How Colectivo Coffee Does Payroll 66% Faster With 7shifts

 

The Midwest’s favorite coffee brand

Colectivo is more than just a coffee shop—it’s a hub for community, coffee, and connection. Their cafes are intentionally designed as “third spaces” or homes away from home and are extensions of the neighborhood. Colectivo directly connects coffee farmers at origin to their customers. For the workers, Colectivo is the largest unionized coffee shop in the United States, with more than 600 members in the IBEW Local 494 union.

Seth Broidy joined the Colectivo team at a pivotal moment, with a union contract under negotiation and a post-pandemic workforce seeking stability and growth. 

“What drew me to Colectivo was the brand,” says Broidy. “In Milwaukee, especially, it resonates with people. The passion for the company is unbelievable.”

A self-described “fixer-upper,” Broidy brought a wealth of HR experience from the corporate and union world. 

“My last few roles [had been] about transformation. I come in, assess the situation, and see where we need to go,” says Broidy.

For Colectivo, that meant replacing outdated systems, modernizing payroll, re-writing the employee handbook, and more. They also brought on 7shifts to simplify complex tip management. We chatted with Seth about how using 7shifts has helped solve challenges at Colectivo. 

 

The challenge: A complex tip management process

Managing tips for a dozen employees can be challenging, let alone a small army of 600. Before using 7shifts, the entire process was manual, requiring our payroll team to create multiple reports and manually upload data into their payroll system. According to Seth, it was a real logistical nightmare.

“It was a real pain in the ass before,” he admitted. “We had to download a report from our POS for all the tips, download a report from ADP, tie it all together, and create an upload. There was so much room for error.”

Seth also recognized the challenges in managing tips for a unionized workforce, where compliance and accuracy were non-negotiable. 

The solution: 7shifts scheduling and tip management tools

Colectivo adopted the 7shifts’ Works Plan with Tip Management in April 2023—and the impact was immediate.

“With 7shifts, I’ve already got the 20 tip pools set up,” Seth explained. “For each pay period, I simply pull a report with the total dollar amounts for each location, update the dates in 7shifts, and input the amounts. That’s it.” 

To ensure accuracy, Seth runs a final check to align reports. “The numbers are typically off by just a few pennies,” he added. “Once everything is verified, [7shifts] takes care of the upload. It’s literally all we do now—it’s so much easier.” The data is then sent through their payroll provider, Paylocity, and is paid out to staff on payday. Since starting to use 7shifts, Colectivo has processed and pooled more than $2 million in tips.

With the tip complexities automated, Coletivo is processing payroll 66% faster than before, saving two to three hours every pay period just on tips at every cafe.

The automated app also reduces the chance of human error to next to zero, giving Colectivo leadership peace of mind.

More than just tipping

While Colectivo brought 7shifts on to focus on tip management, they soon discovered the benefits of the entire workforce management suite.

Easy Union Compliance

7shifts’ features like break tracking, mobile shift notification, and employee availability ensure compliance with union rules, including posting schedules three weeks ahead and adequate time between shifts. That means no issues are allowed.

Improved Employee Comms

“The other big key with 7shifts, and I think we like it more than anything, is what the employees use it for. We use it for messaging in the cafes, and the employees often use it to change shifts,” says Broidy. On average, Colectivo employees perform 175 monthly shift swaps across all locations. Chats are flying, too, with more than 2.31 messages sent via the 7shifts mobile app since April of 2023.

Labor Efficiency

Managers use real-time dashboards to align labor costs with sales and make schedules that keep operations efficient. “Our labor costs stay consistent even as sales increase,” Seth explained.

 

Building a people-first culture

It’s not just the technology that helps Colectivo thrive—it’s a commitment to people that starts at the top. When a coffee roaster machine went down, one of Colectivo’s owners flew from the West Coast to help repair it. 

“It’s an indication of how much they care,” says Seth.

As a leader, Seth complements this hands-on approach. 

“My favorite part of the job is engaging with our team,” he said. “I take groups to lunch, talk to people on the floor, and ensure they feel recognized. The his, goodbyes, and thank-yous mean more than anything else.”

Even small gestures, like sending an order of hot Matzoh Ball Soup to a sick employee, are part of Seth’s philosophy: “That stuff is worth every penny,” says Briody.

Growing with 7shifts

As Colectivo continues to grow, Seth sees 7shifts as an essential partner. “It really fits all our needs right now,” he said. “And the best part is, it keeps evolving to meet the needs of businesses like ours.”