Cripps Harries Hall LLP

With over 280 employees, Solicitors Cripps Harries Hall LLP is one of the largest law practices in South East England. It has been included as one of the Top 20 Law Firms to work for in the UK (Best Companies Index 2009) and was also one of the first law practices to secure accreditation to the Law Society's quality assurance standard, Lexcel.

Joan Wixey, Payroll Manager, has been at Cripps for the last 12 years and has seen many changes, not least of which their staff numbers have nearly trebled. Cripps purchased SelectHR back in May 2003 and the system has grown with them during this time.

Industry	Law practice
Geographic	Tunbridge Wells
Employees	280+
Turnover	£19m
Solution	SelectHR Online Recruitment
Modules	Self Service Online Recruitment

The intranet version of Select has been in use throughout the company for the last two years and all members of staff use it. "Select was like a divine light!" says Joan. "The reduction in paper going round the company has been enormous. It has saved a phenomenal amount of paperwork and data entry and everything is now so smooth. Select keeps track of everything - holidays, absence, benefits - and using it has become second nature to everyone here, including the partners."

Online recruitment

Cripps also implemented SelectHR Recruit (Online recruitment) last year which now runs on their website. "After some basic teething problems our end, implementing Recruit went really well," explains Joan. "Everything goes straight onto the database which saves a great deal of time inputting and with links to checklists, mail merges and spreadsheets it is really easy to use. One click and you hire! Brilliant!"

"Select has saved a phenomenal amount of paperwork and data entry... it has become second nature to everyone here!" Joan Wixey, Payroll Manager
Cripps Harries Hall LLP

Another area that Cripps found fundamental benefits with is Absence. "Every department receives a Bradford Factor report each month," says Joan. "This highlights persistent offenders and means that we can really crack down which has brought amazing results."

"The other important area in the latest version of SelectHR is recording absence in hours. With 54 varieties of working hours, lots of different contracts with term times and different working hours, we need SelectHR to record hourly absence data accurately. We can't keep a handle on it otherwise. Staff really like taking leave in hours and the flexibility encourages our mums to come back to work."

"In fact, with the checklists and notifications built into Select I have become totally reliant on the database for everything - everything is driven by Select!"

Professional development

Joan recently booked a training day with one of Select Software's consultants and found it very useful too. "The catch-up day was most beneficial," she comments. "One to one time with a trainer means you can really focus on what you need." Continuing Professional Development (CPD), an important consideration for solicitors, is administered by a training assistant at Cripps who, according to Joan, has found Select easy to maintain, with its inbuilt checks and reminders.

"The inbuilt checks are invaluable, not only for CPD but for other workflow practices", comments Joan. When a new employee is set up on the system, SelectHR can be set up so that emails are sent to the relevant people before the member of staff joins, ensuring the individual has a desk, equipment, telephone, etc. Joan also uses the Checklists function to jog her memory about benefits for different members of staff.

"Reporting is also fantastic - I use Crystal Reports all the time," says Joan, "and with my audit trail. I can figure out who has input what and keep a check on everything."

"One of Select's strengths is that they manage to maintain a small company philosophy whilst giving the service level of a larger company. I can speak to any number of people and they all have the same friendly, helpful attitude and get back to me as fast as they can."

Joan is now looking seriously at the latest edition to Select Software's suite of products, SelectHR Web Edition. "I really want to go down the Web Edition route and we are making enquiries now. We really need total reliance from a system, which we have with Select. It is inspirational!"

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