Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 25th April 2024 Issue no. 1111
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KCC cleans up absenteeism through clocking in with The Cloud
A long-established Bristol cleaning company has saved time and money by efficiently managing the attendance of its workforce using a powerful time & attendance system which flexibly and accurately monitors a workforce on the move.
Bristol-based KCC Cleaning, which was founded in 1994 and now employs 52 people, is the first cleaning company to adopt a new time and attendance system called from Somerset-based T&A specialist Access-to-Time.
'uAttend' harnesses Cloud technology to store and access information. Costing from just £14.99 per month, it is designed to help businesses of any size manage employees' and sub-contractors' attendance more accurately, more flexibly and more affordably than ever before.
For KCC Cleaning which has contracts for regular cleaning of homes, offices, public services and care homes as well as specialist events, accurately monitoring the hours worked by an expanding out-of-hours, remote team was causing headaches.
"We pride ourselves in offering a value-for-money service and as we grew, realised that we had to ensure that any member of staff employed was working their full quota of hours, and not abusing the system and short-changing us or our clients," explains Managing Director Kevin Cooper.
"Like most cleaning companies we were working on trust but realising that our systems could be open to abuse, with staff signing each other in and out. Another concern was that if staff were not correctly accounted for it would be difficult to track who was in a building in the event of an emergency - potentially putting lives at risk."
Having met the Access-to-Time team at an exhibition, Kevin realised there was a new affordable way to monitor who was on site, where and when. On site cleaning staff now clock in by calling an 0800 number and using a personal pin which they are legally obliged not to share with others. The uAttend system instantly collates the information which Kevin can access from his mobile phone.
"If there's a problem and someone hasn't signed in on site I know straightaway and can investigate and send in back-up staff. We can also monitor day-to-day attendance and issue timely warnings if neede,." Kevin explains. "Having already implemented the technology in over 20 of our sites with more to follow, we now have a highly disciplined approach and are providing an even more reliable service. uAttend has already paid for itself several times over."
Alastair Slade, Director of Access-to-Time says uAttend is the first web-based system designed specifically to meet the needs of smaller businesses that need to monitor the hours their employees put in.
"The system enables employees to 'clock in and out' from a phone, web-browser, smart phone app or time-clock - or all four. GPS enabled apps even show where the clocking was made," Alastair explains. "Cloud technology, using any broadband connection, whether that is standard landline broadband, 3G or a Wi-Fi connection, allows data to be instantly recorded on the secure website where the data is stored. Data is then delivered to one account allowing managers to log in, view hours, run reports, make changes and manage the system, before exporting to a payroll company or using the data to run an internal payroll system. And all from anywhere in the world!"
"There are many T&A systems out there but before uAttend they all needed a computer or their own T&A software. uAttend has no software to install, can use proximity or biometric terminals, web, phone and app clocking, and with no clock cards to buy and no long contracts, is proving ideal for smaller businesses, saving managers a vast amount of time and reducing payroll costs."
T: 01761 410015
E: [email protected]
W: www.uAttend.co.uk
24th May 2012