Category: Case Studies

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Myhealth Medical Center improves employee engagement and streamlines scheduling with Workforce.com

Founded in 2007, Myhealth Medical Center has grown to over 80 practices and is staffed by 800 medical professionals including nurses, dieticians, radiologists, and physiotherapists. The entire network provides holistic care and services for up to 1.2 million patients a year. 

Few understand better what goes into Myhealth’s daily success than systems development manager Natasha Laidler. “Day-to-day, my job involves a bit of everything, but mainly HR-related issues,” she says. 

Laidler oversees systems training for frontline managers while simultaneously developing workforce management processes that improve clinic efficiency and employee experience. However, due to Myhealth’s large network size, it was becoming difficult for Laidler to handle the increasing amount of roadblocks and inefficiencies plaguing day-to-day operations. 

CHALLENGE

A fast-growing medical franchise, Myhealth had an opportunity to scale its operation and expand its reach even further. However, the network’s legacy workforce management system was out of date, requiring manual data entry for nearly every process and offering very little in the way of automation for basic administrative tasks. These problems were increasing network-wide labor costs and negatively impacting employee experience. 

Before using Workforce.com, inaccurately recorded data hindered quick timesheet processing. During clock-ins and clock-outs, employees would enter incorrect times, manually selecting the dates they were present. Additionally, any corrections to the staff schedule and timesheets had to be made during payroll processing at the end of the week—resulting in confusion and inaccuracy as employees would try to remember their clock-ins for the previous days.

Laidler knew Myhealth needed a user-friendly and accessible way to record staff attendance. Inaccurate timesheet data resulting from inefficient attendance recording posed a significant compliance risk regarding employees being paid correctly. Beyond the risk of payroll error, Myhealth was wasting hundreds of hours in administrative work compiling and editing timesheets for all 800 employees. 

SOLUTION

Myhealth was seeking a workforce management system that could grow and scale alongside their business  – Workforce.com was the answer. With their new system, Myhealth experiences fast and easy timekeeping that generates error-free and compliant timesheets ready for payroll. Moreover, the software is straightforward for staff to adopt and tremendously easy to use, improving overall employee experience and productivity. 

“Workforce.com is very user-friendly, so all the practice managers are able to use it very easily for scheduling and managing timesheets,” says Laidler. 

RESULTS

With Workforce.com, Myhealth successfully optimized its employee scheduling and timekeeping – this helped ensure efficient administrative practices, engaged employees, and satisfied patients. Here are some of the specific areas in which Myhealth has seen the most benefit since making the change:

Increased employee availability

A shift replacement feature makes it easier to fill vacant shifts. Through the app, employees may post swap requests to all staff with relevant qualifications, and pending manager approval, vacant shifts are claimed in no time. 

Workforce.com’s unavailability and PTO management provide managers a 360-degree view of when employees are available to work while they are scheduling. This visibility eliminates the potential for managers to accidentally schedule employees who are on leave. 

Reduced labor costs

Since Myhealth can automatically generate and export timesheets now, the number of staff working on payroll for the entire organization has been reduced to just a single employee, reducing labor costs at both the individual practice level and at the head office. 

Moreover, each practice manager across Myhealth’s entire network now saves 2 to 3 hours a week in administrative work. “In terms of someone’s wage cost, that equates to about $100 per week,” Laidler says.

Organized staff data between locations

To keep staff information organized properly between all 80 clinics, Myhealth assigns each employee to a location in Workforce.com. Doing this enables Myhealth to automatically apply different hourly rates and pay differentials based on these locations. 

Employees can also easily work at multiple locations, with Workforce.com accounting for potential schedule conflicts. HR managers don’t need to check in with other clinics first regarding schedule inconsistencies – Workforce.com has it covered. 

Seamless integrations

Workforce.com provides a software system tailored to Myhealth’s specific operational needs. Through open API, it integrates perfectly with Myhealth’s existing business processes and software systems, including payroll, and ensures the fluid transfer of employee data.

Better employee experience

Staff members no longer need to deal with an outdated and error-prone workforce management system. With Workforce.com’s highly refined app, staff members are actively engaged in scheduling and timekeeping. 

The intuitive UI and functionality ensures schedules are sent on time, timesheets are accurately recorded and approved, and vacant shifts are easily claimed. Together, these efficiencies have improved staff engagement and lowered burnout across all clinics.

Increasing workforce productivity and efficiency is directly tied to Myhealth’s commitment to its employees. A common sentiment among all clinics is that despite its size, Myhealth does not feel like a large corporate setting.

“Our doctors are our customers—so they’re so important to our company,” says Leidler. “We focus on the doctors and our staff, to make sure everyone is happy. It’s always a good response to hear that everyone feels involved in the company.”

Going forward, the partnership between Workforce.com and Myhealth continues to produce the best employee experiences, patient outcomes, and operational excellence within the healthcare industry. 

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How the Lake Elsinore Storm’s HR manager improved staff engagement

In Lake Elsinore, California, baseball does more than simply entertain the local community – it also gives people the opportunity to chase their dreams. 

“I’m a big sports fan,” says a beaming Katie Strehlow, the HR manager for the Lake Elsinore Storm. “Once I graduated, I knew it would make a lot of sense to go work for a sports team because it’s something I’m interested in, something I’m passionate about.”

This passion is something she hopes to pass along to the 200 staff members she assists daily at the Storm’s stadium. A minor league affiliate of the San Diego Padres, the Lake Elsinore Storm draw over 6,000 fans for every game. It takes careful coordination and execution to make sure all staff members perform their tasks up to customer standards. Together, they pursue a common dream: to bring to life one of the world’s most beautiful sporting atmospheres. 

CHALLENGE

While games unfold on the field and fans roar in the stands, Strehlow has her hands full behind the scenes making sure all staff members are engaged and productive. In the stadium, she oversees the success of a wide range of employee initiatives, including concessions, ticketing, and the grounds crew. 

“Everyone on our staff is essential to ensuring a good experience for our fans,” says Strehlow. “Everyone is important because every piece contributes to the bigger picture.”

To satisfy fans and achieve the bigger picture, Strehlow strives to keep her employees engaged and fulfilled in their work. For a long time, this required excessive paperwork and constant grappling with a disorganized workforce management system. Employee engagement was suffering as a result.

“Employee engagement is really important,” says Strehlow. “We need to make sure that our employees are happy so that they want to continue working here. So I do my best to communicate with the employees, make sure that they know me.”

Strehlow knew the team’s attendance and scheduling capabilities needed to be updated. She needed the ability to actively track where staff were during games, as well as more tools for staff communication and feedback. She also required access to metrics that would help her pinpoint where burnout or lack of engagement was occurring. 

“We want to make sure that our employees are working the appropriate amount of time so that they don’t get tired. Especially in this type of environment,” says Strehlow. “There’s a lot of moving parts … if employees aren’t up to their peak, they might perform badly.”

SOLUTION

All of Strehlow’s staff were brought into Workforce.com, making it easier for her to organize and engage with them on a daily basis. The updated system eliminated time spent on manual data entry, allowing Strehlow to focus on improving employee engagement and performance. She can quickly schedule staff, check their attendance, and view engagement metrics on the go as she runs throughout the stadium during games. 

“I use Workforce.com every single day, basically constantly,” says Strehlow. “I am always checking on schedules, making sure that we have the right people in the right places … as someone in HR, it is very helpful to have all of that live data right in my hand.”

RESULTS

By overhauling the fundamentals of their workforce management system, the Lake Elsinore Storm succeeded in bolstering both customer satisfaction and employee engagement. Here are some of the ways in which Strehlow and the team as a whole experienced success:

Visibility into employee experience

Staff use Workforce.com’s feedback tool to rate and review their shifts. “I definitely read all of those through very carefully to find out what we’re doing well, what we can improve on,” says Strehlow. Consistently receiving feedback on shifts helps her identify engagement problems early before they become major issues.

“I prefer getting feedback every day from employees so that I know that we don’t have problems that are brewing … if there’s a minor fix that I can take care of that day or maybe that week, I know that we’re better set up down the road.”

Increased customer engagement

Perhaps most importantly, the Lake Elsinore Storm are experiencing a major boost in sales following their partnership with Workforce.com. In 2019, every fan on average spent between $24-$25 per game between parking, ticketing, retail, and food and beverage. That figure has since doubled, with the average fan now spending $47-$48 at games. 

Less time spent on administrative tasks

With all her staff operating on Workforce.com, Strehlow no longer finds herself chained to her desk slaving away at time-consuming administrative tasks. “You’re more likely to find me out interacting with the staff where they’re working. Being able to use my phone to check on things as I’m going is very helpful and makes a big difference.”

The software handles all timekeeping and scheduling matters, allowing Strehlow to engage with her staff in person while keeping an eye and a finger on things right from her phone.

Simple shift replacement

With Workforce.com’s shift replacement tool, Strehlow and her staff can post open shifts that need to be claimed. When an employee requests to take the shift, all Strehlow needs to do is tap her finger to approve the replacement. “I can go with, see who’s not available for a shift and who is available to pick it up and don’t have to worry about reaching out to people. It’s all right there.”

Best of all, the functionality significantly increases staff engagement and motivation. “I know that if somebody selects a shift that they’re actually going to be here and do a good job because they made that decision to come into work that day,” Strehlow says. 

Straightforward adoption

Onboarding staff to the new system proved tremendously easy, requiring very little time and effort in getting people comfortable using the array of user-friendly tools. 

“They were excited to use an app. They jumped on it right away, download it and use it daily now. So, it was easy,” says Strehlow. 

The Lake Elsinore Storm are knocking it out of the park now with fan experience, and it all comes back to how Strehlow brings the best out of her staff.

“I need them to be energetic and enthusiastic so that they can help make the fans energetic and enthusiastic,” she says. “That actually can affect the performance on the field.”

For Strehlow and the Storm, a winning culture on the field requires a winning culture in the workplace. Going forward, the team will continue to inspire productivity and passion in their sports-loving staff thanks to their mastery of workforce management.

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How the CEO of COVIDCheck Colorado successfully orchestrated over 300,000 vaccinations

With half a million people out of work, out of school, and disconnected from their communities across Colorado during the COVID-19 pandemic, Eric Parrie felt an urge like never before to serve.

 “I was raised by my mom and dad with the idea that every individual person counts,” said Parrie. As CEO of COVIDCheck Colorado, he coordinated over 2,000 frontline workers in the successful testing and vaccination of thousands of people throughout the state. “I’m fired up every day to do this as fast as possible and at the biggest scale.”

This fire inside both Parrie, as well as his employees, was critical to the success of COVIDCheck Colorado’s emergency services. 

CHALLENGE

When COVIDCheck Colorado first launched, it faced a monumental task. The emergency response program needed to provide testing and vaccinations for thousands of people desperate for a return to normalcy. To conduct an operation of this scale quickly while also maintaining the best possible patient outcomes, Parrie knew he must solve workforce management. First and foremost, this meant utilizing his supply of public resources as effectively as possible. “We wanted to optimize the use of resources so that every public dollar was spent for maximum public health impact,” he shared. 

Efficiently using public resources like this required empowering his teams with software capable of operational excellence. Moreover, he needed software that could adapt and scale quickly to change.

“We were in a world of tracking through spreadsheets, Post-it Notes, and text threads. It was hard to know where people were supposed to be, and when they were supposed to show up. It was highly inefficient and frustrating for our staff, and it was leading to worse outcomes for [patients],” reflected Parrie. 

He also needed a workforce solution that would clearly align everyone in the organization with the same priorities and values as well as something that maximized positive patient outcomes.

“The way you ensure the outcomes you want … is to really steep everyone in core values,” said Parrie. “Humility, action, and excellence are the ones we chose for ourselves.”

SOLUTION

Parrie decided Workforce.com was the perfect partner to help COVIDCheck Colorado accomplish its mission in a rapid and effective manner. 

“As the CEO, I’m not doing my job, if I’m not empowering all the other leaders on my team to do theirs. And Workforce.com is a part of that power,” shared Parrie. “It’s giving the team the tools they need to excel.”

The software unified scheduling, time and attendance, and compliance into a single, intuitive platform for all teams to use together in real-time. It provided Parrie’s employees with the tools they needed to deliver effective and compliant care across the state, while also aligning them better with the overarching mission, values, and strategy of the organization as a whole. 

The system proved scalable, adapting to new testing sites being set up weekly, while also handling last minute scheduling and attendance changes seamlessly. Most importantly, the new system reduced time spent on tedious administrative tasks, allowing Parrie and his organization to focus instead on ensuring high quality outcomes for patients. 

RESULTS

Under Parrie’s direction, COVIDCheck Colorado grew to 55 sites and administered over 800,000 tests and 300,000 vaccines. Throughout it all, Parrie had Workforce.com by his side. Here are some of the benefits he and COVIDCheck Colorado experienced with Workforce.com:

Improved patient outcomes and satisfaction

With updated technical abilities for attendance tracking, communication, and labor allocation, patients experienced a higher level of care.

“[Communication] came alongside being nimble in the use of technology to quickly get patients the service they needed … that yielded great results for us,” said Parrie. “We surveyed patients … and consistently our Net Promoter Score was in the 90’s.”

Efficient allocation of labor across multiple sites

The centralized location of employee and demand data made it easy for managers to coordinate where and when labor was needed.

“We were able to look at the number of appointments that were booked at a given site, on a given day, and rightsize the hours, staff, and availability at that site, in accord with that data,” said Parrie. 

Enabled further growth and scale

COVIDCheck went from “4 to 1,400” employees in a matter of weeks; this coincided with new testing sites opening consistently. Even in the face of this massive amount of growth, they remained organized and efficient in their operations.  

“Workforce.com enabled us to take action better,” says Parrie. “We could very quickly set up and organize a staff, even at a site that had not existed a day or two prior.”

The intuitive nature of Workforce.com’s interface as well as the ability to create new locations instantly in the system made scaling across the state of Colorado hassle-free. 

Strategic and operational alignment across teams

Parrie knew he needed all his employees on the same page in terms of the mission and drive of the organization. In order to operate an emergency response organization like COVIDCheck Colorado, communication and alignment of values is essential. 

“Our site optimization team, operations, finance, legal … they’re all stitched together with our mission and values. That is the soul of the organization,” said Parrie. “But the skeleton of it is tools, like Workforce.com, that actually enable them to communicate and deliver on shared goals.”

Minimization of compliance risks

Parrie’s site optimization teams used Workforce.com to keep track of important medical compliance requirements. For instance, managers could use the qualifications feature to make sure only medically certified employees were administering vaccines. 

Through his leadership with COVIDCheck Colorado, Parrie helped thousands of people return to normal life. As CEO he was faced with a tremendous amount of responsibility – and he chose Workforce.com to help shoulder some of that responsibility. 

“The value and magic of something like COVIDCheck Colorado and of a system like Workforce.com is that the system actually is merciful,” reflected Parrie. “It’s delivering care and service in a way you may never see and never know or acknowledge, but it’s there doing work – and that is incredibly powerful.”

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How GreenForce Staffing quickly fulfills labor requests with Workforce.com

Back in 2016, GreenForce Staffing recognized an opportunity to revolutionize an emerging cannabis industry within the state of Oregon. 

“There was a gap. So, there was an opportunity. The industry needed it. The state needed it,” reflects CEO and founder, Ryan Rosenfeld. 

A full-service staffing and temporary employment agency based in Portland, Oregon, GreenForce provides cannabis farms across their state with trimmers, packagers, and harvesters. They have now grown to 200+ staff covering 50 job sites – and they aren’t done yet. 

“I think ultimately, we’re in an interesting time in our industry,” says Rosenfeld. “I think we’re going to be a great solution. [The cannabis industry] is going to create a lot of jobs … we want to contribute to that in any sense possible.”

CHALLENGE

Unlike with most other organizations, the lifeblood of a staffing agency is found within its decentralized labor. “One of the things that makes GreenForce unique but is also a challenge is that we manage a mobile remote workforce across the entire state,” says Rosenfeld. “So, there’s a lot of layers that go into scheduling and getting the right person for the job.”

For GreenForce, the ability to dispatch employees with speed and accuracy to job sites is a top priority. Eventually, however, they found that remotely managing a vast array of employees and clients like this proved to be extremely difficult. 

“I think one of the biggest challenges is always going to be having enough people to fulfill our labor requests,” says Anne Daniel, the director of operations for GreenForce. “Our industry moves fast. We get labor requests in each week. That means we need to rally 200 employees and get them scheduled and get information out to them as quickly as possible.” 

Management often found themselves struggling to efficiently fulfill labor requests, having to juggle variables like employee certifications, labor costs, and shift preferences. Even after sending out schedules and dispatching employees, GreenForce faced the problem of not having real-time visibility and control over frontline employee issues. 

“We need the ability to pivot if there is some sort of absenteeism. So, for us, the ability to flip a switch and be able to activate our labor force in a fast fashion is of the utmost importance,” says Rosenfeld. 

GreenForce knew it needed a solution that would unify and organize its entire workforce management process. It needed something that provided better tools for fulfillment, scheduling, attendance tracking, and timekeeping. Moreover, due to their favorable position in an emerging industry, they were looking for an extremely scalable provider.

SOLUTION

Together, GreenForce and Workforce.com are breaking ground in staffing management. Workforce.com provides a powerful cloud-based platform that can handle increasingly large numbers of remote employees and locations while also keeping GreenForce compliant in an emerging industry. 

“Workforce.com has given us the ability to conduct the movement of information on a large scale, but with still being able to pay attention to the minutia of the intricacies of each individual and each job site,” says Rosenfeld. 

It is in this minutia where GreenForce now thrives. The agency has successfully streamlined all its scheduling and attendance operations into a single system, empowering them to efficiently deploy workers and directly manage them in real-time. This success stems from having access to granular employee, client, and cost data. 

RESULTS

Since partnering with Workforce.com, GreenForce has made major strides in efficiency within its staffing operations. Here are only a few examples of areas where they have improved: 

Smarter employee and client matching

GreenForce can now retrieve employee shift preference data regarding where and when they like to work. Most of this information is collected via the shift feedback tool as well as patterns seen in past scheduling habits. 

“We can pull reports on employees to see where they’ve worked successfully,” says Daniel. “We can do it monthly and just have those sites show up in their profile. So they’re automatically matched to the sites.” 

Beyond this, GreenForce can also view employee certifications to make sure they are properly qualified to perform specific jobs for clients.

Greater visibility into their remote workforce

All stakeholders are united on a single, cloud-based platform. Because of this, it is easy for everyone to see in real-time when and where people are working. GreenForce has many teams and locations set up in Workforce.com to further organize how they distribute their labor among clients. 

“Our clients also have backend availability to look at the employees scheduled,” says Daniel. “They can log in, see who’s coming to their site each day.” 

On the employee side of things, they have the ability to clock in and out from their phones directly on-site. Field managers can also approve timesheets through the app. 

Faster invoicing

Workforce.com’s custom-made report does all the heavy lifting for GreenForce when it comes to gathering data for invoicing.  

“Workforce.com was able to build out an invoicing filter report for us, which has been really awesome because it comes up with the billing rate and our profit margin,” says Stephanie Yoo, an administrative assistant for GreenForce. 

The custom report streamlines the whole process, eliminating previously monotonous work that slowed down how quickly GreenForce could bill clients. 

Efficient fulfillment of labor requests

GreenForce can quickly create schedules and publish them live on Workforce.com for both clients and employees to see. This has resulted in 10 hours saved in operations a week.

“We’ve used Workforce.com to schedule probably 4,000 to 5,000 shifts, which will rapidly grow month in and month out,” says Rosenfeld. “It’s been a great partner and platform to quickly dispatch information to both our partners and our clients.”

Enhanced visibility into labor costs

Utilizing GPS location on the mobile app, GreenForce can accurately see where workers are clocking-in. This functionality helps them pinpoint potential time theft and where they are overspending on labor. 

Additionally, their custom invoicing report lets them view labor costs compared to client billing rates.“We see how much we’re paying each employee … and we’re able to compare that to what we’re actually making from billing the clients. It’s a great tool,” says Yoo. 

In light of the pandemic causing many people to reassess their career paths, GreenForce has noticed an increased interest to enter the cannabis farm industry. Their goal is to provide people with as many opportunities during this industry reshuffle as possible. 

“I think having a happy and supported workforce makes people want to grow with us because we’re such a rapidly growing company in a rapidly growing industry,” reflects Alyssa Philbrick, a recruiting coordinator. 

Together, GreenForce and Workforce.com have worked together to ensure these workplace values are upheld. 

“For other staffing agencies, I would definitely suggest Workforce.com,” says Daniel. “There is a benefit to having a flexible system that’s able to quickly retrieve information and data that’s needed to support your operations and your staffing.”

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How Whole Kids Academy better manages student-teacher ratios

Two parents and selfless dedication to their children’s education – that’s all it took to turn a simple dream into a community-wide reality. 

After eight years, Maryland-based Whole Kids Academy is still true to its roots. The Spanish immersion preschool now employs 40 teachers and serves 125 families, while still maintaining its primary vision is that children learn best while having fun; this is accomplished through creative activities, healthy diets, and most importantly, engaging teachers. 

“Our teachers are really the heart of our school,” says Hannah McNally, the academy’s director. “We can’t be successful if we don’t have really great counselors and teachers and educators there, like on the front lines, connecting with the kids, connecting with the families.”

At the end of the day, these interpersonal connections between stakeholders are the most important part of child education. Within the past year, Whole Kids Academy partnered with Workforce.com to improve its ability to cultivate these relationships by implementing more efficient scheduling and attendance systems. 

CHALLENGE

Using key performance indicators like teacher-student ratios, McNally is better able to measure Whole Kids’ relationship-building success. Proper employee scheduling plays a critical role in this process. 

“We have these ratios that are provided to us from the state and we need to make sure we’re in ratio at all times and our schedule really helps with that,” says McNally.

Whole Kids Academy needed a more transparent and unified workforce management system to effectively keep a finger on the pulse of these ratios. For a while, the school was using a word processor and Google calendar for scheduling and leave requests. “I’m really good at keeping a lot of things in my head, but that’s not sustainable,” McNally reflects. This disorganization led to a constant struggle in managing student-teacher ratios. 

As a consequence of this disorganization, accountability fell by the wayside. Teachers had the ability to clock in up to a mile away with the old attendance system. This is a common attendance challenge for organizations everywhere, and the time spent on managing these attendance problems was detracting from McNally’s efforts to build feedback loops with teachers. 

 “My greatest challenge is being able to see all of the different people and help them and meet them and support them … it’s hard when you feel like you’re unable to help someone.” 

With their old system, carving out time to conduct teacher one-on-ones or classroom observations often proved difficult. McNally knew she needed to take action to overhaul Whole Kids Academy’s scheduling and attendance capabilities.

SOLUTION

The success of child education depends on attendance accountability, proper monitoring of the student-teacher ratio, and relationship building. Whole Kids Academy found a key partner in Workforce.com to grow in these areas. The software maximizes both accountability and communication, while also maintaining enough of a human touch to foster community. Formerly tedious administrative tasks burdening Whole Kids Academy are now completely automated; the resulting time savings allow faculty to better nurture relationships with both students and teachers. 

RESULTS

Efficient workforce management is at the core of how Whole Kids Academy operates now. Here are some of the specific areas in which they have seen tangible improvement since partnering with Workforce.com:

Tracking student-teacher ratios

Perhaps most importantly, McNally can now easily view and control student-teacher ratios in every classroom. “I think that [Workforce.com] is crucial for child education systems just to allow for everyone to clearly see the schedule, see the ratios,” states McNally. “The schedule is nice and color-coded and can show you how many teachers are in a classroom at one time. So I think that it definitely supports [student-teacher ratio] needs.”

Easy and intelligent clock-ins

“I love the selfie feature … I think that they’re really fun, but it also increases accountability,” states McNally regarding photo clock-ins. With clock-in tools like photo verification and geo-fencing, McNally can quickly see proof of teachers starting days in the classroom.

Transparent scheduling

McNally creates schedules in mere minutes now, publishing directly to a single cloud-based platform for every teacher to see. “I think that an app like Workforce.com really helps increase organization productivity and accountability,” she says in regard to the intuitive nature of posting and referring to live schedules. 

Efficient timesheet approval

Teachers are regularly asked to briefly review their timesheets to make sure they are being paid correctly. “They’ll log on and see their time cards, they’ll either approve or they’ll say, actually, no, I missed a punch out on this day,” summarizes McNally. Upon approval, she can seamlessly export all timesheets into their payroll system, which Workforce.com has full integration with. 

Managing time-off accruals and requests

Whole Kids Academy has very specific leave categories to manage for all its teachers. From holidays to sick leave, Workforce.com helps McNally manage all time off hours and requests. “Everything is accrued by the amount of tenure that you have. We needed a system that would easily adapt to all of that. And I think that that’s been a great success of switching to [Workforce.com].”

The ability for all faculty to see when and where teachers are working and if they are assigned to the correct amount of students greatly improves not only ratio tracking, but more importantly, the underlying relationships between students, teachers, and management. 

The connection that comes from these healthy interpersonal relationships, both in the workplace and in the community, is something McNally sees as central to the Academy’s roots. “We really value community … I think that connectedness is really what makes our team successful.”

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The Lake Elsinore Storm team up with Workforce.com to increase operations visibility

 

Minor League Baseball has been the city of Lake Elsinore’s pastime for a long time now – since 1994 to be exact. Perhaps nobody understands this better than the local team’s very own director of operations, Jason Natale.

“I’ve been coming here since I was about five years old. I sat on top of the dugout, had my birthday parties here … Storm Baseball was a big passion for me.”

Jason’s childhood passion continues to this day, as he is now the operations manager for the Lake Elsinore Storm, an affiliate of the MLB’s San Diego Padres. While the team’s goal is to win on the field, Jason’s primary goal behind the scenes is to ensure all 6,000 fans enjoy a clean and organized service experience at every game. 

CHALLENGE

Knowing what it’s like to be a fan himself, Jason takes pride in maximizing operational efficiency to increase fan engagement and satisfaction. “I’m a perfectionist,” he says. “I want everything to be pristine for the guests before they show up.” Achieving these results often proved difficult, however, as Jason conducted the majority of his work manually across multiple platforms; this limited the visibility he had into his workforce.

Simple administrative tasks like checking the attendance and locations of crews, managing overtime costs, and viewing sales per labor hour were taking too much time and energy. Most importantly, they slowed his reaction time to frontline issues impacting a wide range of the stadium’s operations entities. 

Since the Storm do not have the same revenue volume as teams in the major league, they rely heavily on providing a high quality service experience for their fans. Multiple entities operate under the Storm umbrella, from stadium cleaning to concessions, to curate this positive service experience. Jason needed increased clarity into the pain points affecting each of these entities in order to continue building customer satisfaction. 

SOLUTION

The perfectionist in Jason pairs perfectly with Workforce.com. The intuitive cloud-based system gives him the visibility he needs to optimize productivity and react quickly to frontline issues across his workforce. It handles all the time and attendance data for Jason’s employees, while also integrating with the stadium’s POS system, allowing him to compare labor hours and sales metrics. 

With Workforce.com, Jason uses his time more efficiently to prepare and operate the stadium for games. The software eliminates any frustration and stress that normally comes with inefficient administrative processes, making his job easier, and in the end, fan satisfaction higher. 

RESULTS

Jason now experiences success in operations throughout the stadium after Workforce.com joined the team. Here are some of the many ways the new workforce management system has increased operational excellence for both Jason as well as the team as a whole:

Optimizing sales per labor hour

With Workforce.com Jason can easily track cashiers turns, or sales per labor hour – a major KPI for the team. He can look at how much in sales a worker does in a shift and compare that to their labor costs. From these metrics, he can determine how to lead, schedule, and train employees better, increasing employee value.

Greater workforce visibility

Jason makes better decisions in the moment now with the help of leading indicators. With a live wage tracker, both the mobile app and kiosk app capture clock-ins, giving Jason live insights into whether he should call someone in, or send someone home, based on forecasted demand. Key alerts also greatly assist Jason, notifying him when he needs to address an abandoned shift.

“I can track my employees from my mobile phone. If someone didn’t show up, I can just look at my phone, and it’ll notify me, saying this person isn’t here. And I can reach out to HR and go from there.”

Minimizing overtime hours

Jason uses attendance features and push notifications in the app to control overtime hours among his employees. 

“With the pandemic, we are limited in staff, so a lot of our staff do get overtime,” Jason states. “So I am definitely getting notified when a person is beyond their hours and how to make sure they get home at the right time.”

Tracking attendance with GPS

With multiple service teams covering a large stadium, GPS clock-ins via the mobile app are critical for Jason’s visibility into daily operations. 

“I can track my people, I know when they’re coming, I know when they’re on site. It’s reassuring that it is all GPS located, so they’re not clocking in from down the street somewhere,” says Jason. 

Improved customer experience

Perhaps most importantly, the Storm are experiencing a major boost in sales following their partnership with Workforce.com, indicating an overall improvement in customer experience. In 2019, the average fan spent $24 per game across parking, ticketing, retail, and food; now the average has doubled to $48.

For Jason, a love for the sport of baseball has developed into a passion for optimizing service operations and increasing customer satisfaction. Baseball is about more than what’s happening on the field; it’s about the service experience as a whole, from cleaning seats to preparing hotdogs. In Workforce.com, Jason found a reliable teammate to optimize the operations driving this all-American experience.

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How the CFO of Lake Elsinore Storm gained more control over labor costs

 

In Lake Elsinore, California, America’s pastime is very much alive and well. 

The Storm, a minor league affiliate of the San Diego Padres, host roughly 6,000 people at their stadium for every game. While the on-field performances are undoubtedly impressive, there is even more happening off the field that translates to success on game day. No matter the team record or the outcome of each game, the fan experience always goes undefeated. 

The person who understands this best is the team’s chief financial officer, Christine Kavic. 

“The big difference between Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball is that we rely 100% on our fans. If our fans are not coming to our stadium and having a good time … we can’t keep our doors open,” remarks Kavic. 

Kavic oversees all financial, administrative and HR matters across multiple businesses for the Lake Elsinore Storm, including overwhelmingly fan-favorite entities like concessions and the in-stadium restaurant. 

“I am the last step before payroll is processed … I take pride in avoiding errors when dealing with people’s money .. [errors] end up potentially being costly for an organization, so it’s really important to make sure that we’re doing everything that we need to do to finalize those time cards and process payroll.”

Needless to say, Kavic has a lot on her plate. 

CHALLENGE

Prior to Workforce.com, the sheer amount of financial and administrative responsibility proved difficult for Kavic to manage at times. Moreover, pandemic restrictions were lifting, bringing fans back to games in droves. 

Going into 2021, Kavic knew the team had to make a change. 

“One of the biggest challenges was the visibility and real-time cost in comparison to our sales within food and beverage. That’s a huge component,” reflects Kavic. “The ability to gauge at any given moment where we’re at for sales versus labor cost was extremely important when I was searching for what we could use.”

In addition, Kavic struggled with staffing and cash flow visibility. “We’re five separate entities. At least four of those entities are operating at one time … So it’s really important that I have the ability to view our staffing in one place and the ability to look at sales that are coming in … there’s a lot of different places that I’m looking at to make sure our per cap on a daily basis is where it needs to be.”

Since labor costs were difficult to predict due to varying pay differentials and overtime, it was hard for teams to stick to their budgets and create accurate cash flow projections. Because of these issues, Kavic could not accurately adjust her workforce in necessary ways to minimize wasteful spending and maximize positive fan experience.

SOLUTION

Kavic partnered with Workforce.com so she could staff based on demand, track labor costs and sales, easily export timesheets to payroll, and most importantly, have everything take place in real-time on a single platform.

“The moment that I began to view demos, I could instantly tell that the relationship was going to be one that I was looking for,” says Kavic regarding her seamless implementation experience. 

The scheduling and time and attendance capabilities of Workforce.com provide Kavic the transparency she needs to control all her labor costs and keep her teams on budget. Integrating with both the Storm’s payroll and POS systems, Workforce.com gives extremely detailed insight into valuable cash flow and staffing metrics across all businesses operating within the stadium. 

RESULTS

With Workforce.com, Kavic can now manage her labor costs and cash flows efficiently, ensuring more time is invested into cultivating the best experience for fans on game day. Here are some of the specific ways in which Kavic benefits from the software:

Teams stick to their budgets

“The ability to create many different teams, the ability to break down the departments as much as possible, is extremely important,” states Kavic concerning the six distinct team locations she has set up within the new system. With them in place, the multi-entity structure of the Storm becomes much simpler to handle. Kavic can make sure team managers stay on budget now with the ability to break down labor costs by team, by week, and even by individual. This clarity allows her to pinpoint overspending issues wherever present.  

Cashflow projections are more accurate than ever

With POS system integration, projecting cashflows is simple and accurate. Now with one click, Kavic can view digestible reports and metrics that provide insight into key financial details. 

“We’re able to go as deep as looking at how much revenue our four top servers are bringing in and how much the labor costs are specific to those four top servers. So [Workforce.com] really gives us the ability to dive deep into individual revenue and labor costs.”

Error-free payroll

Workforce.com calculates the cost of shifts according to respective locations and minimum wage and overtime rules. There is no manual data entry and no human errors, meaning no more expensive errors while verifying payroll. 

“One of the reasons that Workforce.com definitely stood out to me was the ease of payroll export … I wanted to press a button and it was miraculous,” says a beaming Kavic. 

Staying compliant with wage and hour laws

Workforce.com ensures labor compliance by automatically scheduling breaks and calculating overtime rates that meet regional legal requirements. With these features, Kavic can quickly address potential labor violations and avoid costly penalties. 

Scheduling based on expected demand

With POS integration, all sales numbers are reflected in Workforce.com, allowing Kavic to easily staff based on historic demand. This cost-effective scheduling optimizes the Storm’s workforce, ensuring the correct number of employees are working at the right time, day, and place.

With all of these staffing tools and capabilities at her fingertips, Kavic believes the Storm now functions better than ever. “Without Workforce.com, we could not do what we do best, and that’s entertain the community. I can’t imagine why another CFO wouldn’t utilize Workforce.com … it feels like I’ve got another employee.” 

Success is about more than simply on-field performance for a minor league baseball team. Kavic and the Storm understand this; they enjoy strong support from a thoroughly entertained community as a result. 

 

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Rococo Chocolates makes day to day operations more efficient with Workforce.com

“I could create a schedule for a month in less than an hour, which is something that will take me a whole afternoon in my past jobs,” said Stephen Jaundrill, Manager at Rococo Chocolates, about using Workforce.com. 

Rococo Chocolates is a shop of fine and luxury chocolates in London. They are known for employing only the highest standards of chocolate craftsmanship. To sustain their growth and quality of product and customer service, they need to have an effective workforce management solution to manage their five stores in London. 

Easiest scheduling system to work with

Employee schedules are the core of any operation, but it can be tedious and prone to error when done manually or on an insufficient system. But it’s not an issue for Rococo Chocolates when they started using Workforce.com. 

“The scheduling side of Workforce.com is the easiest system I’ve ever worked with because you can drag and drop shifts. You can create templates for each store,” shared Jaundrill. Scheduling around holidays, leave, and unavailability is also simple as the platform can autofill shifts with available staff. “In effect, it’s doing the work that I should be doing manually. It’s saving me so much time,” he added. 

Working around your labor budget is also simple and intuitive with the platform. Workforce.com enabled the team at Rococo Chocolates to see schedules in monthly and weekly views which greatly helped with managing their costs. “So you can check your total hours each week and how much of your payroll budget is coming out,” Jaundrill added.

Simple and efficient for staff

The success of rolling out a workforce management system is how it is easy for employees to use. The staff at Rococo Chocolates love Workforce.com because it’s simple and provides them transparency about their shifts. “The staff feedback I’ve had regarding the Workforce.com app has been really positive. They find it easy to use. It’s nice that it doesn’t just show their shift, but allows them to see who they’re working with on any particular day,” Jaundrill shared. 

Timely and effective product support

After sales support is also a crucial part of using software solutions for any organization. Implementing a workforce management platform for a business involves getting assistance with using the platform, especially when issues arise and updates are released.

“When we deal with certain issues, we need a response within an hour or so, and when support comes, the staff (at Workforce.com) is really helpful. Generally, any request that I’ve had has never been left unresolved,” said Jaundrill.

Technology is vital for businesses, not just in automating tedious tasks, but also with providing them insights to run their operations better. That’s what Workforce.com does with Rococo Chocolates.

If you want to know more about Workforce.com, book a demo or start a free trial.

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Workforce.com Awarded Domino’s Operations Partner of the Year

Workforce.com is excited to announce that it has been awarded Business Partner of the Year (Operational Support) by Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited (DPE) at its annual Business Partner Awards.

Rachael Keech, DPE’s Head of Operations Innovation, said labor management is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses today.

“The rate at which Workforce.com has worked to adapt and innovate is outstanding. They think outside the box and provide innovative operational solutions.”

This award recognizes Workforce.com’s commitment to developing a world-first workforce management platform that continues to meet the evolving requirements of smarter labor planning, analytics, and the employee experience.

Rory Broadbridge, Strategic Account Manager at Workforce, said solving any workforce management problem requires an operational-first approach.

“At Workforce.com we value feedback from the frontline and build solutions that are compliant but also operationally innovative.

“Whether it’s scheduling the right employees to meet customer demand or compliantly employing part time employees, our partnership with Domino’s has always focused on providing technical solutions that empower franchisees and employees.”

Also read: How Domino’s Israel saved 25,000 hours and increased employee productivity by 11%

Workforce.com was implemented across DPE’s Australian and New Zealand markets in 2016, providing scheduling, wage compliance as well as time and attendance for over 800 stores.

Today, DPE’s stores across Europe, in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Israel and Belgium also leverage the workforce management platform to drive smarter scheduling and labor management decisions.

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Ferguson Plarre saves over $100,000 a year using Auto-Scheduling

Ferguson Plarre, Workforce.com, retail, scheduling

Ferguson Plarre is one of the longest standing and most renowned producers of hand baked goods. The family-owned business has a rich history of providing customers with sweets and savories since the 1800s. 

The company faced a number of workforce challenges such as difficulty navigating excessive amounts of administration and spending on overtime due to scheduling inefficiencies. 

Since finding Workforce.com, Ferguson Plarre has seen great success in improving day-to-day operations and employee satisfaction. “It has just freed up so much time for my leaders to be able to actually focus on the projects that make us money and are better for the business, rather than sitting there putting spreadsheets together, trying to figure out what labor is going to cost,” said Chris Tankard, culture and human resources manager at Ferguson Plarre.

$100,000 saved on wage spend, hundreds of hours saved on administration

After implementing Workforce.com, the company saved $100,000 on wage spend and reduced hundreds of hours in administrative work. They saved the equivalent of two full-time staff members when it comes to cutting of administration across production, scheduling and reporting. These valuable savings allowed them to reallocate their resources to other more valuable areas of the business. 

Following their implementation of Workforce.com, Ferguson Plarre has adopted a highly optimized scheduling process, allowing them to accommodate for the constantly shifting demand for their products, significantly reducing the time spent maintaining staff schedules, absences and staffing costs.

How legacy systems and processes can dramatically hinder success

Ferguson Plarre is committed to delivering freshly baked goods to its stores. With a staff of more than 150 employees, their goal is to provide the best quality products while catering for constant shifts in their day-to-day sales. As such, they require a staff management system that can optimize their schedule according to demand data. 

Previous systems used at Ferguson Plarre failed to achieve the results they needed to achieve their business mission. Their previous scheduling software was a platform that employees throughout the company avoided. Staff were reluctant to use it due to issues with reliability. Meanwhile, the managerial team found a great deal of effort was required to make basic adjustments to staff schedules, pay rates and documents. 

Not having access to the tools they needed led to higher staffing costs, frustrated staff and the inability to dedicate time and energy to areas of the business that add value. As a result, the company was left with significant sunk costs in a system that didn’t give them outcomes and satisfaction in return.

Implementing a system that helps your business grow

Tankard set out to find a user-friendly system that would be eagerly adopted by his team, a solution that would allow his frontline staff to start thinking like business owners. Finding a great system functions more like a partnership than a service, especially when it comes to managing areas of the business as important as your employees.

Here’s how the team at Workforce.com works with Ferguson Plarre to manage and improve their operations and business:

Auto-scheduling software

  • Ferguson Plarre uses Workforce.com’s automated scheduling platform to create more efficient shifts for their staff.
  • Scheduling according to demand allows Ferguson Plarre to schedule staff on a room-by-room basis, ensuring they never over- or under-staff stations.
  • The shift swapping software lets staff easily request altered schedules, reducing the time managers spent maintaining it. It also helps protect the bottom line as the platform shows how much swaps will cost.
  • Auto-scheduling ensures that Ferguson Plarre keeps unnecessary overtime to a minimum, reducing staffing costs across the company.

Digital timesheets

  • Automatic timesheet generation means Ferguson Plarre can generate and approve accurately costed timesheets in bulk each pay period.
  • Timesheet software automatically flagged any variance in wage spend, aiding Tankard and the team in adhering to their budgeting KPIs.
  • Workforce.com’s timesheet software synced to Ferguson Plarre’s payroll system, allowing them to export the data without any manual entry each pay period, significantly reducing the required labor hours.

Reporting

  • Workforce.com’s dashboards and reporting suite means Tankard and the team could access valuable workforce metrics and modify their business practices for efficiency.
  • Digital reporting and storage means Ferguson Plarre can easily access historical reports and monitor their performance over time.

Compliance

  • Workforce.com’s labor compliance engine applies the correct pay rates, overtime, and allowances to completed shifts, eliminating the need to manually calculate pay rates and amend timesheets.

Thorough implementation guarantees a fast return on investment

Business tools only begin to return benefits when they are implemented quickly and adopted fully across the company. It’s not uncommon to find businesses adopting newer and better processes, only to be caught in the implementation stage, receiving fractional value for an extended period of time. For Ferguson Plarre, a gold standard implementation process was imperative.

Workforce.com assigned a dedicated implementation consultant to Ferguson Plarre. This ensures that the implementation would run smoothly, so they could start getting value from the system as soon as possible. Workforce.com assisted Tankard and his team through the setup, integrating their existing systems into Workforce.com and ensuring that staff knew how to use the system. 

Simplifying the administrative processes to focus on creating value

Workforce.com provides Ferguson Plarre with greatly simplified administrative processes, allowing them to focus on the things that matter. 

Moving forward, Ferguson Plarre will continue to build on its rich history and continue to delight customers. As the business landscape continues to shift, they are well-equipped to face these changes because they have a platform that enables them to be agile and make data-driven decisions. 

Workforce management has a lot of moving parts, but it doesn’t have to be a burden. Workforce.com can take out the administrative side of managing your team so you can focus more on growing your business. See our platform in action and book a demo today.