- Employee Database Management
- Employee Performance and Stress Management
- Scheduling
- Time Tracking
- Time-off Management
- Employee Self-Service And Collaboration
- Task Management
- Reports
1. Employee Database Management
This software allows you to manage all employee-related information from one central repository. Using the software’s database manager, you can maintain extensive employee profiles, complete with personal, account, tax, and emergency contact details. In addition, you can set pay rates, assign a job location, and user-access permissions according to each employee’s designation. The app has a well-developed filter system that lets you easily segregate staff into different departments across multiple locations, no matter how complex your business structure is.
2. Employee Performance and Stress Management
One of the software’s standout features is the ‘Stress Profile’ tool that lets you control overtime work. This feature not only helps you take care of your employees but also ensures you always remain within your state’s overtime rules. You can set stress parameters such as the maximum number of hours per shift, maximum shifts per week, or minimum gap between shifts. Once stress profiles are set, Deputy automatically alerts you if you try to schedule an employee whose working hours are approaching overtime.
Another unique tool is the Journaling feature that managers can use to record an employee’s day-to-day performance in real-time. There are several ways the software allows admins to do this. For one, when approving an employee’s timesheet, managers can leave a journal entry against them. Helpfully, these entries can be marked as negative or positive, making it easier for future evaluation. For another, managers can also tag notes on an employee’s profile page. The software records these entries in each employee’s performance journal for effortless appraisal. Importantly, the journal entries are entirely private such that no one (including the employees themselves) except a supervisor can view them.
3. Scheduling
This feature is undoubtedly Deputy’s crown jewel. The software turns the arduous task of employee scheduling into a simple and error-free one. The scheduling dashboard gives you a calendar-like overview, whether daily, weekly, or bi-weekly, of your scheduling requirements, complete with a list of shifts, along with all the available and authorized employees on the left side of the screen.
To schedule a shift, you need to drag-and-drop employees into a shift cell. Alternatively, you can click on a shift cell to add a manager, shift timing, and employees. If you have a set rotating roster, you can copy shifts or design weekly shift templates. You can notify your staff by publishing the schedule, and the software will send an email and push notifications to all scheduled employees. If you want to send out SMS notifications to your employees, you can do that too for an additional $0.05 per message.
To prevent shift clashes, Deputy also does a 5-point check of employees that includes leave, stress profile, and training checks before they allow you to go ahead with a final schedule. In case an employee cancels at the last minute, you can press the ‘Find Replacement’ button on a shift, and the app will show a list of recommended employees with whom you can replace your indisposed team member. You can either select a replacement yourself or invite all your available employees to work on the vacant shift, on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Deputy also has an auto-scheduling feature that uses AI along with a range of parameters like the number of bookings, peak times, and sales amounts. It gives you a shift structure already filled in with timings and employees, which you can tweak according to your needs. If you set up your employee’s wages, the stats bar on top of the scheduling page gives you the daily and weekly cost of your scheduled shifts and a comparison graph of these against expected sales during those shifts. This serves as a nifty budgeting tool.
4. Time Tracking
With its clock-in and out functionality, Deputy allows for easy time tracking. Employees can check in with the software at the start of their shift using their mobile devices. Alternatively, you can set up a booth at work for them to do so too, and the software clicks a picture every time they clock in or out, as a way to prevent buddy punching. Aside from facial recognition, Deputy also allows you to verify an employee’s credibility using device geo-location. This is especially beneficial for businesses that have a remote workforce.
Additionally, the platform also allows you to track and enforce breaks, even going so far as to alert managers if an employee misses one. This protects both you and your employees. Moreover, you can set up compliance-related questions that employees must answer when they clock out. For example, you can ask them if they had an injury-free shift or not. These questions not only serve as a record but also protect you from liabilities in the future.
Once an employee finishes his or her shift and clocks out, the software automatically creates a timesheet. Managers can approve these timesheets with the click of a button and then export them to a host of connected third-party payroll applications for processing. If an employee has forgotten to clock in or out, managers can manually add a timesheet for them. Importantly, each timesheet has a history tab that records every entry, no matter whether it is an employee or manager making it, another way the software safeguards you from future liability.
5. Time-off Management
Deputy comes with several preset leave types. These include sick leave, annual leave, bereavement, holiday, and training leave, to name a few. Helpfully, the software allows you to remove, edit, or add leave types according to your business needs. With each leave type, you can set conditions or rules. For example, you can configure a time off as paid or unpaid leave or let the accrual reset after a set period, and so on. You can also define your leave accrual and deduction rules.
Once these rules have been set up and assigned to employees, the software automatically applies these in its pay rate calculations. The software also allows you to edit an employee’s leave balance manually. In addition, the leave management dashboard gives managers an overview of all leave-related information on their employees, along with any requests that need approval. The software also alerts admins when an employee’s leave balance is running low.
6. Employee Self-Service And Collaboration
The app has a well-developed self-service feature that gives employees a lot of functionality. Not only can they log into their accounts to clock in and out, but they can also do so to check their schedules and request extra shifts or time off from within the software itself. Employees can also view, but not edit their timesheets, keep tabs on their leave balances, and check PTO entitlements through their portals.
Other notable features are the ‘Shift Swap’ and ‘Shift Offer’ tools that employees can use to either swap shifts with others or put their shift up on offer for other team members to grab, respectively. You can set these features to go through with or without a manager’s approval. Either way, by giving employees the power to make these changes themselves, the software reduces a manager’s administrative burden significantly.
For team communication, Deputy has something they call ‘News Feed,’ which allows any staff member to create a post and share it with others, and is an excellent way to get rid of needless back and forth email and text communication. However, you cannot use this tool to initiate audio or video chats. Newsfeed posters can share their posts with everyone or just select individuals. They can also attach images and PDF files to their posts if necessary. Importantly, managers can include a confirmation button in their posts to ensure everyone has read an important announcement or policy update.
7. Task Management
Deputy has a handy task management feature that admins, location managers, and shift supervisors can use to create and assign tasks to employees. The feature is easy to use. All you need to do is configure a task title, set a due date, and add explanatory notes. You can then assign tasks to one or multiple employees. The software also allows you to set up group tasks if a procedure involves more than one job.
For example, closing a restaurant will involve multiple tasks such as wiping down tables, mopping floors, restocking the pantry, and so on. Additionally, if a task is an hourly, daily, or weekly ritual, you can set it up as a recurring one, so you don’t have to waste time redrafting the particulars each time. Deputy sends emails and push notifications to employees if a task has been assigned to them. It also notifies supervisors when a task is marked as completed by a team member.
8. Reports
The software has five inbuilt reports. These are:
- Employee details
- Journal usage
- Schedule vs. timesheets vs. sales
- Time-off and schedules
- Timesheet locations
You can change the reports by altering parameters like the date range, location, and employees. In addition to the prebuilt reports, Deputy also has a custom report builder. This feature allows you to create specialized reports using data from a host of the software’s modules. Once generated, you can export a custom report in CSV format if you want to share it with your clients or shareholders.
