The workforce expansion can take place thanks to £3.1 million research and development (R&D) grant from Scottish Enterprise. This is part of a plan to develop new technologies at its Dundee R&D facility to allow businesses of all types to automate services across their enterprises.

 

Since the opening of the Dundee R&D centre last year, Cherwell has been working with local universities to develop a stronger recruiting pipeline for women into engineering.

 

Josh Turpen, chief product officer (global) at Cherwell, said: “It is an honour to have received this support from Scottish Enterprise which has enabled us to continue our expansion in Scotland and in the Dundee area in particular.

 

"As our growth accelerates globally, our Dundee R&D centre has proven itself to be a boon for our engineering efforts with highly skilled talent available from a thriving tech hub.”

 

Scotland’s Minister for Parliamentary Business Graeme Dey, on a visit to the Dundee base meeting Cherwell’s leaders, said: “I am delighted that this £3.1 million Scottish Enterprise grant will result in 40 jobs in Dundee, a city which is fast becoming one of Scotland’s leading technology hubs.

 

"Cherwell’s decision to invest £8.9 million into their operations in Scotland is also testament to the highly skilled and talented workforce we have and our reputation as an innovative nation.”

 

Neil Francis, director of Trade and Investment at Scottish Enterprise, said: “We’re thrilled that Cherwell has taken the decision to expand its operations in Scotland.

 

"This is an exciting opportunity for Dundee and the surrounding area to harness high value jobs and enhance the regions reputation for computer science. We look forward to continuing to work with the team at Cherwell to deliver its growth ambitions.”

 

Source: Insider Media Scotland

 

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A major increase in staff numbers, such as Cherwell is planning, can cause unforeseen problems for staff performing HR, admin and accounts job roles if the company’s method of recording time worked has not been updated. 

 

For example, it is very easy for staff to fill in paper timesheets incorrectly. Sometimes this can be deliberate time fraud, but sometimes it is just new staff getting confused, or people forgetting to fill in their timesheets until a week later, by which time they’ve forgotten their exact shift details and are likely to just fudge it. 

 

Even if the details are all correct, most paper timesheets must then be manually transferred to a database (usually an Excel spreadsheet) before being sent to payroll software. 

 

There are many opportunities for human error to kick in during this time-consuming process – e.g. making an unrecognised typo in entering, or misreading employee’s handwriting (1 or 7? O or 0 or D?).

 

Incorrect data can also foul up HR tasks too, making it much more difficult to spot issues like adherence to the Working Time Directive or someone taking three 30 minute breaks plus lunch.

 

At Time and Attendance Scotland, we offer specialised attendance management software which can work either with smartcards or with biometrics. 

Our smartcards are about the size of a credit card and fit nicely into most wallets. The Radio Frequency technology means that you don’t need to physically swipe the cards, just hold them up near the reader terminal. This reduces wear and tear.

 

For the ultimate deterrent against time theft, we can provide a hand scanner and/or a fingerprint reader. Smartcards can be lost, or swapped with colleagues to input fake times. This isn’t the case with hands and fingers!