A transformative absence management solution for a global organisation
It’s not uncommon to see global enterprise organisations rely on outdated HR or finance systems to also manage their absence and leave records on the side.
Since absence management is not what the primary design of these systems is for, the functionality and flexibility often falls short of a company’s requirements.
That’s especially true for the likes of PharmaLex, an international organisation spanning 32 countries with more than 3,000 employees. They turned to edays to supply an absence management solution that could meet their needs.
Overhauling HR technology on a global scale
Within its UK location, PharmaLex relied on its finance system to also look after absence management for the organisation.
It wasn’t ideal – the system was somewhat clunky and lacked key features, meaning teams had to find manual workarounds to accommodate processes like tracking sickness records and handling medical certificates.
For a large company, the manual admin burden of this, as well as the lack of accurate, good quality employee data, was a significant challenge.
As part of a wider technology transition, they turned to edays for an absence management solution that could handle the task now and into the future.
The system had to be delivered to a tight deadline and have crucial features that were previously lacking.
Documents such as medical certificates and return-to-work forms were being handled manually with no dedicated system to upload and view them – making for a very long-winded processes that lacked the accuracy and consistency to manage employee absences effectively.
Rolling out edays with rapid implementation
As well as appreciating edays’ intuitive design, PharmaLex elected to choose us as their absence management solution thanks for our fast implementation.
Given the organisation’s wider technology overhaul was happening at the same time, we had a tight deadline in place to get the system up and running smoothly.
Our implementation and onboarding team ensured that the system was configured quickly, migrating data across to edays and ensuring our software could be used by HR, managers and employees as quickly as possible.
After rolling out, the transformation was noticed straight away. The system was easy to use, giving a colour-coded view of absences that was so much cleaner than their previous processes. Both HR and employees were pleased with the new experience that edays provides, reporting it is one of the easiest system implementations that company has ever done.
The impact
PharmaLex has enjoyed noticeable positive benefits since rolling out edays.
The way the organisation manages their absence data has improved dramatically, with the ability to run real-time, automated reports when needed, or scheduled on a weekly or monthly basis. That’s helped to free up much-needed admin time that can be spent elsewhere.
Support for people managers has also improved, who now have easy access to all of their teams’ absence and holiday records, supporting better and more proactive line management.
