Bedern Hall has been tucked away in the backstreets of York since the 14th century. Following a cultural recovery grant from the Heritage Lottery, post-COVID, this medieval hall transitioned into a Community Interest Company (C.I.C.). It is now open as a non-profit small heritage attraction (a Grade II listing, in fact!), offering a café, kitchen, and memorable event space for weddings, meetings, and dining.

The challenge

Bedern Hall used spreadsheets for their schedules, which got lost or forgotten when emailed to the team. Even with follow-up text messages, this process wasn’t effective and led to lots of chasing, finding extra staff, and even reinventing their processes.

Roger Lee, CEO of Bedern Hall, would provide the desired staffing levels and Elly, the hall manager, was in charge of setting them. However, they found themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. The information was easy to distribute; it was knowing if it had been received that wasn’t clear-cut.

Also, when it came to last-minute events (which there were a lot of), it was a scramble to find more staff. Even with a small team of 5, most were casual staff and volunteers, so it was a struggle to keep in touch with them to schedule them when they were needed.

Roger and Elly would question how many people would even turn up to shifts but didn’t want to overcompensate and potentially be overstaffed for events - while, equally, making sure the team had a fair share of shifts.

“You've got to be fair to let [staff] know what shifts and what pay is likely that month. But that in itself brought problems because you'd have to be constantly revising those estimates as the event got nearer and the numbers changed.”

Continuing with their, in Roger’s words, ‘old fashioned means’ would have proved more challenging as time went on - especially when the directors are volunteers themselves. “We’re all giving our time for free. And the easier life can be, the better, really.”

With so much on his plate and these inefficiencies proving too much, Roger wanted something that would take these uncertainties from him. So, he took to searching for an online solution.

The solution

Roger began his search for a solution and first felt drawn to RotaCloud as a fellow York-based company.

“I was just quite intrigued… This was a business local to York that was providing these great services to all sorts of industries, not just hospitality.”

He gave the trial a whirl in 2017 and, well, he hasn’t looked back.

“RotaCloud has given us a different shift in how we are working. We don't have to worry too much about the operational side of things, but it's there before us on the screen.”

There’s more certainty on staffing - and Roger doesn’t even need to involve himself anymore. Staffing is entirely left to Elly, as well as holidays and acknowledgements, and she has greater involvement as a whole. Meanwhile, the directors can focus on the ‘back office’ side of the business like payroll, timekeeping, and entitlements.

“We can see exactly what's going on. And that in itself provides useful information about staffing patterns and attendance. But crucially, you know, we're seeing not only the hours but we're seeing the pounds, which is really instructive.”

However, actually knowing whether shifts have been seen and acknowledged by staff through the mobile app is one of the biggest benefits.

“You just have that flexibility and immediacy of being able to see who's available, who's not available and send and receive a fairly instant reply.

“There's a certainty now. We know that people have seen and acknowledged shifts, and there is a flexibility about it. And there's an empowerment to staff in a way because, if we're using Time & Attendance, they've got the ability to, you know, control their own ins and outs and so on. So that's a positive.”

Another positive? Roger had plenty to say about RotaCloud’s support.

“One thing I really do like about it is the staff. You know, you go online, you go in the chat and there's always somebody there. It's usually the same people, so you get to know a few of them and you know that they're constantly providing you with solutions and ideas and help. So, for a small business, that's just like having an extra back office person.”

As if being a customer since 2017 wasn’t enough, Roger ended with, “I would certainly recommend RotaCloud to other hospitality businesses. And, in fact, I did so just this morning.”

Thank you, Roger! Here’s to even more years to come.