Read about punching in and out (and payroll), and labor schedules before reading this post.  Both posts contain information that will make this article make more sense.

Labor Metrics Help Control Payroll and Labor Costs

At the end of the week, time and attendance values will be collected to calculate wages and payroll for the normal “work week”. A side-by-side comparison of the actual schedule (time and attendance values) and the theoretical labor schedule will reveal a variety of metrics that can be used to manage the workforce. This practice of comparing the actual schedule against the theoretical labor schedule is commonly called “Actual vs Theoretical” or “AvT”. For example:

• Which employees routinely arrive for work on time? Consistently reliable employees are valued employees, arriving at work on time, and are the real workhorses of the business. Make sure to reward them for their efforts.

• Which employees are routinely late for work? This can cause a labor shortage during shift changes, and can disrupt other employees. These employees may need to be disciplined for routine tardiness.

• Which employees are routinely early for work? This increases the payroll expense, reducing profit for the business. Disciplinary actions may be required for these employees.

• Which employees do not show up for work, or routinely call in? These employees may need to be counseled and warned that they risk termination, as they are unpredictable in their work habits and lower morale for other staff members.

• Which employees are always available when another employee does not show up? These employees are willing to work on their days off – and should be rewarded for their efforts to keep the business running.

• Which positions are prone to high turnover? Turnover is extremely expensive to a business, and identifying areas with high turnover is the first step to take measures to reducing turnover.

• Which staff members are most tenured? Tenured staff are dedicated team members and should be rewarded for their efforts. Every effort should be made to increase the tenure of employees while reducing turnover and increasing profits.

• Which is more costly, the theoretical or actual schedule? How much difference exists between the two schedules?
  • If the theoretical schedule is more expensive, management is over-scheduling the work force and may be sending employees home without cause. This often indicates aggravated employees and increase turnover – decreasing profit for the business.
  • If the actual schedule is more expensive, management is not scheduling enough work in advance, and is then forced to call employees on their days off. This situation can also create aggravated employees and increase turnover. It often results in unnecessary over-time.

The ideal work environment has a 0% AvT ratio - employees worked when they were scheduled and management accurately identified the business requirements.

Labor, especially in retail and hospitality, is the largest expense which businesses directly control. Comparing metrics such as Actual vs. Theoretical allows management to maintain control of the business, thereby increasing profit. Many metrics can be compared manually using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, but sophisticated scheduling software such as TimeForge, can calculate many of these metrics quickly and easily.

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

Lubbock, TX – May 28, 2008 – Making a great work schedule week after week is often a painful managerial chore for businesses of all sizes. However, the increased store profits, lower turnover, and improved employee morale make employee scheduling software a worthwhile investment. Many operators in the restaurant, retail, and hospitality industries create labor schedules by hand using pen-and-paper methods that can consume up to seven hours a week in managerial time – an expense of more than $12,000 per year in manager time building and managing the labor schedule! Operators using spreadsheets still spend at least two hours a week scheduling labor.

Well-chosen software solutions can help operators control labor and increase profits, without incurring great expense. For example, TimeForge, a web-based labor scheduling product tightly controls employee labor costs and reduces turnover by providing a simple-to-use solution for scheduling employees. The TimeForge software program, available at http://www.TimeForge.com, ensures that managers spend more time “on the floor” and less time in the back office scheduling employees.

The most recent version, released on May 27, 2008 includes a number of improvements to the software and continues to build on TimeForge’s success as a quick, simple, and affordable scheduling solution for businesses of all sizes. According to Michael, the proprietor of Tiara Cafe in California, “The TimeForge scheduling system has not only increased our efficiency tremendously; decreased the errors in what is normally an error prone environment; it has also saved us ten times what it costs us each month.”

TimeForge turns employee scheduling into an automated task that can be performed in a few minutes every week – improving store profits by thousands of dollars every year for the store. Some advantages of the new TimeForge include:

• TimeForge now includes the ability to track employee tips, which can be entered when an employee clocks out, or later by management!
• Schedules and templates can be organized into departments (similar to folders) to easily differentiate between “Front of House” and “Back of House” schedules.
• New attendance reports are available for supervisors and managers.
• Managers can easily see why an employee cannot be scheduled – regardless if the employee is already scheduled at another location or in a conflicting shift, or if the employee is unavailable.
• Locations / stores / units can be organized into a Corporate Hierarchy so that managers can monitor scheduling practices for groups of locations.
• Many other improvements!

Independent and chain operators alike can benefit from the many time saving and profit improving features of labor scheduling systems such as TimeForge. Get back on the floor today!

About TimeForge
TimeForge is the premier employee scheduling software, designed to provide fast ROI benefits to the business, and to meet the growing demands of the work force. TimeForge.com is affordable software that works with both independent and chain operations in retail, hospitality, and many other industries. For more information about TimeForge, and to sign up for a free trial, visit the website at http://www.TimeForge.com

One of the new features in TimeForge allows employees to clock-in and clock-out from the TimeForge website.

With this new feature, you and your staff can compare the theoretical labor schedule (which is built using the Schedules section of the website, and created in advance of the actual work to be done) to the actual labor cost (based on employees clocking-in and clocking-out).

Additionally, there are a number of new reports (such as the Attendance report) which can be used to help compare actual cost vs. theoretical cost.

How long does it take to make an employee schedule? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that labor costs could be as much as 30% of your expenses? TimeForge can help streamline and minimize labor costs through effective employee scheduling at your restaurant, bar, or club.

Released August 19, 2007, the latest version of TimeForge.com has numerous new features designed to help you manage your labor! Some of the new features include:

• Time & Attendance features which allow your employees to clock in and out, as well as a number of reports which can be used to assist with payroll processing.
• Employee Shift Swapping gives power to your employees to find replacements for shifts that they cannot work. Of course, managers can approve or deny any shift swap.
• Many improvements to the AutoScheduler™ to build schedules even faster, and the AutoScheduler now explains any change it makes to your schedule.
• New reports, including a condensed grid that looks similar to your existing Excel spreadsheet!
• And many others!

We hope you enjoy the new features. Let us know what else will help your business work!

How long does it take to make an employee schedule? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that labor costs could be as much as 30% of your expenses? TimeForge can help streamline and minimize labor costs through effective employee scheduling at your restaurant, bar, or club.

Lubbock, TX – August 10, 2007 – Stop wasting time on employee schedules! Labor scheduling, considered a necessary headache by most restaurant industry professionals, consumes between 3 and 8 hours of management time every week; time that can be better spent managing employees, attending customers, and servicing business needs. Today, the industry’s leading labor-scheduling company, TimeForge.com, announced that version 1.7 of the TimeForge software will be released at the 2007 Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo.

TimeForge’s latest version of the popular employee scheduling software continues to improve on the company’s conviction that scheduling must be as fast as possible so managers and employees can spend more time on the floor. TimeForge clients report that labor schedules can be built in less than 30 minutes, an 80% - 98% savings for many in the hospitality industry.

Western Food Expo has selected TimeForge for this year’s “Onsite New Product Gallery” and will showcase the new features of the software including an enhanced user interface, requests and availability, shift swapping among employees, significant AutoScheduler™ speed improvements, a superior report interface, as well as new time and attendance features. TimeForge has also improved the core of the product: scheduling and notifications. Managers gain more control of automatic schedule creation, and employees have greater flexibility with availability and schedule requests.

No more sticky-notes and no more scheduling spreadsheets! To be competitive in today’s market, electronic scheduling is a necessity. Visit TimeForge.com at the Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo, booth #2827, to see what you have been missing!

About TimeForge.com
TimeForge.com is the leading online employee scheduling software product. TimeForge provides immediate ROI benefits to the business while meeting the growing demands of the workforce. TimeForge.com is designed specifically for the hospitality and restaurant industries including restaurants (quick-service and table-service), hotels, catering, and other hospitality markets.

It is official! TimeForge.com will be exhibiting at the Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo in Los Angeles, CA on August 18 - 20, 2007. The trade show is being held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and looks to be a very exciting show with a great mix of first-time and “experienced” exhibiting companies.

If you are at the show Western Foodservice show, make sure you take a look at Halo, a revolutionary web-based Point-Of-Sale system from Canada. Barb, one of their business representatives, showed us a very neat POS system at the Southwest Food Expo in Dallas.

We will be setting up shop in booth #2827, and we would love to see you there! Our booth is next to the regional Digital Dining partner, Hospitality Technology Systems. Stop by and see the latest TimeForge features, including shift-swapping and time & attendance tracking!

How long does it take to make an employee schedule? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that labor costs could be as much as 30% of your expenses? TimeForge can help streamline and minimize labor costs through effective employee scheduling at your restaurant, bar, or club.