West Suffolk College
Recently awarded 'Good' with many 'Outstanding" features
in its Ofsted report, West Suffolk College (WSC) is one of the
largest colleges in Suffolk. Employing over 800 staff, it provides
vocational training across Suffolk and Norfolk and was the first
provider in the country to achieve the Training Quality Standard in
all 7 areas.
The need to upgrade
Long-time users of Select software, WSC installed SelectHR's
original system in 1998. Although the College was making maximum
use of its existing functionality, there was a growing need to
unite its Professional Development (PD) information with HR.
"There is a natural crossover between the two areas and we
wanted to manage this better" says Jo Wyatt, Co-ordinator, Faculty
of Quality and Professional Development.
Heather Daniels, Systems Development and Data Analysis Officer,
agrees. "Because we were maintaining separate databases, it was
easy for information to slip through the net. For example, new
starters needed to be booked on induction courses and training
needs identified at appraisals also needed booking.
We had to develop time consuming workarounds to accommodate
this. It was also becoming increasingly difficult to satisfy the
ad-hoc reporting needs from management staff across the
College."
It was the demand for increased visibility, greater efficiency
and improved management information
that convinced WSC to upgrade to SelectHR Web Edition, and
implement its training module.
Purchase factors
"It's about having an HR system that staff can use
themselves. SelectHR brings everything together into one
easy-to-use package." Jo Wyatt
Co-ordinator, Faculty of Quality and Professional
Development
"We chose SelectHR Web Edition for many reasons" says Jo. "For
me, it's about having an HR system that staff can use themselves.
SelectHR brings everything together into one easy-to- use package."
For Heather, flexibility of the system was a key factor. Despite
not having any formal technical knowledge, Heather was assured she
would be able to customise the solution herself.
"I love how easy it is simply to add a column, tick box or
additional field. You can just add something and it's ready to
use."
The implementation
As the Project Officer, overall responsibility for managing the
implementation naturally fell
to Heather. Along with help from PD Co-ordinator Jo, Deputy
Principal David Howells and Head of HR Tricia O'Sullivan, the team
worked with Access Select to implement the software in just three
months. This process had its ups and downs as Heather recalls. "I
took full-time responsibility for the project, which definitely
helped - but the Access Select consultant was great too.
For example, Access Select's consultant was able to transfer all
the training records from our separate training database into
SelectHR Web Edition - 22,000 records in one day! We hit our
deadline, and went live in time for the start of the new academic
year."
Benefits of SelectHR
Jo is now able to access all the information she needs to manage
training effectively. "All new starter information now passes
through to their employee record and is available for me to view.
Before, there would have been a delay in assessing the training
required; now, it's all pre-booked and ready for staff when they
arrive for their first day."
Via web-based self-service,
college staff are now able to book training themselves. A single
screen provides detailed information about what courses are
available, who's teaching them, even what room they're in.
"Thanks to SelectHR, I spend far less time fielding calls and
can focus on maintaining the quality of our courses," Jo
continues.
For each course, Jo can also run an attendance list for staff to
sign.
"SelectHR enables us to send an automatic e-mail to the line
manager if an employee does not attend, which has led to a big
decrease in no-shows. Going forward, this will be essential if we
decide to charge line managers for those employees who fail to
attend, helping us gain a greater return on our training
investment."
Absence
Using the manager self-service facility, the College's HR
department can quickly and easily capture absences as they arise,
whether the person is calling in sick or submitting a request for
holiday.
This information is then made immediately available to managers,
meaning they can log in at any time of day and view live holiday
and absence requests as well as the bigger picture of days lost
over the previous weeks and months.
Heather finds this area of the system very flexible. "It's
really easy to mould the system to meet our needs - for example,
updating the standard software to encompass two levels of approval
as opposed to one."
Recruitment
SelectHR streamlines the recruitment process for both applicants
and the HR team, making it in Heather's words, "much quicker and
easier to hire people." For example, vacancies can be posted to the
College's website in a few clicks.
A series of well-designed forms make it easy for applicants to
enter the required information and all these details are retained
at every stage. Successful applicants are progressed seamlessly
through to SelectHR so that new starters can be booked on the
relevant training courses.
Appraisals
The ability to prepare and update appraisals online is Head of
Faculty Barbara Beaton's favourite part of the system. "I really
like being able to write up appraisals from home - it gives me
flexibility."
For staff, a series of intuitive web forms makes appraisals easy
to complete and in both cases, an email is generated when further
input from either side is required. Integration to SelectHR means
managers can view staff training history at any time and identify
any training needs from the list of courses offered by PD during
the appraisal itself.
Dashboards
Dashboards provide live information in a series of graphical
reports, showing KPIs such as gender and ethnic split in graphs and
charts. Each view is configurable, enabling each member of WSC's
management to log in and view information that's relevant to them.
"This ensures I keep on top of everything from approving holiday to
remembering whose birthday it is that week!" says Barbara.
The future
Has SelectHR lived up to expectations? "Certainly!" says
Heather. "Like any new system it'll take time to bed in, but we've
already gained far greater flexibility and efficiency. It's
constantly evolving, but that's because the modifications are so
easy to do."
In the future, WSC will consider integrating SelectHR with their
bureau payroll service and installing the latest web-based
Timesheets module for its non-teaching staff. Would WSC recommend
SelectHR? "Definitely!" says Heather. "We have all been really
pleased with what we have been able to achieve using the software."
Globalisation, graduates, the abolition of the DRA, not to mention the recession... all these factors have created an increasingly competitive job market with the corresponding applications, admin and processing costs. This handy guide explains how HR systems can streamline the entire recruitment process and provides ten key ways you can save time and money getting the right people into the right roles.
Find out more »
Blog
RSS
Twitter 
LinkedIn