Pets at Home | Case Study

Industry
Pet Care Retail & Services

Estate
7,530 colleagues across 461 stores in the UK and Ireland

Rotageek modules in use
Digital Scheduling
Autoscheduler
Timesheets

Use cases
Store scheduling, in-store pet care services, and wider workforce management across the retail estate

The Challenge.

With more than 460 stores, Pets at Home needed a more consistent way to plan and manage its workforce.

Scheduling approaches varied across the estate, meaning staffing decisions weren't consistently aligned with customer demand, colleague availability and company policies.

Across hundreds of locations, this created an operational challenge and increased the risk of inconsistent customer experiences.

Limited visibility of workforce data and time-consuming manual processes reduced the time managers could spend supporting colleagues and customers, limiting their ability to maintain service levels alongside day-to-day operational demands.

The Solution.

Today, more than 7,500 colleagues are scheduled through Rotageek.

Store managers can create rotas in as little as 10 minutes using Autoscheduler, enabling a more consistent, demand-led approach to workforce planning across the Pets at Home retail estate.

Schedules automatically reflect colleague availability, leave and company policies, giving managers greater visibility and control when planning rotas.

Autoscheduler currently powers schedule creation in around 60% of stores, with rollout continuing to additional stores following successful adoption and performance improvements.

“Rotageek has completely changed how we manage rotas across our estate. What used to be a manual, inconsistent process is now fast, fair and data-driven. Our store managers can build accurate schedules in minutes and spend more time with customers and colleagues instead."

Oli Simons Digital Operations Lead | Pets at Home

Before Rotageek: manual and inconsistent scheduling

As Pets at Home continued to grow, workforce planning became increasingly complex.

Without a consistent scheduling approach, managers spent significant time creating rotas and managing timesheets, reducing the time available to support colleagues and customers.

The business wanted a more scalable and data-led approach that would improve operational efficiency and align staffing levels more closely with customer demand.

Why Pets at Home chose Rotageek

Pets at Home selected Rotageek to create a more consistent and scalable approach to workforce scheduling across its retail estate.

The business needed greater visibility of workforce data, a scheduling process that could better align staffing levels with customer demand across hundreds of locations, and a more consistent approach to rota creation that reduced reliance on manual processes.

Rotageek provided a single platform for scheduling, Autoscheduler and timesheets, giving managers greater visibility of workforce data while ensuring company policies, colleague availability and operational requirements were reflected in schedules.

The platform also supports the flow of workforce data into HR and payroll processes, helping Pets at Home modernise workforce management and create a more connected, data-driven approach to planning labour across the business.

How Pets at Home uses Rotageek

Digital Scheduling and Autoscheduler

Rotageek’s Digital Scheduling platform is now used to plan rotas across the Pets at Home estate.

Instead of building rotas from scratch, managers start with an automatically generated schedule that reflects customer demand, staffing requirements and company policies.

Managers can then review and adjust the rota where needed, giving them a faster and more consistent starting point each week.

Autoscheduler helps Pets at Home:

Build schedules that better reflect customer demand
Factor in skills, senior cover and fairness rules automatically
Give managers a consistent starting point that they can quickly adjust

Timesheets and payroll integration

Rotageek also supports Pets at Home’s timesheet and payroll processes.

Timesheet data flows from Rotageek through in-house middleware into HR and payroll systems. This addresses limitations in legacy payroll tools and provides a more efficient way to process timesheet data.

For Pets at Home, payroll can now be triggered automatically once timesheets are approved. This reduces manual intervention, speeds up processing and minimises the risk of payroll errors.

Mobile app and colleague engagement

The Rotageek mobile app is widely used by colleagues across the Pets at Home estate.

Mobile access to schedules gives colleagues greater flexibility and visibility over their working week, while optional push notifications help remind colleagues about upcoming shifts.

Colleagues have praised the app's intuitive and reliable experience, making it easier to access schedule information whenever they need it and helping managers plan further ahead.

“Autoscheduler and the mobile app have been game changers for our teams. Colleagues have far better visibility of their shifts and leave, and we have far more confidence that we’re staffed in the right place at the right time to deliver a great experience for pets and their owners. ”

Heather Ellis Operational Excellence Lead | Pets at Home

Results at a glance

Since deploying Rotageek, Pets at Home has introduced digital scheduling across its entire retail estate.

As of 2025:

11.3 million shifts created: Supporting workforce planning at scale across more than 460 stores and 7,500 colleagues.

8.2 million timesheets processed: Helping streamline time tracking and reduce reliance on manual administration.

57.9 million hours sent to payroll: Supporting a more efficient flow of workforce data between scheduling, timesheets and payroll processes.

85,000+ gap shifts filled: Helping maintain service levels by ensuring stores remain appropriately staffed during periods of absence and changing demand.

Pets at Home also saw a clear improvement in how closely staffing levels matched customer demand in Autoscheduler trial stores.

Managers describe scheduling as significantly quicker and easier, enabling them to spend more time supporting colleagues and customers.

Strategic and human impact

Beyond operational improvements, Rotageek has helped Pets at Home modernise how scheduling and time tracking work across the business.

Manual processes have been replaced with a more connected way of managing rotas, timesheets and payroll data, giving managers more time to focus on colleagues and customers.

Colleagues also benefit from clearer schedules, easier leave requests and better visibility of their shifts through the mobile app.

By aligning staffing more closely with demand, Pets at Home can ensure the right people are in the right place at the right time, helping stores deliver a consistent experience for pets and their owners.

Rota Geek Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with the company number 06783810 and registered address of Unit 6 & 7, Foundry Court, Foundry Lane, Horsham, West Sussex, England, RH13 5PY

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Making scheduling a walk in the park.

Rotas created in as little as 10 minutes

Bringing consistency to scheduling across 460+ stores.

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