Suir Engineering Optimise their use of Biometric Technology
Suir Engineering are a leading provider of innovative mechanical, electrical and instrumentation engineering solutions based in Ireland.
Challenge
With plans to nearly double their workforce they sought a site-based technology which would provide more visibility and control over construction site time and attendance, digitise the weekly payroll process, and integrate seamlessly with their COINS solution.
Solution
COINS GaneTime is a time and attendance management system that uses biometric technology to track the attendance of employees and contractors against expected working hours. With data feeding directly into the COINS system this replaces paper, reduces manual errors, and streamlines the weekly payroll process providing visibility of both real-time and historic information.
Project Details
Background
Suir Engineering provide innovative mechanical, electrical and instrumentation engineering solutions for their clients throughout Ireland, the UK, Europe and other locations across the globe.
Tracking attendance was already a time-consuming manual process for Suir and with plans to double their site-based employees in Ireland they needed to transform their weekly payroll processes to be able to cope with this expansion.
From manual to digital
With the existing process of manually inputting information from a range of timesheets, emailed directly from construction sites, managing the weekly payroll was highly pressured, time-consuming and prone to errors. This meant that significant time had to be spent reconciling and correcting inputs prior to finalisation of the payroll.
Previously details such as time, time and a half, double time, lodge and travel were manually entered onto the system for every single worker, every single week, and as employees were set to increase from 619 to over 1000, we would not be able to cope.
Anita Larkin, Suir
With one payroll administrator responsible for this process, it was an ineffective system which they wanted to transform.
Anita Larkin, Business Systems Analyst at Suir, was instrumental in leading this major change project.
We were looking for a system that would integrate seamlessly with our COINS payroll solutions rather than having to manually input the details. Without COINS GaneTime it would have been impossible to pay 1000 employees every week without recruiting additional staff.
Anita Larkin, Suir
Increased visibility
With a forward-thinking management team who were open to new ways of working, biometric technology seemed the most obvious choice, as this provides an accurate view of ‘real presence’.
GaneTime is a sophisticated access control and time management system which uses biometric data collected via fingerprint scanning technology, to monitor the attendance of employees and contractors against expected working hours.
It was a bonus to us that GaneTime had already been acquired by COINS, this meant that it was already integrated with the COINS solutions, and also that strong working relationships pre-existed between COINS and GaneTime.
Anita Larkin, Suir
Implementation
The implementation plan was to firstly focus on Suir’s larger construction sites, aiming to transfer the majority of their 1000 employees in Ireland to the new biometric system.
This involved installing GaneTime biometric machines and collecting fingerprint information through a site-based registration exercise.
Capturing of fingerprints was an intensive process managed directly by Anita and her team, this involved visiting each site and taking fingerprints carefully from everyone who would be using the new system.
One of the advantages of COINS GaneTime is that fingerprints only need to be captured once. They are converted into an encrypted fingerprint template, and these are then stored so can be used across all Suir sites.
The first registration exercise took place at Suir’s largest construction site in summer 2018, with the anticipated 70 employees quickly growing to 200.
We soon found out it was a large task to register everyone’s fingerprints, however one of the advantages of this process was that I enjoyed working more closely with the site-based managers and meeting many employees face-to-face for the first time.
Anita Larkin, Suir
Construction-specific challenges
During the initial set up three construction-specific challenges became apparent. Suir and GaneTime worked in partnership to develop measures to overcome these.
The first of these related to issues arising with reliability of fingerprints due to hands being ‘too clean’ when the prints were captured. The process of cleaning the fingers with alcohol wipes prior to registration had removed oils from fingerprints and didn’t replicate ‘real-life’ where people would more usually clock in and out with ‘dirty’ fingerprints. Suir then had to re-register everyone without cleaning hands to improve accuracy.
Secondly, the actual siting of the GaneTime biometric scanner is important. Originally, the machines were installed indoors, but this was found to impractical for busy periods on large sites, whilst people were on the way in and out of the site. To overcome this, the biometric machines were re-sited outdoors and placed in an obstacle free location, at the optimum height determined for the most accurate readings. This learning was then used as a standard across other sites.
Thirdly it was found that not all fingerprints were biometric friendly, for instance electricians’ activity of cable twisting impacted on their fingertips, some employees also tend to have less well-defined prints due to wear and tear. So, a supplementary method, such as a card reader, was needed as a backup process for these groups, with the data still all being fed digitally into the payroll solution.
I learnt a lot, we then rolled out the technology to all our large sites and were able to achieve an 80% success rate on 1st swipe, as well as site-based teams embracing this new process.
Anita Larkin, Suir
Adapting to Coronavirus
With the onset of Coronavirus, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) advised against the use of biometric technology on construction sites, so urgent adaptation was required to support the re-opening of Suir’s sites in June 2020.
We had just succeeded in streamlining the payroll process and then the world changed. Luckily Suir were able to keep working due to the sectors we are active in.
Anita Larkin, Suir
Fortunately, the GaneTime ‘Ultimate Reader’ was able to be adapted to combine biometric scanning alongside card reading technology, and it was decided that moving everyone across to card readers would avoid the Covid-related risks posed by fingerprint technology.
Anita led the effort to retrofit Suir’s biometric machines with card chips across their thirty larger sites as well as increasing the number of site-based readers to reduce queues.
We needed to ease the headache that the sites had. Covid was enough of a headache and by adapting the readers to card technology we were able to avoid reverting back to paper-based processes and manual inputting.
Anita Larkin, Suir
Reaping the rewards
Automating the payroll process has had multiple benefits for Suir including:
- Reduced errors caused through manual keying of paper-based information
- Less weekly pressure
- Greater visibility and control
The HR team now have access to real-time information which helps them to track time and attendance, as well as the ability to view historic information, which is important to map absences.
We have not needed to recruit any additional payroll administrators to deal with the increased manpower, and now have more time to focus on checks and reviews every week.
Anita Larkin, Suir
What next?
Post-Covid Suir plan to return to biometric time and attendance processes, supported with a card system to cater for those who have difficulty with fingerprint definition such as diabetics and those with significant wear and tear.
Aided by the improved machine locations and fine-tuning of the fingerprint registration process Suir will then be aiming for a 90% success rate of identifying employees correctly at their first attempt.
Biometric is the technology we wanted in the first place, so we will aim for a combination of biometrics supported with cards.
Anita Larkin, Suir
With thanks to Anita Larkin, Suir
Image credits: Suir Engineering
Case Study: Jane Redfern
