Cyprus Duty Free

Cyprus Duty Free achieves just-right scheduling and better employee experiences with Humanity

CHALLENGE

More than 500 people work hard to deliver stellar duty-free shopping experiences for customers at Pafos and Larnaca airports in Cyprus. Pafos serves clientele who charter flights, while Larnaca is a full-service airport that operates around the clock.

Theodosis Kyriacou is the Rostering Administrator for Cyprus Duty Free, the main retailer at both airports. He oversees employee scheduling for the office staff who support the airports, along with the shops’ sales assistants, supervisors, and sales managers. This requires building complex morning, afternoon, and night shift rotations for all roles while also complying with labor laws for overtime and leave.

Despite such diverse roles, dynamic shift rotations, and multiple locations, employee scheduling was originally done manually using spreadsheets, a process that made it difficult to meet the company’s top priorities: controlling costs, honoring employees’ scheduling preferences, and giving employees enough lead time to plan their time off.

SOLUTION AND RESULTS

In 2017, Cyprus Duty Free adopted Humanity, TCP Software’s dynamic employee scheduling software. Humanity makes it easy for schedulers to build and communicate employee schedules and leave well in advance for the employees supporting and staffing both airports.

We are producing schedules faster, which means that employees get their schedule and approved leaves faster than before,” Kyriacou says. “That’s been key for supporting their work–life balance and has played a huge role in staff retention.

SIMPLIFYING SCHEDULES ACROSS LOCATIONS AND AREAS

Between the warehouse, office, and duty free shops themselves, it takes a range of positions and skills to provide a great customer experience. The warehouse crew requires a driver, a supervisor, and everything in between on any given shift, for example. Kyriacou uses Humanity’s interactive shift planning to simplify this work. As a result, he knows he has coverage across all key areas needed to keep operations running smoothly, from the warehouse to the HR department to the retail stores.

FORECASTING DEMAND TO DRIVE JUST-RIGHT COVERAGE

Humanity’s Demand Scheduler helps Kyriacou know exactly how to staff shops during the ebb and flow of daily airport traffic. This is particularly useful at Pafos, where traffic fluctuates from one day to the next since charter flights are irregular.

Once passengers-per-hour data is imported, Humanity provides a forecast for how many staff are needed to deliver excellent guest experiences without overstaffing. Kyriacou can also use the Staffing Checker, which visualizes scheduled coverage compared to forecasted demand, to know immediately whether he’s under- or overstaffed.

“We can change our shifts according to passenger flow,” Kyriacou says. “Having our shops properly staffed during high-traffic periods helps for better sales at the end of the day. We’re trying to balance everything, stay compliant with the law, and have the maximum productivity that we can.”

SUPPORTING COMPLIANCE AND HONORING EMPLOYEES

Cyprus labor laws govern everything from night shifts to maximum hours per work week to employee annual leaves. Kyriacou uses Humanity’s conflict rules to make sure schedules comply not just with labor laws but employee expectations.

It’s a big priority to create holiday schedules well in advance, for example, so that employees know which paid holidays they’re working and can request alternative days off.

Kyriacou feels strongly about the business’s commitment to empower staff and honor their preferred schedules. “It’s important for them to take all their leave and not lose any.”

CONVENIENT EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

The TCP Humanity app provides employees a sense of control, too. It not only gives them visibility into their schedules but allows them to request shift trades and apply for annual leave.

“They are able to change their shifts, which is an extremely useful thing for us at the moment because there’s no need for a telephone conversation or email.”

“They just send the request to swap via Humanity, we approve it if it complies with legal requirements, and it’s all automatically performed. It’s a very fantastic tool.”

CENTRALIZED COMMUNICATION AND MATERIALS

Humanity’s Training module offers a reliable spot for leaders to share materials or otherwise communicate with the full team. Today, it functions almost as a newsletter.

The fact that they’re able to upload PDFs has provided a number of benefits. HR is able to post new job openings. And when staff are required to renew their airport ID, Kyriacou uses Humanity to track and share notifications that those IDs must be updated. Humanity makes the process seamless for them—they’re able to upload the necessary forms so employees know exactly when their airport IDs must be updated and how to complete the process.

From demand forecasting and conflict rules to the mobile app and Training module, Humanity has streamlined scheduling in a way that not only eases Kyriacou’s day-to-day work but benefits employees and the company as a whole.

“With Humanity, I can create schedules more intuitively and put my schedules out as fast as possible to stay compliant, to make sure that all retail staff have a work–life balance and their annual leave plan, and that we have predictability for shifts that are more efficient, more effective, and more economical.”