Item: Deputy
Rating: 9
Author: Charlotte Bannon

Overall Satisfaction with Deputy

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Deputy is being used across our whole business, we have 6 locations, and it is so useful for our site managers to be able to view who is on shift at any given time through the app.
It helps with employee time off/leave requests all being in the correct place and getting rid of paper requests.
I also use this for staff communication but have not found this the best way to communicate due to missed notifications.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Ease of use, very user friendly.
Templates make weekly rota's very quick.
Logging absence and keeping a record.
Clocking in and out is very easy for employees and they can clearly see their hours worked.

Cons

Leave balance is tricky sometimes, if my holiday year runs from 1st Feb to 31st Jan there could do with a way to set a date that the balance goes up to. For example you can see an amount of holidays you have left then any scheduled holidays and then a balance but if you add in leave for after the holiday year ends then it still comes off the balance and gives an inaccurate balance as days would reset before this and a new holiday year starts so if, in December, you book a few leave dates in for April it looks like you go into minus holidays but actually they reset on 1st Feb and so makes it hard, without calculating manually, how many days you have left of that particular holiday year.
Setting notifications could be made simpler, I have given up going into each location and setting the notifications as they confuse me.
The communications news feed board is quite good but more often than not the employees would not get a notification and miss a message.

Return on Investment

The app definitely saves my managers time when planning as they can copy over a saved template and simply drag employees into a shift. It also allows you to see the history of a shift in case there is any queries afterwards.

Alternatives Considered

We previously used Excel spreadsheets so I have no previous experience.

Key Insights

Do you think Deputy delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Deputy's feature set?

Yes

Did Deputy live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Deputy go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Deputy again?

Yes

Usability

It still has some areas that could be improved but I am happy with how user friendly it is for the site managers and all the employees.

Implementation Rating

We have been using Deputy for 5 years now and from what I remember the implementation was very quick and easy.

Other Software Used

iVend Retail, Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)

Likelihood to Recommend

This is a great app for hospitality businesses to keep track of employee details such as phone numbers and emergency contacts. It helps all site managers be able to see who is working and when and allows staff to have visibility on the hours they have worked and what they can expect to be paid.
Leave requests and unavailability can be added which is great for students or staff who have a set work pattern as these can be set to repeat each week so there is less room for staff to be on the rota when they cannot work or have requested it off.

Comments

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Put Deputy in charge. Simple to use and allows visibility for the whole team.