Camira Fabrics Reduces Corrections, Overtime, and Absenteeism with UKG Ready

By partnering with UKG, Camira Fabrics has achieved remarkable results, including:

Camira Fabrics spins, dyes, warps, weaves, knits, finishes, and sews fabrics used by the world’s most renowned global furniture manufacturers and most iconic public transport operators. Headquartered in Mirfield, United Kingdom, the company has manufacturing facilities in the UK and Lithuania as well as warehouses and sales teams in the U.S., Australia, and China, and sales staff across Europe. Nearly 400 of Camira Fabrics’ 600-plus employees are based in the UK and about 150 are in Lithuania. At all sites, except in Lithuania, the workforce is a mix of full-time and part-time workers.

Challenges

In managing its workforce, Camira Fabrics had been using standalone systems for timekeeping, HR, payroll, and learning and development ― and the systems didn’t communicate with each other. The primary solution was on an older platform, with newer technology added over time.

Accessibility, visibility, and reliability were issues. Only about a quarter of the workforce could access the system. An HR administrator spent two-thirds of her time checking the time and attendance system, looking for errors, and consulting with line managers about why their employees had clocked in but not out and inquiring about the status of employees who hadn’t clocked in.

These time-consuming delays and numerous manual corrections extended the payroll process. Employees contacted payroll if they had a pay issue, and line managers took no responsibility in helping members of their team with this. Team leaders would let HR or payroll know if an employee should be paid more for working a night shift. HR was reliant on managers for confirming changes and the entire process was open to error.

Solutions

Recognising that the company needed a modern HR and workforce management solution, Camira Fabrics evaluated four solutions and ultimately selected UKG Ready® to meet the needs of its multi-country workforce. Now, with a single unified system, the company is confident that its data is accurate, and employees know their data is safe and secure. They have ready access to their information in the solution via a computer or the mobile app and can check its accuracy.

“The implementation of the UKG solution has been incredibly well managed,” says Caroline Christopher, Human Resources Director at Camira Fabrics. “The implementation team has been very supportive throughout, and since we’ve gone live, the support desk has maintained the same standard that the implementation team set.”

Results

Both employees and managers are highly engaged with the UKG® solution. Christopher estimates that 95% of employees are using solution self-service tools to check their time and pay slips, book holidays, update emergency contact and banking details, and complete performance development reviews (PDRs).

Line managers are now responsible for reviewing and approving their workers’ regular time and overtime in the solution by a set date before payroll processing, to help ensure their workers are paid correctly. Managers had no visibility into information in the prior system to perform these tasks.

“We’ve certainly enhanced the employee and line manager experience for the full lifecycle of the business, from onboarding, absence management, self-service, PDRs, and succession planning to leaving the business,” says Christopher. 

“It’s so much easier, and I have so much more confidence in the numbers that I portray to the business on a monthly basis about starters, leavers, turnover, and actual headcount,” she adds. “Before it was a laborious task, whereas now it’s just the click of a button. And it’s so easy to create reports in UKG, which makes my life so much easier.”

Camira Fabrics also uses the people management solution to communicate with employees. As an example, approximately three days before payday, employees receive a message that their pay slips are ready to review. Employees can check their time and pay before payroll runs, ensuring they are paid on time in full.

“We have seen a big decline in people contacting payroll with queries and potential errors,” says Christopher. “We’ve probably had a 20% to 25% improvement on errors.”

Sickness absences have declined too. In the six months since the solution was implemented, sickness absence has decreased from 4.5% to under 3%. The result has been increased productivity and lower labour costs through reduced overtime and agency worker usage to cover absences. Access to real-time Bradford Factor reports has played a significant role in the reduction of sickness absence.

With team leaders better able to plan production, Christopher estimates that Camira Fabrics has realised a 5% reduction in overtime. Having visibility into accurate real-time workforce data, they can see which employees are on each shift, who is on holiday, who is sick, and who is available to work overtime.

“From a team leader and a line manager perspective, they are able to make better decisions,” she adds.

With absence information at their fingertips, managers and HR staff can meet with workers who have high absence rates to determine if they need to utilise the company’s employee assistance program or occupational health services. This transparent and proactive process is demonstrating to line workers that all are treated fairly and no one is allowed to take extra time off, which forces others to pick up the slack.

In reviewing Camira Fabrics’ experience with UKG, Christopher takes a broad view. “I’ve implemented three systems previously, and with UKG, it’s the first time I’ve felt that the partnership has continued beyond implementation. UKG wants to understand what we want as a business and will do what it can to help us achieve what we want to achieve.”