In many locales, labor laws for the service industry severely limit the number of hours that a non-exempt employee can work. Hours worked can be limited by the industry, age, job description (position worked), hourly rate, holiday, length of shift, or even the day of the week. If your business works with service unions, these rules can become even more complicated, requiring that managers spend time tracking breaks and meal periods and indicating whether or not employees wanted to take their break. Some states and insurance companies perform regular Labor & Industries audits, imposing heavy fines or insurance premium increases for non-compliant businesses.
Careful managers schedule around these frequently changing and complicated rules, ensuring that their business is compliant with all applicable labor regulations. However, businesses can inadvertently land themselves in hot-water when employees fail to show up, quit, or are terminated for otherwise legitimate reasons. Inexperienced managers, overburdened by other areas of schedule creation can forget about these rules, which are not core to the “making money” aspect of their business. Stiff fines and lawsuits are the result of failing to be in compliance.
In uncertain economic times managers must be able to schedule labor correctly in a consistent manner, keep employees happy, and reduce fines imposed by legislative authorities, such as the Department of Labor. Businesses should seek to use cost-effective computer systems, such as TimeForge, to ensure that proper scheduling techniques are utilized. Effective scheduling software will be able to schedule meal and break periods, accurately calculate overtime costs, and archive previous schedules for managerial review.
Labor & Industries (L&I) audits are common in some US states (California, Washington, Oregon, and New York are especially common) in restaurant, food-service, retail, construction, and hospitality-related industries. These audits are performed by the state or by insurance companies to verify that the business has complied with all applicable regulations. Audits focus on unpaid overtime, minors working too late or too early, break and meal periods that are not properly documented, and other violations. Rule infractions can be punished with stiff fines and/or insurance premium increases.
Make sure that all employees are aware of the applicable rules for the city, county, and state / province. Follow federal / national rules (where applicable), corporate rules, and insurance regulations (if applicable). Where possible, automated scheduling systems should be utilized to enforce these rules reducing the administrative burden placed on managers - allowing management to work on other pressing issues such as training, customer service, and management tasks which cannot be automated by cost-effective technology solutions.
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.
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:
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!
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.
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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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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.
Save Thousands Through Better Scheduling of Labor – Reduce Turnover and Headaches
Lubbock, TX – April 20, 2008 – The slowing United States economy is having a negative impact on sales within the restaurant and retail industries and operators are seeking creative methods to improve profit margins at their companies. In the absence of growing sales, a common strategy is to focus on stronger inventory and labor controls to increase profits. It’s a strategy that will not only pay during tough economic times, but will continue to reap returns when the good times return. Well-chosen technology can help operators manage both cost centers without incurring great expense or time. One such example is TimeForge, a labor scheduling product that tightly controls employee labor costs 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 April 20th, 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.
In many cases the new version of TimeForge can drastically increase operator efficiency and reduce the errors caused by ineffective scheduling techniques. Managers without labor scheduling tools, such as TimeForge, commonly spend more than $12,000 a year in management time (based on a national salary average of $62,500) building and managing the labor schedule! The latest version of TimeForge.com 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:
Making a great schedule every week is often a painful managerial chore for businesses of all sizes. The increased store profits, lower turnover, and improved employee morale make employee scheduling software a worthwhile investment. Many hospitality and retail owners have discovered how properly managing labor saves time and money for the business with a free trail of TimeForge.
About TimeForge.com
TimeForge.com 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.com, and to sign up for a Free Trial, visit the website at http://www.TimeForge.com
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 motel, bank, school, restaurant, bar, club, or retail business.
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The TimeForge v1.9.2 scheduling system includes a number of new improvements to the scheduling and template systems, including multiple views of the schedule.
Three new views are available to help you (and your management team) build the schedule: Weekly Detail View, Weekly Summary View, and Daily View. The “Daily View” has several visualization options designed to streamline the schedule creation process.
The default “Daily View” chart is a graphical representation of the shifts for the day, sorted by position. Shifts can be edited by clicking directly on the horizontal bar for the shift you want to change.
By clicking on “Sort by Employees“, the graphical chart is rearranged and sorted by employee. Again, to edit a shift, just click on the graphical bar.
If you click on “Shift List“, the graph is replaced by a list of shifts for the day. The shifts are grouped by position (department).
How long does it take to make your labor schedule? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that TimeForge can streamline and minimize labor costs through effective employee scheduling at your retail business, restaurant, bar, club, or hotel?
The team behind the TimeForge employee scheduling software has been quiet over the last month, hard at work on version 1.9.2 of TimeForge. After four weeks of work, and countless requests from our users (thank you!), we are proud to announce the latest release of the simplest employee scheduling program available for retail and hospitality businesses!
So, what’s new in TimeForge? A lot! Some of our improvements include:
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.
As previously mentioned, the team behind the TimeForge employee scheduling software has been working hard on version 1.9.2 of TimeForge - released today, Jan 1, 2008. Happy New Year!
So, what’s new in TimeForge? A lot! Some of our recent improvements include:
How long does it take to make your labor schedule? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that TimeForge can streamline and minimize labor costs through effective employee scheduling at your retail business, restaurant, bar, club, or hotel?
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As you may be aware, we release improvements to the TimeForge employee scheduling software every few weeks, and our team is hard at work developing version 1.9 of TimeForge. The next version will be released around Thanksgiving.
What can you expect to be in our next version of TimeForge?
Are you ready to go home early? It should take less than 5 minutes to make the employee labor schedule for your business! 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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