Civtec is a civil engineering and technical consulting firm whose engineers and surveyors spend the majority of their working time on infrastructure projects, utility sites, and construction sites across the United Kingdom. The nature of the work means that most of Civtec's staff are rarely at a desk, let alone in front of a computer. This reality made traditional, office-centred HR processes largely unworkable for a significant proportion of the workforce.
Before BambooHR, Civtec's field staff had a poor HR experience by comparison with office-based colleagues. Leave requests required a phone call or text message to a manager, timesheets were submitted on paper and collected weekly, and accessing pay information or personal HR records meant either visiting the office or waiting for someone to email the relevant document. Managers spent considerable time each week chasing and reconciling information that should have been straightforward.
The search for an HR system that could serve a field-based workforce led Civtec to BambooHR, specifically for its highly rated mobile application. The ability to give field engineers and surveyors a smartphone app through which they could submit leave requests, log their hours, and access company announcements was central to the selection decision. A system that required desktop access would have solved the problem for office staff without improving things for the majority.
The implementation involved configuring time tracking workflows that matched Civtec's project billing structure, ensuring that hours logged by field staff were coded correctly to the relevant projects and client accounts. Leave approval workflows were set up to route requests to the correct line manager regardless of where that manager was located, with mobile push notifications ensuring that requests were reviewed and approved promptly.
Adoption of the mobile app was swift. Within weeks of go-live, 85% of field-based staff were actively using BambooHR on their smartphones. Leave request processing times fell from several days to a matter of hours. Managers reported that they spent significantly less time on administrative HR tasks and more time on the technical and client-facing work that created value for the business.
Onboarding new engineers became faster and more consistent. Digital onboarding checklists, electronic document signing, and automated first-week task lists meant that new starters arrived on their first site placement already having completed their HR documentation, reviewed company policies, and confirmed their equipment requirements. The average time to complete the onboarding process fell to two working days.
