Labor Management. NOW Simple.

As a manager, your main value to your company is your influence. Good managers influence their company far more than average employees by trickling ideas both down and up the ladder. Mary Kay Ash once said, “People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make and difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.”

If people are the greatest asset of a company, then a good manager is invaluable. Here are four ways to help you be the best manager you can be:

1. Pay attention to improving your company’s competitive advantage. Remind employees that the first law of business is “take care of the customer”. Encourage your employees to innovate and create to prevent your competitors from having better ideas than you. In the hospitality industry, it’s easy to get caught up in the mundane repetitiveness of day-to-day activities. Spice it up by incorporating a “new ideas” segment into weekly staff meetings. Quality of product, quality of service, and overall quality of experience must be exemplary in the hospitality industry in order to prevent loss of your customer base to a competitor. Ensure rewards for employee efficiency.

2. Diversify! To make sure your company has a solid ladle of the melting pot, hire people of every age range, race, ethnicity, and gender. By 2060, half of the American population will be made up of ethnic and racial minority groups. Also, familiarize yourself with global cultures, especially if your company plans to expand internationally. It is important to diversify your employee pool in order to not only keep up with your customer base, but also to ensure the organizational strength of your company by maximizing the diverse contributions that you will only get by having a diverse employee pool.

3. Technology is your friend – use it! Spending on retail software will exceed $20 billion by 2014. Technology has transformed industries and changed the very nature of business. Minimally, e-business practices will reduce your cost of communication. If used effectively, e-business technologies can have a far greater positive impact on your profit margin through accelerated decision making, broadened communication, expedited handling of employee and store issues, more thorough hiring practices, and the many benefits project and employee management software can offer. If you incorporate the right management software in your business, scheduling, tracking, communication, and hiring employees can be faster, easier, and considerably more efficient financially.

4. Don’t forget yourself. While managing in the fast paced hospitality industry, it can be easy to compartmentalize your life – home life and work life need not intertwine. This can be beneficial to your sanity, but it can make you feel like two different people. When making decisions at work, be sure to remind yourself who you are and what your ethics dictate. In today’s high pressure climate in one of the most competitive industries, the need to meet quotas and deadlines can leave you facing some major ethical dilemmas. Consider the implications of your decisions, and whether the decision fits into your life plan. Be sure that your company’s culture fits your compass of ethics, as it can be difficult to juggle bosses, subordinates, your daily workload, and two conflicting sets of rules.

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What are you doing about the minimum wage increase?  If you are an operator in the food-service, hospitality, retail, or other service-oriented sector, the recent increase in federal minimum wage likely affects your bottom line – the profits at your business.

A number of other articles discuss the impact of this federally mandated change on businesses, including some of our favorites:

• Minimum Wage Hike Could Threaten Low Earners’ Jobs
• With Minimum Wage Set to Rise, Tipped Employees Seek Their Share
• The Dangerous Minimum Wage Mirage
• Local Workers Discuss Minimum Wage Increase

As a business, how do you combat the extra expense of workers?  One way is smarter labor management tools that can save you money – like TimeForge.  TimeForge can save you 3-5% of your labor costs by improving your staff retention, decreasing turnover, freeing up manager time, and enforcing the labor schedule — all of which provide direct improvements to your bottom line.

Turnover and Retention are important metrics at any business.

• It can cost more than $3,500 to replace a single employee making $8.00 / hour, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).  This accounts for recruitment, training, interviewing, hiring, reduced productivity, etc…  If the turnover at your business is 80% – that means that 16 of the 20 employees you hire in any given year, are no longer with your business.  What does that turnover cost your business?  16 * $3,500 = $56,000 in lost profit because 16 employees left.  That’s serious money out of the business!

Manager time is expensive, use it wisely.

• Most managers in the hospitality industry take more than two hours to build a labor schedule, every week.  With a low annual salary of only $40,000 (below the annual average), two hours weekly is $2,080 in direct manager costs for building a labor schedule.  This excludes the time necessary for rewriting the schedules, answering phone calls, updating availability, and all the rest of the scheduling duties a manager needs to do.  And while the manager is building schedules, they cannot run the business.

Enforcing the employee schedule has immediate savings.

• Employees commonly ride the clock, clocking in early and clocking out late.  Every few minutes adds up.  A staff member clocking in early two times a week, and clocking out late twice per week, who earns the new minimum wage of $7.25, will burn through an extra $362.50 per year from the business.  With 20 employees, that is more than $7,250 per year, and an additional 20% in benefits, taxes, and other fees.  More than $8,700 in extra labor costs.

So, with only 20 employees, the business is likely losing:

• $56,000 in turnover and retention costs
• $  2,080 in schedule building costs
• $  8,700 in schedule enforcement costs
• $66,780 in direct labor costs

That is $66,780 in profits that the business is losing.  What will TimeForge cost a business with 20 employees?

TimeForge Lite will cost the business about $25 per month, or $300 per year – well below the cost of even a single manager’s time to build a schedule.

TimeForge Max will cost the business about $100 per month, or about $1,200 per year – complete with labor scheduling, accounting integration, attendance monitoring, and everything else needed to properly manage labor.

What happens with five stores? Twenty? Three-hundred? Labor costs go up drastically, the more stores that a business operates.

Use TimeForge labor management software to put money back in the business and save thousands every year.

TimeForge will reduce turnover, improve retention, free up manager time, and increase store profitability at your business!  TimeForge employee scheduling and labor management software is used by owners and operators of hospitality, food-service, retail, and other service-oriented businesses around the world.

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We’re back from the Southwest Food Expo, which was held in Dallas, TX at the Dallas Convention Center.

Last year, the show was one of the largest restaurant and food service shows in the UNited States.  In fact, we exhibited during the 2008 show, and spoke to hundreds of independent and chain restaurants, as well as a few retailers, and a number of culinary students and schools.  The response to TimeForge was great!

However, this year the show was much smaller — only about 400 exhibitors, and the show seemed to be slow, similar to what we experienced at the National Restaurant Association (NRA) show, and at the National Association for Food Equipment Manufacturers (NAFEM) trade shows in 2009.  The exhibitors we spoke to said it was slower as well.

If you are in the Dallas, Houston, or Austin areas and you need a Point of Sale system, a full service labor management system (employee scheduling and/or attendance management), or just help with your computer systems and networks, please make sure to check out our partners!

TimeForge employee scheduling software is used by owners and operators of foodservice and hospitality related businesses around the world.  TimeForge will reduce turnover, improve retention, and increase profits at your business!

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TimeForge has always been the leading employee scheduling and attendance management for the hospitality, food-service, and restaurant industries.  Did you know that TimeForge works just as well for other industries in the service and retail markets?

TimeForge works great for car wash businesses – both conveyor and self-service car washes have complicated labor management needs, and can benefit from the speed and convenience of TimeForge.  In a recession, efficient employee scheduling at a car wash operation can spell the difference between survival and success.

Read more about TimeForge and car washes here.

TimeForge employee scheduling software is used by owners and operators of car washes, retail, hospitality, food-service, and other service-oriented businesses around the world.  TimeForge will increase profitability, reduce turnover, and improve retention at your business!

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Whew!  We are done with our whirlwind through the NRA 2009 tradeshow in Chicago, IL – what a great two days.

We are a technology company with a focus on operations and human resources for restaurants, retailers, and other businesses that hire part-time employees – we spent a lot of time examining the tradeshow and looking for improvements in technology for operations or human resources.

Some of the very neat technology at the show included:

• Dinerware POS is a phenomenal Point of Sale system, and one of our valued partners.  Several sales staff and other partners were on site to show off their latest version.
• Silverware POS recently debuted and released a best-of-breed restaurant POS product, Avrio, which was onsite at the show.  What a wonderful group of individuals, and a great product!
• MonkeyMedia Software displayed their rocking catering software outside of the Technology Pavilion.  They caused a bit of a comotion by handing out bananas!
• QuandraNet is similiar to OpenTable, but with a very, very smart table management software program that increases table turns in addition to handling reservations.
• Corvirtus was showing off their products that take the guesswork out of hiring. Very neat algorithms, and years of research create a great hiring tool.  Wonderful stuff.

Overall, the show attendance seemed to be down compared to last year, which seems to be the general consensus.

TimeForge employee scheduling and workforce management software is used by managers, owners, and operators of retail stores, restaurants, bars, grills, clubs, and other service-oriented businesses to increase profits, reduce turnover, and improve retention.

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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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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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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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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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