Case studiesBattersea Arts Centre
Battersea Arts Centre is a pioneering performance space and community hub housed in a historic Grade II listed former town hall in South London.
Workforce Edition
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From Spreadsheets to Simplicity with StaffSavvy
Battersea Arts Centre uses StaffSavvy to streamline staff scheduling, shift communication, and payroll across its front-of-house, technical, bar, and events teams. By replacing spreadsheets, emails, and manual processes with a single system, the organisation has significantly reduced administrative workload, made it easier for staff to pick up available shifts, and simplified payroll reporting.
Video Transcript
My name’s David, and I’m the Head of Visitor Operations here at Battersea Arts Centre.
I joined in 2021, just as we were coming out of COVID. A lot of people had left the business, been made redundant, or moved on, and some of our processes had been lost along the way.
I got handed responsibility for the rotas for all the casual staff, and they were managed through Excel documents and emails. I remember thinking, “I can’t carry on like this. I can’t keep inputting names based on what someone has said they’re available to do.”
I already knew StaffSavvy existed, and I knew it was good because I’d used it previously as a staff member at a students’ union. I’d always found it to be such an easy experience.
I looked at a few other options, but I felt StaffSavvy was probably the most sophisticated. Ultimately, I trusted it because I’d used it myself for a couple of years.
So we brought it in to eliminate the constant Excel spreadsheets and weekly rotas and instead make things simpler and more efficient.
Every casual staff member and every weekly payroll staff member at Battersea Arts Centre is on it. That includes our technical team, front-of-house staff, bars, and events teams.
The most useful aspect of StaffSavvy for us is communication around shifts. There’s very little need for emails going back and forth saying, “This shift is available,” or, “Can anyone cover this shift?”
Instead, we just publish a shift. Everyone receives a notification, someone offers to take it, and the shift gets filled.
That was one of the features I was most excited about because I remember being responsible for creating the rotas, and it involved a constant stream of emails. It took up so much time.
The other major benefit is payroll. We used to have to enter every shift manually. Now we simply run a report from StaffSavvy and use that for all of our casual and weekly payroll staff.
It’s so much quicker.
I’d 100% recommend StaffSavvy.
We don’t plan on changing.
David Bolwell
Head of Visitor Operations, Battersea Arts Centre