Breathe's HR management software key to a business transformation at AVK Dental Care Limited
Established by Dr. Vikram Kavi in 2013 AVK Dental Care Limited is a group of state-of-the-art, multi-disciplinary dental health centres based in Aberdeen City and Shire. AVK Dental Care Limited has the most technically advanced practices in North-East Scotland, offering patients unrivalled high-tech dental expertise and care.
In addition to its centres in Aberdeen, AVK Dental Care Limited also has its very own dental laboratory. The company employs 70 people; a mixture of full and part-time employees who between them are managed by six practice managers.
Day to day, AVK Dental Care Limited is managed by Emma Brewer who has spent nine years with Dr Kavi. She is responsible for HR alongside other areas of the business and reports directly to Dr. Kavi.
Time consuming manual HR management
Traditionally, all HR and people-related administration is managed using a mixture of spreadsheet and paper files and documents. This would take Emma and the six practice managers between 30 minutes and 3 hours per day, depending on what aspect of HR management they needed to focus on.
Calculating holiday entitlements, managing annual leave requests and bookings, sickness-related absences and keeping track of team members’ working hours were all particularly time-consuming.
All paperwork needed to be stored in filing cabinets and documents such as company policies, procedures and updates were either sent to employees in the post or emailed to them. This was time-consuming and sometimes, employees overlooked documents provided to them. Emma and the practice managers had no visibility of whether an employee had read a document or not.
An opportunity for business transformation
In 2020 – and at the height of the pandemic – many employees were placed on furlough, however, Emma was not one of them. She continued to work and used the opportunity to plan and implement a series of initiatives designed to transform the business by improving efficiencies and reducing costs.
For the last five years, Emma has been supported by Dianne Stewart, director of It’s a People Business (IPB). Dianne has more than 18 years’ experience as an HR professional and is a Chartered member of the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development).
Having heard Emma’s plans to change the way HR was managed in the business, Dianne suggested using Breathe’s online HR management software to automate this complex aspect of administration, centralising their files in one place so they're easily accessible to Emma and the management team.
Dianne is a member of Breathe’s 600 strong partner network of HR consultants who recommend our software to their SME clients.
Breathe's online management solution
Breathe is a cloud-based system which is provided on a Software as a Service (SaaS) basis. The application and user data are stored securely in Amazon Webs Service’s data centre facilities which are ISO 27001 certified.
This certification recognises the high level of data security provided by AWS. In many cases their facilities are far more secure than if software and data is hosted on many small businesses’ own in-house-servers. All data stored in Breathe is also compliant with GDPR best practice.
More than 9,000 UK businesses use Breathe to manage HR quickly and easily. Key features include:
- Holiday management
- Sickness & absence tracking
- Document storage
- Performance monitoring
- Training management
- Expense management
- Rota scheduling
- Time & Attendance
- Applicant tracking
- HR reporting
- Water-tight data storage
Breathe's online management solution
Having initially followed Dianne’s recommendation of taking a free trial of Breathe, Emma very quickly realised that the software had everything she needed to revolutionise AVK Dental’s HR management. Emma says:
“First of all, we needed to upload all company documents and employee information into Breathe but once done, the time savings were immediate- it was amazing. I had all HR information at my fingertips stored in a single system, and if I needed to find a document or employee record this could be done in seconds.
“Our practice managers can access information about their team members and as a senior manager I have global access privileges which allow me to see all data, company-wide.
I love the fact that I can now tell if someone has accessed and read an important document, which has been especially useful during the Covid-19 pandemic with a greater need to communicate with people, many of whom were on furlough throughout the crisis".
Emma Brewer, HR Lead
Breathe was updated during the pandemic with new features designed to help managers support team members during the crisis. Alongside the means of recording who was on furlough, there was also functionality for recording who has been vaccinated alongside sickness absence tracking.
Breathe’s reporting functionality enabled managers to monitor absences closely and identify any patterns that required further examination.
“I also love the fact that everyone in the company can access Breathe, but access to what they can say and do can be restricted depending on their role and area of responsibility.
If someone moves house or changes bank account, they can update the system themselves and then share this information instantly with our financial management team. It's absolutely effortless".
Emma Brewer, HR Lead
Significant time saving - over a month a year
Having used Breathe for several months, Emma decided to try Breathe’s new Rota, Time and Attendance (RTA) application.
This automates rota management, one of the most notoriously complex and time-consuming areas of HR administration but which is central to a business’ operations and ability to avoid over and understaffing, especially at peak times. She comments:
“One of the great things about Breathe HR and Rota is that people can access the systems from their phones and from wherever they can access the internet. Everyone has a phone, and instant access to Breathe's applications has completely streamlined our communications.
The system enables us to manage people in all locations and if we need to make any changes to a rota, these can be communicated to people instantly".
Emma Brewer, HR Lead
Emma says that the time savings achieved by automating rota management are cumalatively now saving the company 24 hours per month, freeing up managers to focus on other areas of the business. This equates to 36 working days or over a month per year.
Timekeeping and keeping people safe
During the pandemic, the team at AVK Dental were unable to use their biometric fingerprint scanners to sign in and out of each practice as these could potentially increase the chance of contamination and infection. Instead, the company used Breathe RTA’s timeclock to record employee start and finish times.
“This really helped us stay on top of hours worked across the business and because the system can be accessed anywhere, it was great for keeping track of anyone who was working from home.
By eliminating our reliance on fingerprint scanners, we were able to comply with the strict hygiene regains we implemented at the beginning of the pandemic".
Emma Brewer, HR Lead
A bright future
With Breathe HR and RTA both firmly established in AVK Dental and all employees and managers using the systems confidently and fluently, Emma is looking forward to a bright future. As AVK Dental grows and takes on more employees, new starters will be using the system from day one.
The ease with which they can access all company documents will help to facilitate their induction so they can become positive, effective team members who make a valuable contribution.
“Everyone in the company is happy with Breathe. Team members love using the software and find it easy to use. Our practice managers are spending less time on HR yet are more efficient with a greater visibility of their team members and what they are doing.
The time we have saved by using the system is significant and these translate into cost savings. As a result, Breathe is helping us to increase efficiency and productivity while contributing to our bottom line".
Emma Brewer, HR Lead
It's great to see our HR and rota management software working so well for AVK Dental Care Limited. To find out more about becoming a Breathe Partner yourself and the various benefits for your clients, download our brochure. Or, contact our helpful team today.
