Pharmacy

Accès Pharma is a pharmacy banner dealing in several Walmart stores in Quebec. In total, there are 68 locations throughout the province.

The pharmacy has its own small management team tasked with handling the oft-variable work schedules of its clerks, cashiers, technicians, and pharmacists.

Important Challenges

As a pharmacist and owner, Alex Caron is both in charge of treating clients and managing his employees. In the past, Alex and his floor manager would create the schedules for the laboratory and the sales department respectively, which they would then email to one another. As such, each and every minor change took some time to make. Finding substitutes was particularly challenging. Between missed calls, ignored emails, and schedule changes, a substantial amount of time was wasted every month.

Stressful, Poor Communication

The schedule used to be relayed in two different ways. A printed version was permanently displayed at the pharmacy, and another was emailed out. This process was not without problems.

There were so many schedule changes to keep track of that maintaining that single up-to-date version was a real challenge.

Whenever changes have to be made to the schedule, a new version had to be printed out and emailed. However, Alex had no way of knowing whether the information would be seen in time. The potential management issues caused undue stress.

Timesheets and a Waste of Time

Before implementing Agendrix’s time clock, the employees were simply paid based on their scheduled work hours. The employees were responsible for writing down work time adjustments of about fifteen minutes on a sheet left in the kitchen. This process lacked accuracy, but Alex had little choice but to trust his employees.

Preparing the timesheets for payroll was anything but easy. Alex had to crosscheck several documents and go through a number of steps to do everything properly.

Managing Just Got Simple

Agendrix revolutionized how Alex handles scheduling. With all availability and constraints right in the app, he no longer has to juggle several documents and emails. The schedule is thus created faster and error-free. Scheduling is now so easy that Alex does it one month ahead of time instead of on a weekly basis.

In total, completing this task takes him a little less than ten minutes per week, which is seven times as fast before.

Better Communication, Stress-Free

The moment schedule changes are made, the employees concerned are sent a mobile push notification; Alex no longer has to spend so much time on the phone. Further, if an employee sees a mistake in the schedule, they can respond quickly by leaving a comment or using Agendrix’s built-in instant messaging tool. Changes can now be made in seconds and are reflected on the schedule automatically right after they’re published.

Schedule-related friction with my employees is no longer a thing, and instead of wasting time at work, they just send me their requests online.

Now that the schedule is always available and up-to-date in the app, it no longer has to be printed out. Employee replacements are also managed on the app. The employees can now plan and submit their own shift swap requests, which Alex then approves or declines. Agendrix sends a push notification to those concerned and updates the schedule accordingly.

To Payroll Posthaste

Agendrix’s time clock automatically transmits starting, break, and finishing times to the timesheets. The employees no longer have to record their work hours, and Alex simply validates the timesheets before exporting them to payroll. To make this even easier, Agendrix highlights the discrepancies between planned and clocked hours.

Ultimately, having to rewrite hours, and mistakes, are a thing of the past.