In November last year, the results of the national ACS were announced, revealing that 71.5% of retailers reported that they feel “very confident” when it comes to managing their employees’ holiday.  

The survey, comprised of feedback from over 1100 convenience retailers, found that more than two thirds of respondents ranked their confidence in managing holidays highly. 

Another 17.0% of retailers expressed being “fairly confident”, underscoring a strong overall sense of assurance. 

In contrast, only 4.2% of respondents said they were “not at all confident”, 1.5% said they were “not very confident”, and 5.9% selected “don’t know”.  

Garry Craft, Managing Director of Convenience Stores at S4labour, commented: “These survey results are good, but it’s our goal to make even more retailers feel confident in the accuracy and compliance of their holiday management. We’ve found that a big part of this assurance comes from retailers knowing that the data they are giving to accountants or payroll software is correct to begin with. Some of the challenges that we’ve seen are retailers who are still calculating holiday on historic accrual rules, as well as those who do not have enough data to manage 52-week averages. Some are paying their employees based on expected hours, rather than actual hours worked, and are not working through complexities such as maternity and paternity rules.” 

With wage increases coming into effect from April 1st, now is the time for retailers to get ahead on cost management by using the right tools to scrutinise every aspect of their spending, which includes holiday management.  

S4labour provide rota, people and payroll management tools to convenience and forecourt operators, supporting the likes of Rav Garcha, PriceWatch, Gardner Garages and Midland Motor Fuels. The team will be attending The National Convenience Show from April 29th – May 1st to speak directly to retailers about how they can help them to manage their costs and grow profits.

Following success in the single-site market, S4labour have expanded into multisites and forecourt businesses, picking up Gardner Garages, PriceWatch and Midland Motor Fuels. Businesses can now oversee the performance of multiple sites on one screen and manage rota creation and communication, as well as holiday management and payroll.  

The end-to-end solution is designed to help operators manage rotas, payroll and HR across multiple stores, saving them time and money, as well as ensuring accuracy and compliance. The news comes after the company announced their partnership with Nisa Retail in September this year, which saw them working with multisite retailers, such as Rav Garcha and Siva Thievanayagam.  

Speaking about S4labour, Nisa retailer Siva Thievanayagam, commented: “Our people are now managed in one end-to-end process, making it easier to onboard, keep track of shifts and pay our teams accurately.” 

Garry Craft, Managing Director of Convenience Stores at S4labour, commented: “In the past year, we’ve begun working with single-site stores across the UK, as well as multisites and now, the forecourt industry too. We’ve seen our customers grow in size, and we’re thrilled to be able to support all of their stores. When Zola first started using S4labour, they had 6 stores, and now they are at 10.” 

Emma Gardner commented: “The implementation of S4labour made a big difference to our operational procedures at Gardner Garages. The speed of response and support whenever queries arose was great. Now, we’re not just saving time; we’re maximising efficiency and improving the way we work.” 

David Chapman, Pricewatch Compliance Manager, said of S4labour: “It’s unified all of the stores so we can see what’s going on. S4labour has given us the ability to see rotas and payroll much clearer across multi-sites, and from a compliance point of view, it’s given us consistency and accuracy in the data.” 

Paul Salvidge, Pricewatch, said: “As a petrol forecourt business with multiple sites, investing in S4labour has helped us to better manage our people, from rotas through to compliance and payroll, improving communication and simplifying operations for us.”