When a 10-Year-Old Attendance System Is Not Enough
Case Study about ATALIAN Slovakia
Interview with Ms. Lenka Hrubovska, HR Manager
At ATALIAN, the HR processes and attendance management somehow keep functioning on default. However, we can’t claim to be a 100% smart company. Our goal is to improve what we already have in place, consolidate our processes, and unify the workflow. In fact, we have launched something like an ‘Internal HR marketing’. A vision of ATALIAN for the whole CEE region is to encompass the entire facility management along with the cleaning services. Our client services are aiming to increase in innovations, for example, the usage of cleaning robots. Since we are shooting to innovate for our clients, we ought to make changes internally as well.
We want to ease the workload of our managers and the payroll department. A smart system is expected to track the attendance of our employees on clients’ sites in real-time daily. So, the goal is to untie the hands of our managers by dismissing this area of operations.Also, we are anticipating an increased quality of communication between the site managers and their teams. We already see during the pilot, that the employees have a somewhat different approach to their work assignments. For example, they have been improving their punctuality and discipline since the employees are aware of the notifications to their managers.
On the other hand, we are talking here about a human approach: ‘You are late, is everything ok, what happened?’. We can demonstrate personal interest in each employee. Thanks to this kind of tool, everybody knows that they are important to us.
Manual data processing is arduous and lengthy. Each month, the managers and payroll spend extra hours collecting and handling a huge amount of data, which is frequently incorrect and incomplete. At ATALIAN, the HR processes and attendance management somehow keep functioning on default. However, we can’t claim to be a 100% smart company. Our goal is to improve what we already have in place, consolidate our processes, and unify the workflow. In fact, we have launched something like an ‘Internal HR marketing’.
A vision of ATALIAN for the whole CEE region is to encompass the entire facility management along with the cleaning services. Our client services are aiming to increase in innovations, for example, the usage of cleaning robots. Since we are shooting to innovate for our clients, we ought to make changes internally as well.
This choice was made based on reference from a long-term user of XperienceHR who is also our supplier.
Together with XperienceHR we have set up the main goals and specific procedures on how to achieve them.
1/ A small, 2-week pilot took place in May 2021 on two client’s sites, followed by evaluation, which was positive. However, to derive a detailed analysis, we needed more diverse data collected over a longer period of time.
2/ A big pilot, which is currently underway. Prior to Go live there was an intensive preparation – handpicked client’s sites, the managers, XperienceHR application trainings, hardware implementation, etc.
We have anchored regular weekly update meetings with the strategic team. Based on the feedback collected from the operational managers, together with the XperienceHR team we are capturing and solving the problematic areas. Currently, we are importing technical data in parallel with the reorganization of our internal processes and work calendars.
In short, attitude and the way of thinking. Let me mention just some of the expressions: 'I have too much on my plate and there is only a handful of people who want the change.' 'If anything, I can always make a phone call, no need for a new system.' 'I have always used paper for capturing data, why do I need a change?'
People simply do not want to get out of their comfort zone. Things can work differently and better; what used to work for 10 years is not necessarily functional now. At the end of the day, phone calls are lengthier than a few taps in the application.
Internally, we are using a huge number of work calendars. We have the ambition to reduce and simplify. We are also intensively working on the integration of XperienceHR and our payroll system aiming for smooth communication and exchange of technical parameters.
We are testing on 15 sites, with approximately 250 people from various work assignments – site managers, technical job positions, cleaners, various shifts. We are excited to see the results of evaluation and statistics, where we will be able to see how much time we have saved thanks to the automatization of processes with XperienceHR.
Improved discipline at the client’s sites; employees know, that their manager has their attendance available in real-time. We already see simplified internal processes, for example, the work calendars.We are anticipating more transparent data overviews for internal analytics. This should lead to more effective scheduling of our people and significant cost savings.
Lenka, thank you very much for the interview. We, at XperienceHR view cooperation with you and your strategic team as effective and dynamic.
We are looking forward to continued cooperation on the pilot at ATALIAN SK and the results of future analysis.
Stay tuned for part two of this case study 🙂
About ATALIAN SK:
ATALIAN SK is a leader among facility management companies in Slovakia, the integrated facility management providers.
ATALIAN covers all imperative services, both SOFT and HARD, needed for problem-free facilitation of the real estates. The clients are coming from both private and public sectors. ATALIAN serves a broad variety of clients with different types of premises including administrative buildings, manufacturing halls as well as hospitals.
