Cresci Pizzeria has been serving perfect slices of authentic, award-winning Neapolitan pizza to the people of York since 2020 - and shows no signs of slowing down.

The challenge

Before Daniele joined Cresci as Operations Manager, the team’s rotas were created on spreadsheets and shared through WhatsApp. Staff availability was noted in a calendar. The two founders, Armando Imparato and Berardo Caggiano, sat down whenever they had spare time to work on the rota for the following week - which always fell on Sunday evenings.

“The team was upset because they were receiving the rota last minute, so they couldn't plan anything in their week,” Danielle said.

To create next week's rota, co-founder Berardo needed a second screen or piece of paper listing every staff member’s availability. This proved time-consuming and involved too much human error, especially given the pressures of a busy day and last-minute planning.

“You miss things because we are human,” Daniele said. “You might forget something. There is no track of, for example, if some more members of the team are on holiday. So you could actually have 2 or 3 members of the team on holiday at the same time, without even realising.”

In addition to working the kitchen and floor, Berardo also managed administrative tasks, such as juggling rotas, emails, staff management, and annual leave. As Cresci grew busier, he needed someone to support him.

So, enter Daniele Currò, Head of Operations - who brought RotaCloud with him.

The solution

Having used RotaCloud in his previous role, it didn’t take much for Daniele to convince Armando and Beradro to adopt it, too.

Now, instead of building and sharing the rota on Sunday night, Daniele publishes it at least two weeks in advance - which, after the first one was published this way, certainly shocked staff! Alongside the visibility for staff to check shifts any time on the app, “the team is much happier to receive the rota quicker, more in advance,” Daniele said.

But creating the rota much further in advance doesn’t mean they can’t make changes - “Because you can! Things in life, you know, can happen. But at least the backbone of the rota is there… It is much more efficient and faster.”

The rota-planning process is far more fluid and relaxed now, too.

“I start on Monday and I can finish on Wednesday. So, you don't need to sit for an hour [to build the rota]... I don't find that very useful.” Instead, Daniele adds the shifts he knows he’ll need for certain days for the kitchen and floor and comes back to add to it, knowing that, by Wednesday, the rota will be done.

Daniele can even choose whether to plan and publish shifts a day (or single shift) at a time or all together in one rota. Either way, staff receive notifications when the rota is published or updated on the app. RotaCloud’s availability feature helps him a lot with this.

“You have the RotaCloud plan and basically you have all the green or red dots and you see who is available and who’s not. And I usually start [the rota] when there is a day that more people are unavailable. I usually start with that day building the rota, and then I work from that.”

By using the availabilty feature, Daniele feels that the team works with him on the rota rather than sitting on just his shoulders. Especially with the mix of part-time and full-time staff, from university students working only a couple of shifts a week to the owners putting in many hours across the kitchen and floor, not needing to cross-reference or remember each person’s availability takes away the manual input from Daniele.

“Every member of the team has access to RotaCloud, so on the app they can just go and put their availability. They can decide to be available all day, unavailable all day, or in an arrange of hours. And I've asked them to do this to make my life, you know, easier as well.

“It’s not only one person’s responsibility but is a little bit of shared responsibility because it's more fluid, because people are doing their availability. You can easily use the two, three hours of your time putting [in] everyone's availability and holiday, while I think [RotaCloud] gives the power to the team as well… to take charge of their own time.”

While Daniele has named fluidity, the ability to build and publish shifts on different days, as his favourite thing about Rotacloud, the availability tool has come a close second.

“[It’s] why I started using RotaCloud. Because you have the possibility to have every single person with their availability - when they can work and when they can’t work - and that makes the whole plan much easier… You have everything in one single screen, and you can plan the rota very easily.”

Another useful tool Daniele praised was holiday management, from staff visibility to leave rules.

“We can't afford to have two people on holiday at the same time, so [staff] can see that, and the app won't allow them to ask for holiday for that. Because the team is small and it can really affect the business if we have, you know, two people from the team on holiday at the same time. So that is another great feature.”

As a whole, Daniele (and Cresci) recommends RotaCloud.

“I would recommend RotaCloud to other businesses because I think, at the end of the day, whoever plans the rota in hospitality - well, in general… there shouldn't be worrying about doing the rota because it should be a seamless process. And I think this is what RotaCloud did.”

With RotaCloud’s flexibility, availability, and holiday management combined, Cresci works far more efficiently with staff’s input. The rota doesn’t solely sit on one person’s shoulders and the team can feel more in control of when they work (and their lives!).

That’s quite the change from rotas shared on Sunday evenings - a change Cresci staff will certainly agree is for the better!