Labor Management. NOW Simple.

Grocery management sometimes feels like juggling cats – there is a lot to do, only a few hours to do the necessary tasks, and a simple task, such as getting staff and vendors to cooperate, is tedious by itself.   Labor management is only one aspect of your day, but it’s an important – and time consuming – one.   Over-staff and you could lose a lot of money. Under-staff and your customers will go to another grocer.

TimeForge can cut the time spent doing routine but tedious tasks like building a grocery employee schedule or monitoring attendance at your grocery from hours to minutes.   And TimeForge gives you the tools you need to painlessly do the less routine, but vitally important, tasks like fine-tuning your work force and monitoring and forecasting labor costs.

If you spend hours just creating an employee schedule, you’re not alone.   It’s not easy. You have to take a huge number of factors into consideration – your employees’ specific availability, skill levels, accrued PTO, time off and shift swap requests, and the busy (and not so busy) times in that particular store.

Once the staff schedule is complete, you have to communicate the schedule to all your employees, redo it in the event of an unexpected illness or time-off requests – and find on-call employees to fill in for absent staff members.   All affected staff members need to be reminded of the schedule changes, again.   Small mistakes can result in missed shifts, unhappy employees (and increased turnover), or even labor fines.

With TimeForge you can …

• Build efficient employee schedules for one or more locations, in just a few minutes for each store.
• Export payroll to many popular payroll providers , such as ADP, SurePayroll, Paychex, Quickbooks, and others – with a single click.
• Notify employees of schedules or schedule changes by text message or email – eliminating employee confusion and missed shifts and reducing turnover.
• Record staff member availability, employee time-off  requests, and other key information.
• Stop early clock ins and late clock outs or buddy punching to provide immediate labor cost controls.
• Remotely check on employees that are clocked in – using the web, Facebook, or a cell phone.
• Provide remote 24/7 access for employees to view work schedules, review timecards, request time off, change work availability, swap shifts with other staff members, and receive daily schedule alerts via email or text messages.
• And much more …

• Scheduling employees with the strongest skills during your busiest times.
• Receive notifications of potential labor shortages automatically.
• Monitoring your labor costs – in real time.
• Take advantage of nearly 3 dozen different reports to keep an eye on labor costs and scheduling trends.
• Using your existing staff more efficiently in order to avoid layoffs or unnecessary hiring.
• Trying out various “what-if” scenarios to visualize staffing or schedule changes-without losing your original schedule.

Read more about TimeForge Scheduling, TimeForge Attendance, and TimeForge Daily Log.

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If you are a long-time TimeForge user, you are probably familiar with our system, and how it continues to evolve to take advantage of new technology, faster computers, and easier ways to manage employee schedules and track time and attendance.   If you haven’t burned, thrown away, or otherwise destroyed all of your Excel labor spreadsheets , now is the time!

On July 11th, at the Retail Solutions Provider Association (RSPA) trade show held in Las Vegas, we debuted our brand new scheduling system.   New users of TimeForge are already using the new scheduling system, and the feedback has been tremendous so far (keep it coming!).   The new system looks similar to Microsoft Excel, but includes many enhancements necessary to build a schedule.

Some of the new features include:

• The ability to see (and change) the entire schedule from a single screen.   Up to seven days can be shown at a time on the screen, and the schedule can be displayed by staff members, or by position , whichever you want to use!

• Add a shift to multiple days with a single click.   For example, if “Joe” works on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday , there is no need to create four separate shifts. Simply create one, and “check” all of the other days to add the shift to them.

• When adding or editing shifts, you can now view all of the other shifts that the employee is working, and can also see their availability.   No need to switch screens!

• Display shifts by times, hours, or expected labor costs.

• View employee totals (such as the number of hours worked by an staff member), and daily totals (such as the expected labor cost for the day) on the same screen.

• Drag and drop scheduling!   Schedule one employee, and then copy or move their shifts to another employee.

Build Employee Schedules by Employee

TimeForge still includes all of the scheduling features that continue to make us a leader in employee scheduling:

• The one and only TimeForge AutoScheduler™ learns about your scheduling patterns, and can build a complete employee schedule in just a few seconds – or use schedule templates to quickly build schedules.

• Our proprietary Daily View, providing instant verification of your schedule – do you have too many cooks, or not enough staff members? – and staffing charts (gantt / bar charts).   See where your schedule is too heavy, or insufficiently staffed.

• Build schedules by department, or for any time range!   Divide up responsibility for scheduling among several responsible managers or supervisors.

• Compare the schedule to forecasted sales, table turns, guest counts, parked cars, full-time equivalents (FTE), or any other metric , and receive alerts when the schedule is out of line.

• Schedule SnapShots allow you to perform what-if scenarios, and the ability to jump back to a previous snapshot at any time.

• And much more …

Add or Edit a Shift with Insight About the Employee

If you are currently using the “old” TimeForge scheduling system, that’s ok, you can continue to use it.   However, please use and become familiar with the new scheduling system , we will be phasing out the “old” system in the future.   To try out the new system, follow these steps:

1. Go to one of your schedules (or build a new one).
2. On the “Schedule Detail” screen, click on the “Switch to the new TimeForge scheduling system” link (if you don’t have this link , congratulations! you are already using the new scheduling system).
3. Play with the new staff scheduling system.
4. If you want to switch back to the “old” system, simply click on the “Switch to the old scheduling system” link within your schedule.

Build Employee Schedules by Position

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback on the new scheduling system.

How long does it take to make an employee schedule for your workforce? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that TimeForge can streamline and minimize labor costs through effective employee scheduling at your restaurant, hotel, bank, school, bar, club, or retail business.   Sign up for a trial today!

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• Workforce Labor Scheduling Updates (Part 2)
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Do you want to be able to track salaried staff members from within Dinerware Point of Sale?   TimeForge now supports employees who are salaried / full-time from within Dinerware , so you can track full-time employees, as well as hourly / part-time staff.

To enable support for salaried staff members, first make sure you are running the latest TimeForge-Dinerware Bridge software.   Then, while inside of Dinerware, open the employee, and edit their positions / job codes.   Set the hourly payrate and the overtime payrate to be $0 / hour, and then save the information.   Run “Synchronize Now” in the TimeForge Translator, as well as the TimeForge Connector (or, just wait for the two systems to automatically synchronize themselves).

Now, you can log in to TimeForge, and go to the employee list.   Find the staff member you modified, and edit their account.   Scroll down to the list of employee positions, and you will see that you can change the payrate / payscale for this employee , it is no longer controlled by Dinerware.   You can now set TimeForge to export a fixed rate, or fixed hourly amount, when the payroll export is run , regardless of any timepunches within the Point of Sale system.

These employees will still need to clock in / out inside of Dinerware, but these time punches will be ignored for the purposes of running payroll reports on TimeForge.

TimeForge reduces turnover and improves retention while freeing up management time and increasing 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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Quick service restaurants (fast food businesses) can be very challenging to manage. Three influencing factors directly determine the success, or failure, or a QSR restaurant, customers (sales), inventory, and labor. Of these three items, managers on a day-to-day basis have the most control over the labor, controlling costs, turnover, scheduling, and communications with staff members.

Restaurant managers must make sure that enough staff members are on site during busy hours, but managers must also be careful to cut staff when expected need begins to drop.   Scheduling the right number of employees in a quick service restaurant is a constant challenge.

And with a busy restaurant business, managers don’t have time to babysit the time clock to watch employees clock in or out at the right time. Riding the clock (staff members who clock out late or clock in early), and buddy punching can both have disastrous effects on the bottom line for the business.

Other common labor management problems for a QSR business include:

• Schedule communications
• Changing availability
• Inexperienced / young staff members
• High turnover
• Buddy punching
• And more …

Over scheduling the restaurant will reduce profits with a bigger payroll. Under scheduling staff might cause customers to go elsewhere , reducing income.

Skillful scheduling of staff members for your QSR restaurant isn’t easy – it can be time consuming and tedious. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be.

TimeForge turns labor scheduling and attendance monitoring into a simple management task, giving you back your weekends and increasing the business profits, while keeping staff delighted and reducing turnover.

Read more about TimeForge QSR software, employee scheduling, and labor management for quick service restaurants.

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

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Fast casual restaurants can be a challenging labor management environment. Figuring out how many employees it takes to staff a fast casual restaurant can be a difficult task. Restaurant managers must ensure that enough staff are on hand to meet customer needs, but also must take care to not have too many staff on hand. With a busy restaurant, manager’s don’t have the time to babysit the time clock and must often rely on employees to clock in at the right time. Clocking in early or clocking out late will cost the business extra money , money that could be allocated for other uses.

In a fast casual concept, many staff members perform more than one job while at work, and may have another job with another business as well. Cross training and constant communications about the schedule are key to labor scheduling success.

Other labor management problems include:

• Fluctuating school schedules
• Continuous availability changes
• Young / inexperienced staff members
• Buddy punching
• And more …

Over scheduling the restaurant could drain away profits. Under scheduling staff might drain away your customers. Skillful scheduling of staff members for your business isn’t easy – it can be tedious and time consuming. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be. TimeForge turns labor scheduling and attendance monitoring into a simple management task, giving you back your weekends and increasing profits.

Read more about TimeForge employee scheduling and labor management for fast casual restaurants.

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 fast casual restaurants, and other hospitality, food-service, retail, and other service-oriented businesses around the world.

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One magazine that restaurateurs should be reading is Restaurant Startup and Growth , it is targeted at independents, owner/operators, and small chains.   Their monthly articles focus on inventory, labor, restaurant tips, staffing questions, leasing, marketing, and other important topics for independent restaurants (though most of the advice is applicable to retailers that are in other industries as well).

This month, July 2009, there is an excellent article from Jim Laube, entitled “Fairy Tales! The Top 10 Myths of Restaurant Profitability“.   Two of these myths focus on labor, and labor costs, including Myth 5 and Myth 6.

Paying Higher Wages Increases Labor Costs: Myth 5

As Jim explains, every restaurant (or retail business) has its superstars.   An employee that can twice (or more) the amount of work as any other staff member.   A cook that can cook more than anyone else.   A busser who can keep the whole store clean without any help.   A cashier who can run two lines.   These employees are, to put it frankly, “busting it“, and should be paid more than someone who just does the “minimum“.

However, paying a superstar more than their co-workers doesn’t increase labor costs , it often decreases them.   Which scenario would you rather have, assuming that both scenarios are able to serve an equivalent number of customers?

Scenario 1:
Two bartenders making $8.50 / hour, working a 5 hour shift?
Total wages:   $8.50 per hour * 2 employees * 5 hours = $85

Scenario 2:
One bartender making $12.00 / hour, working a 5 hour shift?
Total wages:   $12.00 per hour * 1 employee * 5 hours = $60

A superstar bartender (Scenario 2) can outwork, and at a lower overall cost, two mediocre bartenders.

Finding these superstar bartenders is part of the difficulty in managing , but if you can find them, and promote them, your business will profit.

Paying Overtime is a Sign of Bad Management or Poor Scheduling:   Myth 6

In most restaurants, there is an operational mandate to ensure that part-time staff members work less than 35 or 40 hours per week.   This is in effort to keep from paying overtime, which is commonly 50% more expensive (time and a half), or even 100% more expensive (double time).   While this is a great idea from an hours and cost perspective, this mandate does forget about one key factor , the employee.

Commonly, employees who are working in part time positions need extra hours to make ends meet.   These staff members, who may be critical to the business, have certain financial needs and sometimes need to work extra hours to meet these needs.   By not allowing these staff members to work extra hours (perhaps 45 to 50 hours) occasionally, they may seek employment elsewhere , creating higher turnover, and costing the business in hiring, turnover, and lost business while seeking a replacement.

If at all possible, try to accommodate employee needs , be it with the occasional extra overtime hours, or scheduling staff on certain days to work around a second job or specific availability.   Staff members are less likely to go elsewhere if all of their needs can be met at one particular job.

Make sure to read some of the other myths, available online.

TimeForge employee scheduling software is used by managers and operators of independent restaurants, and retailers, as well as franchises and chains of companies in the hospitality, food-service, retail, and other service-oriented industries.   TimeForge will increase profitability, reduce turnover, and improve retention at your business!

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• Workforce Labor Scheduling Updates (Part 1)
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• Spend Less Time Scheduling Labor – More Time Managing Your Business
• Off Topic: Inventory Managment for Restaurants

One of our most recent feature improvement requests came from Greg Fong, owner of the Garden View restaurant in Nova Scotia, Canada.   Greg wanted to be able to enforce the employee schedule when employees clock in, so that he knows when employees are riding the clock or are coming in too early.

However, he also doesn’t want to have his managers running back and forth clocking employees in and overriding the schedule , this can fragment the managers time, defeating one of the main reasons he uses TimeForge – keeping the manager on the floor.

Greg proposed to allow his staff members to serve as “witnesses” for each other, allowing staff members to act as a temporary manager when clocking in early, or clocking out late.   This makes his staff accountable to one another and frees up the manager’s time.

Guess what? This is now available inside of TimeForge!   To turn on the Employee Witness capabilities, log in to your TimeForge account, and access the Attendance Options.   You will see an option to enable Employee Witnessing (by choosing Yes or No).

As always, your feedback on this feature is very important to us , what do you think?   Should staff members be allowed to “witness” for each other, taking over some of the responsibility of the manager?

TimeForge employee scheduling and labor management software is used by managers of restaurants, retail stores, and other hospitality and service-oriented businesses around the world. TimeForge will increase profitability, reduce turnover, and improve retention at your business!

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• Restaurant Expense Overview (Part 1 of 5)

Aquatics centers and pools are often a challenging employee scheduling environment. Pool managers must ensure that an adequate number of lifeguards are on duty for the number of swimmers in the pool, but also must monitor concession stands, front-office staff, trainers, coaches, cleaning crews, and management personnel.

State and local regulations often require regular breaks for on-duty employees, as well as staffing minimums for pool occupants. To further complicate the process, scheduling and attendance management needs to account for staff members who are underage, fluctuating school schedules, changing availability, young / inexperienced staff members, buddy punching, employees riding the clock, and much more!

Babysitting the time clock to ensure staff members aren’t riding the clock or punching each other in isn’t much fun, but successful aquatics center managers know that labor management can go a long way towards cutting budget draining labor costs.

Over-scheduling could drain away profits. Under-scheduling could drain away your customers (and get you fined!). Skillful scheduling of staff members for your pool isn’t easy – it can be tedious and time consuming. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be. TimeForge turns labor scheduling and attendance monitoring into a simple management task, giving you back your weekends and increasing profits.

Aquatics scheduling is simple with TimeForge! Read more about TimeForge employee scheduling and labor management for aquatics centers and pools.

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This is one of the most difficult retail environments in recent memory for children’s product retailers. Still, history has shown that retailers who survive – and thrive – through recessions are those who take the downturn as an opportunity to make changes; to streamline and refine operations. Because seemingly small changes have big impact.

Babysitting the time clock to ensure your employees aren’t riding the clock or punching each other in isn’t much fun either, but successful managers know that attendance monitoring can go a long way towards cutting and forecasting labor costs.

Over-scheduling could drain away your profits. Under-scheduling could drain away your customers. Skillful retail employee scheduling and attendance monitoring isn’t easy. It can be tedious and time consuming. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be.

Read more about TimeForge labor management and children’s retailers here.

TimeForge labor management and employee scheduling software is used by owners and operators of children retail stores, retailers, 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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Marina managers have plenty on their plates: risk and liability assessment; fire- and emergency-response planning; environmental management; health and safety compliance; dealing with regulations and permitting; marketing, promotion, and pricing; financial management; and employee scheduling, attendance monitoring, and training…the list goes on and on, but the hours in a day do not.

To be successfully in a difficult economy, marina operators have make the time to plan strategically – without compromising the skillful execution of all of those duties.

It’s not easy.

Take, for example, scheduling and attendance monitoring for marina, harbor, and port employees. You have to juggle multiple shifts, part-time employees (each with their own unique scheduling requests), certifications or specific skill sets required on any given shift, PTO accrued, time off and shift swap requests, and labor laws.

All of this tedious minutia needs to coalesce into one efficient employee shift schedule that ensures you have the coverage you need – particularly in your marina’s peak times – without unnecessary labor costs.

But once completed, your work is not done. You have to communicate that schedule to all the employees, field endless inquiries about next week’s schedule (or worse, scramble to fill a missed shift), monitor attendance so that employees don’t punch in early or late or punch in buddies, monitor overtime and labor costs (both in real-time and forecasting), and deal with late or unexpected time off or shift swap requests (re-creating the schedule and communicating the re-worked schedule to all the employees, again).

It’s just one of many headaches a marina operator faces, but it’s an important one. Poor management of employee scheduling and attendance can be costly – not only in terms of hours wasted and employee morale, but in terms of the bottom line.

If you spend hours every week on marina employee scheduling and attendance, you’re not alone. But you are in luck. Timeforge allows marina and boat center operators to cut employee scheduling and attendance monitoring time from hours to minutes (literally).

The ability to manage schedules at one or many locations, schedule those with stronger skills or necessary certifications in the high volume time slots, and monitor and forecast your labor costs makes Timeforge not just a time-saver but a budget-booster. In fact, TimeForge can increase profits by 3-5%.

Add in the ability to integrate simply with POS or payroll systems, to notify employees of upcoming schedules and schedule changes by email or text message (reducing late or absent employees), and the ability to focus your energies on the urgent duties facing a marina manager on any given day (rather than mind-numbing scheduling minutia), you’ll probably find that the time saved first week alone pays for the investment.

With TimeForge, Marina Operators Can …

• Build employee schedules in seconds – no matter how complicated, or how many locations.
• Record staff member availability, employee time off requests, and other key information – as well as record sales and important occurrences during every shift that you can review onsite or remotely,
• Export payroll to many popular payroll providers with a single click.
• Inform employees of schedules or schedule changes by text message or email – eliminating employee confusion and missed shifts.
• Stop early clock ins and late clock outs or buddy punching to provide immediate labor cost controls.
• Remotely check on employees that are clocked in – using the web, Facebook, or a cell phone.
• Provide remote access for employees to view work schedules, review timecards, request time off, change work availability, swap shifts with other staff members, and receive daily schedule alerts via email or text messages.
• Manage and forecast labor costs to decrease costs and increase profits.
• And much more…

TimeForge is a complete labor management solution for marinas and boat houses, providing one-click seamless access to employee scheduling, time and attendance, and payroll reports. Use the whole TimeForge product suite, or only the parts that your business requires.

Read more about TimeForge Scheduling, TimeForge Attendance, and TimeForge Daily Log.

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