Sinnesfreunde

Whether at expos, company get-togethers or roadshows  — event caterer Sinnesfreunde GmbH has been taking their customers on a culinary journey for over 20 years. Not only do they offer a personalised and creative catering concept for any occasion, events can also be held at their own event location. 

The company has grown to employ 30 full-time staff and about 300 collaborators, who work at parties and dinner events.  As these numbers became unmanageable via Excel sheets and phone calls, Sinnesfreunde made the switch to Staffcloud about a year ago.

Staffcloud was the easiest-to-use tool among those considered

According to Franziska Birgmann, Staffcloud was "most in line with what was important to us, namely the coordination and scheduling of temp staff." In addition, it was the easiest to use among the personnel scheduling tools the company looked at.

While other software tools focus on shift planning and salaried employees, this takes a backseat for Sinnesfreunde, since their 30 full-time staff make up the minority of their human resources. Instead, the business needed a solution that could handle scheduling students and temps who only work for them sporadically and on a per-project basis. 

The ideal tool would not only simplify their planning and scheduling process, but also reduce any extra work project leaders had at the event, such as clocking temps in and out. Staffcloud fully met their needs in this regard.

Onboarding: Staffcloud support gave a jump start
 

Onboarding was a 'very exciting' process for the company, as Franziska Birgmann says. Since the business did not have any previous experience with staff planning software, they had to start from scratch. While they found that the tool offered endless possibilities, they had to find out what their needs were first. A small committee was formed to answer the most pressing questions, such as: How would they get temps to use the new software? How many steps should the recruitment process entail, so as not to put people off applying?

To minimise the impact on their day-to-day workflow, Staffcloud was introduced while fewer events were scheduled. The guidance and knowledge of the Staffcloud team was much appreciated during this time. The customer success team were not only able to help Sinnesfreunde get up and running with the personnel scheduling software, their long-standing experience also ensured that they could give suggestions where Sinnesfreunde lacked direction.

Still, it took time until everyone at Sinnesfreunde felt comfortable using Staffcloud, as it does with any new software tool. Franziska Birgmann thinks that it takes about half a year to see and handle all possible personnel scheduling cases in a new tool. After a year with their new workflow, Sinnesfreunde's system is running smoothly and their project leaders are very confident using Staffcloud.

Staffcloud saves Sinnesfreunde about 10 working hours per week

When asked how processes have changed at Sinnesfreunde, Franziska Birgmann has a clear answer: "We have noticed a distinct improvement. I think, taking into account scheduling and everything it entails, including payroll, we are saving a guaranteed 10 hours a week within the department, which we can use for completely different areas of work." 

On top of this, the error rate has dropped. When working with Excel sheets, temps were often double-booked – something that cannot occur in Staffcloud without a manual override. And where people previously forgot to turn up to work as they hadn't written down the date, the employee app and automatic reminders ensure this no longer happens.

Additionally, the export function is key for Sinnesfreunde, as it significantly speeds up their payroll preparations, which used to take several days. 

Another optimisation brought about by Staffcloud is that recruiting no longer needs to be managed in a separate system. The Sinnesfreunde team can see the status of applications at any time and possible hires no longer get lost in the bulk of emails. As personal data is largely entered by applicants themselves, the team also has less work in this regard. 

Extending Staffcloud to full-time employees planned for 2025

Using Staffcloud has pointed Sinnesfreunde towards further optimisation. Prompted by the improvement in their processes and the clear time-saving aspect, the company is planning to extend the software tool to their full-time employees. The goal is to use the insights gained by scheduling temp staff in more areas of the business. As Franziska Birgmann says: "Once one system works really well, you notice that your other system performs quite poorly in comparison."

You can find the entire interview (ca. 18 minutes) with Franziska Birgmann here.