How Pitacs Limited increased its employee engagement by 20%
Industry: Manufacturing & Distribution
Company size: 60+ employees
Set up: Office based and off-site employees
Pitacs Limited is one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of heating products and electrical cables in the UK as well as supplying over 38 countries across the world.
The company was established in 1990 in the UK as national distributors for heating products; mainly steel panel radiators under their Ultraheat brand. They supply a large range of designer radiators and towel rails throughout the UK and around the world. Pitacs Limited has bounced back fully-operational following lockdown, achieving their highest ever turnover for the month of July, 2020.
- Reducing Time Spent on HR Admin Tasks
- Increasing employee engagement
- Unifying warehouse and head office teams
Strategic Challenges
HR Automation
The workforce of Pitacs Limited is split into office-based employees and those who work in the warehouse. The warehouse team does not have e-mail access, which means that prior to implementing StaffCircle a lot of the HR tasks had to be paper-based.
This included holiday booking forms, return to work paperwork and memos. Initially, when someone wanted to book a holiday they had to fill out a form and hand it to their manager. The manager would then need to check if the individual would be able to have the time off. They would then raise another paper-based form to send to HR, which in turn would be loaded onto the payroll system. Thus, adding up to a time consuming and cumbersome process.
Remote Workforce Employee Engagement
With 1/3 of its workforce being non-desk based, increasing employee engagement was high on the agenda for progressive HR Manager, Clair Minns. Prior to implementing StaffCircle, Pitacs Limited had to rely on paper-based memos to communicate with its distributed team. Important Health and Safety information, employee benefits and training information were all communicated via memos or word of mouth.
Disjointed Warehouse & Head Office Teams
The paper-based memo and word of mouth approach was difficult to track, often resulting in HR having to spend extra time and effort chasing information. Communication was open to misinterpretation and the warehouse team felt somewhat isolated from the wider team as information didn’t always reach them in time, making it difficult to create a two-way dialogue
Solutions and Results
87.5% Reduction in Time Spent on HR Admin
Holidays: StaffCircle’s Holidays & Time Off feature creates transparency. Now everyone can see when someone is due to be off, which allows teams to be forward-thinking with their own requests, without having to find information from line managers or HR.
Tasks & Worksheets: With StaffCircle’s tasks and worksheets feature, it is easy for Managers and the HR team to send training and H&S related information or get e-signatures back when required. ‘Non-responses’ are quick to identify at a glance on the Dashboard and ‘Nudges’ can be automated, ensuring compliancy with a click of a button.
20% Increase in Employee Engagement (from 63% to 83%)
Newsfeed: The ‘Newsfeed’ feature enables Pitacs Limited to share company news and updates with employees directly. They can ‘like’, ‘share’ and comment on various initiatives. This allows the organisation to include everyone and eliminate any divide, gauge engagement and sentiment. Reports can also be run on individual departmental engagement.
A 100% Unified Team
Communications: StaffCircle’s Communications feature provides a platform for instant 2-way interaction. Messages now quickly reach everyone with the option to instantly reply and feedback. The Warehouse Team gets everything first hand, at the same time as everyone else, in a transparent way. They have also become one of the top engaged departments.
Future Proofing The Workplace
COVID-19 and the workplace afterwards
Covid 19 and the lockdown brought their own challenges and a large proportion of the workforce had to be furloughed. StaffCircle’s platform allowed Pitacs Limited to effortlessly communicate with its furloughed staff on a weekly basis. They updated the team on future plans, which reduced ambiguity and worry. The company has also been able to communicate any social distancing related information, creating a safe working environment. Additionally, to look after their employees Pitacs Limited shared mental health information and employee wellbeing related tips. Taking this approach created a happier, more motivated workforce even during uncertain times
For me, the best things and the Holidays and the Communications features. They have changed my life the most. From and HR perspective, it’s so much easier to keep track of tasks.
StaffCircle’s platform has helped me keep on top of everything without having to constantly chase information.
Clair Minns, HR Manager, Pitacs Limited