Challenge
The Original Factory Shop was established in 1969 and is one of the fastest growing retailers in the UK with over 210 stores across the country.
The Factory Shop implemented RAPID in 2014 with the objective of achieving “brilliantly simple store operations” by providing a one-stop information shop to combine diaries, emails, actions, contacts and new information in one place.
Caroline Welch, retail operations manager, had a vision to extend the use of RAPID for HR, rotas, timesheets, payroll processing and labour budget reporting.
Solution
The Factory Shop was impressed by RAPID’s simple and fool-proof user interface for entering staff rotas which enables the comparison of staff costs to the store budget at the planning stage. Adjustments to rotas are entered to produce variance reports and data is exported directly to Payroll ensuring accuracy and reducing effort and elapsed time.
RAPID’s flexible Forms Designer allows staff starter, leaver and changes forms to be tailored specifically to The Factory Shop’s requirements. Workflow functionality ensures that the relevant head office department is immediately alerted to any required action.
Results
RAPID HR & Timesheets created an immediate impact at The Factory Shop including:
- Simplicity and robustness in planning rotas and recording timesheets
- Simple forms and workflows for HR processes including starters, leavers and changes
- Store managers are alerted to potential overspends at the planning stage
- Reports of labour costs compared to budgets are available immediately the week is completed
- Forecasts of labour costs are visible throughout the organisation
- Data is exported in the correct format for importing into the payroll system
The Factory Shop was particularly impressed with the proactive advice and efficient support it received from Rapid Answers, and RAPID’s easy-to-use rota entry means that store managers can prepare rotas in about 10% of the time it used to take.
“RAPID has met the objective of achieving brilliantly simple HR & Timesheet processing, has freed up store managers’ time and has significantly improved the control we have over our labour costs.”
Caroline Welch, The Factory Shop Retail Operations Manager