Party City was founded in 1986 and is a leading retailer specializing in party goods. It is the largest publicly traded party goods company in Canada, the United States and Mexico. Over 900 corporate and franchise outlets are currently in operation throughout the continent.
Frank Frutti is the general manager of Party City #850 franchise store in Oakville Ontario. He has managed the Oakville location since June 2021. He prides the store on how smoothly it runs, and on how organized and tidy it is.
After joining the store, Frank implemented TimeWellScheduled’s cloud based scheduling software to replace the old scheduling solution. Since its implementation, he has noticed immediate time savings and improvements in scheduling, administration and employer-employee communication.
We interviewed Frank to learn more about his experience with TimeWellScheduled’s cloud-based scheduling software at the Oakville Party City store.
Case Study
Oakville, Ontario Party City
The Oakville Party City retail store is located at 230 North Service Road West in Oakville, Ontario. It is about a 20-30 minute drive from the city of Mississauga. As of 2021-2022, Oakville, Ontario has a population of approximately 212 000 people.
Oakville is an affluent community. Relative to the rest of Ontario, Oakville’s average household income is estimated to be $198 622.41 (The average household income in Ontario is $ 116 877.51) (Invest Oakville, 2021)
The store stocks a wide variety of themed party supplies, costumes and holiday decorations. The store currently has a staff of 21 employees.
Case Problem
Time to Update Scheduling Software
The previous scheduling system was not user friendly or efficient. For instance, creating and inputting schedules was time consuming. Communicating new schedules and scheduling changes to the employees required a lot of manual effort and managerial time. In addition, it was a challenge to know for sure if employees were being over or under scheduled.
“The previous scheduling system at the Party City store did not automatically notify employees regarding a new schedule or any schedule modifications.”
The scheduling system, required employees to physically check the schedule, or call the store and request shift times. While this process did work, it was not ideal.
After implementing TimeWellScheduled’s cloud-based scheduling solution, one of the first benefits that Frank’s team realized was the automated communication and notification features. Once a schedule is completed and posted, the system automatically notifies the entire team. This communication feature saves managers the time of having to track down employees individually.
TimeWellScheduled improves general workplace communications between managers and employees by providing organizations with two essential tools. The online portal and the TimeWellScheduled App. The app can be found in both the Google Play Store and the iPhone App Store.
“These features significantly reduce the likelihood that a shift will go unstaffed, allowing managers to refocus their time on more critical tasks.”
"Scheduling is a lot quicker, easier to send out messages to the entire staff. The App also helps out a lot"
Frank Frutti, General Manager Party City.
SOLUTION
Party City Saves Time and Money on Schedule Creation & Administration
TimeWellScheduled can dramatically reduce the number of hours Party City managers spend on planning and administering the weekly, bi-weekly and monthly schedules.
The template feature allows managers to save schedules that have functioned exceptionally well and make them available for future use. Thus, there is no need to recreate schedules from scratch every week. Scheduling templates:
- Help plan and control costs
- Ensure everyone is on the same page
- Assists in preparing for unexpected problems
- Allow for the tracking of attendance & performance
- Eliminate the need for manual entry
At Oakville Party City, scheduling templates reduce the time required to create consistently reliable work schedules, eliminating manual calculations and human error.
“The ability to cut and paste schedules makes scheduling a lot easier. Also, as part of the management team, using an app makes it easy to see who is working and in what department.” – Frank Frutti, General Manager Party City.
