HotSchedules Reviews & Pricing

Key Features

• Scheduling: Build schedules with customizable templates and intuitive drag-and-drop tools. Approve or deny shift change requests, define rules to limit overtime and manage employee availability from a dashboard.
• Time and Attendance: Track clock-in and clock-out times, collect information on tip and break entries, and allow employees to access their timecards and payroll histories. Managers can set up alerts to notify employees when they miss a time punch. Set geo-fencing rules using the mobile WebClock to track employee locations.
• Labor Forecasting: Access the following forecasting features:
  • Schedule Optimization: Standardize scheduling rules and automate recurring tasks using predictive scheduling across multiple branches and locations.
  • Scheduling Visibility: Manage labor analytics to measure critical KPIs like overall performance, cost per labor, sales patterns and labor cost to keep restaurants competitive.
  • Store-Level Forecasting: Analyze historical data to identify weekly sales patterns and help managers allocate workforces efficiently. Send alerts for overtime and other potential compliance issues.
• Labor Management: Calculate minimum staffing requirements, plan shift breaks, and generate suggested headcounts to ensure that any given shift always has the proper number of staff members.
• Scheduling and Wage Compliance: Adhere to local and federal regulations with:
  • Predictive Scheduling: Stay up to date with local laws and evolve as regulations shift. Prepare and adapt to compliance changes before they go into effect.
  • Break and Meal Management: Set up rules to automatically schedule meal and break times for staff members. Receive notifications of missed break times and automatically calculate break pay impacts.
  • Overtime Management: Track employees going into overtime and allow managers to swap overworked staff with other employees.
  • Certifications: Receive certificate expiry alerts and define automation to request updated documents from employees, managers and other team members.
• POS Integration: Employees can track time and clock in and out of work from a POS system. Pull sales and operational data from POS to forecast weekly and seasonal sales patterns and workforce requirements.
• Health Surveys: Generate digital health surveys to gain extra visibility into the business. Use CDC-tailored surveys and health screening tools to ensure employees are safe to come to work.
• Manager Logbook: Manage physical and digital logbooks that help track tasks, maintenance objectives and food safety information, such as temperature.

Approach To Common Challenges

• Time Management Struggles: With intuitive tools and predictive scheduling, managers can easily approve or deny shift change requests and define rules to limit overtime, all from a centralized dashboard.
• Communication Breakdowns: The platform enables direct communication with team members. It facilitates real-time updates on schedule changes, shift swaps and other critical information. This fosters better communication and ensures everyone is on the same page, reducing confusion and improving efficiency.
• Labor Cost Control: Detailed reports on labor costs and sales enable managers to assess and optimize labor practices effectively. 
• Employee Engagement and Satisfaction: The mobile app empowers employees by providing them access to their schedules. It enables them to request changes, swap shifts and manage their availability, fostering a sense of ownership and engagement in the scheduling process.
• Compliance Management: Managers can configure labor rules to document shift transactions and control labor costs. Features such as predictive scheduling, break and meal management, and certification expiry alerts help businesses stay ahead of regulatory changes and maintain compliance effortlessly.

Cost of Ownership

Limitations

• Doesn’t offer a free mobile app.
• Offers delayed support services.
• More expensive than its competitors.

Demo Resources

• Project Management: The vendor’s technical experts partner with the business’s team to oversee progress and accountability throughout deployment.
• Solution Consultant: A dedicated account manager helps customize the solution per business requirements.
• Discovery Workshop: Workshops involving the vendor’s experts and the business’s team help discover and prioritize business requirements and devise a detailed implementation strategy.
• Technical Resources: A dedicated expert will handle technical requirements, including implementation, forecasting, inventory management and more.
• Training Plan: The vendor’s team works closely with in-house training professionals to build detailed training and migration plans.

FAQs

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