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The Client
New England Wood Pellet produces and distributes pellet fuels throughout several states. The company has more than 60 employees spread over four locations, including two manufacturing facilities in New York, a manufacturing facility in New Hampshire and a headquarters office.
The Challenge
For each shift, employees used mechanical punch clocks to log their time. At the end of each week, punch cards were gathered and sent to headquarters, where time was manually entered into a spreadsheet. Calculating employee time required about one and a half work days every week.
“This was a very cumbersome process, and as data was keyed into the spreadsheet, we sometimes had errors from transposing numbers,” said Philip Cournoyer, manager of purchasing and payroll for New England Wood Pellet. “Technically, the punch clocks could be used to tabulate hours. But since they could not account for any variances such as overnight shifts or overtime, we never used those capabilities.”
The manual process failed to help the company in its efforts to comply with New Hampshire law, which requires employees to sign their weekly time cards. And as the company continued its rapid growth, it needed a more efficient way to track employee time.
“When payroll runs well, nobody ever comments on that fact,” said Cournoyer. “But if payroll is messed up, you hear about it big time. We needed a foolproof way to streamline our payroll process, without costing a fortune.”
"When payroll runs well, nobody ever comments on that fact," said Philip Cournoyer, Purchasing and Payroll Manager at New England Wood Pellet. "But if payroll is messed up, you hear about it big time. We needed a fool-proof way to streamline our payroll process, without costing a fortune."
The Solution
New England Wood Pellet decided to purchase a Wasp time and attendance solution, as well as four Wasp RFID timeclocks.
“This was a very affordable option for us,” said Cournoyer. “Plus, it automated several activities that had previously consumed a great deal of time each week for me, as well as managers throughout the business.”
The company connected the four RFID timeclocks to its wide-area network (WAN). Each day, employees wave their RFID badges next to their timeclock’s RFID reader to check in and out. From the company’s headquarters, the Wasp time and attendance solution automatically collects check-in and check-out times from each timeclock. It then accurately tabulates the hours each employee was on the job.
The Result
This reduces the time Cournoyer needs to process payroll each week from one and one-half days to two hours – a time savings of more than 80 percent.
“I have so much more time that I can spend on other higher value work, such as purchasing,” said Cournoyer. “In addition, Wasp’s time and attendance solution has eliminated errors in the data and ensures we have accurate hours for every employee – every time.”
Thanks to its purchase of 10 manager licenses, New England Wood Pellet can give managers access to data for the employees they supervise. That way, managers can review hourly reports and better manage their workforce. Plus, each manager can run a report showing their employees’ weekly time. Employees can then quickly review and sign their timecards, making compliance with New Hampshire state law much more efficient.
