Environment Control, a building services company based in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, has 50 franchise locations in 19 states. Each franchise employs mostly part-time employees who work off site at customer facilities.
Challenges
Tracking labor costs and activities daily is vital to maintaining each Environment Control franchise's service and profit levels. This is especially challenging considering the industry faces significant labor expenses and an employee turnover rate of more than 200%, although Environment Control's turnover rate is dramatically lower.
Environment Control determined that its time and human resources tracking solution lacked the robust functionality required to manage its 4,300 employees in an exceptional way. The company needed near real-time reporting on daily and weekly labor costs by job, completed tasks relative to budget, and roll call information.
Solutions
In selecting a new human capital management (HCM) solution, Environment Control decided it needed a solution that could expedite the hiring and onboarding of new employees and efficiently schedule part-time employees and supervisors across each franchise's customer sites. The company also wanted a solution with mobile functionality with location validation for employees punching in and out remotely.
To better manage and control labor costs relative to budget, Environment Control sought a solution that could provide real-time labor information and deliver succinct and in-depth reporting about each franchise's workforce and labor costs. The solution also would need to process multiple pay rates to help ensure the delivery of accurate paychecks.
The cloud-based UKG Ready® solution met all these requirements. Since Environment Control implemented the solution, the company has streamlined HCM processes and has gained visibility into real-time labor information to increase productivity and better manage labor costs, as well as improve employee engagement and mitigate compliance issues.
“For our management teams running all over town working to track employee activity and ensure the handling of issues, having mobile visibility, schedule visibility, and labor visibility [with UKG Ready] has been critical for us.”
Jeff LaBenne
VP Marketing/Development
Results
In an industry that has an extremely high turnover rate and a mostly remote workforce, Environment Control has found that the UKG® solution's online hiring and onboarding process has cut onboarding time by 50%, getting new hires on the job faster.
When employees arrive at a job site, they use the UKG Ready mobile app to clock in and out on their smartphones. Geo-fencing authenticates that they are at their work location. An IVR system is also available for employees who prefer to clock in without using a smartphone.
Employees use their mobile devices to check their schedules, time, and pay information and request time off. Supervisors use their mobile devices to see who has or hasn't clocked in at each location, and they can deploy fill-in staff as needed.
"For our management teams running all over town working to track employee activity and ensure the handling of issues, having mobile visibility, schedule visibility, and labor visibility [with UKG Ready] has been critical for us," said Jeff LaBenne, VP Marketing/Development at Environment Control.
UKG Ready reporting shows actual versus budgeted labor expenses daily and weekly by job, providing timely, essential data to help franchisees maintain profitability.
