Leading international recruitment company Volt is making its people processes more effective and consistent with the help of on-line HR software solution Cezanne HR.
Volt is part of Volt Information Sciences – one of the world’s first and largest recruitment companies – and employs around 180 staff in the UK and Europe.
The business recognised that its existing HR system was becoming outdated and potentially unstable and began looking around for a Cloud-based solution that would help streamline HR processes and reduce administration. HR Manager Cheryl Conway saw a demo of Cezanne HR at the HR Software Show and was immediately hooked.
“Most of the other suppliers put clients into categories of either small or large companies but didn’t have anything that reflected where we sat as an SME. So while they could offer everything you wanted, the cost was prohibitive and the level of expenditure just wasn’t warranted for a business of our size,” she said.
Cezanne HR particularly appealed because of its employee self-service feature and ability to deal with multiple currencies and different types of holiday plans. “We have people working on-site based within client’s premises and also spread across Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic,” explained Cheryl. “With such a widespread workforce, it’s really useful to have something that’s out there in the Cloud so that those people who cannot access our technology because of the restrictions in place as a result of client’s firewalls, can still update their personal data or request holiday, They can just log in and do it from wherever they are and there are no problems with restricted access”.
Volt has also welcomed the ability to set up holiday plans that reflect differences in Bank Holidays across Europe and also functionality which allows it to reflect differences in the way monthly salaries are calculated in different countries. “Before we would have had to make all those calculations manually, but now the system just automatically does it for you, which has saved a huge amount of time,” said Cheryl.
The team at Cezanne HR managed the majority of the data upload for Volt – a service which Cheryl found extremely valuable. After an initial training session, the HR team was able to roll the system out to managers across the company, providing them with straightforward user manuals produced by her HR Administrator using the online “Getting Started” documentation available from the Cezanne Support Site.
Although the system has only been in operation for a few months, its effects are already being felt. “It’s been very well received and the reaction has been really positive,” said Cheryl. “It’s giving managers access to the employee information they need to run their teams and make decisions and it’s freeing people up so they can find answers to questions themselves without having to wait for someone in HR to do it for them.”
Volt believes Cezanne HR will also help the business streamline management of sickness absence. “Before it was HR providing the absence data and making calculations using the Bradford Factor. Now managers have the information at their fingertips and are much better able to spot trends,” says Cheryl.
Volt also plans to start using the performance management module of Cezanne HR to support its existing processes. “We are really keen to roll that out as soon as possible. There’s a huge amount of paperwork associated with managing things like probationary periods, mid-year reviews and annual appraisals and the system will just take all that away,” says Cheryl. “It’s likely to make people much more engaged with the whole performance management process as they can see their information rather than it being a bit of paper sitting in a file. It’s going to make the whole process much more useful for both the individual and the manager.”
Cheryl adds that the system is already allowing HR to concentrate on the more strategic aspects of its work, now that it is less bogged down in paperwork. “The system just takes care of itself and I don’t have to worry about it,” she says. “If I look at what we came from compared to where we are now, I wouldn’t want to go back. It’s been a real gift and I would definitely recommend it.”