The Entertainer

Since opening its first toy shop in Amersham in 1981, The Entertainer has grown into the UK’s largest independent toy retailer. With more than 170 stores across the UK and a rapidly expanding footprint that now includes concessions within 850 Tesco locations, the company is renowned for its vibrant in-store experience and dedication to exceptional customer service. As the business scaled, so did the complexity of managing its growing workforce.

The Entertainer faced a number of workforce management challenges that hindered both efficiency and flexibility. Creating weekly schedules was a time-consuming task for store managers, requiring hours of manual effort that could be better spent on operational priorities. They needed to reduce time spent on labour planning, as well as have the visibility to schedule accurately within labour budgets.

Sending accurate timesheets to payroll was also a manual effort. Often managers would need to cross-check hours worked manually to ensure payroll was accurate, a system that was prone to errors. 

The company also needed a more agile way to handle in-flight changes to staff schedules. In particular, they needed a more efficient way to quickly communicate these schedule updates to their employees. The existing systems lacked the flexibility to adapt in real time and the resulting schedules were often difficult for staff to interpret.

In addition to needing a more productive and intelligent way to plan rotas, The Entertainer wanted a solution that was simple to use, easy for employees to understand, and able to scale with the business. With the rollout of new Tesco concession stands on the horizon, finding a scheduling tool that could grow with their operations became even more critical.

To address these issues, The Entertainer turned to Rotageek. Our digital scheduling solution was recognised as a way to simplify their complex workforce planning while offering the flexibility that today’s retail operations demand. With Rotageek, store managers were able to dramatically reduce the time spent on rota creation, using smart, automated scheduling tools that streamline the process. The system also enabled quick and easy adjustments to schedules, with real-time updates sent directly to employees through an intuitive mobile app.

By implementing the Rotageek payrules engine, their payroll process has also been simplified. With pay rules automatically applied to shifts worked and fed into timesheets via Rotageek, managers now have the confidence to know that their employees are being paid accurately, with no manual cross-checking needed. 

With greater visibility of their labour spend on a granular level, store managers now have the tools they need to ensure they are staying within budget, seeing where they spend the most and make adjustments when there is unnecessary or overspend. Area managers, for the first time ever, also have a live view of the hours scheduled in their shops, helping them to understand where their labour hours are being used more effectively.

Most importantly, Rotageek has been able to streamline a clear and consistent rota format across The Entertainer’s 170 locations, providing a simple solution for staff to digest and navigate. Employees, in turn, have gained greater visibility and control over their schedules, with a self-service app that supports them to swap shifts, request leave and submit shift preferences. 

With the rollout of the Tesco concession stores on the horizon, a consistent rota format was pivotal for the Entertainer, as the platform also provided the scalability needed to support the launch, without adding unnecessary complexity or overhead.