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Zarloc and Subway

Thursday 2nd September 2010 7:56am

THERE are about 90 staff working across six Subway restaurants on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.  Owner Jason Sandford-Bell was looking to gain control of a spiralling wages bill.

Having attempted a paper-based system and Excel spreadsheets to try to determine costs, Mr Sandford-Bell was no closer to an accurate forecast.

[Article by Jennifer Foreshew in The Australian online edition 31st August 2010]

"We were using a fairly complicated Excel spreadsheet, which was all done by the managers individually on the computer system at the stores," Mr Sandford-Bell said.

"One of the problems was it was taking a manager up to an hour to be able to get the roster correct because it was a fairly cumbersome way of doing it."

And there was no way of confirming if staff members were available for a shift other than what was written on an availability book. "It was quite slow and time-consuming, and it really just failed in its accuracy on a regular basis," he said.

Mr Sandford-Bell searched the internet, spoke to other franchisees, as well as head office group Subway Systems Australia, which recommended web-based employee scheduling and rostering solution Roster with ROSS. The program was developed by South Australian company & TIA member Zarloc.

"We started looking into it and did a trial run and it was immediately clear how successful it was compared with what we were doing, and how it would help longer-term."

Mr Sandford-Bell said the program was the most user-friendly for staff, with on-call and email support as well as systen training provided. It was rolled out across all six Subway stores about seven months ago.

"The staff can log on from anywhere, with their own log-on details, to put their availability down," he said. "They can view the roster online and they receive it via email."

Mr Sandford-Bell said store managers were able to see exactly what their roster costs would be for the week. "They put the percentage into the program that we want to achieve, they start allocating shifts, which are all hourly-based, because they have got the hourly rate for the staff member in, and it calculates an hourly cost, daily cost and then a weekly cost. It means we can hit a percentage very accurately, which we never used to be able to with the Excel spreadsheet."

Mr Sandford-Bell said the ROSS system could link with Subway's point-of-sale program.

"It gives you a guideline of how many staff you should have on -- so it helps you to roster your system based on your previous sales from the year before."

At the close of a week, ROSS exports time and attendance data to accounting packages. Mr Sandford-Bell said it now took a manager just three to five minutes to complete a roster, which was delivered via email and SMS.

He said the group was able to aim for a set percentage of 25 per cent of total sales per store collectively allocated to wages.

"Using this program, we can hit that percentage every week and we have shaved close to five to six per cent off our wage bill from this time last year," Mr Sandford-Bell said.

He expects to save between $90,000 and $130,000 in reduced wages for the year.

"A lot of our staff are Gen Y and they are really adept at being online and used to being on the internet, so this isn't a burden for them, they actually quite enjoy it," Mr Sandford-Bell said.

The ROSS system is priced per roster, with free upgrades. Mr Sandford-Bell pays about $7-$8 per weekly roster for six stores, plus an administration roster. He is invoiced monthly and pays up to $220 a month.

"Plus any little upgrades that we wanted they did for us, and they were able to adapt the program to make it even better for us."

Mr Sandford-Bell next plans to trial a new addition to the ROSS system with a "clocking on" style program for staff members.

CASE STUDY: SUBWAY

The problem: The company lacked tools to accurately forecast labour costs. It needed a faster way to confirm staff availability and produce rosters.

The process: Web-based employee scheduling was introduced, and rostering system Roster with ROSS, developed by Zarloc.

The result: Labour costs are down by between $90,000 and $130,000 a year. Shift information is delivered by email and SMS.

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