The Port of Grimsby is located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary, at one time the largest fishing port in the world supporting the employment of 21,000 people and handling nearly 100,000 tonnes of fish annually.
Processing payroll for the dockers at Grimsby was, as you can imagine, a significant and vital role in keeping those workers happy, and our customer, Dataplan Computer Bureau started life in 1969 doing just that.
Today a fishing trawler is a rare spot at Grimsby Docks, the decline of the fishing industry has brought many problems but also opportunities to move forward, today you'll see Grimby at the forefront of the renewable energy revolution.
Dataplan, your payroll superheroes have been moving with the times too, adapting to the changing market. In 1989 they were acquired by a firm of accountants, rebranded to 'Dataplan Payroll Ltd' in 2008, and finally taken over by their current management team in 2018.
Growing Pains
As Dataplan grew inevitably the paper based system for recording absence started to reveal its weaknesses; messy paperwork, out of date wall charts, out of date information.
Their Operations Director, Stewart Waddell had had enough,
"We was all fed up of seeing wall charts stuck all over the place, they made a mess, people had no idea who was off and when without trekking into each department to look at the wall chart"
A Paperless Future
Stewart found Timetastic and hasn't looked back. The online wall charts are always bang up to date and can be accessed anywhere, be it your mobile or a desktop computer. There are certainly no messy planners stuck on walls anymore, and paperwork is a thing of the past - where it should be.
And a Happy Team
Dataplan staff are now planning better, the team have fully embraced the mobile app and are now booking their time off while out of the office and during weekends and evenings.
The lock dates feature is proving particularly popular with Stewart and his management team, for events such as Christmas Parties and year-end processing:
There are some events that we want to all staff to attend so forcing a lock out prevents any holidays on these set dates.
And the unseen benefit, with the addition time available Stewart can now focus on improving staff perks, and plans to introduce a flexible working plan in the near future.
If you'd like to know more about outsourcing payroll then contact Stewart and his team at Dataplan Payroll Outsourcing.