TEKintellect can excel at their jobs with Deputy

When asked about TEKintellect, founder Tsvi Katsir simply responds, “We are an education company.” TEKintellect, however, is so much more. In fact, TEKintellect is an education company providing fun and interactive STEM-based learning experiences to after-school programs, summer camps, birthday parties, private events, and more.

Tsvi founded TEKintellect in 2012, but it wasn’t his first experience in the education business. His love for education came about during his days of serving as an Israeli Defense Force Officer.

“When I looked back on my service in the Israeli army, the part I liked best was training the recruits,” said Tsvi. “Being their teacher was so rewarding, so I decided to go into the education business. I first operated a successful math tutoring business and then opened TEKintellect.”

Today, TEKintellect employs a staff of 18 trained instructors and teachers who are dedicated to serving students K through 8 in the New York City area.

The biggest challenge for Tsvi was managing a team of employees who were never in the same room. Rather, instructors would pick up their suitcases of materials, head off to their respective schools or locations, and then return materials after they were finished. This made it hard to track exactly when employees were working and ensure they were at the right place at the right time.

Tsvi notes that prior to implementing a workforce management solution, TEKintellect did not have an accurate or efficient way to track employee time. Instead, employees reported their own hours.

“With this system, there was no way to verify employee reports and timesheets,” said Tsvi. “We just had to use the honor system and pay them for the time they reported. Sometimes, this caused us to pay extra. Ultimately, it was an inefficient, and certainly not a cost-effective way for us to pay for their services.”

In order to streamline processes and run a more efficient business overall, Tsvi knew a change needed to be made.

“We did research and completed trials with two workforce management solutions – one of them being Deputy,” said Tsvi. “There were some aspects of the first solution that didn’t meet our needs. In the end, Deputy’s easy-to-use platform was the right fit for both our company and employees.”

Before Deputy, it was hard for Tsvi to remember and keep track of all of his employees’ availability – many of which were either still in school themselves, or worked other part-time jobs. Now, TEKintellect’s instructors can simply report their own availability through Deputy straight from their mobile device.

“For instance, one of our instructors might use Deputy to let us know that he is not available on Mondays and Wednesdays, but is free on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays,” said Tsvi. “I can then clearly see this within Deputy and can assign sessions accordingly.”

With Deputy’s mobile time tracking features, employees clock in and clock out directly from their phone when they arrive and leave a teaching session, guaranteeing that accurate work time is being recorded.

In addition to guaranteed time tracking, Deputy’s geo-fencing and GPS capabilities also allow Tsvi to see exactly where his employees are when clocking in and out.

“The idea that our employees understand that we know exactly where they are and when they get there encourages them to be on time for programs,” said Tsvi. “Again, we had no way to verify this before and sometimes someone would take advantage. Now, Deputy provides us the insight we need to ensure our instructors are where they need to be, when they need to be to serve our clients.”

With Deputy, Tsvi is also able to better manage his team by certifying that instructors know exactly when, where, and what they are teaching.

“When we do assignments for employees, we also specify what subject they are teaching and provide the address of each school directly within Deputy,” said Tsvi. “Deputy then sends us a confirmation via email or text letting us know that the employee has received the message.”

And if employees do have questions, they can be addressed and answered straight within the system.

In addition, TEKintellect’s employees love the transparency that Deputy gives them as workers. For instance, when it comes to approving timesheets and payroll, employees can see whether or not reports have been accepted or pending and can address any issues if necessary.

“Deputy presents our employees with a level of visibility that was not possible for them before,” said Tsvi. “It truly empowers them to excel at their jobs.”

As an ADP user, TEKintellect is able to put in the hourly rates for each instructor into Deputy, which then automatically calculates the amount owed to each employee. After manually tracking other expenses like mileage, Tsvi then simply inserts the numbers into ADP for a more proficient payroll process overall.