The Eden Project is implementing an automated timekeeping system to improve operational efficiency and make staff planning and scheduling more accurate.

The Cornwall-based educational charity, which houses plants in two vast greenhouses, will go live with the Workforce Central suite from Kronos in June.

The system will manage 500 Eden staff who will indicate their presence using biometric badge terminals and their fingerprints.

A bespoke payroll interface will link data from the new system with the charity’s payroll system, while a customised interface will send employee data from Eden’s human resources system to the Kronos software. An employee self-service web page will allow staff to access their own data at kiosks.

‘The main business driver is the time it takes to deal with payroll,’ said project manager John Lees. ‘Under the old system it takes two people three days each week to manually input all the data from timesheets that are filled in by supervisors.’

By reducing manual processes and payroll queries, staff in the finance department will be able to work on more pressing tasks, says Lees.

‘Economising the time it takes to input data manually is the big driver, but it will help with things such as staff planning and will be combined with access controls,’ he said.

Lees says any resistance to staff using their fingerprints to clock-on has been overcome.

‘When we explained that it was not a question of fingerprints being used to share information or about Big Brother, but about using biometrics for system verification, they understood fully,’ he said.

Robots fly high at Eden Project

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