Tips for Streamlining Your Scheduling Processes

scheduling
Writer

Introduction

With odd business hours, complex work shift patterns, and a list of employees to manage, schedule creation in the restaurant industry can be quite an intricate chore.

You may find yourself spending over eight hours in a week preparing employee schedules, especially when using old-fashioned practices, like the pen and paper method or an Excel employee schedule template.

There is a growing concern for more work-life balance. Therefore, managers have to ensure that their employees are offered flexible schedules and follow each employee's preferred availability.

Although this call to action is made with the purest of intentions, many restaurant managers will tell you that this task is not an easy one and often find themselves struggling to follow such demands.

Given the complexity of this issue, it is advisable to upgrade your scheduling practices and begin utilizing employee scheduling software.

This advanced scheduling process comes with a number of benefits, all of which will benefit your restaurant, your employees, and yourself.

These web-based tools reduce the amount of time that you spend in preparing employee schedules from week-to-week. What would typically take you a week to complete will be cut down drastically.

With the software, you will discover that scheduling is an easy task, as it comes with user-friendly features that allow restaurant managers to create shifts days, weeks, and even months in advance.

Here are the top reasons why you need employee scheduling software in your restaurant

Adapt to Abrupt Changes in Employee Shifts Easily

adapt to abrupt changes in employee shifts easily 1570661953 7242

If you are using spreadsheets, like an Excel employee schedule template, then you are making the scheduling process more wearing on yourself.

With this process, editing and revising is more difficult. If an employee cannot make an upcoming shift, then management must be contacted and a change to the schedule must be requested, then implemented manually. This process is error-prone and time-consuming and may result in costly mistakes.

With an advanced scheduling system, you will not need to make all these changes then follow-up with your employees by sending text messages or making phone calls.

The best kind of software will offer features that give managers an immediate notification from employees for a scheduling change, and management will have the capability to approve or deny a request in real-time from a computer or mobile app.

You will also be able to get another employee to fill in the shift. Therefore, you will adapt to sudden changes in the work schedules with ease.

Simplify Processes for Time-Off Requests

Managing time-off requests can be gruesome, especially if you're tracking these requests by jotting a note to yourself on a post-it or by rummaging through emails from your employees trying to locate when they originally submitted their time-off request.

Scheduling software allows employees to send their requests to the manager directly, and it allows management to either approve or decline these requests.

A report is also provided of employees who are not currently present or will not be available for upcoming shifts due to jury duty, sick days, absences, or vacation days, so they will not mistakenly be scheduled for shifts they cannot work.

Maintain Accurate Staff Levels for Specific Shifts

If you run a restaurant business, you have to support the business objectives, as well as your customers' needs at all times. It's vital.

One way to achieve this objective is to maintain a schedule, including a headcount, of the employees who will be working each day.

With these scheduling reports, the data can be used to track the busiest times of the day, which will allow management to make better staffing decisions for the future.

For example, if you experience a high volume of traffic on Friday evenings, beginning at 6 PM, the software will make note of this and advise that you staff more employees for Friday evenings at that time. The same goes for slower times in the day, so you avoid overscheduling and losing out on labor costs.

The information will help them to adjust the shifts so that they can meet all the customer demands.

Give Your Employees More Power and Decrease Turnover

give your employees more power and decrease turnover 1570661953 1065

You must have an employee self-service solution if you want to move your restaurant into the 21st century of scheduling. The system should allow employees to easily request changes and track hours worked.

The freedom to monitor this information themselves enforces responsibility and self-reliance on your employees.

Web-based scheduling software also allows your employees to connect with each other, making it easier for employees to reach out to each other to cover or swap shifts. Again, this also promotes responsibility for your employees.

The autonomy level gives your team more control over their schedules. Managers will have sufficient coverage, employee satisfaction will enhance, and the restaurant turnover rates will reduce.

Meet Mobility Demand with Accessibility Anywhere, Anytime

meet mobility demand with accessibility anywhere anytime 1570661954 4360

With streamlined self-service and scheduling options, mobile apps are the next web-based restaurant staff scheduling tool. It enables workers to get access to the schedule information at any time and from anywhere.

For example, an employee may be on vacation and would like to check his upcoming shift time and date. The mobile access works with various smartphone technologies.

Mobile apps also serve as automatic notification portals that managers use to update restaurant employees about changes in their schedules. Some of the best features are the daily and weekly reminders of all the assigned shifts. It eliminates any questions about the upcoming scheduled shifts.

Conclusion

Managing or running a restaurant business that employs hourly staff requires a system to coordinate the schedules, and it is imperative to find the best solution for creating and monitoring your employees' schedules.

You can make sure that the whole process runs smoothly by using a scheduling system that all employees can access.

SCHEDULE A DEMO