Palace Playland reduces time theft and speeds up timesheet approvals with Workforce.com

OVERVIEW

Few places in the United States are more idyllic during the summer than the New England coast. And yet somehow, only one amusement park takes advantage of this prime real estate.

Sitting directly on the banks of Old Orchard Beach, Maine, Palace Playland is the last remaining beachfront amusement park in New England. Meagan Achenbach, Palace Playland's Vice President, is proud of the family-owned park's roots, dating back to 1902. "We definitely thrive on our history," says Meagan. "We try to capitalize on our 'vintage-ness.'"

Part of Palace Playland’s vintage charm is its unique open-gate system. Over half a million guests each summer come and go as they please, spending as much or as little as they like on the 29 rides and 200+ arcade games available at the park.

During these busy summer months, the park employs 225 seasonal staff. For Meagan, increasing operational efficiency across this workforce while maintaining the park's vintage feel is a difficult balance to strike.

CHALLENGE

Meagan and several managers oversee all operations at Palace Playland, including employee scheduling, time tracking, and HR administration. "I think my biggest challenge is just making all the pieces fit together," reflects Meagan. "In [the amusement park] industry where safety is our number one priority, that governing theme affects everything we do."

With a patchwork of different timekeeping, safety, and scheduling systems in place, fitting all the pieces together proved extremely challenging and time-consuming. Since the park's time clocks were not synced with scheduling, there was no easy way to track labor cost variances in real-time. Without this vital information, it was much harder to visualize and stick to a scheduling budget. Moreover, training and safety certifications were also tracked separately, making it difficult to quickly assign staff to rides they were trained to operate.

"In the other platform we used, you had to go several steps into an employee's profile to be able to see what they were certified for – it was a lot more tedious," reflects Meagan.

Perhaps Palace Playaland's most significant issue was dealing with persistent time theft. Since they only had a single time clock covering a five-acre property, some employees found it easy to delay clocking out – increasing the size of their paychecks. "The time clock abuse here was pretty high. We would see employees stopping to grab a hot dog or talk to friends on their way to clock out," says Meagan.

Between a lack of real-time labor cost reporting, inconvenient access to training records, and wasted wages due to time theft, Meagan knew change was necessary to relieve some of the park's administrative and financial strain.

SOLUTION

Palace Playland wanted new employee scheduling software that would sync with time tracking and safety management. After some research, they partnered with Workforce.com to condense all their needs into a single, efficient, cloud-based platform.

"Workforce.com has really helped us bridge that gap of maintaining a vintage, family-owned amusement park feel while also trying to modernize our daily operations," says Meagan.

As an all-in-one employee management solution, Workforce.com enhances Palace Playland's ability to view labor cost reports, track compliance, react to last-minute scheduling changes, and crack down on time theft issues.

“Because [Workforce.com] is so robust, it really affords an industry like ours the ability to track the detail you need all in one place,” says Meagan. “It doesn't require massive amounts of training to teach people how to use the platform.”

RESULTS

Here are just a few of the ways Palace Playland met its goals using Workforce.com:

$1,000+ a week saved in labor costs

Palace Playland spreads six tablets installed with Workforce.com's time clock app across the park, making it easier for staff to clock out efficiently – and on time. With easier access to time clocks, instances of time theft have dropped off significantly. Moreover, employee time punches are verified with pin codes, photo IDs, and in-person interactions with managers.

"The amount of cost that we saved in wages is astronomical," says Meagan. "We estimated a conservative $1,000 a week just for one department."

50% drop in time spent auditing weekly timesheets

Workforce.com's digital timesheets are now more accessible across the entire organization. Employees can easily review their own timesheets, allowing them to spot and report any errors to their managers well before the end of the pay cycle.

“[Workforce.com] cut our weekly timesheet audits in half!” says Meagan. "It's so easy to see if something's missing and to correct it. Employees can check things on the fly and let us know ahead of time – that saves an immense amount of time and energy. It puts a responsibility on the employee, which we didn't have before."

Greater visibility into certifications and training

Meagan can now add certifications and training tags to employee profiles in Workforce.com, making it easier for her schedulers to safely assign compliant shifts.

"Anytime somebody is trained or authorized to operate a ride, we add it to their profile," Meagan shares. "When you're looking at your staff list, it's really easy to just hover over it and see who is qualified to operate what."

Improved schedule budgeting and cost analysis

Since Workforce.com syncs time tracking and scheduling, Meagan can now compare budgeted vs. actual wage costs in real-time, directly on the schedule. This helps her stick to the park's budget, knowing exactly where and when they are over- or under-scheduling labor.

"I can easily do a deep dive on our wage costs right at my fingertips," says Meagan. "The reporting is very user-friendly and significantly more robust. Having the ability to see cost data immediately has been a huge benefit."

Customizable dashboard for reporting

Meagan can set up her own drag-and-drop widget dashboard in Workforce.com, where she can quickly access a live time clock feed, manage a to-do list, and pull labor cost reports.

"My dashboard is something I never knew I couldn't live without! Seeing at a quick glance who's on-site and when they arrived – it's really great. It really has become just a day to day necessity for me to do my job more efficiently and more accurately.”

With a new workforce management system in place, Palace Playland is looking forward to even more productive summers ahead.

"Workforce.com is a huge jump forward to having multiple aspects of our operation in one place," reflects Meagan. "And for a business that really operates in a short, chaotic window of time, that's of the utmost benefit to us."