Carter Retail records 90% time savings with Equator software

Britain’s leading manufacturer of refrigeration products Carter Retail Equipment Ltd has significantly reduced the time it spends on Human Resource duties by a staggering 90%, after implementing an Equator payroll solution from software solution provider K3.

The Birmingham-based company has been utilising the advanced Human Resource Solution encompassing Payroll, Time and Attendance and Personnel Management modules for the past five years, and completely streamlined its HR processes as a result..

Carter Retail is widely regarded as one of the country’s most substantial and respected privately-owned engineering groups, and since its establishment in 1945, it has been providing a versatile and flexible range of display cabinets to retailers.

Its designs incorporate an appraisal of the latest technology, especially in terms of life cycle costing, through the use of energy-efficient methods.

And, in 2012, Carter Retail was awarded ‘International Achievement of the Year’ at the 2012 RAC Cooling Industry Awards for its Water Cooled Hydrocarbon Refrigeration Solution with Tesco for its environmentally-friendly units.

Today, the business employs 190 people and continues to grow despite the recessionary years. Key to this growth has been the role that Equator has played in allowing it to manage its staff files so that management can focus on other projects and thus improve the productivity of the business.

Kirstie Northall, HR Officer at Carter Retail, explains that in the last few years the company has saved considerable time in performing Human Resource tasks with the help of Equator

“I have been working here for the last nine years, and ever since the company purchased the modules from Equator five years ago, I have been amazed at the amount of time we have saved performing personnel jobs,” she said.

“I remember when we used to have paper-based files, and it was always a lot more difficult to maintain our employees’ details and documents, but since our investment in Equator and the Personnel, Time and Attendance and Payroll modules, I have seen HR tasks that used to take ten minutes to complete now take just one minute to finish.”

These time saving efficiencies are made possible thanks to the way that Equator stores details of staff movements and generates reports on staff members for management review meetings. With automated payroll operations and functionality that allows data to be captured electronically using devices including barcode, proximity tag and biometric readers available,

Equator has quickly become a vital every day tool for Carter Retail.

Not only does the solution allow employees to post requests for holidays, absence and overtime and to monitor the progress of such requests through to approval, but it also has historic payroll data checked to ensure it meets the requirement of the HMRC Payroll Standard. Equator is continually developed to reflect the latest statutory changes as they are introduced and the payroll module is fully tested under the HM Revenue and Customs recognition scheme, allowing electronic data transfer by the Internet.

Kirstie adds: “Before we invested in Equator and its additional modules we did not have a single-source database to locate staff records.

“This meant that it was very time-consuming sifting through loads of paper documents to find what was needed, But now we have a database where all the documents are linked, which allows us to gather all the information we need in a much faster period of time.

“Our management team benefit from Equator most of all. They used to request information about  employees from the HR team, and we would supply them with what they needed – but this could take quite a while as we had to manually generate all the information required.Now, any information they need - whether it is about training, education, skills, certificates, disciplinary matters or grievances – is available at their fingertips from Equator.

“Management have been really pleased by how efficient Equator is and it allows them to get on with their other projects more quickly, which has really helped our period of recent growth.”

Kirstie explains that Carter Retail has experienced no problems with the operation of Equator in the last five years, and that K3 is always available to provide assistance if required.

“We have an excellent relationship with K3, which was key to our initial investment in Equator because we knew we would be aiming to get the very best use out of it at all times,” she says.

“The modules have been really well received in the company, and the most impressive thing about them is how much speedier it has made completing our HR duties than ever before. It gives us much better control and provides access to fundamental staff data instantly.

“Because we have been able to get staff details so much quicker, the HR team have managed to focus on other important areas of the business. Just recently we have compiled a handbook for our staff, with policies and procedures, and we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do this if we hadn’t been able to utilise Equator.”

Fundamentally, Kirstie concludes: “Equator just allows Carter Retail to manage its staff better,” and that is its main benefit for us. It has really been instrumental in our recent growth and I’m sure it will remain the key to unlocking further future growth for us.”

-ENDS-

About Equator

Equator from K3 provides companies across a diverse range of industries with a fully integrated human resources software solution encompassing Payroll, Time and Attendance, Access Control,  Shop floor Data Collection and Personnel Management. 

Equator is available as discrete modules or as a fully integrated suite of software.  It can integrate with most desktop, ERP and back office systems and has  comprehensive functionality which is enhanced further by its native ability to capture data electronically, in real time, using devices barcodes, proximity tags, biometric readers and touch screen technology, including iPhones and android devices

 K3 have been designing, developing and implementing its Equator human resource solution since 1981 and the unrivalled functionality is matched by K3’s product support and on-going development.  Tens of thousands of employees use Equator 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and it is available as an on premise, Cloud, SaaS or bureaux service.

For further information, please contact:-

Editorial – Kelly Fleming, Marketing Executive, K3 on 0161 876 4498, or

John Edden, Bridge PR & Media Services on 024 76 520025, or e-mail john@bridgepr.co.uk.