Streamlining operations with Deputy saved Dedes Waterfront Group 2–3 days per week on payroll, creating more time for customers

When searching for picture-perfect venues, it’s hard to find better than Dedes Waterfront Group. Founded in 1996 years ago by Con and Kerrie Dedes, the company boasts 10 stunning restaurant and event spaces along the waterfront that gives Sydney its nickname: the Harbour City.

These spaces offer a broad spectrum of experiences, from quick-service restaurants to casual dining, signature dining, and bespoke events.

Still, the organization is more than a collection of venues. Con, the managing director who handles big-picture strategy for the group, says their people make all the difference.

“You can have beautiful venues, but if you don’t have good people around you, then you don’t have a lot.”

To achieve their mission of creating unbelievable memories for its guests, Dedes first had to provide a high-quality work environment for staff and streamline operations across multiple venues.

Variety is one of Dedes Waterfront Group’s greatest strengths, and overseeing various services, such as dining, events, and weddings, requires different skill sets. Dedes had the right people in place, but optimizing workforce management processes across all locations wasn’t easy.

As the detail-oriented director handling backend operations, Kerrie vividly remembers what it was like to manage the company’s large hospitality workforce with their old system: “It was like the Dark Ages.”

With every department and venue operating independently, Kerrie marvels at the sheer effort it took to reconcile information and how little transparency she and Con had into the business.

“When I look back, I’m not sure how we operated to the scale we did, because everything was so manual and in silos. As managing directors, we couldn’t pull much of it together because we had to access different areas for information.”

Payroll was in one system, while venue rostering happened between Excel spreadsheets and a whiteboard. Other processes, from onboarding to timekeeping, relied on paper documents filed away in a storage room. Working this way meant every task could take hours. Processing weekly payroll, for example, took three to four days—time that could have been spent providing service to customers.

For all that work, Con and Kerrie had little insight into performance metrics or compliance with Australia’s complex hospitality industry regulations.

Everything changed around 2015, when Con and Kerrie discovered Deputy, an all-in-one platform that would streamline employee administration, from onboarding and rostering to time-tracking and team communication.

What initially drew Dedes to Deputy was its ease of use—both for administrators and for venue employees, who could access their schedule and time clock on their mobile devices.

Since then, Kerrie summarises Deputy’s impact on the business in three words: “accessibility, efficiency, transparency.”

A single point of truth

Information at Dedes used to be kept in departmental silos or paper files at the head office. “With Deputy, it’s all plugged into one spot—a single source of truth everybody can access from anywhere in the world,” Kerrie says.

“Deputy is almost a Facebook for employees,” she continues. It’s where team members get all the information they need, including alerts about uniform changes or special events that day. Being able to access this information via a mobile app is “second nature” to younger employees, Con adds, and it makes Dedes an attractive employer.

Every Dedes venue has its own Deputy account, which feeds into a group account. Gaining barrier-free access across the organization was revolutionary. “It changed everything,” Kerrie emphasises. “Being able to schedule on a platform that everybody could access, everybody could see, everybody could update, it made us far more flexible.”

For the first time, Kerrie and Con could step away for a few days without ever losing visibility into business activity. Even more importantly, they trust the information, so they worry less.

Enormous efficiency gains across the organization

The most powerful impact of having all this information available in one place is increased efficiency. “Deputy just makes life easy for everybody,” Kerrie shares. “It saves so much time, I can’t even exaggerate.”

The company started by using Deputy’s rostering and time-tracking features. “That one integration alone saved so much time,” Kerrie reiterates. It’s also smart: Deputy Scheduling automates rostering based on employee availability and skillset, and it also allows Dedes to share team members across venues.

The biggest change, however, was payroll. Where it used to take up to four days every week to collect and process venue timesheets, it now takes less than a day. “It’s unbelievable,” Kerrie says.

Delivering detailed business insights

Dedes migrated onboarding to Deputy, too. Because a team member’s profile contains all necessary information, Dedes shredded shelves upon shelves of paper files. Apart from saving space, the platform advises on labor compliance.

“Deputy navigates us through the different base rates and classifications,” Con says. “It’s so much easier on the back end.” Kerrie adds that the automated alerts help ensure accuracy across the board.

Tracking KPIs, such as roster costing, has also opened the door for valuable insights. Every venue manager and head chef now has a target KPI of roster cost to forward revenue, which they can follow in real time in Deputy.

“A venue manager’s given a KPI, and based on the forward revenue for that particular period, they know how much they can spend on rostering. “It’s a really powerful real-time tool that we use within Deputy,” Kerrie says.

Thinking long-term: Tech that lets people do their thing

In addition to greater insights and efficiency, Dedes has continued to rely on Deputy over the years because of the service. “Deputy can do it all,” Kerrie explains. “They never over-promise or under-deliver. It’s fantastic.”

As great as Dedes is on the back end, it’s also improved the experience for the people Con and Kerrie value so much. For some Dedes employees, that might mean easily requesting time off, having advance notice of important info, and work not invading their free time.

“One of the biggest, most lasting legacies that Kerrie and I are very proud of is our people,” Con says. “To have something like Deputy that can be such a natural adjunct to our team members is fantastic.”

Dedes will continue to incorporate even more Deputy features and integrations. Adopting the platform has given way to a trusted partnership that is a critical part of Dedes Waterfront Group’s long-term growth strategy.

“We’re using tech to the best of its ability so we can do our thing,” Con says. “And our thing at Dedes Waterfront Group is creating memories and experiences for our guests.”