Why Mandy’s Gourmet Salads Replaced Four Management Apps with One

 

In a sea of salad and bowl concepts, it’s tough to stand out. The traditional salad shop is not playful or exciting and their often-minimal interiors blend into white walls of sameness.

Enter Mandy’s. This gourmet salad company, founded by 2 sisters in Montreal, has become a beloved Canadian brand with 15 locations across Quebec and Ontario. Each store has its own fun and vibrant design that creates a unique guest experience.

Their latest flagship opening in Toronto’s Yorkville district features aisles that you’d find in a high-end grocery store. Customers can shop merch like Mandy’s salad dressing, cookie dough mix, and cookbooks.

 

 

“ We’re constantly trying to evolve our menu to be with what’s trending,” says Nicole Perlman, Sales & Operations Manager at Mandy’s. “We all love taking risks, whether it’s with our menu or our design choices. I’m at The Well [location] and we have a full fountain.”

We met with Perlman and her colleague, Cindy Le, to discuss Mandy’s approach to growth and the benefits of consolidating their tech stack.

From heads of lettuce to the head office

Perlman began her Mandy’s journey as a part-time worker while juggling school and dance. The pandemic made dance jobs obsolete, so she worked her way up to a full-time manager and eventually the head office. 

Her story is the rule, not the exception. 70% of Mandy’s head office are former store workers. Perlman remembers the challenges that came with taking orders as a cashier and making schedules as a GM:

“We know what it was like to be in the kitchen alongside Mandy and Rebecca making salads,” Perlman says. “Legacy knowledge is always at the forefront of our decision-making.” 

 

 

Part of the reason Perlman and Le have stuck around so long is the company’s leadership and values. Both of the founders and the president are women, and they describe the work environment as safe, supportive, and empowering. 

“I started at Mandy’s when I was 21, and now I’m almost 29. So to be a part of a woman-led company as I was growing into a woman myself has been so amazing,” Perlman says.

(Short) notice from the Language Board

One of Perlman’s first tasks when she joined Mandy’s HQ was finding a new employee scheduling app. The Quebec government had notified them that their current system was not compliant with language laws. They had two weeks to find a replacement that employees could use in French and English.

Perlman had other requirements on her wishlist, too. She wanted to be able to see actual labor updated constantly so managers could make decisions on the fly. The new app also needed to integrate with their existing tech stack, because they were sick of using tools that didn’t talk to each other.

She googled ‘best scheduling software in Canada’ and 7shifts was the top result.

“When [the HR Director and I] did the demo with 7shifts, we were looking at each other the entire time because every single thing on our list was being checked off,” says Perlman.

 

 

They worked with their 7shifts onboarding specialist to get set up in 10 days to meet the deadline from Quebec’s language board. 7shifts’ integration with UKG, their human resources information system, allowed for an easy transfer of employee information. They also condensed 7shifts’ help articles into a training presentation for their managers.

“I think I spoke to [the onboarding specialist] more than I spoke to my mom during those two weeks,” she laughs.

A unified tech stack

In a rare moment, all of the managers were bought-in and on board with the switch to 7shifts. The app replaced multiple tools they used for scheduling, communication, time clocking, and task management. They saved money on different subscriptions. There were fewer platforms to train staff on, and their store opening checklist was much shorter. That gave them time back to focus on coaching their team and supporting guests.

 

 

Their old systems didn’t integrate with each other, so there was more room for error when they exported or manually entered data. With all of their employee information flowing through 7shifts, there was just one spot to reference shift notes, tasks, and punches. Fewer apps also meant they spent less time finding passwords and flipping between browser tabs.

“I used the most insecure password ever and then it got hacked. So I had to go back into all of these different platforms, change the password…and it got very time-consuming,” says Perlman.  “[7shifts] helps with the efficiency of our managers not having to open up five different tech platforms to be able to do the task that’s needed.” 

 

 

A pulse on labor costs

The Mandy’s team didn’t have a great handle on labor costs with their previous system. Perlman did calculations by hand and she couldn’t make labor adjustments in real time.

“I would open up my schedule and then I’d take a piece of paper and I would manually calculate how many hours were worked versus how much money everyone made per employee,” she says. “I’m not great at math, so some weeks my labor was a little bit skewed.”

The ability to see actual labor was essential to their vendor search. Now that 7shifts integrates with their Toast POS, they get real-time sales and labor costs. Managers can make scheduling decisions on the spot, like adding or cutting employees from shifts. With 7shifts’ time clocking app, they get alerts when employees need a break or when they’re going into overtime, keeping labor costs accurate and in check.

 

 

Growing the Mandy’s team

Going into 2025, growth is top of mind for Perlman and the Mandy’s team. Since adopting 7shifts, they’ve added four new locations, and more are on the way.

Perlman and her team are also focused on developing their managers. As GM roles began leaving for positions at head office, they needed to set the next generation of managers up for success. 

In 2024, Perlman created two new salaried roles for junior GMs who were previously on an hourly wage. She used data from 7shifts’ Worked Hours and Wages report to calculate the conversion from hourly to yearly pay. The change had a huge impact on these new kitchen managers and guest experience managers, who now earned a consistent paycheck.

 

 

They also created development plans for the new managers with access to workshops, courses, and books. “We really wanted to make sure that we were able to give back to our people in the field and show them that we want to invest in them,” says Perlman.

As Mandy’s restaurants expand into new regions, Perlman aims to work with managers to share their legacy knowledge and create repeatable processes. Tech like 7shifts helps them get there.

“I’m always trying to give [managers] the right tools to succeed.”

 

Watch the video to learn more about Mandy’s and 7shifts.