Time&Space upgraded for field work, sick leave and lunch accounting

Challenge

A few years ago, before the introduction of Time&Space, Cleangrad in Ljutomer did not have a modern time and attendance system. That is why the management decided it was time for a change.

Jernej Zupančič, CEO, on the reasons for the decision: "Proper time registration and cost control, especially for installations abroad, is crucial for us."

The company wanted to digitize time & attendance recording and introduce a modern way of clocking for all employees. Now, employees can check their own hours, remaining leave, authorized absences... It's all transparent. What is more, department heads can monitor data for the whole department. And, of course, the administration can do so for the whole company.

"This is the simplest and fastest automated way of registration. Everything is recorded in a single system. No other records are needed. Various displays are automated as well: the status of working hours, annual leave, sick leave, overtime," says Snežana Bokan Kuprivec, Head of Human Resources, Legal and Administrative Services at Cleangrad.

According to Snežana Bokan Kuprivec, the system is very flexible and can be upgraded. It can also be adapted to the needs of the organization. In Cleangrad, the system has been upgraded to record field work, while the Pif interface facilitates payroll. Travel orders for different countries automatically provide the company with all required data, even with more than 100 workers working at different locations. Soon, travel orders will be digitized as well.

About Cleangrad: more than 100 employees in the field

"We have two production sites in Ljutomer: one for cleanroom production and the other for equipment and furniture production. The first one employs 33 workers and the second one 29 workers. Over 60 employees work in offices. The majority, about 100, work in the field," says Snežana Bokan Kuprivec.

The company carries out around 100 projects a year in the field. They last from one week to a year or even several years. At least 20 or 30 are carried out at the same time. Each project has between five and 20 people working on it.

Given the complex organization of the company and the work at Cleangrad, they distinguish between manufacturing employees and office employees when using Time&Space. The offices have a flexible schedule, while manufacturing has a fixed one.

Time & Space is linked to the Pantheon program via the Pif interface. This way, data from Time & Space is automatically exported to Pantheon with a single click. With Pantheon, department heads can check payroll tables and other data. The data is finally approved by the CEO.

His work has been made a lot easier as well. "Validation of the working hours and additional bonuses is transparent and quick. Compared to the validation before, the process has been reduced from 2 hours to just 10 minutes," said Jernej Zupančič.
"We need to be careful when entering data. Sometimes people forget their cards, etc. Managers deal with such issues by monitoring and resolving them daily," adds Snežana Bokan Kuprivec.

Solutions

a. Fieldwork

A particular characteristic of Cleangrad is field work. The company therefore has mobile clocking terminal in the field, which are assigned to each installation team leader. Every team has a mobile clocking terminal with them anytime they go abroad. This allows them to register working time in the field.

The working hours for the entire project in the field are divided according to work orders. This is how the company knows how many working hours have been spent on each work order. This information is important for analytics, as it gives the company an idea of how many working hours will be needed for a given project in the future. The data also provides insight deviations and room for improvement, so that more can be done in less time or with fewer workers.

This is crucial for optimizing work as well as for future project budget estimates and Cleangrad's price quotations. In addition, this information facilitates communication with customers in the event of unforeseen events affecting the project.

"Sometimes customers actually understand such situations," jokes Snežana Bokan Kuprivec.

b. Meal expenses

The system has also been upgraded to record the number of meals. The company automatically records how many meals a certain employee has had in the company canteen. Accordingly, meal expenses are automatically calculated at the end of the month. Depending on the number of meals consumed, of course.

"By doing so, employees don't need to carry money for their lunch anymore. All they need is their card. If you have your access card you can also get your lunch" says Snežana Bokan Kuprivec.

c. Sick leave

Time&Space also draws data from the eBol medical app, where sick leaves are recorded. It is no longer necessary to print out sick notes and document them manually. Workers simply report absences due to illness. On the 5th of every month, the company imports eBol data into Time & Space.

For days on which there is no record of an employee’s attendance at work, the employee’s sick leave is documented, as this is automatically taken into account in the salary. Cleangrad's HR department only needs to enter the employees' health card numbers into the e-Bol application.

However, sometimes doctors do not conclude sick leaves in time. This happened quite often last year and at the beginning of this year. Especially during the pandemic.

"In such cases, we need to call the employee to arrange this with their personal doctor," explains Snežana Bokan Kuprivec.

Results

1. The managers have a constant overview of time recording in the field without having to leave the office.
2. They can automatically extract field hours by project.
3. Sick leave data can be uploaded to Time&Space with a single click.
4. Meal expenses can also be accounted automatically.
5. Responsibility and care for recording working time is delegated to the employees.

Anecdote: Sometimes there is no signal at construction sites. And one or the other registered worker may be missing.

Snežana Bokan Kuprivec recalls some anecdotes. "We sometimes encounter challenges in the field where there is no signal, so the managers can get quite frustrated. In such cases, the system does not work or is slow. But it is all sorted out in the end. These are just minor inconveniences.
This one time, someone was not on site, but was still registered as present. Someone came to work with two cards, his own and his coworker’s. In such cases, control is the only solution."