Creating a flexible work environment with Deputy

Bloodwood is a community-focused restaurant and bar in Newtown, Sydney’s foodie capital. The food is bright, creative, eccentric and packed with flavour.

The restaurant makes use of smaller producers and sources local food wherever possible, offering an ever-changing menu designed around share plates and a standout drinks list to match.

Bloodwood has been operating for almost 10 years and has built a thriving, passionate and dedicated team.

Quality food, tasty drinks and great service are what attract people to a place like Bloodwood — but it’s the staff who keep the business flourishing.

Claire Van Vuuren was never big on technology. As the head chef and owner of Bloodwood, her focus was on creating delicious dishes and an unforgettable experience for her patrons.

“Up until four years ago we were a restaurant that didn’t take reservations,” she says. “That was something that we introduced as a result of technology changes and people making bookings on the go from their phone.”

Managing staff can be one of the more challenging aspects of being a business owner. For Ms Van Vuuren, being flexible with shifts while keeping track of rosters was becoming increasingly unmanageable.

“Being flexible is essential. You can’t expect a 20-year-old not to have a Saturday night off to see a show or go on a date with their partner,” she says.

“We used to use a notebook where staff would write their unavailability. It was old and tattered and a complete mess, with illegible dates scribbled through it. The manager was always flipping through it trying to put rosters together.”

Sometimes you don’t realise you have a problem until someone shows you the solution, and with Bloodwood this was certainly the case. Ms Van Vuuren was hesitant to change her process at first and enjoyed using notebooks and spreadsheets to run the business.

The idea of trying something new came from her restaurant manager, who had grown tired of flipping through notebooks and chasing staff for their availability.

“As soon as I tried Deputy, I realised how easy it was. I couldn’t believe that you could copy and paste each week, so I instantly created eight weeks’ worth of rosters. I was like ‘why didn’t I do this sooner?’”

One of the key benefits of using Deputy is the time it gives business owners and managers. It allows you to roster the right people, at the right times, across your business. You can easily fill shifts based on employee availability, training, cost, and your budget.

Managers can send rosters straight to their team and make sure they never miss an update. Rosters are published instantly from desktop or mobile with smart alerts and reminders - no more excuses for missing a shift!

The Deputy App keeps employees engaged and is perfect for businesses like Bloodwood who value flexibility. If someone calls in sick, a replacement can be found with just one tap — no phone calls required. Managers can also give staff the flexibility to swap shifts with suitable teammates quickly.

“It’s almost a joke when I think of how I would sit for hours working on rosters. It would take me a whole day to get a month of rosters done,” Ms Van Vuuren says.

“Now there are basically no more manual processes. The timesheets are fed directly into Xero, which makes payday a breeze for our bookkeeper.”

From syncing employee details from your HR platform for fast onboarding, to sending timesheets to your payroll software, Deputy’s rostering app seamlessly connects with a host of services to help bring efficiency into all areas of employee management admin.

Deputy is also integrated with your POS provider, allowing you to easily pull sales data into your schedule. With accurate demand data in Deputy, you can save even more administration time and reduce errors.