Howard Tenens Logistics is one of the largest independently owned and operated logistics companies in the UK, with a warehouse footprint over 4,000,000 ft². It provides national and international coverage through a distribution fleet of 200+ vehicles and 500+ trailers.
Challenges
Howard Tenens prioritised the improvement of efficiency, pay accuracy, and visibility across their sites to secure driver loyalty and reduce unnecessary HR-related admin and re-work. They were determined to move into the future of HR management and leave paper and spreadsheet-based systems behind.
Previous manual processes using punch cards and importing to excel meant unnecessary hours were being spent on admin and lead to a high risk of payroll errors. Paper annual leave requests caused extra work for managers and delays in employees receiving their approval. Reporting on minor absences such as lateness was so time costly that it was often overlooked. Drivers make up 33% of the payroll, and with a national driver shortage their services were in high demand.
Howard Tenens needed to ensure that staff loyalty was not being eroded by pay errors and slow and overly complicated HR operations. While wanting to improve the working lives of employees Howard Tenens were also keen to increase the visibility and reporting across their 13 locations. There was no way of verifying the time and attendance and general performance reports submitted by individual managers. This made it almost impossible to compare sites to see where improvements could be made. Howard Tenens needed a solution that would integrate with their current payroll provider and offered a supportive adoption process to streamline their HR transformation.
Solutions
After researching HR management vendors, Howard Tenens implemented the UKG Ready™ solution. This unified, cloud-based solution ensures consistency with a single source of truth for all employee records and HR functions. Paperless HR processes and online self-service tools streamline administration around time and attendance, holiday, and managing employee information. Automated payroll processes help ensure accurate pay cheques, consistent application of pay rules, and compliance with regulations.
Designed for simplicity and ease of use, UKG Ready delivers a personalised, people-centric experience that eliminates unnecessary admin, increases efficiency, and helps maintain compliance. By integrating with their tachographs, drivers no longer need to clock in and out and are certain that the hours measured are accurate. Extra reporting and visibility helps with standardisation of best practices across sites and improves efficiency. Owing to the acquisitions made through the company's' history, there are lots of different pay rules. Thanks to its flexibility, UKG Ready can handle these. Now that the system is in place, these pay rules have been standardised.
“The tracking and reporting tools have been hugely beneficial for improving efficiency. We are now much better prepared for potential volatility with the new solution in place.”
Sophie Berry
Group CI & Efficiency Manager
Results
Pay accuracy has improved dramatically, helping secure driver loyalty at a time when driver demand was sky high. Mobile functionality further improved the employee experience, increases efficiencies, and delivers real-time workforce insights for timely and well-informed management decisions. Recording of employee absences has improved meaning that Howard Tenens was better prepared to deal with Covid related sickness, isolation, and quarantine. Managerial staff can now focus on more value adding activities — maximising working hours.
At Howard Tenens, the new norm is a culture of continuous improvement and efficiency: in its first year with UKG Ready™, weekly administration of hours decreased by 70% and time spent dealing with pay issues at sites decreased by 80%. Howard Tenens' drivers have stayed loyal despite high demand for their services elsewhere and expressed their support for the new system in a company-wide survey. They praised UKG Ready's ease of use and in particular, the convenience of being able to use their mobile phones to view their holiday balances and time off requests. Managers have also embraced the UKG Ready™ solution — reporting a substantial reduction in admin time around their staff's pay, hours, and holiday; and the ease of use when keeping track of T&A and lateness. The benefits of the new system have been seen across the company, with Sophie Berry, Group CI & Efficiency Manager saying "The tracking and reporting tools have been hugely beneficial for improving efficiency. We are now much better prepared for potential volatility with the new solution in place". The improved visibility is not only helpful for the employee as an individual, but for the entire company. UKG Ready provides reports that give previously unattainable insights such as absence rates by site. This means that the best performing sites can be used as benchmarks, with KPIs being set for each site — improving efficiency across the business.
