GKN Wheels Nagbøl
Savings on payroll administration and absence from work
At GKN Wheels Nagbøl A/S, wages for 400 hourly-paid workers are made up in one day thanks to data from ProMark.
"Prior to our having the ProMark time registration system it took us four days to make up the wages for our 400 hourly-paid employees. Today we can do it in one so we are saving a great deal on administration,' says Charlotte Reersted, Human Resource Manager at GKN Wheels Nagbøl A/S, which one year ago changed to ProMark from Mark Information, a system with facilities for dealing with both time and job registration and which has just been expanded with a planning module comprising not only of personnel rostering, but also of order planning.
Each employee is allocated a data file in the system, which registers that specific person's relevant, normal working hours, overtime and absences. The only action required by the employees is for them to run their registration card through a registration terminal when arriving at or leaving the workplace. In case of deviations from normal circumstances, typically in the form of overtime, a report of the deviation is automatically sent to the departmental foreman's computer for approval.
"The strength of the system lies in the fact that departmental foremen need only make decisions on deviations, which, even though each one is responsible for 30-50 hourly-paid workers, takes them no more than a few minutes each day,' says Charlotte Reersted. 'It is easier than going through the long lists they used to get, and it is safer, since it is done each day whilst everything is fresh in the memory.'
The information relative to collective agreements on overtime to shop stewards is also managed using ProMark. Absence as a result of time taken off e.g. on important birthdays can be registered in the system in advance.
By reducing absence from work by one per cent many companies can save between £40,000 - £90,000 per year per 100 employees.
Millions to be saved
There is much money to be saved using ProMark on administrative routines. 'As a general rule, these savings amount to £23,500 per 100 employees, in addition to all the errors that are avoided,' says Marketing Manager of Mark Information, Ulla Pollas. 'We also direct intense focus on absence due to illness.
Depending on the type of company, reducing absence due to illness by one per cent can result in savings of between £37,500 - £84,000 per year per 100 employees, so these savings quickly amount to substantial sums.'
'At GKN Wheels Nagbøl we do not measure absence, but rather attendance. Our attendance rate is 96.25 per cent, which is only 0.50 per cent below the company target. Since absence data is an extremely sensitive issue, we at GKN Wheels Nagbøl handle it in a positive manner. Procuring and rendering visible the attendance rate can be dealt with in five minutes thanks to ProMark. 'The system's strength lies in the fact that decisions need only be taken with regard to deviations,' says Charlotte Reersted, Human Resource Manager at GKN Wheels Nagbøl. Less than six months
We use this data constructively to establish a dialogue with any employee whose absence might indicate that the person concerned is having problems of some kind. If there's anything we can do to help, we will do it willingly,' says Charlotte Reersted.
Ulla Pollas states that only 25 per cent of absence from work stems from illnesses - such as influenza - in the normal medical sense of the word, so production companies are also able to make major savings in this area.
' Based solely on the savings on administrative procedures and absence, payback times for ProMark are often less than six months,' she says.
Published February 2, 2007
