Restaurant Business Article on Workforce Problems
The Nation Restaurant Association is forecasting a shortage in workers over the next several years, as the growth of the hospitality sector surpasses the available labor force. Instead of hiring new laborers, many growing operators will need to maximize their existing workforce – and supplementing trained workers with advanced technology solutions is a wise decision. Shorter training times, tighter staffing, faster service times, improved accuracy, and more consistent product quality are just a few of the benefits of blending technology and employees.
Restaurant Business, one of the nations leading restaurant and food-service publications, recently featured an article on the topic of “High Tech Takes on Big Labor”, focusing on many relevant technology advancements including:
- Pay-at-the-table technology (Faster table turnover which means more sales with fewer employees)
- Wireless order taking (Directly enter orders into the POS system, servers can focus on guest satisfaction)
- Web-based employee scheduling (Build schedules faster and notify employees of upcoming work, reduces overhead drastically)
- Online ordering (labor is not needed to field phone calls, enter orders, or pay customers)
A number of technology vendors were highlighted in the article, including TimeForge.com
Some of the scheduling related vendors mentioned in the article include:
- ASI’s Restaurant Manager Labor Scheduling Module that generates staffing rosters and then can be printed, posted to the website, emailed, or sent as text messages.
- CrunchTime!’s Labor and Workforce Management tool which is a web-based solution that interfaces with various POS and HR systems.
- HotSchedules web-based product which offers enhanced reports, rule-based auto-scheduling and POS integration.
- Deterministic’s Labor System is a web-based labor forecasting and management program.
- MacromatiX’s Scheduling and Labor Management product is a web-based QSR and fast-casual scheduling program which alerts managers when labor is “over” or “under”.
- MICROS Systems has a new mylabor product (part of the mymicros.net suite), offering a web-based labor management tool.
- TimeForge.com is a web-based scheduling system designed to keep management on the floor, and reduce turnover by keeping employees “in-the-loop”. The software builds a complete schedule in just a few seconds, and can be manually adjusted to meet specific needs of the business. Employees receive daily reminders about schedule changes, through the website, email, and text messages – and workers can trade shifts online, read messages from management, and request time off (or change their availability).
How long does it take to make your employee schedules? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that TimeForge can streamline and minimize labor expenses through effective employee labor management at your business, bar, club, or restaurant.
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