Dunsfold Village Shop is a community-owned shop with six members of paid staff and around 20 volunteers. The shop usually operates with two people on the premises at all times, normally one volunteer and one paid member of staff.

The challenge

The main challenge manager Gemma Versteeg faced before using RotaCloud was finding cover for when staff were away.

“Unlike large stores we don’t have lots of people around to step in,” she told us. “Before RotaCloud, I would spend a long time with Excel spreadsheets, doing the weekly rota and tracking holidays — this was made even trickier when staff wanted to switch shifts.”

The solution

“With RotaCloud, staff get notified of the rota and changes from their regular hours,“ Gemma told us. “Because the rotas are often a set pattern, I can copy and paste blocks of rotas.”

“Any shifts that need covering are put into the open shifts and they can be claimed. The staff can see what role they are covering and I have been able to set up my own job descriptions, so it helps them see what they are doing, as well as when I will be working from home or off-site.”

RotaCloud also helped Gemma keep track of employee requests for annual leave, streamlining the process and cutting down on the amount of admin she had to do.

“I love that staff only have one way to request holiday — through RotaCloud. Before, there would be phone calls, emails or even notes left on my desk. RotaCloud gives me the chance to cover the holiday before it is approved.”

RotaCloud’s shift-swapping system was also a big help.

“It gives the staff the ability to swap shifts with each other but asks for my authorisation, which just keeps me informed. I can then look at the staff hours each month using the reports function rather than working out manually how many hours they have all worked.”

And of course, the added time-savings were a bonus...

“RotaCloud has saved me so much time, plus because it is web-based I can keep it up to date with the odd five minutes when I get a chance.”