OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY
Powys County Council P
Operational and time management effi ciencies at
Sue Harris, transactions & systems manager at Powys County Council, discusses the local authority’s partnership with MidlandHR.
owys County Council is a Welsh unitary authority with 73 elected councillors. It is
relatively young, having been fi rst created as a county council in 1974, and then merged with its constituent district councils to become a unitary authority in 1996. The council employs approximately 7,500 employees working in many locations across the county in a wide variety of roles from refuse collector to social worker, and from teacher to highway engineer.
A longstanding, valued customer of MidlandHR since 1989, Powys County Council migrated through MidlandHR’s successive HR and payroll solutions. Currently operating the comprehensive talent management, workforce planning, HR and payroll solution, iTrent, the council has engaged in an ambitious HR- led change programme. All 12 iTrent modules were implemented, from core HR and Payroll, to Absence, Learning, Development, Manager and Employee Self-Service and Web Recruitment.
As part of the council’s Corporate Improvement Plan, the people strategy aimed to shift the core focus of HR and payroll away from workforce administrative support, towards the development of strategies to optimise the workforce and drive organisational performance.
MidlandHR has played an instrumental role as lead consultant in this joint venture, helping to realise our vision through a number of related projects. MidlandHR customised the iTrent functionality to enable Powys to be the fi rst Welsh authority to implement a Welsh language recruitment system that integrated completely with its HR and payroll system. Applicants can search the council’s website for job openings, read supporting recruitment
62 | public sector executive Jul/Aug 12
information, and apply for roles – all online and in their fi rst language.
The council also used iTrent’s online expense claims to replace legacy paper processes which eliminated the authorisation process bottleneck. Employees now submit their expense claims via Employee Self-Service and a summary email is automatically sent to the reporting manager. While this email notifi es the manager, it does not require authorisation. The manager can, however, access details of each claim via iTrent’s Manager Self-Service and stop a payment if necessary by contacting
Using a best-of-breed solution like iTrent, founded on years of relevant knowledge and understanding, helps the council to meet its needs accurately and remain ahead of industry changes such as pensions reform and RTI.
Project results
The overall effect of widespread integration, highly automated processing and Manager and Employee Self-Service through the use of iTrent has yielded annual savings of £408,500 pa to date, with projected total effi ciency savings of £600,000 pa by project completion.
Specifi c benefi ts have included:
• Over 3,000 employees and 25% of councillors now completing expense claims online
• Improved experience for job applicants via web recruitment • Reduced paper consumption
• Improved service delivery by attracting the right people into the right roles at the right time
• Enhanced candidate experience and perception of the council as an employer of choice
• Improved quantity and quality of management information and predictive
the expenses team. Having been given the tools needed to manage their workforce claims far more effectively, management’s administrative burden has eased greatly thanks to the faster and more effi cient process.
The introduction of web recruitment has greatly enhanced applicants’ experience of applying for positions with Powys County Council. A particularly pleasing element for applicants is iTrent’s ability to save the application at any given point, allowing the applicant to return to the form at any time rather than be constrained to completing it in one session.
tools to drive strategic decision making • Improved workforce fl exibility through better understanding of skills and targeted training according to needs
Benefi ts for employees include: • Increased effi ciency of expense claims • Remote system access • E-payslips
• Ease of booking leave • Ability to access and update learning events and qualifi cations
FOR MORE INFORMATION
www.midlandhr.com
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