From staffing arrangements and budgeting to compliance, rostering and managing staff in a fledgling small to medium-sized retail business can put a great deal of unnecessary stress and pressure on owners and managers. In fact, 40 percent of small businesses struggle with award compliance when it comes to rostering their employees.
A partnership between Rision Ltd, a Melbourne-based provider of mobile app rostering software, and the National Retail Association (NRA) has seen the launch of a unique rostering platform to provide fair and transparent scheduling solutions for Australia’s retail workers.
Dubbed the “Roster Coster”, the app will allow retailers to not only more efficiently manage their rosters, but to better understand how the General Retail Industry Award 2010 and Fast Food Industry Award 2010 applies to their staff.
Responding to the launch, the Victorian Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade, Philip Dalidakis MP announced his support saying, “Roster Coster is a great example of the retail industry collaborating with the tech community to create innovative new ways to ease the day-to-day administrative pressures for our shift workers.”
“Victoria is leading the country in tech innovation thanks to local companies like Rision providing the tools for traditional industries to keep up with the digital age,” he added.
The NRA is Australia’s largest and most representative retail industry organisation, representing more than 19,000 stores and outlets across Australia. The majority of Australia’s national retail chains rely on the NRA for professional services and retail-specific advice across all Australian jurisdictions, including in employment law.
NRA CEO Dominique Lamb said: “The Retail Award is highly complex, and small businesses can face very significant penalties if they fail to understand and comply with all their obligations. Roster Coster will help business owners ensure they operate within the law, while also optimising their staffing arrangements and budgets.”
Roster Coster will be a free and limited version of Rision’s existing rostering product. Retailers that use Roster Coster will be able to experience the benefits of using an online rostering tool, including saving time while ensuring compliance with the General Retail and Fast Food Industry Awards.
Rision is a team planning and analytics platform that helps businesses manage and support their employees. Rision has applications across a broad range of industries including retail, fast food, hospitality, cleaning, security, transport and healthcare industries.
Rision CEO Kate Cornick said, “Technology is often seen as a disrupter creating uncertain changes to workforces, but it can also be used to help ensure safety nets, ensuring employees are fairly treated while making life easier for busy employers. At Rision we are proud to have developed state of the art mobile technology that supports retailers and their employees.”
Users of Roster Coster will have the ability to easily convert to the full functionality of Rision’s rostering tool on commercial terms to enable use of Rision’s mobile apps to communicate with staff, and the ability to roster more than 15 staff across multiple locations.
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