Get Your Roster System Working for You Many pub owners find that whilst running multiple areas in their business has lent itself to better diversification of their business model and revenue stream, it also comes with its fair share of operational complexities. Especially when it comes to rosters and costings. Managing a workforce that is spread across multiple areas is tricky. Based on the headaches we’ve seen with the businesses we work with, there are five main pain points that publicans often share in relation to rostering staff: 1) Managing manual rosters and staff that cross over into multiple sections of the business (sometimes within the same shift) 2) The time-heavy task of communicating with employees about their respective shifts and tasks 3) Getting the award rates right for each area of the business 4) Getting an accurate view of how the actual staffing costs feed back into the P&L of the separate areas of your operation 5) Going through the whole process again if there is a last-minute roster change A lot of businesses use spreadsheets to create rosters which are communicated verbally or posted on a notice board for each employee and then use handwritten timesheets to record their time and attendance. These timesheets will then require further calculation to correctly interpret award rates for casual staff, creating administrative data entry to process and make payment of payroll. These processes generate risk of human error and can lack accountability in the integrity of the data provided. This creates a time consuming, inefficient process that can be frustrating for managers, their staff and payroll personnel. Sound familiar? This is a particular frustration that we’ve worked with a number of clients to solve through technology. With the evolution of cloud-based systems, there are a number of easy-to-use workforce management solutions that have been developed to address these problems that can greatly alleviate your time and head space in this area. Our Director of Cloud Solutions, Nick Grieve explains “Cloud-based rostering and time/attendance solutions help your operation to gain huge efficiencies in your rostering, timesheet, staff communication and payroll payment processes. One such system that we use is Deputy, which plugs into Xero. We’ve found that 12 | Hotel SA | W W W . A H A S A . A S N . A U
it’s an easy-to-use system and with the additional ability to provide Award interpretation, ensuring that staff are being correctly paid for their time.” LEVERAGING TECH FOR ROSTERING AND LAST-MINUTE ROSTER CHANGES Your business is set-up using your various rostering areas, such as the front bar, dining room or bottle shop. From there, you can then roster shifts across each of these areas. Rosters are completed in minutes and submitted online. Once the rosters are submitted in the system, it triggers a notification that is distributed instantly to each of your corresponding staff via the downloadable Deputy smartphone app as well as via email. Any updates to the roster are delivered in the same automatic, real-time fashion, keeping your staff up to date with the status of their shifts. In the event that a shift becomes available, appropriate staff can be sent notifications of the availability and can choose to accept the shift. Once accepted, the remaining employees will be notified the shift has been filled. BETTER CONTROLS ON ATTENDANCE, AWARD RATES AND REAL-TIME COSTING VISIBILITY Staff clock in and out of their shifts and breaks via a timeclock on a suitable tablet device (Apple or Android), their mobile smartphones or web browser. The award rates are then applied to the hours worked and await a manager’s final approval. Once approved, the timesheets are synced with the click of a button to your integrated payroll solution to provide payment to staff. Full time staff can submit their leave requests directly in the application for manager approval. These requests are also synced to your payroll software for payment once approved. COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR STAFF BETTER, FASTER When it comes to selecting the right technology for your business, you also want to consider how the features can support your wider needs. From a communications standpoint, we’ve seen a number of clients leverage a News Feed feature, making it the main communications hub between management and staff. The staff communications can range from sharing a new menu to a new staff policy or celebrating a team member milestone. With a robust News Feed feature, posts can also be sent directly to individual employees or to the staff as a whole. Back to Contents
