Quote Detective, a Gwent-based phone-based insurance broker, has outgrown their current offices and moved into a temporary location in preparation for a full move in 2019. 

 

The workforce is currently divided, with about 25 people in customer service and administration moved into the new office and 55 sales, renewals and management staff remaining in the original office.

 

The company is planning to increase its employee numbers to 100 by the end of next year. They originally moved into in their old office with just 12 staff. Their planned 2019 office will have enough space for 150 employees, so there will be room for further growth. 

 

Johnsey Estate chief executive James Crawford said: "We have seen Quote Detective grow ever since they moved into their first office space at Mamhilad Park Estate. We have been with them every step of the way ensuring that they are happy and have what they need.

 

"The business arrived at Mamhilad Park Estate relatively small having outgrown its previous base. They have grown as they expected since arriving here and we have been happy to accommodate that growth. Quote Detetctive are now ready for a more permanent location where they have taken a five year lease to consolidate their business and also to provide space into which to grow in a central location.”

 

Quote Detective chief executive David Harlow added: "We’re very pleased with how we have been able to move into the new office space as an interim measure ahead of a permanent move for the entire team to new premises which are being created to our own specification and design in another building at Mamhilad Park Estate.

 

"Johnsey Estates have bent over backwards to accommodate our requirements. When we first moved in Mamhilad Park Estate we had just 12 people and as we have grown and have taken on additional staff so our needs have been accommodated by the landlord. We’ve built up an understanding with Johnsey Estates over the time we’ve been here; they know where we’re going in terms of the business and what we want and consistently deliver on our requirements.

 

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When a company has experienced as much growth as Quote Detective has, it is tempting to assume that it is doing everything right.

This is not always the case. Often, the “backroom” employees of the company, such as administration and finance, struggle to keep themselves afloat in the sea of new staff members and associated tasks. 

 

For example, if you use paper timesheets to manage your employee attendance then you are putting an unnecessary strain on the staff who have to process these. This includes managers and supervisors who may have to approve or even sign every single timesheet, and the staff who have to transfer the timesheet information onto the payroll program. Generally, this means laboriously typing out the numbers from the sheets into an Excel spreadsheet, then putting that data into the payroll software. 

 

As you can no doubt see, paper timesheets are a massive drain on time which your hardworking employees could better spend elsewhere. Adding more staff to the roster without addressing this black hole of time is going to push the system to breaking point. 

 

Our time and attendance system takes all the human effort out of the procedure. Employees just need to clock in at our clocking terminals using their contactless smartcard or their fingerprint/hand shape. This clocking data is automatically recorded and sent to the central system, where managers can easily access and check it online if necessary. When the time comes to run the payroll, all the person needs to do is select the option to export the clocking data. The exporting format is suitable for all major payroll systems. 

 

You may not even have any existing method of measuring attendance. We see this a lot in office-based industries, where businesses think that attendance systems are really only useful for waged hourly workers. Nothing could be further from the case. Yes, you might not need to know exactly when your employees leave and arrive, but the attendance data might help you to see patterns in lateness or sickness absences that you wouldn’t otherwise notice. 

 

Our software also does much more than just collect clocking data. For example, HR staff can use it for absence management since the software has a built-in Bradford Index calculator, absence reason codes, and customisable alerts. The software also warns if your employees are at risk of breaching the rules set down by the European Working Time Directive. You can receive alerts about manning levels, assign bonuses to employees, and combine the software with printers to get an accurate, immediate fire roll call list.