Six-month payback and 14% headcount reduction from T&A software

And he quotes a recent example of a UK manufacturer that made even better than average savings from T&A: “We installed a T&A system for a food company [UK-based food manufacturer SK Chilled Foods] last year, linked to its payroll system, and it paid for itself within six months. The company reduced both its direct and indirect labour force from 700 down to 620 - a drop of around 14% - representing a cost saving of more than £600,000. “The firm also hadn’t realised that time lost due to unauthorised absences amounted to some 700 hours per week. We’ve helped them cut this figure by 40%,” says Hawkesford. But he warns users that, “T&A doesn’t solve your absenteeism issues, but having the tool in place allows you to call those individuals to account and it enables you to look for trends.” He also claims that savings can come from many different areas of a business, not just absenteeism and headcount reductions. “We’re seeing an increase in the number of firms that want to integrate their T&A software with an existing ERP [enterprise resource planning] system,” he continues. “We can pull in the firm’s current works orders or projects from the ERP system and put back updated resource information from the T&A software – it’s bi-directional. “Many companies are guilty of paying unnecessary overtime to their workforce because they’re not choosing the most economic resources for the job. Our software can give the production manager resource information 24 hours a day if he needs it and can help him plan ahead and identify possible skills shortages on the next production shift.”