Labor Management. NOW Simple.

Table spacing is important for determining cash flow, occupancy, and customer satisfaction and is especially important in fast casual and fine dining restaurants.

Ever wonder how restaurant table proximity or spacing impacts customer satisfaction and spending?

Read Stephani Robson and Sheryl Kimes report titled Don’t Sit So Close to Me: Restaurant Table Characteristics and Guest Satisfaction.

The findings of their report suggest that not only should customers be seated at right-sized tables for the restaurant, but that when the distance between tables is less than three feet, both satisfaction and spending are decreased.

The full report is available from Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research web site.

TimeForge labor management software is used by restaurant owners and operators around the world to increase profits, reduce turnover, and improve retention. TimeForge provides powerful and easy-to-use employee scheduling, attendance, online timecards, and labor management software for restaurant, retail, and other service industries.

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Secrets for Hiring Success

Employee scheduling is an important function of human resources and operations at your business.  Good employee schedules will reduce turnover and increase retention, improving cash flow and profits.  Tracking time and attendance is also an important human resource task.  Other HR tasks include processing payroll, hiring, exit interviews, and employee onboarding, among many others.

Hiring is often one of the most complicated and difficult tasks for operations and human resources to perform.  This 7 Secrets for Hiring Success article from Success Performance Solutions is a great reference for hiring managers everywhere in all industries.

Twitter in Human Resources, According to Workforce.com

Twitter is a popular micro-blogging tool that is receiving a lot of press, and has grown significantly over the past 3 years.  A number of industries, including Hollywood, television, music, and others are using Twitter to help grow and keep fans “in the know”.  However, Twitter is also finding a number of uses in the Human Resources (HR) world, as reported by Workforce.com

Make sure to follow TimeForge on Twitter!

TimeForge provides powerful and easy-to-use employee scheduling and online labor management software for restaurant, retail, and other service industries. TimeForge software is used by restaurant owners and operators around the world to increase profits, reduce turnover, and improve retention.

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Running payroll reports can be a tedious process, and running a report over the wrong payroll period can cause payroll errors at your business.

TimeForge allows you to run any report using an arbitrary date period, or you can use predefined payroll periods, such as bi-weekly, weekly, monthly, or even twice per month (on the 1st and 15th).

Using the built-in payroll periods provides three distinct benefits inside of TimeForge.

• Simple reports. Pick one selection from a drop-down box, and you no longer need to remember the exact payroll dates for that month.
• Payroll Approval Process. TimeForge Payroll Approval provides a simple and easy way to scan all of the attendance data for the period, and identify potential problems, theft, erroneous logins, or other costly mistakes.
• Sick / Vacation / PTO Tracking.  TimeForge PTO can track vacation time, sick time, or other paid or personal time off.  Tracking PTO requires the use of TimeForge payroll periods.

TimeForge is a leading provide of powerful and simple-to-use employee scheduling and online labor management software for the restaurant and retail industries. TimeForge software is used by restaurant owners and operators around the globe to increase profits, reduce turnover, and improve retention.

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Managing employees in the foodservice or hospitality industry is a process that can quickly become a nightmare for both staff and managers.

Staff expectations and requirements will not mix well with business requirements leading to lower employee retention, higher employee turnover, and a reduction in profits for your restaurant.

Most businesses in the restaurant, foodservice and hospitality industries such as table service restaurants, bars, clubs, country clubs, and quick service / fast food restaurants have very little control over the monthly budget. After a lease is signed the building and utility costs will remain relatively fixed, licensing fees and insurance rates will not change drastically month over month, and credit card processing fees usually scale with the business growth.

Managers, however, can directly influence three of the largest budget line items:

• Advertising expenses are normally purchased in 3 – 12 month quantities, and are not likely to change on a monthly basis.
• Inventory including food and beverage expenses can change based on a number of factors, and switching suppliers is difficult and time consuming.
• Labor costs will vary on a monthly basis based on the prevailing wage, employees leaving (or being fired), staff communication, management practices, and a number of other factors that can be directly controlled by managers.

Of these three line items, managers have the most control over labor costs, which can be manipulated to improve business profits. Inversely, improper management of labor costs will reduce the business’s ability to satisfy customers and expose the business to the risk of liability lawsuits and labor violation fines – instantly slashing the restaurant’s profitability!

Improving employee labor scheduling and time / attendance management should be an ongoing effort in your business that results in happier staff members, better customer satisfaction, and higher profits for your company.

TimeForge is a leading provide of powerful and simple-to-use employee scheduling and online labor management software for the restaurant and retail industries. TimeForge software is used by restaurant owners and operators around the globe to increase profits, reduce turnover, and improve retention.

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Still trying to figure out what social media is, and how it’s going to help your retail or restaurant business?  Not quite sure what Twitter may be, why you need a Facebook page, or what you need a blog for?  You are not alone!

Starbucks Coffee is still trying to figure out social media, and how to make it work from a business perspective.  So far, they’ve managed to rack up more than 1 million facebook fans, more than 81,000 Twitter followers, and are now ranked number 6 on the Top 100 Social Brands list for 2008.  Read more about this article at Nation’s Restaurant News ….

• You can follow TimeForge on Twitter, and read all about restaurant and retail labor scheduling.
• TimeForge has a Facebook application, so that you and your staff can receive schedules, shift swap notices, requests for time off, timecards, messages, and more with your facebook account!

How complicated is the employee schedule at your restaurant?  Are you making the best possible work schedule, or are you wasting precious labor resources?  How much of the turnover at your business is created because of bad (or late) employee schedules?

Did you know that TimeForge can reduce turnover, improve retention, and increase profits at your restaurant? Sign up today for a free trial!

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Because TimeForge tracks Time and Attendance (employee time cards, sick days, vacation time, and PTO requests), we try to keep current on the many issues surrounding employee work scheduling and payroll in the restaurant and retail industries.

The debate on mandatory paid sick days resurfaced in Connecticut at the end of March as legislators debated House Bill 6187 which would mandate six paid sick days per year to businesses with 50 or more employees.  Proponents of the bill are trying to drum up support for this bill as a health policy issue because sick food service and hospitality can spread illness to the public.  Sick employees can make the public sick, creating a public health concern.

The Connecticut Restaurant Association, as well as other organizations, is tracking the issue. Whatever the eventual outcome of the bill, you can count on TimeForge to minimize the burden of accurately tracking paid sick days and other requests for time off.

How complicated is the employee schedule at your restaurant?  Are you making the best possible labor schedule, or are you wasting precious labor?  How much turnover is created because of bad (or late) employee work schedules? Did you know that TimeForge can improve retention, reduce turnover, and increase profits at your restaurant? Sign up today for a free trial!

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We’re very excited to be attending the National Restaurant Association’s annual tradeshow again this year!

This is the fourth (fifth?) year we have attended the Chicago restaurant show — and every year we find new and exciting technologies, techniques, and products to help restaurant owners and operators.

We are looking forward to see what is in store this year even though the trade show industry has seen some drastic reduction in attendance (the National Association of Food & Equipment Manufacturer show was drastically smaller this year) with the current economic climate.

A number of the team members from TimeForge will be in attendance — and we will be using the TimeForge blog and twitter to update our readers and customers.  If you’d like to sit down with us, for a demo of TimeForge, dinner, a drink, or just some decent conversation – please contact us!

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Want to apply TimeForge’s forecasting to recession-proof your business? Peter Navarro published an article titled Recession-Proofing Your Organization in this Spring’s MIT Sloan Management Review. Navarro outlines a strategy to anticipate the downturns in the business cycle and steps to take competitive advantage of downturns.

Among his suggestions, trim the workforce and inventories to cut costs when leading into a recession. As the economy expands in good economic times, cherry-pick new hires before your competitors and boost inventory.  There is no need to to be an economist to become your own business-cycle forecast; Navarro provides a simple forecasting formula and points you to Moody’s Economy.com website for data.

Moody’s won’t forecast your business’s sales or inventory, but TimeForge’s forecasting system provide additional insight into your business.  Manager’s can track actual sales and theoretical projections made by staff members, and projections can be forecast with TimeForge to predict staffing levels, upcoming schedule needs, and are useful for tracking inventory turnover.

Visit TimeForge to sign up for a free trial of the most powerful labor scheduling system on the market!

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Owners and operators in the retail and restaurant industries face a common problem with Point of Sale (POS) systems …. sophisticated POS systems can take some time to learn – and operators are too busy with day-to-day operations to learn the systems completely.

As David Scott Peters points out in a quick blog post over at FOHBOH (Front of House, Back of House), a deep understanding of your Point of Sale system is an absolute must.  David points out that in addition to being a cash register, POS systems can perform a number of additional tasks, such as locating ideal food costs, managing inventory, controlling labor costs, and much more.

However, one aspect that David did not touch upon is that there are often major capability differences between the various Point of Sale manufacturers.  Some systems do have built-in inventory, food costing, and labor management modules, but many others do not have these modules.

In many cases, it is preferable to identify and use a best-of-breed solution designed specifically for the task at hand.  For example, CostGuard continues to develop and maintain the best inventory managament system available for restaurants, bars, and clubs.  TimeForge labor management software is designed from the ground-up to make labor management and employee scheduling easy for restaurant and retail operators.

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The restaurant industry in the United States has seen some up and down months over the last year according to the National Restaurant Association.

Halo, an online provider of restaurant and retail Point of Sale software, recently released their “Halo Zata Restaurant Index” for March.  The Zata Restaurant index tracks gross sales that are made by Halo’s US based customers, and this months numbers show that there may be a light and the end of the economic tunnel.

The month of March saw a sales increase of 0.7% – which may be a sign of an upcoming improvement to the United States restaurant industry.

Read more about Halo POS at their website, and keep track of their blog to see updates on the Halo Zata Restaurant Index.

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