Ekovilla: real-time tracking that supports workplace safety as well as payroll
Ekovilla Oy uses the hours24 real-time view for more than payroll. On the night shift it is known at every moment who is on site and whether the shift has gone through safely.
- hours24 team
Ekovilla Oy makes ecological wood fibre insulation and has been in the business for more than 40 years. It is one of the largest producers of its kind in the Nordic countries. The factory runs in shifts, including a night shift, because the fibre process equipment runs continuously. When a work phase falls between midnight and four in the morning, it matters for safety to know whether someone is on site right now, whether the shift has gone through safely and whether it is possible to react quickly in an emergency.
Real time is a safety question, not just a payroll question
A classic timesheet system shows the data only afterwards. By the time the system confirms that a shift was staffed, the whole shift is over. Knowing who is in the factory right now was manual work: calling the shift supervisor, asking, checking.
In the fibre process the environment is dusty and the fire risk is real. If something happens on the night shift, the first question is always the same: who is in the factory now? Who is moving around the site? Has someone left without it showing anywhere? The answer has to come in seconds, not hours.
Workplace safety is not measured in spreadsheets but in moments. A system that says “an hour and a half ago everything was fine” is not the same as a system that says “there are four people in the factory now, all clocked in”.
Remote access makes following a shift natural
The hours24 real-time view shows at every moment who is clocked in, who is on a break and who has left. Remote access means a supervisor does not need to be at the factory to know how the shift is going. In the morning they can see the entries made during the night and whether the night shift ended as it should or something was left unfinished.
If the person in charge of the night shift does not answer messages at three in the morning, the supervisor can see on their own phone whether the employee is clocked in or out. Nobody has to be sent to the factory to check, because the answer is already in the view.
The same entry also serves working time records
The following is the general framework of Finnish law, not a description of Ekovilla's payroll process. Section 32 of the Working Time Act 872/2019 requires the employer to keep records of hours worked and of the compensation paid for them, and to provide the records on request to the occupational safety and health authority and to the employees' representative. The same act defines night work as work done between 23:00 and 06:00. When clock-in and clock-out are saved to the minute, night shift hours are separated from other working time at the moment of entry, not afterwards.
Tracking in a factory is not policing
It is natural for employees to ask first: why do you need to know where we are at any given time? Ekovilla's experience is that the answer is not “because we do not trust you” but “because we need to know if someone needs help”. A person working alone at night is always a risk factor. A system that shows who should be on site is part of managing that risk.
Section 29 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act 738/2002 requires the employer to arrange a means of communication and a way to call for help for people who work alone. Recording working time is not a requirement of that section and does not fulfil it on its own, but a real-time view helps answer the question of who should be on site.
With Hours you can follow working time in real time and get an overview of the people at work. Remote access and improved workplace safety are big pluses, because we can see whether the night shift has gone through all right.
What to take away from this story
Real-time data does not exist only for monitoring. In production, construction and logistics, anywhere people work where the supervisor is not, real-time information is part of the safety chain. hours24 brings that information to a phone screen when it is needed.
If your company works in shifts or runs a night shift, it is worth asking directly: do you know right now who is on site? If the answer is “I should know, but I do not”, that is not a software problem but a decision that has not been made yet.
Source: Occupational Safety and Health Act 738/2002, section 29 on working alone (Finlex, in Finnish)
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