When it comes to the food service and retail industries, it is imperative that management keep track of the certifications necessary for food handling and serving alcohol. Failing to properly monitor and document relevant employee certifications could lead to costly, reputation-damaging legal repercussions. For example, in many states, if the ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Commission) catches an employee with an expired certification serving alcohol, the location could be shut down, and the employee and manager at fault can be fined or even jailed – a heavy cost to the business.

After uploading important documents into TimeForge HR, management can easily track certifications, qualifications, and training performed by staff members with TimeForge’s automatic reminders. When a certification is nearing expiration, management will receive notifications informing them that necessary certifications or training are nearing expiration and need to be renewed.

TimeForge HR allows managers to create documentation requirements specific to each position (or for each staff member) and when combined with our other products (such as TimeForge Scheduling or TimeForge Attendance), TimeForge HR will prevent unqualified staff members from being scheduled or clocking in without the necessary documentation being submitted to TimeForge (and management) first.

Sign up for a free trial of TimeForge today and let us handle your stack of paperwork, so you don’t have to!

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• Talent management
• Tracking staff training and continuing education credits
• Skills tracking and ranking
• Onboarding and hiring processes
• Background verification and skill assessments
• Certifications and qualification tracking
• Raise requests and workflow
• And much more …

In many of these HR areas, we recommend that our users utilize a best of breed solution to ensure the best results for our customers.  For example, Corvirtus is simply the best company around to perform skills assessments in the hospitality and restaurant industries, and we recommend our customers look at Corvirtus for any unmet assessment needs.

However, a few of the these HR areas are easily managed inside of TimeForge’s best-of-breed labor management solution.  Historical raise requests, qualifications, skill tracking and ranking, and others are already available in TimeForge, and more will become available in the near future.

Let’s review employee certifications …

Did you know that TimeForge can track certifications for staff members?  Using TimeForge, you can track any number of certifications (staffing qualifications), testing dates, renewal dates, and test scores.  Each certificate can also include a note about the staff member’s qualification.

Specifics of a Certification / Staff Qualification

TimeForge allows savvy managers to set up certifications which are required before the staff member can be scheduled.  TimeForge can then stop you and your management team from scheduling employees who are not qualified for the job position.

For example, in the state of Texas, a server (waiter) that serves alcohol needs to have taken an alcohol awareness and training course.  Serving alcohol, of any kind, without this certification can land the employee and the responsible manager in jail for the evening.  With a single click inside of TimeForge, managers can ensure that staff are only scheduled if they are qualified to be scheduled.

Add a Certificate, Restrict who can be Scheduled

As an added bonus, TimeForge will notify managers and employees 6 weeks before the certificate expires, so that managers and staff members both know that it’s time to renew the qualification.  The certification reminder also appears inside of the Daily Log.

Use certifications to make your life easy!

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These new reports include the ability to review employee certifications (such as food safety or alcohol certifications, CPR, uniform sizes, or other types), compare attendance (actual work) to scheduled time, identify staff members who were not scheduled or did not work, review time off requests, and compare shift swaps by employee or position.  Enough information to run your business!

Certification Reports

• Certification Test Date Report: View each employee’s certifications based on when certifications were taken, and easily locate which certifications need to be renewed.
• Certification Expiration Date Report:  View certifications by employee and located expiring certifications, and those that need to be renewed.
• Employee Certification Report:  On a list of all active employees, view the certifications that each employee has in their account.

Attendance vs. Schedule Reports

• Attendance vs. Schedule:  Three new actual vs. schedule reports are available to TimeForge Max customers.  Check actual vs. schedule data by employee, or by date.  Compare individual shifts worked and scheduled, or view the labor data at a higher level by reviewing by position data for your store (or multiple stores).

Worked or Scheduled Reports

• Who Did Not Work:  Identify which employees did not come to work during a time range.
• Who Is Not Scheduled:  Identify which staff members were not scheduled during a time range.
• Not Scheduled, with Attendance:  Locate employees who clocked in, but were not originally scheduled to work.
• Was Scheduled, no Attendance:  Locate staff members who were scheduled to work, but didn’t actually clock in.

Attendance vs. Schedule by Employee Reports

• Attendance vs. Schedule by Employee: Two reports are available to review employee schedules and attendance.  One report is a detail level report, showing each and every shift, with variance between hours scheduled and hours worked.  The other report is a summary by employee, also showing time worked, work scheduled, and the variance.

Shift Swapping Reports

• Shift Swapping by Employee:  Which staff members are swapping shifts the most?  Identify which employees pick up, or give up, the most shifts.
• Shift Swapping by Position:  Which positions are swapping shifts the most?  Identify which positions have the largest ratios of giving and picking up shifts.

Sick, Vacation, and PTO Reports

• Employee Time Sheets, with Requests:  Review time off requests that occur one time, while viewing the individual time sheets for staff members.
• Paid Time Off Report:  A PTO report that displays sick time, vacation time, and other PTO requests.

We are always adding new reports to allow you to quickly and easily manage labor issues.

You should be using a labor management product to make your life easier!  TimeForge can quickly and easily build your employee schedule, manage time and attendance, reduce labor costs, and streamline labor management.  Sign up for a trial today!

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Scheduling

Making a great employee schedule every week is an important task for your business. Employee work schedules should do more than notify staff when to work – an employee schedule should add profit to the business without being a painful chore.

• Make Schedules Fast – in Under 30 Seconds!
• Streamline Work Requests and Availability
• Automatic Staff Email and Text Notifications
• Detailed Reporting of Labor Costs (more than 40 reports!)
• Easily Manage Overtime and Double Shifts
• Track sick, vacation, and PTO
• Monitor employee certifications and employee reviews

Sign Up Now or Read About TimeForge Scheduling

Attendance

Employee attendance and timecards are extremely difficult to monitor effectively – buddy punching, early clock ins, employees riding the clock, and forgetful employees are only a few of the issues that managers must confront on a daily basis.

• Monitor labor costs (and who is clocked in), in realtime
• Limit clock ins to specific computers or IP addresses
• Enforce employee schedules, stop early clock-ins
• Biometric fingerprint scanner eliminates buddy punching
• One-click payroll reports – eliminate timecard errors

Sign Up Now or Read About TimeForge Attendance

Daily Log

Businesses lose market share to other successful businesses that are actively communicating with staff members in an effective way. Communication among staff members is a key component to running a profitable business.

• Digital log books can replace multiple paper logs
• Record notes and numbers, and set up todo lists
• Manage equipment maintenance, employee reviews, weekly orders
• Analyze day-to-day or week-to-week performance indicators

Sign Up Now or Read About TimeForge Daily Log

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Labor Schedules Take Time to Create

The employee schedule informs employees when to arrive at work, and in some cases, when to leave.  In other cases, employees are “cut” from the schedule based on demand (or volume) at the business.  In almost every case, the labor schedule is created by management staff in the back-office or at home after hours – a point of discontent for most managers who must work longer hours and weekend hours to build schedules.

The steps to create a labor schedule reads like a long list of tasks, occupying several hours of management time every week:

1. First review the manager’s log book and estimate or forecast upcoming sales and the demand for labor.
2. Next check the employee request log and availability sheets as well as individual work preferences while remembering which employees are minors or restricted in working.
3. Look-up required employee certifications; for example, an ABC license is required to serve alcohol at a restaurant or necessary certifications to dispense medications.
4. Identify trustworthy and experienced personnel to open or close the business.
5. Try to fairly distribute shifts while meeting employee minimum hour works, but do not exceed a maximum number of hours.
6. Make sure that employees are not likely to receive overtime if someone fails to show up on the schedule.
7. Identify convenient times to provide break and meal periods for staff members who are required to receive breaks.
8. Calculate the likely cost of payroll, being mindful of budgetary constraints – if the cost is too high, start over.

Juggling all of these factors to create a good schedule for the workforce is a complicated task that can consume more than ten-percent of a manager’s time throughout the week.  In many cases, especially in owner-operator businesses, this schedule is posted late in the week for the upcoming week.  Posting the schedule late causes problems with employees and creates higher turnover and reduces tenure at the business – reducing overall profits!

The final version of the labor schedule, which the manager has likely spent hours creating, may be bulk-emailed out to the employees (if the manager used a tool such as Microsoft Excel and a schedule template to build the schedule), or more commonly, printed and posted on a wall in the back of the business (inside the management office, store room, or kitchen).

Theoretical Labor Schedules are Important for Staff

This posted work schedule is the “theoretical labor schedule” – it is the necessary labor needed to operate the business and meet expected customer demand.  The posted work schedule will change throughout the week as employees fail to show up, swap shifts with other staff members, arrive early or late, or business requirements change and employees are cut or added to the schedule.  The posted schedule should be saved and archived (as it was created by management) for later comparison to worked hours, and for issues arriving from Labor & Industries audits, availability conflicts, labor disputes, or even lawsuits.

Is your scheduling complex?  Are you making the best possible schedule?  How many thousands of dollars do you spend making schedules every year?  Did you know that TimeForge can reduce turnover, increase retention and increase profits through employee scheduling at your business? Sign up today for a free trial!

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