Countrywide success story

Countrywide is the UK’s largest property services business: whether you need to buy or sell a property, apply for a mortgage, let or convey a property, it’s all possible through the company’s network of experts. The company employs around 9,000 employees and has around 850 estate agent and letting offices across the country, including household names such as Bairstow Eves, Gascoigne-Pees, Hamptons and Taylors.

“There is so much that Ciphr can offer: I know that with Ciphr Connect we could bring a lot of our systems ‘under one roof’ and make them talk to each other. I’m looking forward to how we can explore those possibilities more in the future together. I’d definitely recommend Ciphr to any HR department.”

What they say

Any time you roll out a change like this it’s a big challenge

Introducing self-service has had a significant impact on HR, too

The feedback from our analytics team is always that’s Ciphr’s simple to use

The advantage of using managed service for us was the expertise of the Ciphr team

Managed service is a ‘must’ if you are a large organisation; I’d definitely recommend it

“We began to introduce employee self-service in 2017 for things such as overtime, absence, holiday and updating personal information. Some businesses have had this sort of setup for years, but it was a huge change for us: with 9,000 employees, any time you roll out a change like this it’s a big challenge.”

“Introducing self-service has had a significant impact on HR, too. For example, we were processing more than 1,000 overtime sheets a month, but now we don’t need to do that; the manager or employee inputs it into Ciphr, and automatic notifications ensure that it’s verified by the appropriate person.”

“The feedback from our analytics team is always that’s Ciphr’s simple to use, and creating the various subsets is straightforward. The automated report creation function is a really useful and quite efficient way of making our roles more streamlined. It boosts HR’s credibility and reputation, too: if I’m in a meeting and someone asks for some data, I can just say: ‘yes, we can do that for you no problem.’ The wider business loves it.”

“Managed service really changed how we work and the service that we can provide to the business. We just don’t have the internal resources to be able to make lots of bulk changes in Ciphr. So we had two options: either to grow the size of the HR team, or to opt for managed service. The advantage of using managed service for us was the expertise of the Ciphr team; they are so knowledgeable, we see them as an extension of our HR team.”

“Managed service is a ‘must’ if you are a large organisation; I’d definitely recommend it.There’s a very good level of support from knowledgeable people. We have a weekly call with the Ciphr managed service team and my leadership team, as well as a quarterly on-site review meeting to discuss where we’re at and anything new, which keeps the lines of communication open.”

Find out more

To discuss how Ciphr could help your organisation, call 01628 814242.
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