Gregory Distribution, streamlining workforce management operations with Crown
As Gregory Distribution’s reputation as one of
the UK’s leading transport companies was growing, so was its need to review its internal workforce management processes to ensure it was geared up to expand its workforce to meet demand.
Prior to working with Crown, all of Gregory Distribution’s HR operations were paper-based, which included staff rotas, staff clocking in and out, holiday requests, and recording absences.
This was time-intensive for the business’s HR department. Gregory Distribution had 1,000 staff, and meant that if the business was to expand its workforce further, then cost-effective ways of managing this growth needed to be explored.
The business was also seeking a digitised security system for all internal and external doors at its 30 depots across the UK.
Crown has integrated its digital time and attendance system into the business, which allows all staff members to clock in and out of their shifts using their mobile device – a critical capability for significant parts of the workforce, such as drivers, who may be working remotely for several days at a time.
The system also allows staff to apply for holiday and record sickness on their mobile device – with time and attendance, holiday and sick leave all recorded on the same system, which is automatically analysed for any trends that need attention.
Alongside this, Gregory Distribution is now using Crown’s access control system on all internal and external doors at its 30 depots to ensure all of its clients’ products and trucks are only accessed by the relevant staff – along with ANPR cameras.
All of these services are underpinned by a customer service support team, and where needed, virtual and face-to-face support.
Having Crown’s time and attendance system in place has enabled the business to expand their workforce from 1,000 to 3,500 staff in a cost-efficient manner, preventing the need to expand their HR resource internally. This saving has then enabled them to invest into other areas of the business.
Not only that, but Crown’s software has freed up time for Gregory Distribution’s HR department to focus on other tasks such as PDR’s, Probationary reviews and introduced new Benefit schemes, rather than manually recording time sheets, holiday requests and absence. All in all, Crown’s software has saved their HR department around 37.5 hours a week.
It used to be difficult to understand why staff were off sick, but now the business has configured a range of reasons, which enables them to easily identify any trends that can be picked upon and, if appropriate, to discuss a staff member’s wellbeing with them.
Gregory Distribution has around 2,000 drivers who have many different working patterns – so to be able to manually schedule all of these shifts to ensure there is sufficient resource within the business is almost impossible to do – but with Crown’s software it is now automated and has been critical to ensuring the business has the right amount of cover in certain locations at any one time.
