Thales designs and manufactures cutting-edge electronic telecommunication equipment and solutions for the defence, aerospace, security and land-transport sectors. The group is one of the world leaders in its field.

Imagine getting all Thales France employees to use the same time and task management tool. That’s just what the group’s HR department decided to do in 2018. What made the challenge even more ambitious was that 25 different TTM solutions co-existed in the various French entities! In the past, group companies and establishments were free to choose by themselves which time-management software they would use.

But over the years, some of these solutions became technologically obsolete and showed their limits. The considerable maintenance budget this involved was a particular issue. Stacking on new versions and keeping up the old ones came at a considerable cost which took its toll.

And from a functional viewpoint, some of the tools no longer complied with the regulatory agreements particular to certain plants. Getting a single interface would furthermore be the ideal occasion to harmonise HR management methods and practices.

To support them in this challenge, Thales France chose Inetum and Chronotime Workplace. The partnership took a collaborative shape with preliminary study, specification and project-building phases.

The first step was to start rolling out Chronotime Workplace at the end of 2018 for 7,000 staff members. This first adoption phase gave an opportunity to assess the solution’s flexibility and adaptability.

Employees now have various ways to record work hours – “physical badging”, directly on their workstation, or self-reporting. All of these are automatically transferred to the payroll system.

But Chronotime can also be customised to address two particular aspects at Thales: overall rules that apply throughout the group, and specific agreements at certain establishments with special regulations.

Roll-out in successive waves until 2021