Category Archives: HR Software

Cleaning & Facilities Management, HR, HR News, HR Software

Nviro go live with elementsuite HR and Workforce Management software

elementsuite helps Nviro reach over 1,300 colleagues across 900+ sites

London – 6th August, 2024 – elementsuite, HR and workforce management provider, has been chosen by Nviro, a professional cleaning provider in the educational and local authority sector, as its HR and Workforce Management platform. With over 1,300 colleagues working across their cleaning and support teams Nviro wanted to consolidate all their people processes into one solution to ensure that the right people are in the right place at the right time and to ensure they had the right information to deliver a great job.

The elementsuite modules selected include Recruit, HR, Engage, Perform, Work, Time, and Pay with the following key benefits:

 

  • Employee self-service – the Nviro team can now access their entire world of work easily from their mobile device, including the ability to book annual leave, find company documents, check personal details and much more.
  • Streamlined HR – the organisation’s HR processes are now automated and digitised from one simple place, with advanced analytics to support strategic decision-making. HR admins can now complete everything from managing company documents to gaining real-time insights through elementsuite.
  • Recruitment simplified – Nviro no longer relies on third party vendors to manage recruitment processes, helping reduce costs and increase overall efficiency.
  • Enhanced colleague engagement – Everyone in the Nviro team can view and manage all communications from elementsuite’s mobile app, contributing to motivated teams, improved retention, and enhanced performance – reducing the need for company-wide emails, notice boards and multiple communication platforms.
  • Performance management – Supporting individual growth and development, elementsuite now provides the ability to help career advancement with functionality including 360-degree feedback, peer recognition, benchmarking and much more.

“Managing a large workforce across multiple sites – cleaning over 2.5 million square metres daily – has always been time-consuming and costly. The challenge of coordinating disparate systems and reaching everyone simultaneously seemed insurmountable. Thanks to elementsuite, we now have a seamless solution,” said Amanda Hartley, Head of HR at Nviro.

“elementsuite’s platform enables us to connect with our colleagues wherever they are, streamline scheduling, facilitate holiday bookings, and access essential HR information effortlessly. This partnership has been transformative for us, and we eagerly anticipate the continued benefits of this invaluable partnership.”

 

About Nviro 

Nviro is a specialist provider of clean, hygienic and safe environments for the local authority and education sectors in London, the South and South East.

Founded in 1992, Nviro now has over 1,300 people across their cleaning and support teams and clean an average of 2.5 million m2 every single day. As well as routine cleaning tasks, they also provide a range of specialist cleaning services from carpet and upholstery cleaning to decontamination and crisis cleaning.

Nviro are recognised as being a trusted expert and advisor to their clients to create environments where their building users can succeed, as well as providing rewarding employment where colleagues are valued and recognised for making positive differences in the communities they work in.

 

About elementsuite

elementsuite is a full-suite HR and Workforce Management software that ushers in a new era of innovation and efficiency with an all-in-one platform that covers the entire employee lifecycle. elementsuite offers a seamless, modern, and comprehensive solution for all HR and Workforce Management needs, from handling recruitment and onboarding to generating labour forecasts and creating personalised reports, all on one mobile-friendly platform.

elementsuite is now delighted to offer everyday – the same expertise, the same experience, but for companies with 200+ employees

elementsuite boasts a portfolio of world-renowned brands who stand at the forefront of innovation, including McDonald’s UK, Travelodge, Roadchef, Five Guys, Virgin Limited Edition and many more.

For more information please visit www.elementsuite.com

 

HR, HR Software, Pay & Reward, Payroll Automation

Fox Group International Selects everyday by elementsuite as its HR, Scheduling and Pay Solution

London – 30th July, 2024. elementsuite, HR and workforce management software, has been chosen by Fox Group International, an industry-leading provider of aesthetic cosmetic and pharmaceutical products with global reach, as its trusted HR software provider.  Fox Group has selected everyday by elementsuite to address its needs for a single, robust platform to manage end-to-end needs.

Having outgrown their existing HRIS, Fox Group’s growth meant they required a platform that had modern and innovative functionality to maximise operational efficiency across people processes, empowering employees, managers, and HR admins. The organisation will be utilising the HR, scheduling and pay elements of everyday to address the following requirements:

 

Manage all people processes 

With everyday, Fox Group can now manage all their people processes from one robust platform. For instance, it was important for Fox Group to have the ability to feed live data from absence and availability directly into scheduling, which can save manager time and support timely decision-making.

 

Embrace everyday’s AI capabilities

Fox Group now have the benefit of saving time spent on admin through ELLA’s ability to handle numerous tasks, from answering employee queries about company policies to creating documents for HR admins, helping create more time for transformative tasks to support Fox Group’s growth. ELLA, elementsuite’s Large Language Assistant, provides functionality such as content generation, company knowledge retrieval, 24/7 HR assistance and workflow agency.

 

Modern user-friendly look and feel 

everyday’s simple, user-friendly tile menu format makes it easy to manage all people processes smoothly. The UI helps all users navigate across the platform whilst maintaining Fox Group’s unique branding.

 

“everyday’s easy-to-navigate style supports employees’ self-drive capability and it’s fantastic how the entire system can be branded to Fox Group’s own style and colour palette,” said Annabelle Wharton, Head of People at Fox Group International. “We’ve really enjoyed working with the team at elementsuite throughout the selection process and we look forward to our continued partnership during implementation.”

 

“I believe that everyday has the ability to transform employees’, managers’, and HR admins’ world of work at Fox Group International. The fun and innovative feel of the platform perfectly matches the modern feel of the brand itself. I look forward to working with the project team,” added Steve Elcock, CEO and Founder, elementsuite.

 

For further information please visit www.elementsuite.com

 

About Fox Group International

Fox Group International is a market leader within the aesthetics and cosmetics industry and is the only official supplier for polynucleotide injectable VITARAN, hyaluronic acid dermal filler, REVOLAX and hyaluronic acid skin booster, Seventy Hyal. Fox Group International distributes a range of aesthetic supplies and pharmaceuticals to qualified aesthetics professionals within the industry. Through advanced research and development, Fox Group International offers an unrivalled portfolio of leading aesthetics products for non-surgical treatments and 360° solution for aesthetic businesses with the aim to support practitioners every step of the way.

 

About elementsuite

elementsuite is a full-suite HR and Workforce Management software that ushers in a new era of innovation and efficiency with an all-in-one platform that covers the entire employee lifecycle. elementsuite offers a seamless, modern, and comprehensive solution for all HR and Workforce Management needs, from handling recruitment and onboarding to generating labour forecasts and creating personalised reports, all on one mobile-friendly platform.

elementsuite is now delighted to offer everyday – the same expertise, the same experience, but for companies with 150+ employees.

elementsuite boasts a portfolio of world-renowned brands who stand at the forefront of innovation, including McDonald’s UK, Travelodge, Roadchef, Five Guys, Virgin Limited Edition and many more.

To learn more, visit www.elementsuite.com

Appointments, Employee Benefits, HR Software, News, Wellbeing at Work

Boostworks Appoints Joanne Werker as new CEO

Oxford, 30th July 2024 – Boostworks, a leading provider of employee reward and recognition, benefits delivery and wellbeing solutions, is pleased to announce an exciting leadership transition. Effective from 1st August, 2024, Joanne Werker, CSMO, becomes its new Chief Executive Officer. Joanne will replace Andy Caldicott, CEO, who will transition to a newly created role of Strategic Programme Director, responsible for leading the delivery of major initiatives focused on extending the Boostworks solutions portfolio, and core operating model.

With a wealth of experience managing multi-million pound business P&Ls, across diverse sectors, Joanne’s previous roles at Vodafone, Virgin Media O2, and TruRating, underscore her ability to scale operations and drive disruptive strategies across emerging markets to generate new revenue streams. Since joining Boostworks two years ago, Joanne has demonstrated exceptional leadership in strategic planning, go-to-market initiatives and customer growth programmes. She has also played a pivotal role in driving a number of transformational projects across sales, marketing, product, and the brand itself.

Joanne with Andy Caldicott

“I am truly delighted to take on the role of CEO and build upon the strong foundation that Andy has established,” said Joanne Werker, CEO, Boostworks. “Together with our talented team, I look forward to driving innovation, expanding our market presence, and creating further value for our customers and stakeholders.”

 

The company’s Chairman, Mark Bond, expressed confidence in the new leadership team and the opportunities ahead.

“We are grateful for Andy’s outstanding contributions as CEO and excited about his new role as Strategic Programme Director,” said Mark Bond, Chairman, Boostworks.

“Joanne’s appointment as CEO marks a new chapter for Boostworks. Her proven track record at Vodafone, Virgin Media O2 and TruRating underscore her ability to scale operations and drive business growth. Furthermore, her strategic vision makes her the ideal leader to guide us into the future. The opportunities ahead are immense, and I am confident that under Joanne’s leadership, we will continue to achieve remarkable success.”

 

During his tenure as CEO, Andy has been instrumental in laying the foundations for Boostworks’ growth.

“Leading Boostworks has been an incredible journey, and I am immensely proud of what we’ve achieved together,” said Andy Caldicott, Strategic Programme Director, Boostworks.

“I feel really energised to be taking on this new role and continue contributing to the company’s vibrant culture. I have the utmost confidence in Joanne’s ability to lead Boostworks to even greater heights.”

 

HR News, HR Software, News

How Ciphr amplifies performance through the V2MoM framework

Join Ciphr’s HR leaders, Claire Williams and Karen Lough, for an insightful webinar about how Ciphr has transformed its performance management process using the V2MoM framework (11am on 21 May).

A unified employee base all pulling in the same direction, where everyone knows what they need to do and can operate at the top of their game, is the holy grail for any organisation.

HR software provider Ciphr has spent the past six months reframing its company goals and cascading them throughout the organisation in the form of meaningful performance objectives for all. They’ve introduced the V2MoM management framework to cultivate a high-performance environment where everyone has total clarity on their goals and objectives.

Find out how they did it, and the results so far at 11am on Tuesday 21 May. Spoiler: educating and engaging employees is key.

Claire Williams
Claire Williams is chief people and operations officer at Ciphr and a fellow of the CIPD – the UK’s professional body for HR. She leads on Ciphr’s people and culture, as well as company-wide strategic initiatives and operations. She has been with Ciphr for six years and has nearly 20 years of experience in the HR profession.

Williams says: “Building and implementing V2MOMs at Ciphr has been a labour of love. I can’t wait to share with the wider HR community the highs and lows of this strategic project, and how we have driven a shift in our collective purpose and high-performance culture.”

Karen Lough
Karen Lough is head of people experience (learning and development, culture and engagement) at Ciphr. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in learning and development and leading key transformation projects, including capability and behavioural frameworks, leadership development and performance management.

Lough says: “I’m really looking forward to sharing how we have used V2MOMs to accelerate the adoption of our Ciphr Amplifying Performance framework. We’re well on the way to a state where every one of our employees works with complete transparency of what they need to do and how that impacts the success of our business.”

To register for Ciphr’s webinar, please visit: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H08SdMj0.

All Ciphr webinars are free to attend. Links to video recordings of the seminars are made available afterwards and emailed to all registrants.

Previous webinars are available to watch on-demand at https://www.ciphr.com/webinars.

Ciphr is the go-to HR software and solutions partner for medium and large organisations in the UK. Its integrated HR, payroll, learning and recruitment software, services and content provide invaluable insights to HR teams to inform their people strategy and grow and develop their organisations. Based in Reading, Ciphr is on a mission to amplify the voice and value of HR through intelligent people data solutions that help HR be heard – in the boardroom and across the business.

For more information, please visit https://www.ciphr.com.

Bristol, HR, HR Software, News

Zellis HCM Cloud 8.0 powers HR and payroll efficiency

  • Zellis HCM Cloud 8.0 includes enhancements to Power BI dashboards and the Zellis Intelligence Platform
  • Latest release adds more automation to National Minimum Wage calculations 

 

Bristol, UK: 30 April 2024: Zellis, the largest provider of payroll and HR software to the UK and Ireland, today announces a series of product developments as the company continues its mission to transform the future of HR and payroll operations.

Significant updates announced as part of Zellis’ HCM Cloud 8.0 release include:

 

Power BI dashboard enhancements

To support greater visibility and progress reporting, Zellis HCM Cloud customers can now compare pay across different diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) characteristics such as disability, identified gender, and marital status. Alongside this, HR and payroll teams will be able to view employee commission in addition to existing bonus pay data, allowing this important aspect of remuneration to be measured.

 

Increased automation of National Minimum Wage (NMW) calculations

Zellis HCM Cloud 8.0 also extends the scope of automated NMW calculations relating to key business process events. This includes the calculation of NMW annual hours and will ensure employees who join mid-way through the year are considered correctly – both for monitoring purposes, and for the point at which projected hours are exceeded. These enhancements also apply to the calculation of NMW annual hours for workers who have not exceeded the annual hours threshold and who end their employment mid-way through a pay period.

 

Zellis Intelligence Platform upgrades

Further upgrades to the Zellis Intelligence Platform (ZIP) include automated requests (webhooks) to support absence entitlement and fixed pay elements, enabling customers to build out integrations for key events. In addition, customers can now generate, store, and expose Dead Letter Events, making it easier for HR teams to take appropriate action. The extension of ZIP schema will also incorporate data from Performance Development Reviews (PDR) and training, expanding the data that exists within Zellis HCM Cloud.

Commenting on the company’s 8.0 release, Chief Product Officer, George Dunnett, said: “These developments demonstrate our commitment to supporting customer needs through continued innovation. Zellis HCM Cloud is built for the modern enterprise and all the challenges and complexities that impact HR and payroll operations. The vast majority of our customer base has now upgraded to Zellis HCM Cloud and we’re delighted to see our customers reaping the associated efficiency and productivity benefits.”

 

Also in development is the Zellis HCM Cloud Microsoft Dynamics HR connector, which will enable real-time flow of organisation, employee, and absence data from Microsoft Dynamics HR. Commenting on this, Dunnett added: “By developing a connector to Microsoft Dynamics HR we’re adding further weight to our existing connector offering and strengthening Zellis’ position as the best-in-breed HR and payroll solution for the UK and Ireland.”

Zellis HCM Cloud 8.0 also supports compliance around Guernsey pension auto-enrolment, which comes into effect from the 1st of July 2024, starting with employers that have more than 26 employees. These employers will need to auto-enrol their employees in YIP (Your Island Pension) or another approbated pension scheme, with Zellis HCM Cloud able to support automatic enrolment and assessment, as well as pension scheme set-up.

 

HR, HR Software, News

Unveiling People Flow: Transforming the world of HR, through personal wellness and community

Unlocking Potential, Boosting Careers

Launching on March 27, 2024, People Flow introduces a groundbreaking new approach for HR professionals. This innovative HR community is set to revolutionise careers by focussing on the human behind HR, providing exclusive access to expert mentors and coaches, valuable networking opportunities, and holistic wellness support aimed at building resilience and personal growth.

Empowering HR Professionals

Addressing the mounting pressures faced by HR teams today, People Flow offers a unique opportunity for businesses to invest in the people who take care of their employees and the health of the organisation.

Founded by Abigail Wilmore, a distinguished HR and luxury brand expert whose career has included working at Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Gucci, Estee Lauder, and is now serving as Chief People Officer at Tom Ford Fashion, the People Flow community will redefine the HR experience.

Unique Offerings

Members of People Flow gain access to monthly mentoring sessions with Abigail and other HR visionaries, networking events, as well as personal development sessions and nurturing wellness advice from gurus in healing, spirituality, mental health, neuroscience, body work and more.

They will also gain access to Abigail’s little black book of contacts through the Community. Moreover, there are downloadable HR policies, tools, and resources available to help them become more effective in their roles, including company handbooks, strategy planning templates, and much more.

 

Leadership Superpowers

Abigail’s vision for People Flow extends beyond traditional HR frameworks and focuses on helping members to develop the key skills or ‘superpowers’ that she feels are essential for building strategic influence, confidence and ensuring HR leadership success.

These include:

  • The Magician – Sees into the health of the organisation, ability to untangle relationships or political webs and heal the eco-system.
  • The Influencer – Able to ignite and inspire with brilliant social strategies.
  • The Pioneer – Takes risks and sees into the future to best help the organisation stay ahead of competition.
  • The Meaning Maker – Helps employees to understand how their role contributes to the company mission and purpose.
  • The Story-teller – Brings stories from the past, present and future to show the richness of culture.
  • The Product Designer – Creates products rather than initiatives, putting the human at the centre.
  • The Marketeer – Looks through a marketing lens to deliver a personalised HR experience.
  • The Community Leader – Utilises the collective energy of a network as a catalyst for growth and change.

 

Abigail Wilmore, Founder of People Flow says, “As HR professionals, we tend to look after everyone else in the organisation, but often do not have time to take care of ourselves. With our roles under so much more pressure than ever before, I wanted to create a vibrant, supportive community to give us the attention, networking opportunities, tools and focus we need to thrive in our roles and excel in our careers.

For businesses, it’s the perfect opportunity to show their HR team they value them by investing in a supportive network that offers professional development to build strategic influence, as well as improve wellbeing and resilience which can enhance performance and support retention goals.”

 

Join People Flow Today

For HR professionals seeking to grow their strategic influence and take care of their wellbeing, People Flow offers an unparalleled platform. Whether navigating people strategy or overcoming imposter syndrome, members can access a wealth of resources and expertise to accelerate their professional and personal journey.

Abigail adds, “Our aim is to build people up, champion them, and provide unprecedented access to luxury industry experts. By joining People Flow, individuals can develop the superpowers needed to thrive in today’s high-pressure HR environment.”

 

Visit www.wearepeopleflow.com to discover how People Flow can empower your HR journey.

HR, HR Software, News, Technology

Personio appoints ex-Google and Twitch executive Lenke Taylor as Chief People Officer

Munich, 22 February, 2024: Personio, Europe’s leading HR software company for small and mid-sized organizations, welcomes Lenke Taylor as Chief People Officer (CPO). Lenke joins to lead Personio’s people strategy as the company enters its next phase of growth as well as support its product teams in building market leading solutions for HR leaders like herself.

 

Hanno Renner, co-founder and CEO of Personio: “The success of any organization is built on its people. As an HR-innovation focused company, we know the critical and strategic role that people leaders play in shaping employee experience and unlocking organizational success. That’s why hiring the right Chief People Officer is fundamental to our future goals. Lenke will not only help build a best-in-class HR function but also help shape our company strategy and drive business growth across Europe.”

 

Lenke brings more than 25 years of experience in human resources across notable technology companies including senior leadership positions at Google and Chief People Officer roles at BuzzFeed and Twitch. Throughout this time, she has led global teams to build business and culture at scale and has driven employee engagement across multiple functions. Currently based in the US, Lenke will be relocating to Europe during the summer along with her family.

Lenke Taylor, CPO, Personio

Lenke Taylor, incoming Chief People Officer, Personio: “It’s an incredible gift to work for an organization where the product is designed to help people like me, HR professionals, be even better at our jobs. It’s a really exciting time to be joining Personio, which is already helping 10,000 European HR teams to unlock the power of their people. I look forward to not only working with our talented team to nurture our people strategy, but also to support our product teams in delivering the best software for HR teams in SMEs across Europe.”

 

Lenke joins Geraldine MacCarthy (CRO), Jonas Rieke (COO), Maria Angelidou-Smith (CPTO), Birgit Haderer (CFO) and Naman Khan (CMO) to complete Personio’s Executive Team, reporting to Hanno Renner. “Meeting members of the executive team through my interview process reinforced my positive views of the company. In particular it was inspiring to meet other executive leaders who are women, and I’m proud to join a forward-looking company with industry leading gender representation at the C-Level” continued Taylor.

—

About Personio

Personio is the all-in-one HR platform that unlocks the power of people for small and medium-sized organizations with 10 to 2,000 employees. Trusted by over 10,000 organizations that together manage more than 1 million employees, Personio drives productivity for HR teams, managers and employees by improving HR processes and boosting employee experience. Our ever-evolving product makes Personio a clear choice for organizations looking to upgrade their people platform for now and the future.

Learn more about our product, or how to join our teams in Munich, London, Madrid, Dublin, Berlin, Barcelona, New York, Amsterdam and remotely, here: www.personio.com

 

Employee Benefits, Employee Engagement, HR, HR Software, HR Tech, News, Recruitment, Retention

Top benefits to attract retail, hospitality and shift workers revealed

  • 45% of workers say their employers have had difficulty recruiting in the last 12 months
  • 36% say staff shortages have made it harder to take time off
  • 31% have been required to work more shifts and 37% believe their work/life balance has suffered

As seasonal recruitment ramps up, new research reveals the top benefits that motivate shift workers across sectors such as hospitality, retail and logistics to change jobs.

Better pay tops this year’s list, but is closely followed by employee wellbeing programs and provision of flexible working hours.

What would make workers change jobs?

According to Deputy’s annual State of Shift Work report*, shift workers would be motivated to change jobs for:

  • Better pay (48%)
  • Flexible working hours (33%)
  • Wellbeing programs (gym membership, meditation subscriptions etc.) (32%)
  • Health insurance (32%)
  • Employee assistance programs (access to a psychologist, counselling etc.) (28%)
  • Free meals and drinks (26%)
  • Retirement savings programs (25%)
  • Paid time off (23%)
  • Immediate access to pay after working a shift (21%)

With vacancies at 989,000 between June and August 2023, the labour market for the UK remains tight. In fact, 47% of workers who took part in the Deputy survey said their company had had difficulty hiring in the last 12 months.

For many workers, this has had a negative impact on them, with 36% reporting that staffing shortfalls had made it harder for them to take time off. 31% said they had been required to work more shifts and 37% believe their work/life balance had suffered.

However, some felt that the difficulty in recruiting had had a positive impact on their career, with 26% being given new responsibilities, 18% receiving a pay increase and 20% being promoted.

What do workers think would create a more positive working environment?

When asked what would create a more positive working environment for them, workers were most interested in feeling valued and recognised, employee wellbeing and a culture of trust:

  • Being valued and recognised for my contribution (46%)
  • Focus on employee wellbeing (42%)
  • A culture of trust, openness, and compassion (39%)
  • Clear role definition and expectations (36%)
  • Building relationships with my peers (32%)
  • A culture of diversity, equity and inclusion (31%)
  • A compassionate manager (30%)
  • A company with a reputation for success (30%)
  • A clear and inspiring company mission (27%)

Deputy SVP, Jon Wilson, said: “It’s clear that wellbeing, mental health and working in a caring culture are all important to workers. If employers want to attract the best talent to join their teams, they need to have a thriving workplace and demonstrate they genuinely care about and invest in their people.”

The Power of AI

Deputy is used in more than 35,000 UK workplaces for communication between frontline teams and decision-makers, to control schedules, collaborate intuitively, and help employees plan their lives around work. Now, the business has announced the launch of Deputy HR to offer a complete one-stop recruitment and HR system for businesses with shift workers.

“By integrating the power of AI, Deputy HR provides a seamless experience for businesses and job seekers that haven’t typically had access to mobile-based recruitment and onboarding like this,” says Jon Wilson. “Adding the new HR component to Deputy enables businesses to attract, onboard and retain talent in a much more engaging and user-friendly way. From an employee perspective, candidates can go from applying to clocking in for their first shift all in the palm of their hands.”

The platform helps employers to write job ads faster, automatically shortlist candidates based on qualifications, conduct pre-screening assessments, automate scheduling of interviews, and even enables applicants to record video introductions on mobile to support their applications.

 

In addition to the recruitment process, the system integrates contract signing along with all critical onboarding details (bank details, right to work records,etc.) and manages them on an ongoing basis.

To learn more about Deputy HR, visit https://www.deputy.com/gb/hr-software

HR Software, News, Software News

elementsuite shapes the future of HR with cutting-edge AI-powered HR software – ELLA

elementsuite, the leading employee-centric SaaS HR and Workforce Management platform, today announced the launch of ELLA (Elementsuite Large Language Assistant), a complete artificial intelligence (AI) toolset which is set to revolutionise HR software, and designed to help HR leaders increase the productivity of their workforce. Harnessing the power of ELLA’s AI-enabling techniques offers unrivalled data recollection and HR process assistant capabilities to boost efficiency and productivity in HR operations.

ELLA is available as part of elementsuite’s innovative employee-centric SaaS HR and Workforce Management platform that encompasses the full employee life cycle to provide new clarity for HR leaders. With advanced AI-driven capabilities, ELLA heralds the start of a new era in HR software, which means HR and people teams can unify their data to create accurate and meaningful decisions to grow and support their workforce – capable of handling the needs of the largest UK businesses of up to 175,000 employees.

Going beyond content generation, ELLA serves as a 24/7 HR assistant, streamlining a variety of HR requests, ranging from generation of mortgage reference letters to employee onboarding support. This allows organisations to bid farewell to the time-consuming and repetitive tasks that burden HR departments, so that their skills can be redeployed for priority tasks. ELLA allows enterprise organisations to harness the power of AI within their organisation and elevate their HR data management, whilst ensuring data security.

With the UK Government promoting the UK’s investment in AI to grow and enhance digital business across all industries, ELLA is the first AI-based HR software that empowers organisations to explore the benefits of combining AI intelligence and human HR expertise for remarkable people outcomes. It can support each employee’s specific set of needs in their world of work, for instance their schedule, training, holiday allocation and pay, while providing insight into productivity for HR managers and ways to support responsible hiring practices, such as reducing bias in the selection process.

ELLA harnesses the capabilities of large language models (LLMs), which excel in question answering, content generation, classification, and summarisation/generalisation tasks. This translates to simplifying HR processes and transactions, and it can even be programmed to align to the specific organisation’s tone of voice, to give a more human touch for employees.

Security and data protection are essential to build trust in HR software and for business continuity. With ELLA, HR data is fortified by robust security measures, adhering to industry standards and best practices. ELLA applies the same HR authentication and authorisation security models as used through the elementsuite application which only affords the right information access to the right people.

Steve Elcock, founder and CEO of elementsuite said, “The future of HR software is here, and it’s AI driven. As AI permeates every industry, the arrival of ELLA is the opportunity for organisations to embrace the most advanced technology for their HR and Workforce Management. As the first live AI assistant bot to be fully integrated with a workflow engine and embedded within an HRIS, ELLA ushers in a new AI era of HR data management, creating interconnected data landscapes, and higher-level HR data abstractions to empower streamlined decision-making.

“ELLA has two key missions: increasing productivity in a changing world where the workforce talent pool is shrinking whilst ensuring data privacy and security are upheld at all times.  We’re excited to see the benefits that ELLA is offering our enterprise customers and how, blended with their human expertise, it can provide AI-powered support across the entire employee life-cycle.”

 

The key benefits of ELLA include:

  • Ease of use boosting user experience and adoption

ELLA is fully embedded into the elementsuite platform, and its easy-to-navigate interface enhances user experiences and improves HR software adoption and efficiency, right through the organisation.

  • Powerful AI capabilities boosting efficiency and productivity

ELLA provides flexibility and control over the key AI techniques to fully unlock the power of Large Language Models (LLMs), which are: i) prompt engineering, ii) retrieval augmented generation (RAG), iii) fine tuning of domain-specific models, iv) reinforcement learning using human feedback (RLHF) and v) AI-powered workflow.

  • ELLA benefits staff universally – from frontline employees to HR pros and management

ELLA produces excellent and accurate responses, or recommended actions, to a plethora of prompts – from answering questions about contracts to booking absences. Rather than simply providing generic generations from foundation models, ELLA will respond to requests using sophisticated AI techniques, using your data, applying your HR data security, in your tone, using your company policies and guidance. HR prompts might include: “Write a personalised mortgage reference for Callum Smith.” Or “Summarise the top 5 training needs from this year’s performance reviews for site X. Employee prompts might include: “Who could cover my shift?” or “How much holiday have I accrued this year?”

  • Security at the core

ELLA operates within an organisation’s dedicated, private security environment, guaranteeing that data is kept safe and confidential. This approach that embeds AI within the elementsuite platform ensures that the most sensitive HR information is shielded from external threats and unauthorised access, granting peace of mind, and guaranteeing trust in the platform.

  • Seamless integration for clients and delivering personalised customer service

ELLA seamlessly integrates into existing elementsuite systems without requiring any action by the HR team. It’s a smooth transition, without the need for browser updates or complex changes. elementsuite’s dedicated team provides comprehensive customer service and training, guiding employees every step of the way to ensure that staff experience the full benefits of ELLA’s AI-driven HR capabilities.

 

Education, HR Software, HR Tech, News

Case management specialist Workpro creates opportunities for local pupils to learn about the technologies of the future

Scottish software development company Workpro is proactively investing in the future of computer science and emerging technologies while at the same time creating opportunities for the next generation of scientific talent.

It recently brought in three school pupils to see at first-hand how the business operates and has also established a temporary role for a university student who previously benefited from work experience at the company.

The work-related opportunities are in addition to three recent hires at Workpro, which is the market-facing brand of Edinburgh-based Computer Application Services Ltd (CAS), taking the employee numbers to a record 33 as it enters a new growth phase.

CAS was Scotland’s first software development company, and has grown from being the technology transfer unit of Heriot-Watt University into a case management solutions expert servicing clients throughout the United Kingdom and overseas.

 

The S4 and S5 pupils involved in the experience programme were Simi Adedokun, who attends St George’s School, and Marco Scully, and Manow Drysdale, who both go to George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh.

Simi said: “I was very impressed that the company is employee-owned. It seems as if everyone is a lot more invested, and that they feel they have a big part to play. I’m very interested in computer science, particularly the software engineering side.”

 

Marco said: “The thing I’ve liked about work experience with CAS is that we’ve not been doing just one specific thing for the entire week. We’ve been moving around, from seeing how the servers are run to how the software engineers do their thing. I think that it gives you a holistic view of the entire business.”

 

The students spent time in every department, from software development to marketing, learning about how a software company operates. CAS has an open management style and the students were included in business meetings, including one with CAS investors, C4C (Capital for Colleagues). Discussions about new technologies inevitably came up, AI (Artificial Intelligence) for example:

Manow said: “I think AI is quite cool technology and I have a basic understanding of how it works. It doesn’t scare me too much because I feel there are good restrictions on how it’s being used. I’m not too worried about it.”

 

James McLean, from Edinburgh, benefited from work experience with Workpro in 2018 and is currently engaged on a computer science course at Heriot-Watt University. He worked for the company for ten weeks over the summer before resuming his studies.

He said: “I worked on accessibility support in Workpro. That involved getting the forms to have adequate screen reader support, and doing things like making landmarks on the page so you can skip to certain sections of menus.

“Everyone at CAS is very friendly. If I ever got stuck with things there was always someone to help me. It felt like everything runs very smoothly.”

 

Chris Ellis, Chief Technical Officer at Workpro, said: “I think it is very important that young people are given the opportunities and encouragement to develop their careers, especially in STEM subjects which will be so crucial as the pace of technological change continues to quicken.

“It was great to have James back with us and he made a very valuable contribution while acquiring new skills which will benefit him in his ongoing studies.

“Our work experience cohort has shown great interest in how the company works, what it contributes and what it is likely to be dealing with in the future. We will need people with their curiosity and lively intelligence as technology advances.”

 

Workpro specialises in case management software focusing on activities such as complaint handling and HR case tracking, which allows clients to monitor progress and ensure that they remain fully compliant, even with the most complex issues.

The employee-owned company has increased its client portfolio by 400% to 60 over the past four years including clients in national and local government, financial and legal institutions, major retailers and Ombudsman services.

Growth has been catalysed by the firm’s decision to make Workpro available as a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution, a method of delivery and licensing in which software is accessed online via subscription, rather than bought and installed on individual computers.