CASE STUDY

Kay's Kitchen

A SUCCESS STORY

Kays Kitchen

Hospitality

INDUSTRY

100+

EMPLOYEES

9

Locations

2014

USER SINCE

Kay’s Kitchen is a family run business founded in 1979 by the Glover family.  Putting a focus on quality, all food is sourced locally and cooked freshly in house. Kay’s first restaurant opened its doors in Donaghmede shopping centre. Since opening its doors, the business has always stayed true to its founding philosophy: buy local when and where they can, use their skills as trained chefs and caterers to compete and always respect the customers who provide their living.

We talked with Ciara Glover – General Manager of Kay’s Kitchen – about daily challenges Kay ‘s faced before implementing Bizimply, why they decided to use us, as well as the positive impact the software has had on the business.

Kay's Kitchen Bizimply

The Challenge

As someone who grew up in the trade, Ciara knows first-hand how much work managers might face if no automated process is in place to take care of schedules every week, counting hours, signing break sheets. 

Ciara shared with us how they were using clocking in machines for recording time & attendance. Scheduling was carried out using MS Word and managers would create a spreadsheet to complete their rosters; “we would match the roster hours to the clock-in cards to check if it was correct but unfortunately it wasn’t always accurate”. Furthermore, if someone rang in sick or were late, we could check it this way. Ciara admitted this process was “very time-consuming, we also had to make sure at the end of the week the staff member signed their clock in card to say they received their breaks – if someone forgot to and was on holiday for the next two weeks, this card had to be kept out before you could file away that week.” All in all, they were encountering a cumbersome process.

It was obvious Kay’s Kitchen and the team needed a system in place that would cut out the amount of time spent on adding up hours, tracking staff members to sign their clock in cards and to help with scheduling the stores optimally in each section. They also wanted to become more structured in their business by using daily task lists to ensure jobs were being completed. “For example, in catering, you would have many items that need to be deep cleaned each week and when it wasn’t done because someone forgot it would affect your wage costs- as you would need to bring someone else in to complete this job week”. When employees changed their contact details they didn’t have a set system in place to record employee details and documents so getting in touch was often difficult, especially for last minute scheduling changes. 

With no automated process in place for employees having direct access to their weekly schedules, this meant they had to ring to find out what shifts they were on. Often this would lead to miscommunications and staff not showing up for shifts or coming at the wrong time. Both an inconvenience to the staff and the manager. 

The Solution

Kay’s Kitchen started off using Bizimply with the clocking in and out feature. Ciara admitted this process took a considerable amount of time back for the managers in the store; “It also allowed us to see clearly who was clocking in on time or of late.”

When it came to payroll Ciara said it was a game-changer! She loved the fact; “It was easy to export and import into the payroll system, so this also saved time.” When it came to the roster, Ciara shared how even the staff loved the set-up. They loved the app and how quickly they received their schedules for the following week. When creating the schedules Ciara admires how you can see how many hours you’ve assigned to each employee as well as monitoring the locations’ labour sales and costs for that week, which helps to make changes and keep labour costs under control. 

When asked if there was a “compelling reason” for making the switch to digital software Ciara shared that they had moved all the ordering and HACCP online and implementing a management software; “felt like the next step”.  They wanted to be able to communicate with the team in a more effective way whilst cutting down on admin work and manual processes. Through Bizimply, Kay’s Kitchen were able to analyse their daily shift performance and record this on the system. This then led to being more proficient within the business and adapting the number of staff on site and allowed for a change of menus to suit the levels of trade too.

Kay’s have seen great advantages in the digitalisation of their workplace management processes. Some managers have been able to work remotely to do back office work and can see what is happening in stores live at all times. Ciara also shared how Bizimply has been a fantastic tool throughout the pandemic, it has allowed them to communicate effectively with their team during lockdown, doing regular check ups and keeping them fully updated about their situation on re-opening.

Kay’s Kitchen is now working a lot smarter. They can plan the week / month out better as well as monitor trends throughout the year, easier scheduling has also boosted team morale. They have had financial returns. But, of course, one of the most immediate savings was from the administration.

Ciara’s parting comment about Bizimply was that she “liked the way you could set it up to suit your business. You can add different functions to suit you and your company’s needs.”

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