A Healthy Return for Dacorum Sports Trust and Select Software!

The Dacorum Sports Trust, or Sportspace (their operating name) are the main provider of sports facilities in North West Hertfordshire, with over 1.6 million customers coming through their doors each year.  Dacorum commenced trading in April 2004 and are a registered charity and a non-profit distributing organisation, which means that all surpluses are reinvested back into their service and the local community. 

Debbie Whiting, HR Manager, has been working at the Dacorum Sports Trust for around two years and joined when the Borough Council’s sports facilities moved away from the control of the Council and became a Trust in their own right. 

Initially Debbie and her administrator used the Borough Council’s own HR system which was very basic with no adequate way of reporting.  

She started looking for an HR solution in April 2005 and spent a lot of time putting together a good business case to put to the Trust.  “Amongst the items I highlighted was the fact that the system held very little information and there was no organisation structure on record anywhere,” explains Debbie.  “Each of six centres, at the time, worked in isolation and my concern was that there may have been some duplication of work.”   

“Our initial search for a provider identified five or six options and it was a slow process, meeting all the shortlisted companies and going through the demonstrations.  I went to speak to customers of the final three selected companies – all organisations that I felt had a similar culture and setup to the Sports Trust.” 

The Dacorum Sports Trust then purchased Select HR Insight in July 2005.   

“It was worth all the time and effort to end up with a system that handles our needs so well,” Debbie enthuses.  “We can now produce reports that we have never been able to do before!” 

As she was unable to transfer any HR information from the previous system, it was decided to carry out a data cleansing exercise with the employees before implementing Select HR.  “We sent a data sheet to every member of staff asking if the information we had on record was accurate, and if not could they correct it and send it back.  This was then input onto spreadsheets which were used to transfer the data straight into Select HR Insight before it was installed.”

“The implementation commenced with the Project Planning meeting which we found very useful.  Throughout the implementation we evaluated our own processes and tried to improve on them as much as we could. I was very keen not to make any changes to the system and to find something that spoke the same language as we did here”.   

“I was delighted to discover that there were no hidden costs with Select HR – my sales person covered everything in our quote so there were no nasty surprises for me!” 

And what of the actual implementation process?  “Implementation was so smooth!” says Debbie.  “My administrator and I looked at each other and said, ‘Is that it?  It is so painless!’  We had a week to play with the system before we had the initial training but there really was nothing we could do wrong - we just enjoyed ourselves!” 

CRB Checks

Using Select HR Insight, Debbie is now able to track CRB (Disclosure) checks. This is a very important task as the Dacorum Sports Trust holds its child protection responsibilities very seriously.  “You almost have to do more than is required by law to protect yourself,” explains Debbie.   

“Select HR has enabled me to set up a five year rolling programme to renew CRB checks.  We just run a report which tells us whose check is renewable and we can budget around this.  It allows us to monitor our costs and to ensure that as an organization we are protected and that our customers most especially children are protected. 

Training

“We can also track training needs for individuals with regard to Child Protection Training – a Qualification from Social Services that we deliver in house,” continues Debbie.  “All staff are on a rolling programme to do either a refresher course (two hours) or a full day.  Select HR updates this information automatically and tells us when the course is completed.”   

“I can now give our trainers a full list of information on attendees.  We can hold competencies against courses and update records when courses are complete, we can track who has completed the course and who needs it – and also identify expiry dates so that we can arrange refresher courses.  These are all very important for High Risk Areas.  I now have a Training Needs Matrix Report from Select HR which is invaluable for myself as well as my customers.” 

Recruitment

The Recruitment Module has also saved the Trust time and money as Debbie recounts.  “This is a fast moving business which often comes with a high turnover of staff and therefore we are in constant need of qualified staff to replace them.” 

 

 

 

 

“If we have a vacancy for a part time aerobic instructor at another location then I can send out vacancy listings produced from Select HR to all aerobic instructors at the other five sites.  Other instructors from other sites can then apply (some of these posts, for example, are five hours a week so employees can decide to apply and increase their hours).  This saves a great deal of time and money as there are no recruitment costs, we already have the necessary CRB checks, employees have already had the necessary training and it also reduces the normal admin required for new starters, inductions etc!” she smiles.   

Dacorum are also considering extending the use of their system to incorporate Select HR Recruit, the online recruitment module.  This would enable external applicants to apply online.  Select HR Recruit would increase the savings even more as applicants from both inside and outside the organisation could apply online via the website.  Applicants could then track their applications and all information is downloaded straight into Select HR Insight.   

“Once the recruitment process is complete I can now notify managers via email of their new starter and inform them of any training required for that post.  It is so simple – I just attach the training need to the post and Select HR does the rest!”   

Absence

“Before we had Select HR it was very difficult to monitor sickness,” Debbie points out.  “Now we can show absence numbers each month.  We have managed to decrease sickness by two thirds in the last year by just tracking sickness more effectively!” 

When an employee has over a certain number of absences over a given period, this is flagged up by Select HR Insight and their manager is automatically notified.  This allows the manager to take action and discuss the absence with the employee before it becomes a problem. HR is able to step in at an earlier stage if needed and recommend possible courses of action.   

“This covers us with regard to our legal responsibility to the employee as well as the business,” says Debbie.  “Our policies are completely consistent across the board and everyone is treated the same.  Select HR ensures that we can prove these policies are in place and working.”   

“We can also track reasons for sickness on Select HR.  This has allowed me to get involved at an earlier stage of the absence and involve Occupational Health if the employee needs support and help through their illness.” 

Plans for the Future

Debbie is excited about expanding her knowledge of Select HR and is planning to make full use of the consultancy and training services on offer.  “We are using salary modelling for the first time this year which I am looking forward to,” she says. “We will be using another consultancy day to increase our knowledge of what Select HR can do for us as it has been invaluable so far.” 

 

 

 

With Select HR being such a success, Debbie is now keen to start exploring the Employee Self Service option of Select HR Clearvision. 

“My position as HR Manager is a floating one and I move between at least three different offices each week,” she explains.  “Therefore the fact that I can login via my laptop and view the very latest information is invaluable to me.  The benefits that Clearvision could bring to us are obvious, with employees and managers being responsible for their own information and giving the managers the reports they need.” 

My Favourites!

So what are the features of Select HR that Debbie finds most useful? 

“It is important to have a presence in each office and having Select HR means I can reduce my paperwork and gives me more time to move around the sites,” she says.  “The joy of the system is I can look up individual business centres, people, histories, documents, everything!   

“I use mail merge with Select HR Insight all the time and it simplifies the process of producing letters and documentation.  It is also great that all documents are automatically saved and electronically linked back to the employee’s records.  The document link is really useful I don’t have to plough through paper files or wait until I am in our office where they are all held in order to access documentation sent to any given employee.

I can run off reports with a guarantee that all the information is accurate, I could not work as efficiently as I do now without it.  It saves me so much time!”

“I feel a little bit spoiled now I have Select HR!  It is a marvellous system.”