WONDR cuts weekly scheduling time by more than 85% with auto-scheduling

In leisure and hospitality, the guest experience starts with the schedule. Put someone without bar training on the bar, or nobody with a key on the closing shift, and guests feel it. Planners carry all of that in their heads, and building next week's schedule can eat days of their week.

WONDR Experience runs immersive venues in Amsterdam with hospitality, food and drink, maintenance, and events teams. Irem Güneri, Operational Facility Manager, plans all of them. With auto-scheduling in Shiftbase, she now builds the weekly schedule for all five departments in two hours instead of two full working days. That's more than 85% less time, with every required skill covered.

One team works shifts across five departments

Irem started at WONDR as a host in 2020, moving up to assistant manager and then experience manager, which is when the schedule became hers. Today she's Operational Facility Manager, and the schedule is still hers. Back then, WONDR planned in an older tool that Irem remembers well: "basically an Excel sheet, just coloured." It was complex and hard to use. When WONDR came across Shiftbase, Irem led the switch.

The planning itself only got more involved. WONDR now runs two venues with three food and drink outlets between them, plus maintenance and events teams. Most colleagues work across departments, so WONDR is really planning one big team. And many shifts need a specific skill: bartending or chef training in food and drink, Dutch for small events with children in hospitality, and, for the closing shift, an authorised building key.

Building the week took around two full working days. Irem spent about a day and a half building and cross-checking the schedule. Then a colleague spent half a day reviewing it under WONDR's four-eyes principle before it went out.

Skills first, then auto-scheduling drafts the week

WONDR joined auto-scheduling in early access. Irem gave every colleague the skills they're trained for, and set the required skill on every required shift. From there, auto-scheduling only plans people on shifts they're qualified for.

The first results cut her scheduling work by about half. But auto-scheduling planned one venue at a time. Because the same people work across venues, it couldn't plan colleagues in the second venue once they'd reached their maximum shifts in the first. Irem asked Shiftbase whether it could schedule all departments as one team. Within a week, it could.

Results at a glance

• More than 85% less time on the weekly schedule: two full working days down to two hours, cross-checks included.

• One click for all five departments. Auto-scheduling plans colleagues who work across teams as one team.

• The right person on every shift, from bartending and chef skills to Dutch for children's events and the building key for closing.

• Labour cost on every draft, so Irem knows the month's staffing cost before she publishes.

• Irem stays in control: she picks the goal and can change any shift before the schedule goes live.

Before and after at WONDR Experience

Irem sets skills once, and every draft takes them into account

Before, every shift meant a question in Irem's head: does this person have the training for this? Now the skills answer it. Bartending and chef skills, language skills, even the building key: Irem added them once, and auto-scheduling takes them into account on every draft.

The time she got back also brought something she never had room for: a view of what the schedule costs.

Her advice to other planners is practical. Getting the setup right is what makes the drafts right.

What's next for WONDR and Shiftbase

Irem keeps sharing what WONDR's team structure needs from auto-scheduling with the Shiftbase product team, so the next improvements fit how planners like her work.

Shiftbase builds auto-scheduling with planners like Irem. Scheduling all departments as one team came straight from her feedback, and it shipped in a week. We'll keep building that way. Planners stay in control, and Shiftbase takes the repetitive checking off their plate.

Photo: Arielle Frioza