Digitising seasonal HR, time tracking and payroll for a busy theme park

Many staff are employed on either short-term or zero-hours contracts, and may work across departments, roles, or cost centres. Some may sign in early for guest welcome, early play, or car park duty, while others will leave late due to extended opening or operational needs. Staff can also leave and return in later seasons, with new payroll IDs and contracts.

Staff needed to sign in and out, confirm whether they took lunch breaks, book time off, and see if that time off request had been approved. Additionally, with seasonal workers often not having access to laptops, this system also had to work on mobile.

Team leads needed to see who was on site, who had booked time off, whether timesheet adjustments were needed for payroll, and even if someone had forgotten to sign out.

For the payroll team, the biggest requirement was accuracy. Before the system, weekly payroll data was prepared using multiple spreadsheets. This was put into CSV format, then imported into separate payroll software. The process was slow and error-prone.

• Digitise seasonal staff signing in and out
• Work on tablets, with a simple UI
• Support secure mobile access with two-factor authentication
• Continue collecting key time data if WiFi dropped
• Capture early starts and late finishes
• Give team leads visibility of staff attendance
• Export approved timesheets for payroll
• Let staff request and manage leave
• Support recruitment workflows and processes
• Manage vacancies, applications, and interviews
• Improve visibility across all departments

In essence, Paultons Park needed more than just a generic HR tool; it needed a platform which reflected the complexities of a busy seasonal visitor attraction.

First Option delivered a suite of digital HR and workforce tools for Paultons, managing time tracking, timesheet approval, payroll export, time off, and recruitment.

The system was built around its everyday operations. Staff can clock in and out with a clear, easy-to-use tablet application. Team leads can review and approve timesheets in an instant. Payroll can export the approved data. Employees can request time off through a simple interface. HR can manage job ads, applications, and interviews.

Rather than just replacing paper with screens, the platform helps replace fragile, error–prone handoffs, reduces manual checking, and gives every team and team member a better view of the information they actually need.

With the new tablet app, staff enter a unique PIN, confirm their identity, select sign-in and sign-out times, confirm whether they took a lunch break, and give reasons for signing in early or late, if necessary.

The UI is simple and touchscreen-friendly, and built for busy shift changes. It has easy options for time selection, with confirmations and warning states. It also keeps working, even if there’s a WiFi outage, by storing data locally, and syncing when the system is back online.

The system allows team leads to view sign-ins, search by name or team, sign staff in or out for them, review timesheets, and approve necessary records for the payroll department.

It also flags issues such as early sign-ins or late sign-outs, missing sign-outs, duplicate sign-ins, and any lunch break irregularities. With an intuitive user flow, team leads can focus on what needs checking without having to manually sift through information.

Every adjustment is also recorded with an audit trail, including original values and the team lead who made the change.

First Option built payroll exports using approved seasonal staff time data, including payroll week, employee ID, wage type, and calculated working time.

The system also stops payroll export if timesheets have not been approved for a set period, preventing incomplete data reaching the payroll team.

With time off moved online, staff can now access a secure web portal, wherever they are, and view their accrued holiday, submit and check time off requests, and cancel existing requests. The portal is web-based and mobile-optimised, with two-factor authentication for secure access. It also prevents staff from signing in during approved time off, reducing errors and providing managers with a more accurate view.

Managers can then approve or decline requests, with a clear view of who’s available for the associated department.

HR can now create and manage job vacancies and applications, shortlist preferred candidates, offer and assign interview slots, and view all application history within the platform, before submitting successful candidates for onboarding with CIPHR.

For the candidates themselves, the process is intuitive, usable, and even branded, making it a consistent process which strengthens the Paultons Park brand. They can view vacancies, apply, sign up for job notifications, choose interview times via email or SMS links, and then view offer information.

With well-designed dashboards and interfaces, HR, payroll and team leads now have clear visibility across the entire workforce.

Dashboards and reports show which staff are signed in and working today, staff with time off booked, and who is currently signed in by department. This vital information makes it much simpler for managers to plan ahead, rather than having to react last minute.