You can now set up a fully working time and attendance system where the data can be accessed from anywhere in the world within five minutes of arriving on site. With or without a landline connection!
Sharkey, a leading specialist in refurbishment and interior fit out, is using the uAttend system together with BN3000 and BN4000 fingerprint terminals on its refurbishment and building sites. The Group directly employs more than 200 professionals working on more than £50 million worth of projects throughout the UK and in some cases, Europe.
Sharkey has moved from a portable card clock card system which it found “ineffective” to the uAttend system which has been successfully implemented on three of its construction sites so far, monitoring time and attendance of 250 on-site personnel in each location.
Sharkey’s IT Manager Neil Robb says: “We have seen real benefits across the business from the implementation of uAttend. Our HR department is now able to confidently report on where team members are and how they are paid, our health and safety department is comfortable with producing mandatory reports on attendance and our senior managers can quantify our sub-contractors’ performance quickly and easily.
“The cloud-based system allows us to access time-keeping information both on and off site. As a result we can produce attendance reports at the touch of a button and are now able to benchmark our subcontractors. We share information – and thus responsibility - on time-keeping and attendance with our sub-contractors’ managers and because we can easily access information we can respond promptly and appropriately to good - or bad – performances.
Sharkey chose to move away from its original manual clocking-in system because it found “accuracy and success was dependent on a close eye being kept on clocking-in and out procedures” and crucially, it didn’t provide the electronic reports the company needed.
See more here to see how easy the system is to implement.
“We researched the market and found there were basically three types of system out there – an off-the-shelf option available from high street retailers which was nowhere near meeting our need, complex electronic options which demanded high investment, and uAttend which came with tiny capital expenditure and a small on-going subscription cost.
“We felt uAttend suited both our desire for a lower cost option and our need to pull down reports quickly and efficiently.”
Neil admits that the company was initially cautious about adopting the system, expecting that a low-cost system would be clumsy both in terms of the time-clock and internet functionality. “On delivery we found it wasn’t clumsy at all. We were also relieved to find that the set-up documentation was well-written and easy to follow and the system was straightforward with a tight specification meaning that there were no unnecessary add-ons.
“Initially we had a few bugs in the system but these were rapidly addressed and improvements made, which we have found to be typical of the excellent and first-class service provided by uAttend."
“We are a successful family business because we work around the clock to deliver, which means we don’t just want 9-5 support. The back-up and attention we have had from uAttend could not have been better – they are always available to assist us."
“We certainly didn’t believe uAttend would work as well as it has. In fact we are so convinced of its value that we are now testing a completely wireless system as a solution for shorter term projects where running broadband into the site for a short amount of time is impractical. Using Mi-Fi to access the internet means that no broadband is required."
“My advice to other businesses considering time and attendance measuring is that you can trust this system.” Neil concludes. “uAttend has proven itself to be a runaway success and has led to tangible improvements across our business within six months.”
Alastair Slade, director of uAttend UK says: “Sharkey is an excellent example of how modern technology can provide a solution which is both simple and elegant. Our desire is to provide excellent systems that are not compromised by accessibility and we are changing the way we do time and attendance with uAttend. Businesses don’t have to be cautious because of the low-cost of the system - uAttend delivers what it promises and can be used on any internet browser from anywhere in the world, it’s as simple as that.”