August 21, 2008 – Lubbock, TX – It happens on every Friday of every work week in hospitality, restaurant, and retail businesses around the world. Employees call and want to know when they are scheduled to work during the upcoming week, but the manager hasn’t posted the schedule. Staff members are not able to plan their personal lives without the work schedule which creates conflicts and leads to employee terminations and resignations as soon as the schedule is posted. With labor scheduling software tools, management can reduce schedule conflicts, minimize turnover, and improve profitability at their business.
Managing a labor force requires scheduling part-time and full-time employees properly before they are needed for work and also tracking when employees clock-in and clock-out. Good managers reduce the difference between the theoretical work schedule and the actual hours worked while maximizing sales at the business. Improper employee scheduling leads to one of two circumstances:
Neither option is desirable and the key to avoiding both situations is to monitor and refine the schedule at your business. As experienced managers know, building an accurate schedule takes several hours a week and must consider all of the following items:
Using TimeForge, a web-based labor management system, managers quickly build accurate schedules while reducing turnover, enhancing communication, and improving retention. The recently updated TimeForge provides more time saving features, new pricing plans, and now includes a powerful Daily Log.
With a comprehensive labor management tool, payroll expenses are reduced and employee turnover is continually monitored. TimeForge keeps managers out of the back office and puts them back on the floor where they can directly influence the profits of the business.
About TimeForge
TimeForge, www.TimeForge.com, develops easy-to-use software products to manage employee scheduling, time and attendance, and communication logs. TimeForge’s web-based product suite is designed to meet the demands of the retail and restaurant industries, providing solutions for both independent and chain operators.
During economic booms, such as those witnessed during the last few years, many businesses focused on increasing sales while their operations lagged behind. Operational aspects such as inventory control, portion sizing, reducing turnover, improving employee retention, and training are all import details of hospitality and retail businesses that can be swept under the rug in good times.
Jim Sullivan, the chief executive of Sullivision.com recently penned “In hard times, control costs instead of hiding your inefficiencies by just pumping up volume” at Nation’s Restaurant News. Although his article is meant for restaurants, it is also applicable to retailers, hotels, and other similar businesses. Jim covers a number of issues, including one aspect of running a business that is often forgotten in the day to day operations:
Remember, all money is not created equal: $100 in sales is $100 less taxes and expenses; $100 in savings is $100. Here are some fiscal fundamentals to review and execute with your team in both tough times and boom times.
Now is an excellent time to revisit your business’s operational procedures, making them be more efficient and cost conscience - immediately improving profit at your business. A variety of tools, including TimeForge, are designed to improve cost controls at your business - producing schedules in minutes instead of not hours.
Can you build a schedule in less than 10 minutes? How many thousands of dollars do you spend making schedules every year? Did you know that TimeForge can minimize costs and increase profits through effective employee scheduling at your restaurant, pizzeria, hotel, club, bar, or retail business. Sign up today for a free trial!
Do you own or operate a retail or restaurant company? Perhaps your store sells collectibles, health food products, cell phone accessories or curtains and rugs. Regardless of the goods being offered, tightly controlling your labor expenses in the current economic climate is crucial to generate a profit. Relevant employee expenses including payroll costs, training, and turnover should be properly managed. With the proper procedures and a set of tools to assist with the complex chore of managing labor, your business can increase profitability.
One key to managing a labor force properly is to schedule part-time and full-time employees before they are needed for work (a theoretical work schedule), and then track the scheduled work against when employees clock-in and clock-out (the actual worked hours), a process known actual vs. theoretical, or AvT. Good managers reduce the difference (variance) between the Actual hours worked and the Theoretical schedule, while maximizing the sales for the business.
Improper labor scheduling will lead to one of two circumstances for your business:
Neither option is desirable, and the key to avoiding both situations is to monitor and refine the AvT at your business.
Smart managers constantly balance employee satisfaction against the needs of the business in an effort to keep payroll costs down, reduce turnover, and increase profits. Turnover is extremely expensive, and a 2004 study by the Employment Policy Foundation found that the average turnover cost of a single full-time employee is $13,355. To recover from the effects of the turnover of a single full-time employee, a retail store would need to sell more than 3,000 pairs of khakis priced at $35 each. A restaurant would need to sell more than 7,613 children’s combo meals at $2.50 each.
One way to reduce turnover at your store is to implement a labor scheduling tool such as TimeForge, an online employee scheduling solution.
Peter Edwards, owner of Zeb’s General Store in North Conway, New Hampshire knows that proper employee scheduling is key to managing a retail business, especially a seasonal business. Peter chose TimeForge to help him manage full-time and part-time shift labor at his store. reducing employee turnover and lowering labor costs. Peter uses templates in TimeForge to rapidly build schedules for his business, and TimeForge automatically emails and text messages the schedule to his employees on a daily basis – notifying employees of their upcoming work schedule and keeping his staff happy.
Peter had this to say about TimeForge:
I own a retail company. We employ 15 full time employees, and between 5 and 15 part time employees depending upon our season. I signed up for the 90 day trial period and have been using the TimeForge program for about 45 days. I have found the program to be easy to use and it hits the mark with respect to our staff scheduling needs. The email notification aspect of the program is a great feature that I am sure our employees will like.
The most important aspect of TimeForge is the incredible customer support. Responses to the help menu item are emailed within 24 hours, and a live person actually answers the phone to respond to your questions. I look forward to using TimeForge and would be pleased to talk with any prospective user of the scheduling program.
If you would like to see what TimeForge can do for your restaurant, hospitality, or retail business, then please sign up today for a free trial or contact our sales department for more information about TimeForge.
How long does it take to make an employee schedule for your employees? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that TimeForge can minimize costs and increase profits through effective employee scheduling at your pizza, restaurant, hotel, bar, club, or retail business. Sign up today for a free trial!
Additional highlights from our four days in Houston at the Texas Restaurant Show included:
Steve Green of Pizza Magazine Quarterly and PMQ.com had the US Pizza Team showing off their skills at the show. Steve stopped by on Tuesday and took a look at TimeForge – it is a perfect labor solution for pizzerias without a Point of Sale solution, and TimeForge is a great add-on to help control labor costs for those pizza shops that already have an existing POS program.
Dave Hwang from DinePoint was in the area attending the show, and we spent some time with him discussing plans for his above store reporting software package. He has had great success with a number of Point of Sale resellers, vendors, and major regional and national restaurant brands adopting his product.
David (also known as David_L) from FoodService.com was showing off the Digital Dining Point of Sale product, along with some girls from Hooters. He regularly posts on the FoodService.com food forums, and it was great to finally meet him in person.
Dominos Pizza had a corporate meeting at the Texas Restaurant Association, and we met with many franchisees about using TimeForge at their pizza business. Most operators and owners were surprised at how simple TimeForge is to use compared to doing things the “old fashioned” way.
Join us in Dallas for next years Texas Restaurant Show - we have already reserved our booth!
How long does it take to make an employee schedule for your employees? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that TimeForge can minimize costs and increase profits through effective employee scheduling at your pizza, restaurant, hotel, bar, club, or retail business. Sign up today for a free trial!
We just got back from four full days in sunny Houston, TX. We exhibited at the 2008 Southwest Food Expo, hosted by the Texas Restaurant Association. TimeForge occupied booth 1546 right next to the franchise pavilion and we had a great time in Houston! Throughout the show we became friends with many of our neighbors, dined on wonderful food, and spoke to a number of restaurateurs, hotel and retail owners – most need help with employee scheduling.
We really enjoyed spending time with our neighbors from Del Mar College and Ctuit.
Next to us was the Franchise Pavilion, and it included reps from Boston’s Pizza Restaurants, Pollo Campero, Which Which, Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, Huddle House, and Franchise Times. It seemed to be a tough show for finding franchisees, but many of them kept the show very entertaining for us. If they (or their franchisees) need labor scheduling, they’ll know TimeForge can help!
Lance, Mike, and the rest of the Focus POS crew were on site, dressed down in their bright orange brand and ready to help restaurant owners find the right Point of Sale system. Of all of the Point of Sale vendors, Focus POS has one of the most full-featured labor scheduling systems. They understand that employee scheduling is hard - and try to make it easy for operators to build schedules. It was good to see them again.
Gary Peek, president of Intura stopped by and spoke with us about TimeForge and its applicability in international markets. I spent some time in the Intura booth on Tuesday learning about their mapping software and their ability to do sales analytics based on geographical sales locations. Very cool technology!
More TRA Expo highlights coming ….
How long does it take to make a labor schedule for your workforce? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that TimeForge can improve profits and minimize costs through effective employee scheduling at your restaurant, hotel, bank, school, bar, club, or retail business.
We are previewing several brand new TimeForge features at this years Texas Restaurant Association Expo in Houston, Texas. The show is June 22 - 24, 2008. Some of the new items (now already in TimeForge) include our Daily Log (a very powerful Manager’s Log – similar to a Red Book, Kitchen Log, Bar Log, etc…), Biometric Capabilities (employees can clock in and out using their fingerprints), and payroll exports, among others!
We are also debuting TempForge, a time and temperature tool that complies with Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) programs – making sure that temperature sensitive products are kept safe at restaurants, hotels, bars, clubs, and other hospitality related businesses. If you are interesting in seeing what this amazing product has to offer, please drop us a line at info@TimeForge.com.
Come join us at the George R Brown Convention Center, booth #1546, directly across from Ctuit – above store reporting and back-office software, and right next to the Franchise Pavilion.
How long does it take to make a labor schedule for your workforce? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that TimeForge can improve profits and minimize costs through effective employee scheduling at your restaurant, hotel, bank, school, bar, club, or retail business.
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Never again worry about scheduling minors to work! The TimeForge labor scheduling software includes an Age Rule module that tracks age appropriate rules for all employees, including minimum and maximum hours per week or day, and times that employees are allowed to work (such as weekends during the school year, and weekdays during summer or holiday breaks). TimeForge automatically calculate when these employees can or cannot work - and your management staff can set them one time, and not worry about it ever again!
How long does it take to make a labor 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.
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In many areas (such as California, New York, Florida, parts of Canada, and most of Europe), managers must carefully monitor employee meal and break periods to ensure that employees take the appropriate breaks during their scheduled shifts. In some areas, managers must remember to get employee signatures, proving that breaks were actually given. Failing to follow these regulations will land a business into serious legal trouble. TimeForge provides an advanced and powerful Break Rule module which provides meal and break period guidelines for management – based on the scheduled shifts for the employees – and several reports that can be printed to provide necessary documentation. Let TimeForge do the hard work with meal and break period tracking!
How long does it take to make a labor 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.
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On Tuesday of last week, we received an amazing email from Mr. Lawrence Payne at Mid-Pacific Country Club, located in Hawaii. Mr. Payne has been using TimeForge for a number of months, and as explained in the following text, he’s more than happy with the scheduling product. His “customer testimonial” follows:
What used to take 1-2 hours, now takes 15 minutes. The reports section is comprehensive and useful. The service response Time Forge provides is exceptional and much appreciated. Anytime I had a question, it was responded to quickly and efficiently. In response to different user’s requests, they have modified the program to make it better.
I would highly recommend Time Forge to anyone making work schedules.”
Lawrence Payne
Clubhouse Manager
Mid-Pacific Country Club
Kailua, Hawaii
Thank you so much Lawrence!
Do you have a success story to share with us about TimeForge? Please send us an email, we’d like to share it with the rest of our users.
How long does it take to make a labor 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.
Would you like help getting TimeForge up and running at your business? Does TimeForge seem too intimidating? Would you like to know what new features and improvements the TimeForge team is working on?
Sign up for one of the upcoming TimeForge training sessions and discover how simple employee scheduling can be! These free training sessions demonstrate how easily TimeForge can be to used to schedule employees while keeping employees happy and getting managers back on the floor.
The upcoming May training sessions are:
Check here for April Training Sessions.
These free training sessions will be held over the phone using standard “web training” tools, as well as a traditional conference call. Accessing the “web training” tools is as easy as going to a web site …. anyone with an Internet connection can participate in training!
The sessions emphasize individual customer question-and-answer style help, similar to an in-office training session: 20 minutes will be devoted to demonstrating the software, and the last 40 minutes will be devoted to answering individual / specific questions about the software.
To sign up, please send an email to info@timeforge.com with the date and time that you would like to attend, and please let us know how many users will be attending from your location and/or company.
Also: Coming soon … the TimeForge User Manual and Employee Manual! A comprehensive guide to using TimeForge at your company.
How long does it take to make a labor schedule for your workforce? 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 hotel, restaurant, bank, car wash, or other retail business.
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