "The limited functionality of the old system was causing administrative problems for us, with too much manual keying of data, resulting in errors and payroll queries. We identified swiftly that it was time to act, implement and deliver a solution."
The solution
A number of systems vendors were examined before selecting Kronos. Commenting on the choice of vendor, James White said, "The requirement was for a fully integrated Time and Attendance, HR and Payroll system and the preferred choice was to find one system to do all three things. We quickly realised however that a best of breed solution was required to manage the complexity of our business and Kronos Workforce Central™ became the clear choice. Kronos then went on to assist us in our selection of HR and Payroll systems."
The benefits
The first stage of the Kronos project has been fully operational at the site in Scunthorpe since July 2005, and the entire IT project complete in 2006 when Kronos is fully integrated with a number of other systems, including systems for HR and payroll and the company's labour management system – used to monitor employee productivity against defined labour standards.
The company has seen a number of benefits since the first stage of the project was completed and expects to see more in following the second phase including:
Excellent management of complex pay rules
In order to provide employees with a structured, performance-related salary scheme, Re-Vision Logistics on behalf of Bibby Distribution has developed a pay and bonus scheme – the complexity of which would be difficult and time consuming to manage without Kronos. In the warehouse for example, 800 employees work almost 24/7 in three shift patterns. Staff are paid weekly, and wages are calculated based on a weekly basic payment, plus an attendance bonus, plus a productivity-related calculation. The Kronos system is used to monitor the attendance element of the payment, and once the interface is operational with the labour standards system, Kronos will be used to calculate the daily productivity-related payments due.
Overtime controlled with flexed hours contracts
Fluctuating demand for services is common within the retail warehousing and distribution sector and organisations often find solutions to help manage the cost of labour and potential overtime payments. Bibby Distribution work around Nisa-Today's three week promotional cycle and delivery to stores could fluctuate from 1 million cases in week one of the cycle to 1.3 million cases in week three of the cycle, significantly affecting required staffing levels. Seasonal promotions too can affect the number of people required to cope with the demand. A flexed hours system is operated for employees where staff are paid a basic pay of 40 hours each week. If an employee is required to work an additional eight hours one week, the Kronos system carries these hours forward to the following week. At the end of each six-week period, Kronos calculates the number of 'under' or 'over' hours vs the employee contract. The employee then has the option to either take payment for the excess hours due to him, to have pay deducted for any ‘under’ hours, or to carry forward his totals to the following six-week period.
Timely absence reporting
On a nightly basis the Kronos system automatically emails staff managers and team leaders to alert them to staff lateness and absence the previous day. Managers receive the email each morning enabling them to proactively manage their own staff and deal with HR issues in a timely manner.
Systems integration will improve payroll accuracy
A seamless integration with Bibby's Head Office payroll system will remove the need to manually key data from Kronos into payroll. HR Manager Lois Gorry commented, "With the new HR and payroll systems in place the process of paying 800 employees will become fully automated, providing accurate and timely pay. Kronos has already halved the number of pay queries we had and this will be reduced further once we take another level of manual process out of the system. We’ve found Kronos to be intuitive and easy to navigate and look forward to the additional benefits we’ll have once the integration project is complete."
Management of productivity based pay
The second phase of the project will include a Kronos interface into the AquiTec labour management system (LMS). Warehouse operatives work to a fixed set of labour standards for each task they carry out. AquiTec calculates both the time a job is expected to take and the actual time taken to carry out the task. Once the Kronos interface is operational, the LMS system will transfer the details on the additional productivity payments due (shown as a pence-per-hour-worked bonus). Kronos will then calculate the number of hours worked and multiply this by the bonus amount to create a daily bonus total.
Future steps
Once the stage two implementation projects are complete, Bibby is considering the possibility of installing an employee self service facility for the employees – a terminal in the staff canteen where employees will be able to do a number of things including making holiday requests and looking up their accrued flexed hours, holiday entitlement and daily bonus calculations. The company is also considering Passport inTime – to enable team leaders to create inter-departmental staff transfers via a PDA, rather than having to return to a PC each time a transfer is to be done.