Warwickshire College

Warwickshire College is one of the UK's largest general further and higher education colleges. It has around 2000 staff operating across a number of different sites and currently caters for more than 25000 students. Its excellent reputation has also been recognised with a Grade One "Outstanding" Ofsted report in January 2008.

Warwickshire College is one of the UK's largest general further and higher education colleges with more than 25,000 students. The college has 6 main centres as well as 2 Learning Centres and use of more than 60 community centres across Warwickshire.

Industry	Further Education
Geographic	Warwickshire
Employees	2000
Solution	SelectHR Web Edition
Modules	Self-service

With around 2000 staff across these sites and 3 personnel offices handling all the HR administration, Warwickshire College is a progressive organisation with an excellent reputation having earned a Grade One "Outstanding" in January 2008.

Select Software's relationship with Warwickshire College has gone from strength to strength, and the college's enthusiasm for SelectHR has led them to chair the Select Software College Forum.

This internet-based discussion forum allows colleges to network and share experiences and knowledge of the software. Warwickshire College is also scheduled to hold a Regional User Group meeting this year purely for colleges using Select's HR software.

"We were extremely keen from the outset to maximise the use of SelectHR... Project Planning helped us focus on how to do this." Andy Bragg
Personnel Officer (Systems)

Andy Bragg, Personnel Officer (Systems), has been an integral part of the Personnel team for the last 5 years and was fully involved with implementing Select Software from the outset, back in 2007.

"The process we went through before deciding to choose SelectHR included sending out a tender, demonstrations with the shortlisted suppliers, taking references and visiting two client's sites to see SelectHR in action," says Andy. "It took some time, but we finally made the right decision, based on Select's functionality and their development plans for the future. We were extremely keen from the outset to maximise the use of SelectHR and utilise all areas of the software to the maximum of our ability. The Project Planning meeting before implementation helped us to focus on how to do this."

Current usage

"We implemented SelectHR back in May 2007 and have been using the training and recruitment modules heavily since then. We rolled out Self- service the following year and began using the online recruitment module this year," Andy explains.

"Notifications and triggers for workflow purposes are also being used in all the above areas, with the vast majority of HR paperwork being generated through mail merges and reports within SelectHR."

"We implemented with full LDAP authentication and all staff have Self-service available to them. Managers can use a range of functions defined by their security levels including a number of reports depending on their individual roles. Administrators across the college enter absence data giving Personnel and Management up-to-the-minute absence reporting.

"We also have remote sites at Pershore and Rugby using Terminal Services," he continues. "SelectHR is used as a driver for our Staff ID Management System which creates staff email and network accounts and we also use a report to produce our college identity badges."

Motivations for upgrading to Web Edition and .NET technology

"The rationale for upgrading to .NET technology is really HR led," says Andy. "The latest developments included in SelectHR Web Edition will give us increased flexibility and traceability. We will also have access to full workflow functions."

"With multiple users working across multiple sites there are currently some issues around accessibility which will not apply when Web Edition has been implemented," Andy comments.

Key benefits of Web Edition

Web Edition encompasses the broad range of functionality from SelectHR's previous products, including absence in hours, self-service, on-line recruitment, multi-discipline CPD etc, in a fully browser based system. Utilising the latest .NET technology platform, Web Edition also brings many specific user benefits. For example, it enables staff to configure the system to their own way of working, customising for example their own forms, menus, screens, fields and calculations. As well as over 300 standard reports and the ability to create and amend new reports, Web Edition also has dashboard based reporting, providing users at Warwickshire College with their own instant management information and trend analysis at a glance without having to generate specific reports.

"We need greater flexibility, greater traceability, better workflow tools and increased productivity - all of which we will have with SelectHR Web Edition." says Andy.

"As well as all the above points, with SelectHR Web Edition there will be no need to install client software," he explains. "Staff will be able to access data from any PC across any of our six sites without any significant loss of speed. The new software will make it easier to authenticate with LDAP so we only have one application to manage."

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