How The Mex Saves 6 Hours Each Week On Workforce Management

Seeking authentic Tex-Mex cuisine in the heart of Ocean Grove? The Mex Restaurant and Bar is where all the locals are.

Since founders Lawrence D’Arcy and Frank Filia first threw open its doors in the early 1980s, The Mex has become a popular destination for the local community, who regularly enjoy delicious nachos and refreshing cocktails in the ambience of the venue's beer garden.

Before foundU, onboarding new staff at The Mex was a time-consuming process that took hours out of the owners' days. Rosters were all created and updated through spreadsheets, and payroll was a manual process that required regular data entry into an additional bookkeeping platform. They wanted an all-in-one system like foundU that could streamline their workforce management.

Dane Jackson, The Mex's Co-Owner, reports that foundU has enabled them to save six hours each week on workforce management.

Time-consuming workforce management

On any given week, The Mex manages a mostly-casualised payroll of 45 employees who work under different awards and pay rates.

Before foundU, Dane was solely responsible for all things human resources and payroll. Most of his time was spent onboarding new staff, which was a time-consuming process that took hours out of his days. 

"It was just taking away too much of my time," Dane said.

"In terms of onboarding new staff, we always tried to find people that we think will stick around for a long time. But because of the nature of hospitality, we still often have people coming and going. So onboarding new people, getting all their information and having them set up into our systems - it was just taking way too long."

Dane also says that rosters were all created and updated through spreadsheets, and payroll was a manual process that required regular data entry into an additional bookkeeping platform.

"Rosters were being done out of spreadsheets, and then everything was manually entered into the payroll software to generate payslips," Dane said.

"It was just all getting a bit silly, to be honest. We needed a better solution that could help automate a lot of these things, and that could communicate things to our employees a bit better, so I could put some time back in my day."

Finding the only all-in-one workforce management platform

Realising The Mex needed a workforce management solution that would allow them to automate onboarding, rostering and payroll, Dane trialled an alternative solution in the interim.

"We tried one of the bigger providers briefly, but that was only doing the rostering part - that wasn't handling the onboarding or payroll," Dane said.

"When it came to choosing foundU, one of the great things was being able to have all of those things in the one place."

After being referred to foundU by a connection from a hospitality network, Dane and the team at The Mex took the time to go through an assisted implementation.

"We were happy to spend the time initially, just to get it all all in and settled so that we know that we'd be set further down the line," Dane said.

"The time savings alone that foundU could offer us was really advantageous for us. And sure, it was a bit time-consuming at first just to get everyone on board and using it. But once it was all said and done, it was pretty easy going from there."

Saving six hours a week on workforce management

Since implementing foundU, Dane reports he has been able to save six hours each week on workforce management.

"All I used to do on Mondays was pay bills, do payroll, do the rosters - all those time-consuming tasks," Dane said.

"Now, just myself, I'm saving six hours a week, which I'm using to manage all the other issues of handling a workforce of this size and complexity."

Dane says that foundU's payroll module has made a big difference.

"Having payroll connected to the rostering system is just brilliant - there's no room for data errors," Dane said.

"With our old system, we used to have issues when it came to transferring data and getting award rates right. Now with everything set up and automated, everything just flows through without any issues."

Dane says that tools like the award test give him confidence in the face of payroll audits.

"I have always felt confident about audits in the past, as we always aim to do the right thing," Dane said.

"But tools like the award test give us a much simpler way to confirm that our systems pay rules match up with current awards. It's reassuring."

Dane says that implementing foundU has also been beneficial for their employee experience. 

"When we came over to foundU, we used it as a chance to re-issue our policies and procedures, refresh all our employment contracts and update position descriptions at the same time," Dane said.

"We used the foundU document builder feature to create and share everything with staff. So instead of printing 40 different copies of five different documents and mailing them out, we sent it all out digitally, staff signed it digitally and sent it back to us digitally. It was a really efficient way to do that, and it allowed us to reset the employee experience and make sure our expectations are crystal clear."

For other hospitality businesses, Dane says that foundU could be a game changer.

"Hospitality, as a whole, has a pretty poor history when it comes to things like awards and rates of pay," Dane said.

"Just knowing that you're compliant and doing the right thing is a really good feeling, especially since we're in competition for top talent at the moment. foundU puts us in a strong spot, knowing that staff are all paid correctly and we can see, very clearly, that everything is done right."