“We immediately saw additional opportunities to improve our schedule building and editing as well as our-shift filling processes”
With a team of six work groups, two recreation centres, and a total of 230 staff, the scheduling needs of one BC city’s parks and recreation department were, to say the least, complex.
The recreation manager and management team were regularly faced with shifts being dropped unexpectedly. Filling shifts that were mere hours away from their start time forced schedulers to resort to calling staff until they found suitable replacements.
This problem alone could consume up to two hours of staff time for every vacant shift. And with 230 staff, there were a lot of vacant shifts—on top of the rec centre’s already complex staffing needs.
When they found RecStaff, a cloud-based staff scheduling solution designed specifically for the Parks and Rec industry, they were able to revolutionize their entire scheduling strategy—saving over 20 hours of scheduling time on call-outs every week.
The Challenge
Getting shifts covered was a constant struggle for the two busy recreation centres. With a large team, sudden changes in staff availability often led to empty shifts that schedulers struggled to fill.
“Originally, we were looking for a tool to help us replace the manual phone calls staff had to make to try and fill vacant shifts,” explained the Recreation Manager. “With 230 staff altogether, it could take up to two hours of phoning to fill just one vacant shift.”
In these emergency situations, call-outs were the team’s only option when they were left without coverage at the last minute. This was a huge task with such a large roster—often staff were spending hours of their shift making dozens of phone calls in hopes of finding someone who could come to work.
We wanted to automate the process to make more efficient use of staff time and reduce the number of times staff were getting called each week. They were tired of their phones constantly ringing due to vacant shift calls.
The team initially thought the solution was an auto-dialer—a product that would make these phone calls automatically so scheduling staff were no longer wasting hours of their day on the phone. But when they reached out to RecStaff, they discovered a much more comprehensive solution.
The Solution
During the demo with the RecStaff team, they learned that staff could post and pick up shifts from their desktop, tablet, or phone—with as much or as little scheduler involvement as desired. No more panicked, last-minute phone calls trying to find someone to fill a shift.
In essence, RecStaff could take over the entire process of ensuring shifts were filled at both rec centres.
The hours spent on communication and filling of vacant shifts have reduced at least 20 hours/week across the work groups.
Keep your team updated with reminders and notifications
21,924
Number of automated text messages RecStaff sent on behalf of the city’s recreation centres in one year
28,026
Number of automated email messages RecStaff sent on behalf of the city’s recreation centres in one year
Everyone was impressed by the power of RecStaff’s communication module, with its ability to send out reminders and notifications that far surpassed their need for shift coverage. With the most comprehensive communication module on the market, the management team could depend on RecStaff to keep everyone on the same page by handling the large number of important reminders sent via text and email to staff daily.
The team could now rely on RecStaff to send:
- Notifications of new shifts
- Employee shift reminders
- Notifications for urgently needed shift coverage
- Management shift and scheduling changes
- Direct messaging from managers to all staff as needed, from their specialized module
- Notifications to staff when their credentials are about to expire, starting 180 days before the expiry date
- Timesheet alerts and reviews
When a shift in need of staff has been successfully covered, RecStaff sends out multiple notifications automatically:
- Employee awarded shift is notified
- Employees who requested but didn’t get the shift are notified
- Employee who originally posted the shift is notified that it has been covered
The Results
Today, both Recreation Centres have been using RecStaff for over two years.
Perhaps the most compelling evidence for the ease of use of the new system is that some staff have started picking up more shifts than ever before. The rec manager explains, “We’ve had some staff who hadn’t worked in a while. But when the new notifications started arriving through RecStaff, they thought it was pretty neat, and they started working with us again!”
This city is lucky to have a diligent and results-oriented manager who carefully tracks how staff hours and organizational funding is allocated. They recognize that RecStaff has helped streamline other staff management and scheduling processes which have saved the management teams at both recreation centres a significant amount of time and energy.
“Definitely, staff are happier… there’s less confusion — they get the updates via text instantly, allowing them to respond much faster and see their shifts on their phones. Because of RecStaff, scheduling errors have been reduced, or even eliminated.
Eliminated double booking and unnecessary overtime
Intuitive schedule building allows departments to share staff and let schedulers know staff’s availability for each shift removing the possibility of double booking and accruing avoidable overtime.
Let staff know what they’re doing during a shift
RecStaff’s work assignment feature means that managers can let staff know what job duties they’re expected to take care of during their shifts, even when managers aren’t present. This helps keep staff on task and the rec centres running smoothly.
Tracking Credentials
Staff’s credentials, such as National Lifeguard or First Aid certifications, no longer expire unexpectedly thanks to RecStaff’s automatic reminders and let schedulers know when assigning a shift of any potential credential issues.
Reporting
RecStaff is the book of record making it easy to see who has agreed to work which hours and when. Reporting and time-tracking features help the City plan yearly budgets and make sure they are complying with union rules.
Timesheets & Payroll
RecStaff makes sure staff timesheets are accurate and can accommodate even the most complex pay schemes. Payroll integration eliminates the need for manually calculating and adding timesheet data into your payroll system.
Designed for easy onboarding
Adapting to a new tool can be challenging. RecStaff knows recreation centres are made up of multiple departments, each with unique scheduling needs who are already swamped with their own work, so easy onboarding and comprehensive training is an integral part of our product.