Restricted content
You need to Register for free, or Login to view this content.
Go back to standard content
The Beautiful Pubs Collective
Case Study
The Beautiful Pubs Collective
Company Name: The Beautiful Pubs Collective
Business Type: Multi Site
Date: April 2024
.png%3fformat%3d1500w&ehk=mg23ZHr%2bRRXmjtfJepqFOJ0KrDlVgpnWUSEMcyanqGI%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)
Beautiful Pubs Overview
The Beautiful Pubs Collective partnered with S4labour towards the end of 2023. The Leicester-based business operates three sites: Knight & Garter, The Forge Inn and Rutland & Derby, all offering great food, drink and service.
With over 90 team members and three very busy sites, Beautiful Pubs wanted a solution that could help them schedule their teams the most effectively to help save time and grow sales, without overspending on their labour budget.
“With effective deployment, we are able to match sales demand hour-by-hour, which means we do not overspend.”
Challenge
Before S4labour, the team at Beautiful Pubs were not using a workforce management system for their rotas, H.R. and payroll.
When it came to scheduling their teams, this meant that they were not always aware of their live spend, which sometimes led to unexpected labour costs.
Their employees were signing in and out on paper documents, meaning their recorded hours were not always accurate. In turn, this impacted labour costs and payroll at the end of every month.
Managers were being approached by staff members about absences, time off requests and holiday accrual in person, which was time-consuming and led to more admin.
What were they looking for in a solution?
When moving to S4labour, Beautiful Pubs were looking for a solution that could help them to streamline all their operational processes.
They wanted to be able to manage their labour in line with sales demand, to achieve excellent service and maximise sales across the business.
Results
Now using S4labour, everything they need to manage their teams to be their best, is in one easily accessible place.
With effective deployment, the team at Beautiful Pubs are able to match sales demand hour-by-hour so they aren’t overspending on their labour.
With S4 Manage, their manages have real-time in-hand control over the day-to-day running of each site. They can view and analyse site performance, and amend staff rotas as operational needs evolve, as well as record any absences with ease.
Using S4 Insights has given them collective visibility of forecasts, budgets and sales across all three sites.
Using the employee app, S4 Connect, has given their teams complete access to their rotas, including shift briefs, slack tasks and incentives for every day. Teams are able to see booked and accrued holiday, as well request future holidays and ‘not available’ shifts. Staff members also have access to all their personal information and documents, including contracts and RTW, all in one place.
Restricted content
You need to Register for free, or Login to view this content.
Go back to standard content
Restricted content
You need to Register for free, or Login to view this content.
Go back to standard content
March’s extra weekend helps boost hospitality sales
The latest sales data from S4labour has revealed that hospitality sales were up 11.6% overall in March, compared to the same month last year.
Outside of London, sales saw an increase of 13.4% year-on-year, ahead of the capital which saw a marginal uplift of 4.1%.
Across the country, sales in dry-led sites were up 12.4% and 10.2% in wet-led businesses.
Chief Growth Officer at S4labour, Richard Hartley, added: “This year, March was a five-weekend month and Easter was earlier, so March saw the trading of Good Friday and the rest of Easter weekend. As a result of the bank holiday and additional weekend, an increase was to be expected, albeit it is still a pleasant surprise to see them up by over 11%. The increase here, and in February (3.5%), are indicators of a promising start to 2024.”
Gardner garages
Case Study
How Gardner Garages manage labour cost using S4labour
Company Name: Gardner Garages
Business Type: Forecourt and convenience
Date: March 2024
Gardner Garages Overview
Gardner Garages joined S4labour almost a year ago. The forecourt business own and operate 6 petrol stations (Texaco and BP fuel) and one town centre convenience store, all with Londis and Budgens fascia.
Emma the Managing Director of Gardner Garages Limited has ran the business for over 25 years. Emma oversees the operations of the company, ensuring that the businesses run efficiently and cost effectively while ensuring they get the most sales and profit from their sites as they can.
“We wanted something that made running the business proactive rather than reactive and can address any concerns with labour costs with Managers before they become an issue. Since we have started using S4labour we have far more day-to-day control over labour costs as we can see all seven sites on one dashboard and act accordingly.”
Challenge
One of the major problems managers faced prior to using S4labour was that everything was done manually- rotas were produced on excel worksheets, printed out and displayed on the staff noticeboards. Payroll was manually processed using Sage, and was then imported into excel, which was then emailed across on payroll processing day. This made the process time consuming and often resulted in input errors.
Gardner Garages found communicating shifts confusing as they are subject to change, making it difficult to communicate over texts messages. Doing things manually and on spread sheets made it difficult to get real visibility over how much they were spending on labour. Since using S4labour the business can see fully costed rotas which includes holiday pay, NI etc and the system is the one version of the truth everyone can trust.
Solution & Benefits
With the introduction of S4labour, the team are more engaged with work as they can see their shifts on their phones at any time, there are no grey areas about start and finish times because time & attendance are automated. Employees can manage and requests on their phones when it is convenient, rather than during a shift. This makes tracking their actual hours worked a lot easier.
The holiday requests and management on the App has also been an extremely efficient and useful tool. This feature has helped with scheduling holidays and ensuring that the whole team can see holidays, which has resulted in a smoother operation of the business.
Most importantly this has helped the business avoid unexpected costs and ensures accurate payroll. Before S4labour Gardner Garages had never considered a system for payroll. An in-depth demonstration of the system helped them understand how it can the positive impact the overall working of the business.
Emma also commented “We talked to fellow retailers that had already implemented S4labour and who shared their positive experiences with us. The S4labour team were a great ambassador for the system and were excellent in supporting us in the early implementation stages”.
Results
Since making S4labour a part of their business, Gardner Garages has more time to prioritise customer satisfaction, as they have more time to focus on activities that generate profit rather than doing administrative work.
Emma further commented on how investing in S4labour has led to increased staff retention: “We have invested in our employees this year with the implementation of S4labour. The system has had a positive impact on our relationship with our employees as it has demonstrated greater engagement and efficiency for us all”.
Restricted content
You need to Register for free, or Login to view this content.
Go back to standard content
February brings 3.5% uplift to sales
The latest sales data from S4labour has revealed that hospitality sales were up 3.5% overall in February, compared to the same month last year.
This uplift was driven by sales in London, which saw an increase of 8.5% overall. Outside of the capital, overall sales were up 2.3% year-on-year.
Wet-led sites across the country saw a decline of 0.2%, however, dry-led sites were up 5.6%.
Chief Growth Officer at S4labour, Richard Hartley, commented: “This year being a leap year meant that there was an additional day of trading in February, which has played its part in the year-on-year increase, though it is not entirely responsible for the uplift.”
ACS Survey reports on retailers’ holiday management confidence
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.
Restricted content
You need to Register for free, or Login to view this content.
Go back to standard content
