Cavendish Bakery is an independent craft bakery in Eastbourne. The business comprises two retail shops, a wholesale service and two lunch vans which go to businesses and customers at their workplace within a 20-mile radius. Their employees are based across two sites and fall into two broad categories: production staff and retail staff, all working different shifts according to their role and the changing staffing requirements of the business.

The challenge

Prior to implementing RotaCloud, staff rotas were created manually and displayed in designated staff areas in advance. Owner Mark Bennett told us about the problems he and his staff had encountered in the past.

“Apart from being generally time consuming to do, key issues included the complexities of manually checking holiday entitlement and ensuring individuals' requests for holiday time didn’t overlap with other staff in the same location or staff level, causing a shortage.”

Communicating rotas to the team was also a challenge.

“Staff would miss notification of their upcoming hours if they were absent since the rotas were only displayed in the bakery and staff areas,” Mark explained. “This meant they or their manager had to make contact before their return to work.”

The solution

Since switching to RotaCloud, Mark can relax, safe in the knowledge that his entire team are on the same page and always have the most up-to-date version of their rota.

“The automatic issue of rotas to staff by email has been a great bonus, enabling staff to check their hours 24/7 and outside of work,” Mark commented.

RotaCloud’s user-friendly interface has also been something of a bonus for Mark and his team.

“The system was easy to set up and it’s very easy to use, both from a staff perspective but also for the managers responsible for creating the rotas. It’s definitely helping us plan our staffing much more effectively and really saves us time.”