How one manager keeps HR “hot” for 200+ people at Coopers Fire

Meet Kelly Francis – AKA the entire HR department at Coopers Fire. 

You see, when the strategic HR lead unexpectedly left the company, Kelly was the lady left in charge of HR for a 205-strong workforce spanning factory, field, and office roles – many without laptops, or even company email addresses. This meant that not only did Kelly find herself with a sudden lack of strategic direction, but she was also now solely responsible for managing onboarding, contracts, time and attendance, and all the other day-to-day HR admin.

Unsure of when her department would manage to fill the gaping hole left by her former colleague, Kelly took matters into her own hands and set about on a journey to replace her legacy HR system, hoping she would be able to leverage modern technology to solve some of her most pressing HR problems.

Legacy HR systems were clogging Kelly’s daily task list with unnecessary manual tasks

Before finding Sense, Coopers Fire ran on a legacy HR platform that created unnecessary admin. Which served them OK when they were a team of two… but certain manual tasks were now seriously eating into Kelly’s day. 

“I was probably doing 25 password resets a week” says Kelly. “For some reason, our HR system didn’t let employees reset their own passwords – I had to manually action each one. It was a massive waste of time!”

Onboarding was equally heavy. With multiple worker types – including remote field teams, construction crews without email, production staff with specific shifts and rates – every contract and offer letter had to be tailored by hand.

Kelly knew she needed a system that was intuitive, self-serve, and adaptable enough to reflect the nuances of how Coopers Fire works, without turning HR into a bottleneck.

“Sense Workplace is so customisable – all those weird custom processes we have can be automated in minutes!”

After a year of careful research, Kelly chose Sense Workplace for its blend of usability and depth. 

“I looked at so many HR systems” she explains. “I was terrified of ending up with something that added to the chaos… but after a very detailed investigation, I decided that Sense Workplace was the only modern choice that would do what I needed. It is so customisable! All those weird custom processes we have are just easy – they can be automated in minutes.”

Merge tags and flexible workflows meant documents could assemble themselves from trusted data; the Sense Clock would provide reliable, site-based time capture on the factory floor; and everything would be manageable by one person.

Fast and friendly implementation

Coopers Fire went live with Sense Workplace in July 2025, deploying the HR platform alongside the Sense Clock for their factory teams. 

The support and implementation team helped her to load her data and configure her permissions. Kelly was grateful for the fast, responsive and friendly UK-based support. She then configured policies herself – like carry-over leave for the new year – using the various customisation features. And once done, she rolled out the self-service functionality for her workforce, so they could log in, book holidays, submit expense claims, check personal details, download contracts, and more.

But although all of this was great for Kelly, it was perhaps the Sense Clock that had the most immediate impact. 

Fair timekeeping, without “Big Brother”

Like many manufacturers, Coopers Fire had seen inconsistencies creep into time tracking on a previous system. For example, a small handful of people were starting their shift on their phone before arriving on site.

Sense helped reset expectations around fairness and consistency by distinguishing between clock and app entries, and encouraging clock-based punch-ins for factory teams.

“The goal wasn’t surveillance,” kelly says. “We are all adults, we don’t want to go “big brother” on everybody, and we don’t actually need to know where everybody is during every minute of every day. But we did want to verify that people were actually clocking in from their correct work location!”

Kelly told us that she wanted a system that was accurate and fair for everyone. And by making the right thing the easy thing, Sense Workplace helped Coopers Fire to reduce timesheet disputes, increase confidence in attendance data, and protect the majority who already played by the rules.

Onboarding is 90% faster – and far smoother for new starters

The impact of implementing Sense Workplace has had a whole range of positive outcomes for Kelly and her organisation. 

Staff prefer the simplicity of self-serve – especially when it comes to basic tasks like password resets or holiday requests. And the payroll department has enjoyed the peace and quiet of fewer disputes and inconsistencies to investigate.

But perhaps one of the biggest measurable results, is the difference in time it now takes Kelly to on-board new starters. 

“It used to take me up to an hour to prepare a new contract and send out an offer” Kelly tells us. “With Sense, it takes me less than 5 minutes. I ask the virtual assistant Ami to help me customise each contract, and then I use the merge tags to personalise them with actual data from the employee record.”

Kelly adds that there are fewer typos and errors in documents this way, too – making on-boarding a more pleasant experience for the new starters themselves.

What’s next for Coopers Fire?

Kelly is no longer looking to expand her HR team – at least, not for the time being.

“Managing a team of 205 people should be impossible on my own” she muses. “But using Sense Workplace means I can get the basic bits done, and still have headspace to improve my processes and think strategically. I’m actually quite enjoying being a team of one for the time being!”

Instead, Kelly is preparing to tighten even more of her manual processes, starting by integrating Sage Payroll into Sense Workplace, so that the payroll department can enjoy the same rapid clarity of data that she now enjoys in HR.

Would you benefit from less HR admin and more accurate timekeeping? Book a call with a friendly expert today

About Coopers Fire

For over 30 years, Coopers Fire has led the way in developing industry-leading fire and smoke curtain technology that helps safeguard life and property across the globe. Every Coopers product – from fire curtains to their key components – is designed, manufactured, and tested in the UK to the highest international standards, including ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001.

Working closely with architects, engineers, and fire safety professionals, Coopers Fire continues to set the benchmark for innovation, quality, and compliance. Their independently certified solutions are trusted by regulators and design experts worldwide to meet stringent fire regulations while enabling the open, modern spaces of contemporary architecture.

To learn more, visit www.coopersfire.com.