HotSchedules is a cloud-based scheduling, labor and communication management software solution serving the restaurant and hospitality industry. According to the vendor, key benefits include: Build & Communicate Schedules The scheduling and labor management software reduces the time it takes managers to create and communicate schedules. All scheduling and employee information is stored in one central location, so managers have access to time-off requests,…
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LASSO Crew
Score 9.0 out of 10
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LASSO's Crew Management delivers a platform used to schedule, communicate, onboard, time track, travel, payroll, and book labor.
For small to medium-sized companies HotSchedules works great when business is very static. If you are simply using HotSchedules for a schedule writing tool, it is phenomenal. However, it does miss the mark as a labor control software. Needs more controls to keep managers aware of spending versus historical sales data.
Transition to LASSO Crew was a real bear, but once we had all the pieces and parts in place and staff new how to use it, it solved the majority of our staffing headaches. We work on events across NYC and often have several events going on at the same time. Prior to LASSO Crew it was not uncommon for a supervisor to show up to a call with only a limited understanding of who was booked on the job, or for an employee to not be sure who or where they needed to report to that day. LASSO Crew-facing app and supervisor-facing website have entirely eliminated these headaches. Our staffing process is more streamlined than before, our rates and scheduling more transparent. Once you get past the initial hurdles of crew/team buy-in and implementation, the upsides are enormous.
Communication is so simple on HotSchedules. Whether it is communicating a new schedule release, or a quick note about tonight's shift we as managers are able to easily communicate and know that it will reach our team through text notifications, or email notifications.
The Meal Break planning tool is very useful in being able to help our floor leaders clearly understand and plan for what breaks are needed throughout the shift. This allows them to come up with a strategic game plan quickly and spend more time with our guests.
Shift Swaps and Releases are so seamless. This is our favorite tool as it makes helping our team cover shifts extremely easy and painless. On the flip side it also makes staff who want more hours be able to find what is available in real time.
Clocking In and out can be a little slow. It takes longer to clock in then our previous method. Before we just had a card you swiped and it would clock you in. Took 2 seconds. Now with the Hotschdules method we use it take 30 seconds or so. Not a huge issue but it can add up if you have one computer and a line of employees waiting to clock in.
Time Cards. It does not allow you to view someones current time until the "punch" has ended. If the manager would like to check what time the employee clocked in/out from lunch they have to wait until the employee has clocked out for the day before the record is generated. As a shift lead you may send and employee to lunch but forget to note what time you sent them. Awhile passes and you feel like they should be back by now, so you want to go in and see what time they left for lunch but it does not show you that punch record because the employee is still "clocked in" they are just on their "Meal Break"
The ability to customize the restrictions for Clocking in and out. You can set it up so that employees can only clock in from a specific location, however if you have a manager who is allowed to work from home they would not be able to clock in without being at the same location as set in the software. It would be nice to see it able to be customized per user.
Some of the page layouts are clunky, especially the crew list page
LASSO Crew has a calendar feed that can link to gcal, iCal, etc but it’s very limited and doesn’t reliably update the calendar when the schedule changes.
I would like it to push automated clock-in/clock out alerts to my team. I can set these up manually by scheduling messages but it is a very cumbersome process.
6 Years of Experience provides me the insight on the upgrades and changes that HotSchedules has done to improve the experience of its users. There are so many features that we still have not started or used to the fullest, but we believe that we are currently getting a strong value out of the money that is paid for this product.
The app is perfectly useable, if a bit limited in its functionality. The website, which functions as the "back end" of the app, takes awhile to learn. I carve out at least an hour of training on it for every new supervisor and fully expect to spend the first several weeks they use it to send them little reminders about how and when to do things. I have a few (older) supervisors who just out-and-out refuse to engage with LASSO Crew, but I think that has more to do with their aversion to change than it does the overall usability of the website.
On rare occasions a phone call has been required to find the solution to a problem, the HotSchedules response staff have been helpful, courteous, and genuinely seem to care for their clients and take pride in what they do. The consistent development and fine tuning of the platform, interface, and mobile environment shows that this is not a program full of people who rest on their laurels.
LASSO Crew takes customer support very seriously. My dedicated account rep responds to any issues directly, usually within one business day. When a crew member has an in-app problem they can't resolve the technical support team responds very quickly to any issue, usually with clear instructions about how to resolve the issue.
I have not used any other Scheduling software for employees. As a campground manager in the summer season, we are using campground master for reservations. it is very similar in process to employee scheduling. the ability to the user of that program to set up their own parameters for time and reservations is something that would benefit the employee scheduling software.
We explored using IntelliEvent for crew management but their platform just wasn't as robust and they didn't seem to have timekeeping and payroll partners in place to support the back end. Other than that, I haven't found another platform or software that does what LASSO Crew does, it was built for the event industry, by the event industry, and that focus on audience really shows through.
Saving time on scheduling means our managers can focus more on guest experience, managing the floor and other areas that contribute to the success of our business.
We've had some complaints from crew members that the communications they receive through the LASSO Crew system feel less personal than when we used to handle everything through direct emails and text messages.
LASSO Crew branding is super prominent on every communication we send from the platform, I wish they would center the client/employer a bit more and not make the LASSO Crew logo and color scheme the most identifiable thing on the page/email/message.
