Shaw's Department Stores

CONTACT: MR DAVID MCMAHON, HR MANAGER

At a Glance

Sector: Retail

Employees: 600

Product Installed: TMS (Time and Attendance software)

Client Objectives: Monitor up to 40 different shifts, increase efficiency, ensure compliance with European Working Time Directive

They say: Managers have more control, staff had a very good reaction to the system, easy to ensure compliance with legislation

TMS Streamlines Business

Shaw's Department Stores is a family-owned retail business, with 14 department stores and two shopping centres in the Republic of Ireland. They provide ladies', gents' and children's fashions and homeware. The group employs up to 600 staff at different times of the year, including seasonal, short term and weekend staff. This can involve up to 40 different shifts in some of their larger outlets. Prior to implementing Advance Systems' time and attendance system, TMS, the group operated the traditional Paper Clock Card System. This manual system was not able to provide management with the information required.

In 1997 the first time and attendance system was installed by Advance Systems. This provided managers with the necessary tool to aid them in managing each store in a more efficient way. It made recording of hours easier, holiday allocation and calculation instant, and days in lieu were easier to monitor. The introduction of TMS streamlined the business.

EU Working Time Directive

Mr David McMahon, Group Human Resources Manager, explained, "The system gives managers more control. From a Human Resources point of view it is easier to ensure compliance with the EU Working Time Directive, as the monitoring is in place and reports are accessed as they are required. Each manager checks the anomalies and runs his/her own reports weekly - it only takes about 10 minutes to check the exceptions. Staff had a very good reaction to the implementation of the system."

Ongoing Relationship

"The ongoing relationship with Advance Systems is very good and one of trust. The conviction of the staff and their knowledge of the product is evident - this gives us a very positive feeling and that is why we knew they would be the right company be in business with", explained Mr Michael Brody, Financial Controller.