Insurer Admiral, which has a base in Newport city centre, has undertaken a digital transformation of its HR and payroll function in collaboration with industry experts MHR.

The move is designed to streamline the process and improve the work experience of its employees.

Admiral’s investment in MHR’s market leading iTrent solution is part of an ongoing commitment to establish a strong people-focused culture, centred on creating a great place to work for its employees that is rewarding, enjoyable and empowering.

Its commitment to its people was recognised earlier this year with the organisation voted Best Big Company to Work for 2019 in the Sunday Times annual list due to the happy, engaged and empowered workforce it has nurtured.

Phil Thomas, assistant payroll and benefits manager, said: "Our ethos is that people who enjoy what they do, do it better. We’re extremely proud to be recognised as a great employer to work for and firmly believe following positive feedback from employees that iTrent has contributed to this achievement.”

The transition to iTrent has seen Admiral embrace new digital methods to deliver a more efficient people and payroll process for its 7,200 employees based at its South Wales offices in Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.

Almost 1,000 work at Admiral House, in Queensway, Newport.

The whole process was laborious and time-consuming for all concerned but especially for Admiral’s people managers who had to rely on the HR and payroll team to provide reports and information about their own staff.

Automating the entire process using iTrent means the payroll process can be completed much quicker than before with greater accuracy, freeing up Admiral’s payroll team to focus on more valuable tasks.

Stacy Standen, payroll and benefits analyst at Admiral, said: “The limitations of our previous system meant our payroll team were essentially just a data entry team who produced payslips once a month. Our team is highly skilled and have undertaken formal training to become payroll professionals, but were unable to utilise those skills because they spent their entire time inputting data.

“Automating many tasks which were previously done manually has improved the accuracy of the payroll process and eased the administration strain facing our payroll team so they can now spend more time delivering an excellent payroll service and advice to our people managers and employees."

Phil Thomas said: “Empowering our employees through self-service has increased the amount of personal data we hold, while managers now have real-time access to detailed information at their fingertips so they no longer need to make frequent requests to HR and payroll.

“Feedback from our employees has been overwhelmingly positive. They like the fact that iTrent is easy to use and fits seamlessly with their working day.”