Lina’s Italian Market is a well-established, customer-focused specialty store that offers a unique shopping experience to guests while promoting Italian culture and supporting local businesses. With four locations in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and over 28 years of experience, Lina’s focuses on providing European and Italian specialty foods to the community while emphasizing a relaxing and enjoyable shopping experience.
Lina’s Italian Market Implements TimeWellScheduled and Modernizes Scheduling, Payroll & HR Management Processes
Across four locations, Lina’s 203 kind and helpful staff enjoy introducing customers to Italian meals, culture, and products. What’s more, the store also prides itself on the unique Canadian and international brands it offers to its customers. In fact, Lina’s places importance on supporting local businesses by featuring products from Calgary and across the province of Alberta. Lina’s Italian Market also offers delivery of groceries and house-made treats daily, making it convenient for customers to enjoy their products from the comfort of their homes.
Case Study
Lina Italian Market’s Workforce Management Challenges
Prior to Implementing TimeWellScheduled, Lina’s owners, management, and staff faced three critical challenges:
Challenge I
The old system was not user-friendly for managers and employees. Training was time consuming and not fully effective; leading to on-going scheduling and time tracking errors.
“(The old system was) Not a user-friendly interface for scheduling. This made training (managers) very stressful and sometimes took managers twice as long to complete schedules.” – Jamie Edstrom, Controller, Lina’s Italian Market
Challenge II
The old scheduling system was antiquated and time-consuming
“Pulling reports about employees’ previous scheduled hours was inaccurate with the old system. The data we extracted did not match our requirements, and it was challenging to get historical hours by department or for wage cost budgeting unless you were very computer savvy.” – Jamie Edstrom
Challenge III
The previous payroll system did not comply with Canadian or Alberta labor law, was time-consuming and stressful to use.
“Our old system was not designed for Canadian Employment law. Also, there were many instances where the payroll data was imported incorrectly. When this happened, we would have to manually go through all 204 employee time cards to ensure there were no errors. This was cumbersome, time-consuming and plain frustrating”
We approached Lina’s company controller, Jamie Edstrom to discuss how workforce management has changed since the introduction of TimeWellScheduled’s cloud-based scheduling solution into its operations in November of 2021.
SOLUTION I
Scheduling Issues No-More!
“Since Implementing TimeWellScheduled, employee schedules are posted on time and efficiently.” – Jamie Edstrom
Lina’s Italian Market implemented TimeWellScheduled to streamline employee scheduling at all four of its locations, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive. Staff schedules are now posted in a reliable and timely manner; employees can now request time off digitally (online, or through the TimeWellScheduled App), and managers can quickly take action to make corrections or approve changes.
“With TimeWellScheduled, staff schedules are posted promptly and emailed once published. This allows managers to make schedules weeks ahead of time & with the absence request option, employees can provide availability easily.” – Jamie Edstrom
TimeWellScheduled supports ownership’s business goals by continually optimizing labor hours, schedules, attendance, and payroll processes. Moreover, the user-friendly dashboard helps keep managers abreast of what is happening at all locations in real-time, a feature they all love.
“The time and attendance tracking features help us monitor sick calls, no-shows, late clock-in’s, and so on. The reporting function provides managers with specific employee history. For instance, When we do employee performance reviews, the tracking feature is one of the talking points we use to help us guide employee performance. If an employee can see they are clocking in late repeatedly, this is a clear area we can request improvement.” – Jamie Edstrom
TimeWellScheduled continues to help Lina’s Italian Market take charge of the scheduling process, by saving time, optimizing costs, and reducing stress for employees and managers.
“Each department has a labor budget based on history. So, we can take a quick weekly snapshot of all scheduled hours, or (scheduled hours) by the department to ensure we are on track to optimize costs!” – Jamie Edstrom
SOLUTION II
User-Friendly Solution for Managers & Employees
“We have had nothing but good feedback from managers and employees. For example, our managers have previously used two different scheduling systems but love the functionality and ease of use TimeWellScheduled provides.” – Jamie Edstrom
TimeWellScheduled has been a game-changer for Lina’s Italian Market. Employees and managers find the software easy to learn and use. The user-friendly dashboard and online tools have been seamlessly implemented across all four locations. Furthermore, during employee orientation, it only takes 5-10 minutes to train new team members or managers on the use of TimeWellScheduled.
“The messages feature and employee portal and smart phone app has improved internal communication drastically. For example, managers can easily send messages to all employees or specific departments with ease!” – Jamie Edstrom
SOLUTION III
Simple, Accurate & Efficient Payroll Process
“Since implementing TimeWellScheduled, payroll has improved dramatically. Once the Store Managers approve the bi-weekly timecards, they are easily exported into the payroll software. By noon, we can complete four payrolls and be confident the hours are correct.”- Jamie Edstrom
TimeWellScheduled has proven to be an excellent fit for processing payroll at Lina’s Italian Market. With the bi-weekly timecards approved by store managers, the hours are easily exported into the payroll software, allowing for quick and confident completion of each pay period.
“TimeWellScheduled calculates the employee’s qualifying for stat holidays. For example, the software knows to pay the employees who have only worked 1.5 and separates the remaining employee hours with the export feature. When paying a large workforce, this tool is helpful and a real time saver!” And, it merits mentioning that, “Throughout my career, I have implemented Timewellscheduled’s scheduling system at multiple locations – seamlessly. TimeWellScheduled’s online help tools always have the answers I need, when I need them. And, the technical support team is quick to respond whenever I have questions!” – Jamie Edstrom
According to Jamie, Lina’s Italian Market has successfully modernized their scheduling, payroll, and HR management processes by implementing TimeWellScheduled. The user-friendly interface has helped eliminate previous scheduling, reporting, and payroll challenges. The positive feedback from managers and employees confirms that the software has been a game-changer for the company. Finally, the significant time savings, improved accuracy, and compliance with Canadian labor laws all indicate a bright future for Lina’s Italian Market with TimeWellScheduled.
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