ROBOTICS & TECHNOLOGY Keep up with HR regulation


Strict HR regulations and managing the health and welfare of staff are constant challenges for the cleaning industry. Paul Ridden, CEO of SmartTask, discusses how workforce management software can help cleaning companies in Ireland to manage workloads, calculate accurate pay and adhere to working time directives.


Over the years, there have been many changes and government regulations introduced to ensure improved pay and conditions and better standards for the cleaning industry. Cleaning operatives face a range of health and safety problems in their daily working lives, ranging from working unsocial hours, to handling potentially hazardous chemicals and being alone at night on site. Operating in a growing industry also means it can be challenging to recruit staff, putting more pressure on existing employees to maintain service levels.


For these reasons, the successful cleaning companies are ones which understand the importance of looking after their staff. They prioritise health and safety by addressing scheduling issues, ensuring adequate breaks and managing unsocial hours. Treating operatives well with flexible working hours, accurate holiday leave and sick pay help to maintain a motivated and loyal workforce.


A game changer for the


cleaning industry Workforce management software has been a significant game changer for many cleaning companies to manage these factors. It can play a pivotal role in effectively managing staff attendance and holidays to maintain smooth operations, control costs, adhere to regulations and foster a positive work environment.


The software enables automated tracking of working hours, making it easier to manage operations and workloads, calculate pay and comply with working time directives. Holiday and sickness management can be integrated with the rostering process to enable staff swaps when required, with the best fit employee selected based on certifications and experience. Additionally, integration with payroll systems ensures the automatic calculation of the correct pay for staff based on company policies and regulations.


Understanding customer challenges –


calculating unsocial hours payments SmartTask workforce management software has been developed to help cleaning companies manage these exact challenges. Understanding our customer requirements has helped us to develop additional features to better manage processes for business efficiencies and to meet with regulation changes.


As an example, Outsource Support, a company providing cleaning, security and pest control services across Ireland, asked if we could help with automating unsocial hours payments.


10 | TOMORROW'S CLEANING IRELAND


A customer for more than 10 years, the company was proficient in using SmartTask to streamline processes and manage staff working hours. However, new working legislation in Ireland necessitated a change in processes. The regulation mandated fixed payments to shifts that extend into the unsocial period from 9PM until 7AM, once the length of unsocial time worked is over the qualifying time of three hours. This was presenting a challenge to the Outsource accounts team, with time-consuming administration to reconcile the hours worked with different payments.


Graham Hughes, Managing Director at Outsource Support, stated: “SmartTask is just so simple to use – it has everything we need ‘under one roof’ to manage our workforce and interactions with customers.”


Providing a solution to the problem


By developing enhancements to SmartTask’s existing unsocial hours features, we were able to help our Irish customers simplify and automate the calculation of unsocial hours payments. The implementation of these enhancements has significantly reduced the admin time that the Outsource team was spending to ensure accurate employee pay.


This is just one instance where we have listened to our customers and found a way to help them tailor SmartTask software to their business. Our philosophy of providing software built and developed by the cleaning industry, for the industry, is a founding principle which we have continued to build upon since establishing SmartTask over 25 years ago.


www.smarttask.co.uk/smarttask-cleaning


twitter.com/TomoCleaning


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