Chocolate Company and L1NDA make chocolate out of employee scheduling

Making life a little tastier, more fun and more enjoyable for everyone. That’s the mission of café and chocolate store Chocolate Company. They succeed in this in all 20 locations with chocolate and attention to guests and employees.

“Chocolate makes life more enjoyable,” thinks Alexander de Ronde Bresser, sweet retail director at Chocolate Company. “That’s why you’ll find artisanal chocolate products and more than 50 flavours of chocolate milk at our shop. In addition, we pay a lot of attention to the ultimate customer experience and we train our staff in this. How do you deal with guests? How do we make it fun and enjoyable? That starts with the mentality of our employees. You determine the attitude you bring to work and whether it will be a fun day. Above all, be yourself, but discover your qualities so that you always feel comfortable in your work.”

Scheduling is not a one-way street

At Chocolate Company they take each other into account, even when it comes to scheduling. Alexander: “It used to be, ‘This is the schedule and if you can’t make it, we’ll hear about it.’ But scheduling employees is not a one-way street. People often don’t mind working hard or taking a break, as long as they can influence the schedule. That is why we ask colleagues to let us know their availability 3 weeks in advance. This way, managers get the planning done on time and colleagues feel okay with the schedule. We match preferences and shifts and that creates a positive environment.”

Tool to run business

Since 2013, Chocolate Company has been managing its workforce through L1NDA’s workforce management platform. The cash register systems and payroll are also integrated. “L1NDA gives us insight into the business operations. In combination with the turnover data, we can advise franchisees about their scheduling. What goes well here and what could be better there? How do they stay in the plus? Entrepreneurs are often not very good with the financial side of things and need tools and an overview. But for insights about the hours to be used, you need to register everything properly. L1NDA is like a tool to benchmark and run our business”, Alexander says.

Overview and support for employees

There are 20 Chocolate Company stores in The Netherlands. Most of them are now working with L1NDA. Jessica Duindam, business manager at Chocolate Company: “L1NDA is very clear, also the office part. At a glance, I can see how many hours someone worked and whether these are more or less than expected.  L1NDA calculates this automatically. With the clear instruction videos, new employees get to know the system and can complete their accounts themselves. Their online support is very nice and our colleagues also find L1NDA easy to work with.”

About L1NDA for Retail

L1NDA is one platform to create, schedule and manage your team. Recently, L1NDA’s platform has been expanded to include a flexible work agency. Undefined shifts in your planning can now be filled directly with flexible workers from L1NDA. Soon there will be a link to the freelancers of YoungOnes. This way you spend less time on administrative work, so you can focus on what matters. Click here for more information.