Overview

Retailer Rav Garcha operates 4 convenience stores across the West Midlands. During busy seasons, the total number of employees in the business can reach 35, so keeping on top of all aspects of managing labour across the sites is critical.

Challenge

Before using S4labour, Rav relied on Google Sheets to rota staff and see what the week looked like, and scraps of paper to track holidays and sickness.

“We didn’t really have a structure for that. At the time, we didn’t think we had a problem because we weren’t aware of a solution that would encompass everything.” 

S4labour was the solution that brought everything together, with visibility of multiple sites and the right data in one place to help make the best scheduling decisions.  

“S4labour encompassed everything – you could have visibility, you could have multiple sites, you could have all the data in one place.”

Results 

Rav and his teams received two forms of training to learn how to use the S4labour software and implement the best practice habits on a daily basis: “We had online training and physical training that helped us understand what the solution was and how best to use it. Once we were up and running, any questions and problems were all handled by our account manager.” 

S4labour allows Rav to see rota costs upfront, including holiday and sick pay. This means that there are no surprises in payroll, and his team is paid accurately and on time. Visibility of sales also means that Rav can plan around forecasted sales, so he isn’t overspending on his labour. Overall, the solution helps Rav to save time and money managing rotas, people and payroll across all of his sites. 

Costcutter Overview

Winner of Convenience Chain of the Year in 2021, retailer Peter Patel has been trading as Zola Group for 15 years and under the Costcutter fascia for 5 years. He currently operates 6 convenience stores across the UK, with plans to open another four.

Challenge

Across his stores, Peter relied on a number of different systems which had its challenges. When it came to monitoring holiday entitlement, using a manual process meant it was a struggle for employees to know how much holiday they could take and how to book it in. Processing payslips was also an issue with the old systems, and it often meant that employees were not receiving them on time.

Solution & Benefits

Pete was looking for one system to encompass rotas and payroll and, as a multi-site operator, a product that could offer clear visibility across all of his stores. Getting an app-based solution was preferred, as this would ensure staff could request holiday, check rotas and view payslips in one place.

Finding a solution for payroll was a big priority, as Peter needed to be able to process payroll quickly and accurately across multiple stores.

SPAR Overview

SPAR Minster Lovell is a family business that was founded in 1937, and has been trading as a SPAR under their symbol group since 1991. The store’s Retail Director, Ian Lewis, has been involved in the business for 10 years, employing over 20 people.

Challenge

The SPAR store was using paper timesheets and rotas to turnover same-week pay, which did not come without complications. Lewis describes his Friday evenings before S4labour as chaotic, balancing an evening delivery and payroll with staff still in the store, which often led to payment delays.

Solution & Benefits

The ideal solution for the store was a digital time and attendance system, which could allow staff to tap-in and tap-out on a mobile device. This would ensure that staff were paid for the hours they actually worked, with no need for unnecessary admin hours. As well as this, Lewis wanted a way to make sure holiday entitlement was accurate, legal and compliant.

Warner’s Retail Overview

Warner’s Retail is an independently owned group of food stores, formerly known as Warner’s Budgens. Guy Warner has been running stores for over 15 years. The new supermarket in Upton-upon-Severn opened in May 2022.

Challenge

Before S4labour the team were using spread sheets and paper rotas which had an impact time, where managers could be using the time spent elsewhere. The team were spending far too much time chasing people for documents and rotas.

Historically, there where times where Guy would get to the end of the month and be a little shocked with how much they had spent on labour costs.

Solution & Benefits

Warner’s Retail needed a solution that could not only save time and make rota writing easy, but save in labour costs as well.

Warner’s Retail moved over to S4labour in 2022. When asked about the move, Guy said, “to be honest, I’m not quite sure how we worked without it.”