24 October 2019 - 4 min read
Amelia Andrews
Customer Success Manager
Having worked closely with our customers over the years to make sure they’re getting the most out of Rotaready, I often find there are a number of features they just didn’t know were there. And that’s exactly why I decided to write this blog. I hope you find it useful and it helps you discover more about our awesome product.
Have you ever had one or two shifts left to fill and spent far too long digging around to find someone to fill them? Rotaready takes care of this for you. Our automatic rota building algorithm takes into account everything from staff holiday and skillset to upcoming shifts and availability. It then uses this intel to suggest who can fill empty shifts.
Shift swap is a feature that allows employees to swap shifts with a colleague via the mobile app if they’re unable to work one they’ve already been assigned, but don’t want to lose the hours.
This works by the staff member proposing which shift they would like to swap, and what days they would be happy to work in exchange. Eligible employees are then notified of this request and if they are happy to offer up one of their shifts in return, they can accept the swap. Management would then be notified so they can approve or reject the proposed shift swap.
If no colleagues accept the shift swap, or the manager rejects the request, the originally scheduled member of staff will have to keep the shift and remain responsible to work it.
Shift broadcast allows you to call people in at the last minute when you urgently require extra staff. This may occur when staff call in sick, or the day is looking a lot busier than planned!
You can notify all members of staff who are not scheduled to work, or select only those who possess the skills/attributes required to undertake the shift. You can also specify the maximum number of extra people you need. Staff who accept the shift broadcast will be assigned on a first come, first served basis, and the manager who initiated the broadcast will be notified of who’s coming in.
This one is exactly what it says on the tin. Any changes you make to your published rota will be updated across the board in real-time; so that no one is ever misinformed. Any staff that are affected by the changes will receive automatic notifications, so everyone is kept in the loop.
We don’t try to be an expert at everything. We specialise in what we do best and leave the rest to our partners. However, we know how important it is for all of your workforce management solutions to talk to one another. That’s why we integrate in real-time with everything from payroll and HR to EPOS and booking systems. And all for free!
We let you and your staff choose how you clock in and out. Clock-in using the mobile app based on your location, entering a PIN on a registered device on-site or even having a quick snap taken of you. You decide what works best for you & your staff!
HQ site overview is your place to view key information for all of your sites. This includes whether each site has a rota published for the week; if they have any outstanding issues; a comparison of scheduled attendance vs. real-time attendance and full visibility of exactly who is clocked in at any given moment.
This means you can get the full down-low on exactly what’s going on at each and every site. And all in one simple view!
The Rotaready staffing profile gives managers a visual representation of exactly how many staff are working at different times of the day. If you want to schedule your staff based on how many you need on the floor at different times of the day, this is the place to be! For those who integrate with a reservation system, your bookings and covers will appear on the staffing profile too; allowing you to quickly schedule to demand.
The way we display wage costs is more than just everyone’s basic pay added together. We display gross wage costs, which means that all costs associated with staff labour are accounted for and there are no nasty surprises at the end of the month. Rotaready automatically takes into account ‘sanitised’ time and attendance data, special pay rates, local taxes and holiday pay. Any wage uplifts that your organisation may apply, such as staff pensions, are also accounted for. This way, your Rotaready wage figures will be as accurate as payroll at the end of the month! And you’ll have full visibility over what your payroll costs will be before month-end.
If you’re creating a Rotaready account for a new employee who has similar attributes to an existing employee, such as contractual or pay details, you can save yourself some time by copying an existing account.
This feature comes into play where workers aren’t ‘known’. For example, where external agencies such as cleaning or security are used but you still want visibility of their shifts on your rota and the costs they’ll incur.
Outsourcing allows you to add arbitrary workers (and their shifts) to your rota without needing to create Rotaready employee accounts for them. This also means you can include any costs associated with them in your total wages and hourly figures.
Overtime rules allow you to set up multiple pay rates per employee and create rules for when different pay rates should apply. If your staff have more than one pay rate (such as ‘overtime’, or different pay rates for different shift types), you can define exactly what the rates are by adding multiple pay types per individual. You are then able to create rules which define the scenarios in which the different pay rates should be considered (e.g. on bank holidays or after a certain time).
This little known feature can be particularly useful for comparing wage spend year on year, month on month, week on week, etc. By giving you a live overview of wages and attendance data you can make accurate comparisons of your real-time sales, wages and hours to any previous year, month, or week.
Rotaready’s budgeting feature gives you the ability to record and track your costs against your budget. By setting a budget at the start of each year, month or week you can view these targets alongside live hours and costs when scheduling your staff rotas. This way you can be sure you are keeping within your budget when planning upcoming staff schedules.
And that’s a wrap. If you’re a current customer then look out for our next month’s webinar on ‘Rotaready hidden gems’ where we’ll show you our lesser known features in action and open the floor to a Q&A. If you don’t currently work with us but would like more information, email us at team@rotaready.com or drop us a message via the live chat!
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