Retail

Aubainerie is a Québec clothing store chain. Its 59 locations throughout the province are home to more than 2600 employees.

Open during the day and the occasional evening, seven days a week, Aubainerie stores employ full- and part-time personnel of all ages. Three store owner Audrey manages the schedule for one location and oversees her two other store managers remotely.

Challenges Retailers Know All Too Well

Managing the schedules for her three Aubainerie stores was not always so easy for Audrey. The main culprit? A lackluster scheduling software she used to rely upon. The software’s many issues were not limited to its ease-of-use either; the tech support team would often take days to answer a single question.

Without a proper structure to track employee leaves, constraints, and availabilities, scheduling was quite the puzzle. Plus, Audrey and her managers did not have a way to record employee requests. This meant they had to work with scribbled notes scattered here and there.

For its part, the schedule verification process generated never-ending email chains. Every single schedule change meant a new file had to be sent to Audrey for approval. Any mistake then lead to a lot of unnecessary back and forth.

MacGyver-Style Communication

With no streamlined way of communicating with their employees, the managers simply improvised, often resorting to Facebook messages or hopeful phone calls. On top of being time-consuming, these informal means of communication were inadequate for keeping the employees in the loop.

The preferred way of sharing the schedule had long been to leave a copy on the kitchen table. Each schedule change then brought its share of problems: the managers had no way of knowing whether their employees were up to date or even aware of their weekly work hours. This is why they had to contact those concerned one by one.

Time-Wasting Timesheets

With her previous time clock software, filling out the timesheets manually was no simple task for Audrey. The two other store managers would call her and recite their employees’ work hours, which she had to quickly jot down. This approach was prone to retranscription and payroll errors that would ultimately annoy employees.

Centralizing to Better Manage

Since adopting Agendrix, Audrey gets to view and edit her three stores’ schedules as she pleases. No need to wait for managers to email files anymore; the schedules are all available online and always up-to-date.

Should Audrey run into issues, she knows she can always reach out to the Agendrix support team by phone or by chat for assistance in minutes.

With Agendrix, I could have my main store’s manager handle scheduling, but it’s so fun and easy that I’m keeping it for me!

Nowadays, Audrey spends 45 minutes only on her weekly schedules. Contrast this with the 3 hours she once needed. Scattered memos are a thing of the past: employee availabilities and constraints are all managed and centralized right in the app. This means fewer mistakes and less time spent on scheduling.

Replacements are easier to manage, too. Whenever an employee submit a request through the app, the relevant manager is notified and may then review and approve the request at their discretion. The changes are then transposed into the schedule automatically, and the employee concerned is in turn notified.

The Right Way to Communicate

Following the implementation of Agendrix, the schedule went fully online, meaning the employees can now always access it on their phone or computer. Young and old users alike got used to Agendrix in days and now enjoy having their work schedule at hand no matter where they are. Moreover, now that the schedule is updated the moment a manager modifies it, there’s no need to contact every single employee anymore.

We no longer have to use different tools to circulate information or announce scheduling changes. We do everything right in the app.

Communication-wise, Audrey now uses Agendrix’s internal chat instead of sending Facebook messages and wasting hours on the phone every week. The virtual news feed superseded the traditional pin board for information of general interest. Everything communication is now centralized in Agendrix.

The read confirmation functionality even lets Audrey monitor who checked their schedule and messages. She finds solace in being able to see whether her employees do see whatever information she sends in time.

Payroll Made Easy

Whenever an employee uses Agendrix to clock in on a tablet, their exact starting, break, and finishing times are recorded simultaneously in their timesheets. Audrey then simply reviews the information before exporting everything to payroll. No need to check and cross-check every single time entry; the software automatically highlights any discrepancy between the hours clocked and those scheduled. Wasted time and retranscription mistakes are gone.