We spoke to Birmingham Hippodrome Flexible Visitor Service Supervisor Elyse Jinks to understand how Birmingham Hippodrome manages its workforce operations and how Parim fits into that process.
Can you tell us a bit about Birmingham Hippodrome’s background story?
Birmingham Hippodrome is one of the UK’s busiest and most vibrant arts venues. Proudly based in the heart of Birmingham, we are an independent charity, run by a board of voluntary trustees with no regular funding from public sources. Our rich history spans over 125 years, with the Hippodrome now welcoming over 600,000 paid visitors a year to our main house and Patrick Studio for everything from musicals and pantomime to ballet, dance, opera and family productions. We operate with a large, diverse workforce including permanent staff, flexible workers, internships, apprenticeships and volunteers.
How does Birmingham Hippodrome manage its workforce?
Our employee operations are diverse and include various roles from admin and customer service to hospitality, marketing, finance, and technical roles. As one of the region’s major employers, Birmingham Hippodrome offers full-time, part-time, and flexible roles, as well as opportunities for volunteering, apprenticeships, internships, and work experience.
Day-to-day staffing in our Visitor Experience team changes depending on the events and performances scheduled. Our departments work closely together to ensure every show runs smoothly and that visitors have a great experience. With such a variety of activities, no two days are ever the same. For many of our team members, shifts and hours can vary depending on what’s happening.
Long-term staffing involves planning ahead for major productions, community projects, events, and festivals, while also ensuring the venue is well-maintained and continues to operate to a high standard.
What solutions and processes were you using before Parim?
Before Parim, we relied on a mix of tools like Excel spreadsheets, emails, Doodle polls, and lots of paperwork.
What were the main operational challenges you needed to overcome?
Key challenges we needed to overcome included:
- Daily Tasks: tracking employee availability, shifts, payroll, and absences meant gathering information from lots of different sources. It was easy for things to get missed, and it was hard to see at a glance who was available or trained for specific roles. Scheduling a large team with different operational needs was also a challenge, especially when trying to align employees with the right skills to the right shifts.
- Limited visibility & communication: Last-minute changes and staff availability were difficult to track, which made planning challenging. With few tools for reaching staff quickly, sharing updates or adjusting shifts at short notice was difficult.
- Absence and holiday management: Keeping accurate records of time off, attendance, and absences was time-consuming.
- Manual payroll processes: Calculating payroll by hand took a lot of time and was prone to errors.
- Data entry challenges: Using multiple systems for the same information increased the risk of mistakes and delays.
How did Parim stand out from the competition? Why was it chosen?
Parim stood out because it was flexible and easy to use. As we are mainly an event based organisation, we needed a system that could schedule for different events, shows and times.
The unlimited-user pricing model was also a big advantage, as it allowed us to include our large casual workforce without worrying about extra costs. On top of that, both managers and staff can stay connected and updated, which we needed to improve day-to-day communication.
How did Parim fit into your operations? Were there any changes in your processes? How was the adoption?
Parim was integrated into our daily operations very smoothly over a couple of months. At first, only a few contracted staff were set up on the system to test how it worked, and once everything ran well, it was rolled out to the rest of the team.
The biggest change was having everything in one place instead of scattered across different tools and documents. This made our day-to-day processes much more efficient. Employees could easily manage their own availability, and managers were able to schedule shifts more accurately, saving time and reducing admin work.
What are Parim’s standout features for you?
- Long-term schedules, shift patterns, multiple views: These make it easy to plan ahead for shows, events, and productions, giving everyone a clear picture of what’s coming up.
- Shift allocation by position, qualification, and other variables: This feature helps us ensure the right people are assigned to the right shifts. It’s especially important for front-of-house teams, where we need employees with specific skills such as first aid training or food hygiene certification for bar and catering roles.
- Open shifts and self-scheduling: Staff can choose shifts themselves, which fills gaps faster and gives them more flexibility and autonomy.
- Scheduling with Event Module: By linking shifts directly to events, we can give our teams all the information they need about each performance or event, while making sure the right people are applying and approved for the right roles.
- Time tracking & geofencing: It’s easy to see who’s where and when, so we know shifts are covered and employees are on-site when they need to be.
- Pay & Charge rules for payroll and invoicing: Payroll is now much more straightforward, reducing errors and saving on admin time.
- Absence management: Keeping track of holidays, sickness, and other absences is simpler and quicker to access.
- Mobile app workflows: Staff can check schedules, update availability, and receive notifications on the go, which keeps management and staff connected.
How are you benefiting from our pricing model with unlimited users?
With a workforce that fluctuates depending on performance and event schedules, being able to add or remove employees without worrying about per-user costs gives us flexibility. It means we can include all our casual and seasonal team members in the system, so everyone benefits equally from the platform.
