A rapidly expanding manufacturer of plastic and steel distribution and storage tanks has become the first industrial company in the UK to tap into PayEscape’s integrated payroll and HR solution.

Tuffa Tanks, which employs 50-plus people at its factory in Uttoxeter, is looking to further increase its workforce over the next five years as it looks to meet increasing demand for its existing products and the launch of its new product lines.

To help lay the foundations for the scale-up process, the company needed to modernise its approach to capturing time and attendance data, as well as critical HR information for employees and management. This saw it engage with PayEscape, one of the UK’s fastest growing human capital management providers, to replace a combination of HR and paper timesheets with biometrics and proven software that will quickly capture and process all employee data.

By integrating the two solutions on one common platform, Tuffa Tanks has reduced the time taken to complete the payroll from nearly four days per month to just half a day, as well as ensuring that information on leave, sickness and workflows is accessible by all management teams.

Dan Barber, HR officer at Tuffa Tanks, has been instrumental in the implementation. He said: “The business has ambitious expansion plans to increase our current £7.4 million annual sales and, combined with recent investment in new manufacturing capabilities, should give us the opportunity to push towards £10 million over the next few years.”

New biometrics technology
He continued: “This will require more staff and, as we scale, we need to have a time management system fit for purpose. We achieved this with new biometrics technology and have since built on this by integrating it with PayEscape’s payroll solution and, more recently, in a HR platform that has revolutionised staff inductions, access to company documentation and communication.

“A lot of the time you have to choose solutions from different providers and that can minimise effectiveness and also duplicate work as you are downloading data and then uploading to a different platform. The technical experts at PayEscape got to know our business and designed a tailored solution that was simple to implement and has delivered a raft of operational and financial benefits.”

Tuffa has been manufacturing specialist tanks for over 30 years, with products starting from 900 litres and, in rare circumstances, going all the way up to 100,000 litres. The tanks can store oil, diesel, AdBlue, effluent, chemicals and water, and operate in some of the harshest conditions and settings ranging from aviation and construction to domestic and agriculture.

Nick Davis, business development manager at PayEscape, added: “The system we have installed for Tuffa is bespoke and fits around the firm’s policies and procedures, eliminating all the manual errors that previously took place and freeing up administrative staff to do other tasks. Importantly, our solution allows the company to grow and, regardless of how large they eventually become, it will still easily accommodate anticipated growth.”

Mr Barber concluded: “Having access to real time accurate data has been a massive bonus for us. It means we can effectively plan production to ramp up for peaks and put in contingency plans for staff holidays and sickness. The three solutions all working as one has transformed the HR side of Tuffa Tanks and has given us confidence to press the button on our expansion plans.”