Customers

Real teams, real Saturdays, fewer gaps.

4,200 venues schedule with Orbit. Here is what changed for some of them, with the numbers from before and after.

saved per manager each week

5.5 h

fewer no-shows on average

31%

lower labor % of sales

4.2 pts

of shifts seen within an hour

94%

Featured story

How Fernhill Hotels cut overtime by two thirds in six months

Four hotels, 410 people and three departments used to run on separate spreadsheets. Now housekeeping, front desk and kitchen share one schedule, and open shifts go to Fernhill’s own team before an agency is ever called.

Portrait of Kwame Asante — “Our people pick up extra shifts across hotels now. It’s better for them and it’s better for us.”

Kwame Asante, Director of operations

Overtime as % of hoursOrbit from June

Agency spend

−61%

Open shifts filled in-house

83%

More stories

Showing 9 stories

Cafés & bakeries

9 cafés · 140 people

From Sunday-night spreadsheets to a 20-minute Thursday

Time spent scheduling

Before: 6 h a week

After: 35 min

Missed shifts

Before: 14 a month

After: 3 a month

“The team sorts out their own swaps now. I just tap approve.”

Hannah Okafor, Ops manager
How they did it
1. 1Imported last month’s rota from a spreadsheet
2. 2Built one template per café, then shared them
3. 3Turned on swap approvals for weekends only
Restaurants

2 restaurants · 58 people

A third fewer no-shows with reminders and one-tap swaps

No-shows

Before: 9 a month

After: 6 a month

Labor as % of sales

Before: 31.5%

After: 27.9%

“If someone can’t make it, the shift is covered before I notice.”

Diego Marín, General manager
How they did it
1. 1Connected Counterpad for hourly sales
2. 2Moved all shift chat out of the group chat
3. 3Set reminders two hours before each shift
Hotels

4 hotels · 410 people

Agency spend cut by more than half across four hotels

Overtime hours

Before: 9% of hours

After: 3% of hours

Agency staff spend

Before: £18k a month

After: £7k a month

“Open shifts go to our own people first. Agency is the last resort again.”

Kwame Asante, Director of operations
How they did it
1. 1Set up departments for housekeeping, front desk and kitchen
2. 2Shared open shifts across all four hotels
3. 3Connected PeopleNest so new starters appear automatically
Retail

14 stores · 220 people

Staffing for footfall instead of habit

Schedules published

Before: 2 days ahead

After: 10 days ahead

Sales per labor hour

Before: £118

After: £131

“We stopped overstaffing quiet Tuesday mornings and doubled up on Saturday afternoons.”

Ruth Achterberg, Area manager
How they did it
1. 1Installed Footfall counters at the busiest six stores
2. 2Used labor targets per store
3. 3Ran one area-wide template for sale season
Retail

6 stores · 95 people

Weekend gaps went from weekly to rare

Weekend coverage gaps

Before: 11 a month

After: 1 a month

Timesheet approval

Before: 4 h a week

After: 25 min

“Our weekend team finally knows their shifts more than two days ahead.”

Elin Sørby, Retail operations lead
How they did it
1. 1Collected availability from the whole team in a week
2. 2Turned on auto-fill for weekend shifts
3. 3Sent timesheets to Paywell instead of retyping
Cafés & bakeries

3 bakeries · 41 people

Early starts that people actually turn up for

Late 5 am arrivals

Before: 18 a month

After: 4 a month

Staff turnover

Before: 68% a year

After: 41% a year

“Fair schedules and fewer last-minute changes kept people with us.”

Tom Achebe, Owner
How they did it
1. 1Published four weeks ahead instead of one
2. 2Rotated early shifts fairly with auto-fill
3. 3Used read receipts on bake-schedule changes
Leisure

5 cinemas · 160 people

Big premiere weekends without the panic

Time to staff a premiere

Before: 2 days

After: 3 hours

Shifts covered by swaps

Before: 22%

After: 61%

“Open shifts get claimed in minutes because people pick what suits them.”

Ines Duarte, Cinema manager
How they did it
1. 1Created event templates for premieres
2. 2Offered extra shifts as open shifts across sites
3. 3Connected Chatterbox for daily who’s-on posts
Restaurants

11 sites · 260 people

Payroll errors almost disappeared

Payroll corrections

Before: 23 a month

After: 1 a month

Admin time per site

Before: 5 h a week

After: 1.5 h a week

“Hours go to payroll exactly as approved. No more Monday-morning corrections.”

Sam Kowalczyk, Finance director
How they did it
1. 1Rolled out kiosk clock-in at every site
2. 2Set break rules once for all locations
3. 3Sent approved hours to Stubly every Monday
Restaurants

1 bistro · 14 people

A free plan that runs the whole bistro

Brunch shifts fully staffed

Before: 3 of 4 weekends

After: Every weekend

Cost of scheduling

Before: £0

After: £0

“We’re a small team. Orbit Starter does everything we need and costs nothing.”

Léa Fontaine, Chef-owner
How they did it
1. 1Signed up on Starter, free for up to 15 people
2. 2Added availability for the two students on weekends
3. 3Pinned the new menu as an announcement