Breathe, the HR software vendor for small businesses has announced the launch of Breathe Rota. Breathe Rota provides a full scheduling solution for small businesses.
The announcement is not the result of a rushed software development to take advantage of the need in pandemic hit small businesses. Jonathan Richards spoke about the upcoming solution when Enterprise Times interviewed him last year. Rota is an entirely new, fully formed solution and is free to use until January 2021. At that date, pricing starts at £18 per month for up to 25 users. It is for businesses with a single location and single rota planner. There are higher tiers for more complex organisations.
As small businesses return to work, business leaders need to introduce rotas to ensure social distancing of staff. The challenge is that while many will turn to spreadsheets, what is required is a fully functional mobile-based application that business owners and their employees can access. It is this challenge that Breathe Rota addresses. The challenge was already there, which is why Richards and the Breathe team have been developing this solution over several months.
What is Breathe Rota?
Breathe Rota is a fully mobile-enabled solution that allows businesses to manage staff rota simply. It includes the ability for business leaders to create, manage and communicate information about existing rotas to staff. Employees are also able to access the solution to see whether they can attend relevant shifts quickly and rejecting or accepting new shifts. Features include:
- Mobile optimised
- Relevant views for day week or month
- Personalised for each employee
- Simple to use
- Communicate with teams about new shifts and changes
- Assign multiple roles to employees
Rebecca Woolmington, Managing Director at HRCentral Limited, adds: “As the UK moves out of lockdown and businesses reopen, they need an effective way to manage their people. Whether you are a pub that’s previously used Excel spreadsheets, a business preparing to open soon or an office that has to operate shifts for the first time, automating this task will save businesses time and hassle – enabling them to focus on rebuilding and growing the business.”
Why is this so important now?
The announcement coincides with the release a survey that Breathe conducted in conjunction with Posture People and HR Central. The survey polled 482 senior business leaders and employees to identify key concerns about the return to work following lockdown. It identified that:
- 2% are concerned about returning to work
- 88% of respondents do not feel comfortable using public transport for their commute
- 6% are planning a phased return for their workforce in the office.
- 2% plan to limit attendance at work to adhere to social distancing rules
The last statistic is worrying. As recent events have shown, ignoring social distancing can mean that the virus spreads quickly. It can cause further disruption with another lockdown and potential closure of the business.
With a phased return to work comes the necessity of introducing workforce shifts. This is to protect both employees and customers. The launch of Rota is timely and its development prescient.
Jonathan Richards, CEO and co-founder of Breathe comments: “Our findings show a worrying picture whereby most people aren’t comfortable getting public transport at all this year, which is especially tricky for city-based firms. A full return to the office may not be possible at first, so businesses looking to introduce flexibility to the office environment are implementing rota systems to manage staff coming into the workplace.
“As we found in our Culture Economy report this year, 1 in 5 (21%) of employees quit their job due to poor workplace culture. This is why, whatever decision businesses make, they must ensure they are made with their people at the core.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Breathe focuses on providing simple solutions for small UK businesses. Richards has an ethos that combines increasing relevant functionality while maintaining the simplicity of use. This ethos is evident within the new Rota application as well. The launch of Breathe Rota is timely, and one that could easily see Breathe accelerate its growth.
Richards added: “At a time where businesses are negotiating a return to normality, we’re proud to expand the Breathe product stable with Breathe Rota alongside our Breathe HR product. We want to support small businesses get back up and running by offering our rota product completely free until January 2021.”
