Rashay’s Pizza Pasta Grill utilizes Deputy for a more efficient business

Delicious food with a modern twist, a convivial, family-friendly atmosphere and service staff with friendly smiles are all at the heart of the dining experience you’ll find at Rashay’s Pizza Pasta Grill. It’s also key to the casual dining restaurant’s success.

Rashay’s Pizza Pasta Grill is an Australian owned casual dining restaurant franchise business. Since 1998, the restaurant chain has become a popular choice for celebrations and joyous outings for the whole family. Rashay’s prides itself on offering a menu of exceptional value and exceptional quality.

With headquarters in Smeaton Grange, the business has nine restaurants dotted about the southwestern suburbs of Sydney. Together with its central kitchen facility and warehouse operations, Rashay’s employs approximately 600 people.

As the business began to expand, the executive team at Rashay’s knew that they had to find a way to streamline and automate this time-consuming management process. So, the executive team evaluated a number of time and attendance management systems and opted to use Deputy. “I have seen Deputy in action at a former workplace”, says Ford. “None of the other systems that we looked at stood up to Deputy.”

For Rashay’s Franchise Business Manager, Brendon Ford, running a successful casual dining restaurant isn’t just about the fabulous food. “Of course our menu is important and it has to be innovative and keep up with consumers’ changing tastes, but our service staff has to go that extra mile, every time.

“For our employees to shine, we need to ensure that we look after them on the operations side of the business. And this means top class training, efficient scheduling, and clear communication. It also means paying our employees the right amount at the right time, every time.”

“When we operated just one or two restaurants, this was all done manually. Managers would record the start and finish times of their staff on paper and fax the details to our head office. There, our admin people had to contend with hard to read scribbles, and poor handwriting, and manually enter the data into our systems which would feed the payroll.” It was a cumbersome process and a huge administrative headache.

Running the operations this way also meant that it was impossible for the business to gain insights and competitive advantage from the historical data.

“We had to manage big event days like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, which are two of the biggest family dining-out days of the year, like we were doing it for the very first time,” reflects Ford. “This was inefficient as we had to create event day schedules from scratch rather than relying on historical data to guide us.”

The move onto the Deputy platform coincided with Rashay’s swift expansion, and the restaurant has been able to make full use of Deputy’s functionality.

“These days, everything is automated and streamlined,” says Ford. “Our scheduling and timesheet management processes run like clockwork. Deputy has helped us become totally efficient in resource allocation and as our employees fall under a number of different awards, we can be confident that we’re paying the correct rates and complying with particular Award conditions.”

“Shift data feeds directly into payroll. Managers can view and approve on the fly. Each member of our crew knows exactly when they are scheduled on and when their shift is starting. There’s no confusion, and importantly, there’re no delays with pays.”

Ford also likes Deputy’s reporting. “All the data is easy to access. We can pull reports on just about everything, and we have full visibility and control over staff costs.”

On Deputy, communication is crisp and clear, as Ford explains, “As everyone carries their smartphones, we love the Deputy smartphone apps. Managers can quickly key in a message, and in an instant, everyone is notified.”

Favourite feature

“The really beautiful thing about Deputy,” says Ford, “is that I can be just about anywhere, yet still know precisely who’s working where, who’s late, who’s called in sick. And with our franchisees, at their request, I can look over their operations and schedules and give them feedback on how to optimize them for efficiency. And I can do all this without having to drive out to their restaurants. It’s fully accessible 24/7.”

“As for our employees, they love clocking in and off using the iPad.”

Future plans

For Ford, innovation is essential to keep diners coming back. With new restaurant openings on the horizon, Rashay’s is looking at utilizing advanced features such as POS integration. “As our operations grow, it’s important to be super efficient.

With POS integration we can schedule staff based on sales data and the expected revenue as well as variables such as weather information.