Orega, the provider of high-quality serviced offices in the south-east of England and the Midlands, has spoken about the benefits to its business of implementing Youmanage's online HR toolkit.

The Client

Orega is a provider of high-quality serviced offices in the south-east of England and the Midlands. The company now has 7 centres, employing just over 30 people, and clients include the likes of BUPA, BCS and Leaseplan. A strong customer service ethos is an important part of Orega's culture and it's therefore vital that employees are recruited, managed and developed to a consistent and professional standard.

The company has grown rapidly in recent years and expects this growth to continue - with a number of new centres planned. As the company expanded it found keeping on top of HR processes to be an increasing challenge so Orega turned to Youmanage for help.

The Issues

As a multi-site organisation the fact that there was no central repository for HR data was an increasing issue for Orega. Employee and HR records were dispersed across a number of different locations and stored in a combination of spreadsheets, Word documents and paper files.

This caused a number of problems, as Barbara Wiercoch, Centre Manager at Birmingham, explained, "Because there was no central place where all employee information was stored, we'd often have situations where it was time consuming to find a document or a piece of information that we needed to deal with a staff issue. "This meant we weren't always able to take quick decisions, which didn't always create the right impression in the eyes of the staff.

The fact that so many of the HR processes were spreadsheet and paper-based also created a lot of additional work for managers, meaning less time available to spend dealing with clients.

The challenges for Orega's managers were even greater when they needed to work away from their base location to attend meetings or help with the opening of new centres. "Because each centre had its own local shared drive where information was stored, if we were away from the office and an important issue came up we weren't able to deal with it there and then," explained Barbara.

Using spreadsheets to manage absence and holiday records created another set of problems. Zach Douglas, Orega's MD, explained, "there were different versions of the same spreadsheet within the company, and it was difficult to correctly calculate holidays and absence. "The fact that so much was recorded on e-mail or using paper forms also made it very difficult at the centre to get an overall view of things, whether it was who had what holiday planned or how many sick days we'd lost in the last quarter."

The Solution

After reviewing the options available, Orega decided to implement the Small Business Edition of Youmanage's online HR toolkit. Explains Zach, "We looked at a few different systems and Youmanage clearly offered us the best solution. We liked the fact that as well as providing tools to help us manage our employee information more efficiently it also has up-to-date guidance and HR documentation. As we don't have a dedicated HR person this is a great help to the individual managers."

The Outcome

According to Barbara, Orega have seen many benefits since Youmanage was implemented, "It's definitely reduced paperwork, improved administration and saved us time. For example, the simple fact that employees can check their holiday records and raise holiday requests online has saved a lot of hassle. We're also able to keep much better control over things like new starter checks using the automated checklists within the system, so there's less chance of important tasks being missed. "

The fact that Youmanage is an online system that can be accessed from anywhere is also an advantage. Each manager has secure password-controlled access to the system, which gives them access to information about their own teams as well as general company documentation and policies.

Barbara explains, "It means that if I'm working off-site and an issue crops up I can deal with it straight away rather than having to wait until I get back in the office. I can also have far more confidence that the information I'm looking at any time is accurate, rather than trying to find the latest version of a spreadsheet or a form."

Orega's managers have also been impressed by the system's ease-of-use. "It was easy to get started as there is no software to be installed. As we operate across seven locations that was a real plus for us. It's also very user-friendly and logical. The fact that it leads you through a process and has the built-in guidance makes it easy for users to just get on and do things."

For Zach, a key advantage of the system is the improved visibility it gives him of what's happening across the different locations. "Before, getting any company-wide HR metrics normally involved lots of spreadsheets and e-mails flying around. It was a hassle for both me and the centre managers. Now as long as the managers are keeping their own records up-to-date I can get the information I need instantly from the Youmanage system."

Orega are now planning to increase the value they get from the Youmanage system by adding on the Recruitment , Performance Management and Competency Framework modules.

Zach offered the following summary , "As we grow it's important that we have a consistent and professional approach to employee management across our different offices. Youmanage gives us an excellent platform to ensure this is the case. I'd definitely recommend it to any other business like ours."