Storage firm U-Store-IT is running its staff rosters efficiently after moving its office tasks online

South-Australian based self-storage provider U-Store-It has spent the past five years overhauling its operations with new technology, streamlining its systems and making its business more efficient.

The 30-year-old company has always been a leader. It is a founding member of the Self Storage Association of Australia and is a pioneer in the Adelaide market.

It has invested in state of the art technology systems such as motion detectors, closed-circuit television surveillance, and electronic pin access, to ensure valuable items are safe and secure.

These investments have helped the company to maintain growth and expand in South Australia, even during challenging economic times. One of their initiatives involved looking for a system that could more accurately manage its staff and administration costs.

The company’s objective was to be able to control costs and make staff more accountable for their time sheets.

At the start of each month the company sends out its rosters to staff outlining their shifts for the next four weeks. That process was unwieldy and resulted in frequent amendments to the roster.

“We just had an Excel spreadsheet which was a nightmare and very time-consuming,” said U-Store-It Facilities Development Manager Sonya Salter, “If there was a change to the working schedules, I would have to manually change the spreadsheet then send it out to staff again.”

They have now deployed Deputy, and have reaped considerable labor expense benefits. If a staff member cannot work a shift, changes can be quickly made in Deputy’s cloud-based platform.

“Deputy has improved the communication for when the rosters are published and if changes need to be made,” said Salter. “All I have to do is make a small re-adjustment in the system and re-publish the roster.”

Around 40 of the company’s staff use Deputy across U-Store-It’s eight locations in South Australia. It is now much easier to manage staff because their shifts are recorded in the Deputy system. “They are all accountable for the hours they work,” said Salter. “They know when they have to start and the time sheets are accurate. There is no confusion about when staff are required to be on site.”

Salter also said she has achieved peace of mind as there is greater control over operations.

“I can sit back and look at the upcoming week and know what is covered, or not covered, and I can see where all of the staff are at any point in time,” she said.

By deploying Deputy, the company is also able to determine if they are spending money on unnecessary overtime, and can also assess where it is appropriate to fund overtime labor costs. “We are a lot more efficient, organised and accurate,” Salter adds. “The management like it because I am not wasting time on administration matters and we know we have an accurate timesheet system.”