Item: Deputy
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Deputy

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Deputy across a suite of four hotel locations with 75+ bedrooms, located in North Norfolk. It is used across all departments from housekeeping to central reservations to kitchen staff. We use both the scheduling and timesheet services with great success across the board. It allows us to accurately track all staff hours, timesheets, holidays, holiday requests, and more.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Employee clocking in and out for shifts using their mobile devices.
Ability for managers to add/edit/query all staff timesheets.
Staff members can easily request leave through the system and managers can either approve or deny these, with relevant comments added.
We also sync Deputy through their open API to our own internal onboarding system.

Cons

There are occasional discrepancies between the iOS and Android apps, such as being able to start unscheduled shifts is not possible on Android IF that person already has a shift scheduled further ahead in the day.
We really wish it was possible to 'hide' certain staff members' salary levels. Can make it tricky to give managers full access when they can see their counterparts salary from another department.

Return on Investment

Staff onboarding is now 100% digital and saves at least 5-10 hours per week.
Timesheet improvements have been vast. Previously we ran this on spreadsheets that all had to be manually checked... no more! 10-20 hours a week saved on this.
Scheduling is now a joy, with cost integration from the POS, we are saving money on staff hours during quiet times, and able to better support staff during busier times.

Alternatives Considered

BambooHR

We researched (but didn't trial) several systems during the setup of this system. Deputy was by far and away the easiest to use, with the most features. I must commend their EXCELLENT support as well. Our account manager has been brilliant throughout the setup process and beyond. If there are issues, he quickly responds, and the team [solves] them. Cannot recommend them enough for this. Makes running our business the priority rather than the tech behind it.

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

Simply and easy to use, our staff can be given their Deputy account and within minutes understand how it works. Intuitive to a point, for all staff within our walls. Clean layout, no fluff, even our older members of staff are using Deputy without any issues at all. Love it!

Implementation Rating

My first advice would be to ensure you have a very accurate staff database already in existence. Most businesses will have this through their payroll system anyway (we do not sync payroll - using Sage 50 - mainly because hours are so flexible within our businesses), but having clean staff data go into the system is very advisable. Also, as we use our own onboarding software for new staff, make sure you have this part down as well. Deputy can work in isolation, but you'll have a better time if you can get it working with existing practices.

Other Software Used

Epos Now, Squarespace

Likelihood to Recommend

Deputy is well suited to hospitality brands like ours. We manage over 240 staff across the sites and [we] were able to integrate Deputy during the closure due to the pandemic. The change to Deputy was managed by a small team of people, and considering our sites were closed, the system is now 100% integrated for all staff, it is an integral part of our business. Some of the clocking-in tools are also especially well suited for businesses where staff may be more 'flexible' with their start times. You can set restrictions such as geographical locations to restrict access.

Comments

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Deputy - How on earth did we survive without it?!