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Food Production & Retail Success Story

Butlers Chocolates

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Employees

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Countries

Chocolate Cafés

HR Platform

See how Butlers Chocolates uses HR Duo to connect its manufacturing and retail workforces, bringing recruitment, mobile time-tracking, rotas, HR compliance, payroll reporting, employee development and performance into one HRMS.

Butlers Chocolate HR Duo

Overview

  • CompanyButlers Chocolates
  • LocationIreland & International Markets
  • IndustryFood Production & Retail

Explore this case study if:

  • You manage employees across both manufacturing and customer-facing retail environments.
  • You need consistent HR processes across a factory, stores, cafés or multiple locations.
  • You want to connect recruitment, rotas, time and attendance and employee records within one HRMS.
  • You need accurate workforce information to support payroll and HR compliance.
  • You want employee performance and workforce reporting connected to everyday HR operations.

Butlers Chocolates

Founded in Dublin in 1932, Butlers Chocolates is one of Ireland's best-known family-owned chocolate producers, manufacturing its products from its Dublin production facility.

Today, the business employs more than 500 people across its factory and Butlers Chocolate Café network, with 30 cafés across Ireland. Butlers products are also available in more than 30 countries and 50 major international airports worldwide.

Its workforce combines production employees with baristas, café teams, retail managers and central support functions, creating very different workforce requirements within the same organisation.

Butlers needed an HR Platform capable of connecting these teams while giving HR and managers consistent processes and workforce information across manufacturing and retail.

Butlers' Challenge:
Connecting Factory and Café Teams Through One HR Platform

Managing a workforce split between food production and customer-facing retail creates different operational and people requirements.

Butlers needed HR software capable of supporting both environments while creating a more consistent employee experience from recruitment and onboarding through everyday workforce management and performance.

The key challenges included:

  • Managing different workforce environments. Connecting manufacturing, café, retail and support employees through consistent HR processes.
  • Accurate time and attendance. Capturing reliable working hours through mobile clocking across different teams and locations.
  • Rotas and workforce availability. Managing shifts, leave and staffing requirements across production and customer-facing operations.
  • Recruitment and onboarding. Supporting hiring across different roles while keeping new starter information connected to the employee record.
  • HR compliance and employee records. Keeping contracts, policies, documents and employee information organised and accessible.
  • Employee development and performance. Giving managers better tools to manage objectives, reviews, one-to-ones and ongoing performance.

One HR Platform Connecting
Production and Retail

HR Duo gives Butlers one connected HR Platform for managing employees across its factory, café network and wider business throughout the employee lifecycle.

Connect factory and café teams in one HRMS

Employee records and workforce information sit within the same HR Platform, giving Butlers a consistent source of information across manufacturing, retail and support teams.

Capture working hours through mobile clocking

Employees can record their working hours digitally through HR Duo, giving managers clearer time and attendance information without relying on hardware clocking or manual timesheets.

Manage rotas, leave and workforce availability

Digital rotas, shift scheduling and leave management help managers plan staffing requirements across production and café operations while keeping employees informed of their schedules.

Recruit and onboard different types of employees

Applicant tracking and onboarding allow Butlers to manage recruitment for factory, café and other roles within the same HRMS employees continue using after joining.

Connect workforce information with payroll reporting

Time, attendance and rota information supports payroll reporting, reducing manual data handling and giving payroll teams more reliable workforce information without requiring payroll processing to sit within HR Duo.

Keep HR compliance and employee records connected

Contracts, policies, forms, employee records and HR documentation remain within one system, helping Butlers maintain more consistent HR processes across different parts of the business.

HR Duo gives us one platform for very different teams across our manufacturing and café operations. From recruitment and rotas through to time and attendance, HR compliance and performance, our managers have much better visibility, and our employees have easier access to what they need.

 

Having everything connected has reduced administration and made our people processes much easier to manage across the business.

Conleth Meehan

Operations Manager, Butlers Chocolates

How Butlers Chocolates Uses HR Duo

A connected HR Platform supporting factory and café employees from recruitment and onboarding through everyday workforce management, compliance and performance.

Union
Time and Attendance
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Leave and Absence
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Digital Rotas
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Shift Scheduling
Union (40)
Applicant Tracking
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Employee Self-service
Union (1)
HR Intelligence
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Data and Analytics
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Alerts and Notifications
Union (26)
Payroll Reporting
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Employee Self-Serve
Mobile icon
Mobile App
Worker icon
Subcontractors
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Employee Profiles
Union (5)
Task Manager
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Skills Matrix
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Document Storage
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Benefit Recording
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Equipment Tracking
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Permission Groups
Union-news
Rolling Newsfeed
Union-workflow
Custom Workflows
Union-Incident
Incident Reporting
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Knowledge Centre
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Instant Messaging
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Language Translation
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Platform Support
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Custom Reports
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Ticketing System
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FAQs

What HR software does Butlers Chocolates use?

Butlers Chocolates uses HR Duo as its HR Management Software and workforce management platform, covering recruitment, onboarding, mobile time-tracking, digital rotas, leave, HR compliance, payroll reporting, employee records and performance management.

How does HR Duo support both Butlers' factory and café employees?

HR Duo brings manufacturing and retail employees into one HR Platform while allowing managers to handle different workforce requirements across production and customer-facing teams.

How do Butlers Chocolates employees clock in?

Butlers uses HR Duo's mobile time-tracking functionality, allowing employees to record working hours digitally without relying on dedicated clocking hardware.

Does HR Duo help Butlers manage café rotas and shifts?

Yes. HR Duo's digital rota and shift scheduling tools allow managers to plan working patterns, manage leave and adjust workforce coverage across different teams and locations.

How does HR Duo support payroll at Butlers Chocolates?

Time, attendance and rota information can be used for payroll reporting, reducing manual data handling and giving payroll teams more accurate workforce information. Butlers does not use HR Duo for payroll processing itself.

Can HR Duo support recruitment and onboarding across manufacturing and retail?

Yes. Applicant tracking and onboarding allow employers to recruit for different roles while keeping candidate and new starter information connected to the wider employee record.

Does HR Duo support employee performance and development?

Yes. HR Duo includes one-to-ones, objectives, performance reviews and wider performance management tools, allowing employee development to remain connected to everyday HR information.

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