Attendance Exceptions Confirmed the Same Day, Leave Approval Cut from About 3 Days to Half a Day

A mid-sized company with several departments had employees working in very different settings, including offices, warehouses, production and delivery.

As headcount grew, HR management became a significant cross-departmental issue.

Employee records were kept in Excel, the attendance system ran on its own, leave requests were submitted through instant messaging, and department heads reported performance to management in no fixed format.

The company could handle day-to-day payroll and HR administration, but struggled to answer promptly how attendance actually looked in a given department, whether staffing was appropriate, and whether departmental management issues had been resolved.

The challenge

No unified management of employee data

Different departments each kept their own records of employees' roles, contact details, contracts and onboarding information.

After a personnel change, multiple records might not be updated consistently.

Attendance exceptions were spotted late

Late arrivals, early departures, absences and overtime were mainly compiled at the end of the month.

Supervisors could not catch and verify exceptions in time.

Leave and scheduling were not linked

Once leave was approved, it was not reflected in departmental rosters or work assignments, which could easily leave positions understaffed.

Performance reviews lacked ongoing management

Department heads submitted performance summaries at different frequencies and to different standards.

Management found it hard to compare how departments were tracking against their goals, or to follow up on whether previously identified issues had improved.

SHEPHARD's digital solution

Step 1: Establish unified employee master data

Each employee has a complete record covering role, department, supervisor, contract, work schedule and employment status.

Tiered permissions restrict access to sensitive HR information.

Step 2: Connect attendance data

Where lawful and appropriate, attendance devices or the existing attendance system are connected to the HRIS.

Based on the working-time rules that apply to each employee, the system flags exceptions that need review.

Original clock-in records and manual adjustments are both retained, so attendance processing remains traceable.

Step 3: Standardize leave and approvals

We set up a process for leave requests, approvals, leave balances and record keeping.

Approved leave is linked to rosters and staffing arrangements.

Step 4: Establish departmental performance management

Business metrics are defined according to each department's function.

For example, sales focuses on orders and collections, the warehouse on inventory accuracy and fulfilment efficiency, production on plan attainment and quality, and customer service on response times and issue resolution.

The performance framework combines quantitative metrics with qualitative assessments, and sets out review cycles, owners and a review mechanism.

Step 5: Track departmental issues

Department heads regularly report key results, staffing issues and matters that need management coordination.

The system turns these issues into management tasks with an owner, a deadline and a status.

Management can see whether issues persist over time, rather than just reading one-off reports.

Implementation roadmap

We first cleaned up employee data and configured the organizational structure, then introduced attendance, leave and departmental performance step by step.

In a European operating environment, the legal basis, access rights and retention rules for processing employees' personal data must be defined in line with applicable labour law, collective agreements and GDPR requirements.

Business value

HR spends less time repeatedly collecting and compiling information, and department heads get more timely people-management information.

Management can connect attendance, role assignments, departmental performance and improvement actions.

Project results (approximate): leave approval time 3 days → half a day; attendance exception confirmation month-end → same day; employee record completeness about 98%.

Metrics tracked on an ongoing basis: attendance exception confirmation cycle, leave approval time, employee record completeness, timeliness of departmental performance submissions, management issue closure rate.

What this case teaches us

HR digitalization is not just about entering employee records into ERP.

The real management value lies in helping the company understand the relationship between staffing, organizational efficiency and departmental performance, while protecting employees' rights and data privacy.

*To protect client confidentiality, company details in this case study have been anonymized, interface screenshots are illustrative, and results are rounded approximations.*