Success story: Gusto Italian

Gusto Italian has 14 Italian restaurants around the UK and prides itself on having a fun family of people in its team that all share common goals and values. 

In 2022, Gusto Italian took the decision to make the move from a legacy people management solution to Rotaready. Alongside this, the restaurant group implemented an applicant tracking system, payroll solution and learning & development platform, CPL Learning. With this best of breed approach the business was able to streamline its onboarding process, increase efficiency across the business and massively improve the employee experience. 

Anne-Marie Sarantis, Head of People at Gusto Italian explains. “Our previous set-up had massive room for human error with applicants’ information and documentation being collated from multiple sources including texts, emails and pieces of paper. Bank details, ID and right to work documents were stored on a desktop and keyed into different programmes several times which created data protection issues as well as increasing the likelihood of input error."

“The biggest game-changer since implementing Rotaready has been the integration of products, ensuring that information is automatically shared across our applicant tracking system, rotas, comms and training platforms, and payroll provider.

This makes our employee administration self-managing and provides consistency across all the restaurants so that all new starters get the same experience whichever restaurant they work in.

“New team members start knowing that we have their details on file, so that their first day is all about introducing them to the team and the Gusto Italian culture rather than filling in forms. They are confident that they are working in a business that knows what it’s doing and their GM can sit down with them, have a coffee and talk through the culture and values of the business, safe in the knowledge that all the paperwork has already been sorted. They will have also received their rota for the first week in advance, so that they know what to expect and can plan their social life around work commitments.  

“We have a team communication platform that all our apps sit within enabling our people to log in and go to one place to access Rotaready, CPL Learning or onto our payroll system which means they don’t have to worry about remembering passwords and log in separately as it’s all there together. It’s all about the age demographic – the team we’re recruiting now has the expectation that everything will just happen for them and that is how the Rotaready integration works which is a huge benefit.

"We’ve also undertaken a big project recruiting people from overseas and it has certainly helped there, too. Moving your family to England from another country is a huge undertaking but when they are appointed, they are automatically set up on Rotaready and most have completed their online training through CPL Learning, so they understand the brand before they start.

"As well as compliance training, we have modules specifically about Gusto Italian, what it looks like and how it feels to work here which builds their confidence and trust. The support we can provide also means they have a bank account set up through our payroll provider and, with visibility of their rota, they are able to secure accommodation more easily.  

“In terms of results, 100% of new starters we surveyed after their induction said that they were aware of, and understood the systems we work with. Four fifths (80%) said that their Manager spent time showing them round, introducing them to team and going through the Gusto Italian vision and values on their first day which just wouldn’t have been possible to achieve face to face if we didn’t have the tech in place.  

“We also measure the success of the Rotaready integration project by turnover of team members which has seen a massive improvement. I don’t think we were alone in posting a high turnover after Covid but it highlighted that we had to up our game and think about employee experience and what we were doing to look after our people a lot more. Our annual turnover is currently tracking at 52% whereas it was previously 140%.  

“Similarly, like many other businesses, we have traditionally reported on 0-90 day turnover but this project has been so successful that it’s allowed us to move towards a longer-term view. We know that leavers in the first 0-90 days have dropped to 32%, including some incorrect hires. And new starter compliance on our CPL Learning statutory courses/legal requirements before their first day stands at 98% across the business.  We now have a wellbeing meeting after 90 days and set up a PDP to help team member retention to help reach the important six-12 month period. 

“Another issue we experienced was the time taken to hire intensified by people moving from one role to another very quickly. There was a scramble to get people into the business and the integrated tech stack we now have in place allows us to speed the process up, reducing our time to hire. With everything laid out through our communication platform, our new hires are reassured and able to commit mentally to starting with Gusto Italian. Having visibility of employment details, upcoming shifts, personalised training programmes and payroll information, plays an important part in ensuring they don’t move to a competitor before they even start."

Integrated technology has significantly improved our people management processes but my advice is not to be afraid if you’re not a tech expert and grasp the opportunity.

"Work with someone in the business who will actually use the end product so knows what it needs to achieve and give them time out of their day to day role to concentrate on the project. Involve the team and get their input to work alongside the technology provider and be open minded and resilient as things will inevitably change along the way. “