Boxpark saves 4% on total labour costs with Deputy!

Boxpark is the world’s first pop-up mall. Made out of shipping containers, this creative design delivers a unique shopping and dining experience for customers. The first location opened in 2011 and as of today, there is second location as well as a third location due to open in December of this year. The idea behind this concept started as a way for small business, who were struggling to find space, to secure an affordable, brick-and-mortar solution. Boxpark not only provides space for these small businesses, but also provides additional support, such as social media coverage and promotional events. “Business act in their own way, but essentially, Boxpark acts as a landlord for them,” explains assistant general manager, Chris Byrne, “We also run the bars on each site; a concept that only started a year ago. It’s became a huge hit.”

“Since we’ve opened in 2011, Boxpark has taken on many shapes and forms. We have retail shops in the downstairs in our Shoredith location, and the upstairs rooftop has food and drink offerings,” says Chris. “We’ve been listed as the best place to watch the World Cup! Our growth has been incredible.”

Before Deputy, the team at Boxpark used Excel spreadsheets to organise their staff. “We would print out the sheet and our staff would fill out things like the date, their name, the hours they worked, what breaks they took— it was very basic to start with, explains Chris, ”Overall, it was a very manual process. It took me some time to go through each timesheet.”

With an ever-changing site and location, keeping up with staff, events, and business operations became challenging. “Our main goal is to improve the customer experience__, but we weren’t managing our staff efficiently, so a lot of our time went into that,” says Chris, “It was difficult to ensure our records were accurate. Sometimes, our staff wouldn’t even mark when they took break, which looked suspicious.”

The team at Boxpark needed a better solution. At the beginning of 2018, they found Deputy and implemented the scheduling features right away.

“We found the scheduling brilliant!” exclaimed Chris,“Staff can easily view their schedules on their phones and receive and confirm shifts, and without me having to get involved and find someone to take their shift.”

Since implementing Deputy, the team has seen better organization and focus. “We use the tasking feature to ensure smooth events, which overall, increases the customer experience”, says Chris, “It helps plan for future events as well.”

After a month of using Deputy for scheduling, Boxpark integrated their payroll system. “Integrating our payroll system with Deputy has been really useful for seeing cost levels and keeping it under control,” explains Chris, “There’s no dispute whether staff are getting paid incorrectly. It helps keep everything transparent. Before Deputy, there was a lot of confusion on the staff end. Now, it’s all clear for them. If anything, it’s encouraged them to work more and have more availability since they know we are taking a professional approach. They trust us to get paid for the hours they work.”

Overall, Chris said that Deputy has helped reduced their labour costs by 3 – 4%. “We’ve been able to expand the bar and make improvements elsewhere”, says Chris, “We’ve saved a ton of time and increased our revenue with the help of Deputy.”