1. Build an efficient business

The truth is, many American businesses are spending unnecessary hours trying to get their staffing right. If you’re still mapping out shifts on paper or spreadsheets, a digital scheduling solution will be a total game-changer. Before adopting a digital scheduling solution, Mud Bay’s team spent 2-3 hours per store drafting and publishing employee schedules across their 60 locations – adding up to 120-180 hours per week working on schedules. Their Application Support Administrator, Cody Clarke, says his team relied on spreadsheets, and “it was the worst experience.” He needed all his managers to schedule a specific amount of labor hours each week, but the spreadsheet formulas were constantly breaking and causing costly mistakes. 

“You’re looking at the spreadsheet, and your budget is 180 hours, and you’re thinking, ‘How am I only at 100?’ Then, you realize all your formulas are broken and have to undo it.” Catherine Knowles, a District Manager for their team, shares similar experiences of her team relying on spreadsheets for schedule management. “It was pretty painstaking. With spreadsheets, you can’t just copy the schedule week to week.” 

She explains that their team was also keeping track of schedule changes on paper, which, on top of being a massive headache, meant that scheduling mistakes could fall through the cracks. Since finding Deputy’s digital scheduling solution, Mud Bay has cut their time writing schedules by 25-50% across 60 locations. Now, managers can easily schedule within their budgets, make sure all their locations have the right coverage, and adjust shifts on the fly with smart mobile scheduling. 

“Deputy’s app makes scheduling really quick and really easy. You can actually make changes on a template and resave it, which is much simpler than [what we used] in the past,” says Catherine.

2. Keep your labor costs under control

Labor is easily one of the biggest expenses for most businesses — and many will find themselves overstaffed at the wrong times and overspending on wages. Digital scheduling software doesn’t just help you track what you’re spending compared to your budget, it empowers you to plan your staffing in line with demand trends to keep your margins healthy.  

Without the right tools, sticking to a budget can be tricky for managers who are trying to schedule the correct number of staff to meet demand and customer needs. A digital solution can help businesses determine how many staff they need for peak and slower periods, so they can create cost-efficient schedules to avoid overspending on labor when it’s not needed. 

For Lance Stillwaugh, owner of  ACE Hardware Thorton and Hidden Lakes, managing costs was a significant factor in adopting a digital scheduling solution. “[With a digital solution], you can monitor your payroll as a percentage of sales by day, by week, and track it monthly. By the end of the year, you have managed your labor expense, and you know where you’re going to end up, and it’s not a surprise,” says Lance.

Juice Press is another business benefiting from the power of a digital scheduling solution. With Deputy’s reporting feature, Juice Press can optimize its employee schedules by observing labor and sales trends. Their Chief Operating Officer, Ariana Korman, shares, “Deputy really helps us with projecting where sales will be and where we should allocate labor to accommodate that. We’ve also been able to increase revenue at stores because we can reallocate labor,” says Ariana.  

3. Take productivity to the next level

Sometimes, you don’t realize how unproductive you are until a new solution comes along. Poor team communication, missed shifts, and low productivity are often the result of disorganized processes or systems. Leaning on smart digital scheduling tools is a solid way to keep your team organized and hyper-productive. 

Based in Brooklyn, Child Care Staffing Inc. worked hard to pair exceptional substitute teachers with preschools and daycare centers throughout NYC — but they were being held back by disorganized manual processes for staff scheduling, managing call outs, and monitoring attendance. The result? Staff would sometimes show up to the wrong locations or, when there was a last-minute call out, they couldn’t find a replacement in time. 

After partnering with Deputy, things turned around and scheduling staff became much more efficient and streamlined. Marlene Ross, Staff Manager for their team, says she can distribute schedules faster, know who clocked in, see who’s running late, and find last-minute replacements with the push of a button — all in one app.

“It tells me who's where and when and how to pay them…I know if they're not punched in, or if they run late. And they can communicate with me in a one-stop shop. That level of organization is everything to me.” This level of efficiency has allowed their business to grow exponentially — and has given Marlene more space to focus on other essential business tasks that had to be put on the back burner before. 

When asked to put a dollar value on the boosted efficiency and time saved, Marlene says, without Deputy, they’d probably have to hire 2 more people to manage her workload, which would cost them about $100K a year in salary costs.

4. Engage and retain your employees

Ensuring that employees are happy and engaged means lower rates of turnover, better customer service, and a more productive business. One of the key ingredients for achieving high engagement and employee satisfaction is a digital tool that gives staff autonomy over their schedules.

People are your greatest asset, and retaining good staff is well worth the effort. Businesses with high staff turnover rates experience poor productivity, high recruitment costs, and lost sales. According to Deputy's Big Shift Report: The Evolving Landscape of the US Labor Market, employers prioritizing their team’s well-being foster higher staff retention rates.

Implementing a digital scheduling solution is a proven way of empowering your staff and ensuring they’re fully supported in their role. With a central platform to view schedules, request time off, and claim extra shifts, your employees will have more control over their work/life balance. 

Ariana Korman, Chief Operating Officer at Juice Press, says that adopting the right technology has streamlined operations and set up employees for success. “It gives our employees a lot of empowerment in managing their own schedule and our managers a lot of empowerment in finding coverage and making sure that their stores are taken care of.”

5. Simplify compliance with complex labor laws

Across the United States, labor laws are complex and the penalties are steep. The good news is that a digital scheduling solution like Deputy helps you streamline compliance with key wage and hour laws, from meal and rest breaks to overtime pay. Managing compliance with labor laws can be a tall order — particularly for businesses with multiple locations that have to keep track of requirements across different states and cities.

States like California require premium pay for missed breaks, split shifts, and 7th consecutive workdays. Got a location in New York? You may be affected by NYC’s Fair Workweek Ordinance, which requires advance notice of schedules and premium pay for late changes. With so much to keep track of and high stakes, it pays to have software that helps you manage federal, state, and city regulations and reduce your risk of penalties. Not to mention, it gives managers and business owners peace of mind.

For Trek’s Global Director of IT-ERP, Tom Spoke, selecting Deputy was essential for compliance management, especially as his business expanded to more retail locations. Each city and state had distinct labor laws that Trek needed to comply with. With scheduling software that offered compliance management, it was one less thing managers had to stress about so they could focus on the business and continued growth. “Deputy is making sure we have all our ducks in a row in terms of staff schedules, time tracking is working, and we have the right labor laws in place. That’s all stuff that our retail managers shouldn’t have to think about,” says Tom.