Leading Construction Company Barhale Continue to Build & Succeed with ASR’s HR Software solution

Barhale

Barhale has grown tremendously since its inception in 1980 and today is one of the UK’s leading civil engineering contractors, with a turnover in excess of £110 million and a network of bases across the country. Barhale comprises core civil engineering business units providing expertise in areas such as water & sewerage, rail, process, tunnelling, engineering services and utilities. Key clients include, Severn Trent Water  Thames Water, the @One Alliance, which includes Anglian Water, telent and London Underground and notable projects consist of the Bewdley River Flood Defence, Thames Tideway Scheme and the Kings Cross development in London.

Barhale started as a two-man company, working from a converted garage and now employs almost 900 people. Although there have been many changes in the growth and development of Barhale, certain factors remain constant from the earliest days. The “can do” attitude still prevails, and integrity and trust are still cornerstones of the business. A culture of continuous improvement is firmly entrenched within the company and the value it places on its employees is acknowledged through its Investors in People accreditation.

Barhale’s HR & Payroll function includes a team of 8 based at the Head Office in Walsall in the West Midlands, servicing offices in London, Cheshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.

The success and growth of Barhale meant that in 2003 a project team was set up to identify a new HR solution, headed up by Stephanie Johnson, Barhale’s HR Manager.

Stephanie comments: “Our existing HR Software solution was extremely inflexible and we were unable to make any changes to the system at all, which, as you can imagine was extremely frustrating for a growing business. Likewise, the reporting and the ability to pull off management information was impossible. Barhale has achieved so much in such a short space of time through continuous improvement and innovation. HR could not afford to stand still and as Barhale people are at the core of everything we achieve the importance of identifying the right HR software solution for us was paramount.”

Barhale’s search began at Softworld’s HR & Payroll software show where all the leading HR & Payroll software suppliers were exhibiting. Barhale created a short-list of suppliers before inviting three in to demonstrate their solutions.

Stephanie comments: “We had strict criteria in that the HR software needed to be rich in functionality, easy to use, have a flexible and powerful report writer and the capability of allowing us to be able to configure the software ourselves. We definitely did not want to go with an HR software supplier whose system would be inflexible and reliant on the supplier making any changes to our system. We were just not prepared to pay for expensive consultancy costs on an ongoing basis.”

Stephanie continues, “From an IT perspective we needed an HR Software solution that was written in the latest technology, would fit in with our existing IT infrastructure and had the ability to integrate with other applications.”

“During the demonstrations ASR’s HR Software solution stood out from other suppliers in that it is such a flexible solution, giving us the tools to evolve the system as the marketplace dictates and as Barhale’s growth strategy demands, and all this without Barhale incurring huge consultancy costs.”

Barhale received a glowing reference from one of ASR’s construction industry customers, decided to purchase ASR’s HR software solution and it has proven to be the right decision several years later.

Barhale had extremely strict implementation timescales and ASR managed to complete the project on time and within budget. ASR has an extremely experienced project and implementation team who adopt a methodology that provides the framework, processes, guidelines and techniques to achieve successful implementations.

ASR also has a thorough training curriculum delivered by ASR’s team of training professionals dedicated to providing a complete training service.  ASR’s training facilities are based at its office in Hertfordshire providing the ideal learning environment for delegates.

Barhale’s HR team completed ASR’s recommended training to ensure that all the users maximised their use of the system from day one and to allow Barhale to see a real return on its investment.

Sharon Southerton, Barhale’s Payroll & Benefits Manager is the internal HR software product champion after completing all of ASR’s recommended training courses. Through the skills and knowledge acquired on her training and because ASR’s software is so flexible Sharon has been able to evolve the system as required.

Barhale has a very attractive benefits package for members of staff. Each one is allocated a number of points depending on their role and length of service with the company, which allows staff members to choose the benefits most relevant to them depending on their circumstances at any point in time.

The flexibility of ASR’s HR software has allowed Sharon to use ASR’s standard flexible benefits history and configure additional screens, fields and calculations. It has meant that all of Barhale staff’s’ flexible benefits are now completely managed by ASR’s software and the configuration work completed by Sharon has been a resounding success.

Sharon comments: “ASR’s training is excellent and it has given me the skills and confidence to configure the system over time, saving Barhale considerable time and money. ASR’s software is just so flexible and although is easy to use, the configuration tool is extremely powerful. The flexible benefits configuration work has helped to raise the profile of HR and given us positive visibility amongst Barhale’s employees.”

The Construction Industry

The construction industry marketplace is unique in that companies need to manage employees CITB Skills health and safety, occupation health, and the Construction Plant Competence Scheme (CPCS).

Before any employee goes on site they need to have a valid certificate, which proves that they have completed the relevant training depending on the job that they are doing. ASR’s HR software keeps a record of all the training that each employee has undertaken and produces a report on any employee that might not have completed the relevant training course. Likewise, any employee involved in using plant on site need to hold the relevant certificates. As the certificates have an expiry date, ASR’s HR software produces a report that notifies HR of which employee needs their certificate renewed.

Sharon comments: “All of our training records are held within ASR’s HR Software, allowing us to ensure that all of our employees have undertaken the necessary training applicable for their roles at Barhale. It is important to realise that in recent years a number of government legislation changes demand construction companies to provide industry standard statistics. Thanks to ASR’s HR software we are able to report and provide this information when required.”

ASR’s HR Software provides Barhale with multiple views allowing HR to access information on all current employees, leavers and employees at their different offices. The Directors have a global view too. ASR’s HR Software also enables Barhale to hold sub-contractors basic HR details within the system, as a separate employee type and therefore away from all the main HR records.

A lot of construction contract awards are as a result of tender bids. ASR’s HR software can also help when tendering for projects. Because each employee’s skill and competencies are held in the system, information about their experience, technical capability, relevant certificates and which industry sectors they have worked in can be made readily available.

Barhale also has an expansive car fleet of over 200 company cars, which are all managed by ASR’s HR software too.

Management Reporting

As a growing company Barhale is always looking to deliver and improve in every area of their business. Spearheaded by Barhale’s Chairman Dennis Curran, the Company introduced a strategic review in 2005, which included the development of the Three Pillar philosophy in pursuit of best in class performance in the areas of Profit, Safety and Environment.

Using ASR’s HR software, the HR team provide Barhale’s Board with a number of pre-determined benchmarking reports to help them in their quest of achieving their Three Pillar philosophy.

Sharon comments: “ASR’s report writing tool is so easy to use, providing us with the tools to give the board a very visual representation of how the company is performing in key HR areas and helping them to make informed decisions on the business. Although it is very easy to use I still have the ability to write powerful reports that often include a number of complex calculations. Being able to do “what if analysis” really helps with salary benchmarking and allows the board to see what the impact might be on the bottom line with different salary increase scenarios.”

The Future

Sharon says: “One of the key objectives of HR is to increase its professional image within the company and as part of this process, Barhale is looking at the possibility of introducing ASR’s self-service software. The number of processes that we could streamline on-line are considerable.”

“We hold a lot of sensitive data in HR and the fact that the security in ASR’s self-software is completely watertight will give us complete piece of mind. Likewise, being able to determine what access we give employees and Line Managers is very important.”

Sharon continues: “One of the key challenges facing the construction industry is to retain employees with key skills that are very much in demand now. At Barhale and since the introduction of ASR’s HR software we are in a position to manage this challenge successfully.”

“Equally, Barhale is undertaking a vast recruitment drive to attract the right employees with all the necessary skills and experience, plus the character to fit in well with Barhale’s culture. We have not really used ASR’s Recruitment software to its full capabilities, but the plan is to start now and help us to quicken the recruitment process and to evaluate the success of our recruitment campaigns.”

Sharon finishes: “There are exciting times ahead for Barhale and we look forward to continuing our relationship with ASR and both achieve the success that we deserve.”

Find out more about our wide selection of Human Resources software:

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	.NET HR Workflow
	Personnel Software
	Recruitment Software
	Training Software
	e-HR Software
	HR Payroll Software