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,…
$2
per month per employee
Worksuite
Score 5.4 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Worksuite (formerly Shortlist) is designed to help companies find and manage their complete external workforce (freelancers, contractors, and vendors) by providing a single platform to source, onboard, manage, review/rate and pay them.
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.
We haven't found another system that can do all that Shortlist can do (payments, tax paperwork, profile management, project management, on-boarding, etc...) but it doesn't mean we always love using Shortlist. Shortlist is cumbersome to work in and requires LOTS of redundant clicking. Something as simple as being able to right-click to open on any profile/page/account/link would save hours in a week where as now to get to two side-by-side items on some lists, you have to click back a page, re-load, and scroll down to select the next option. I appreciate that Shortlist manages all the tax paperwork and has created for us a on-boarding system that flows nicely and allows multiple team members to manage their piece of the process.
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.
Shortlist only allows for minor customizations to their platform. It would be great if each company could create their own view/usage set for the system.
The help chat box needs some work for sure. It takes days for someone to respond if they ever respond and often there is nothing they can do to remedy the issue at hand.
Payments should be able to be made every day, not just on Fridays.
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.
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.
30-40% of the time there is no response when you contact the chat/help feature. 30-40% of the time if they do respond, it is to say they can't do anything about the issue. Maybe 20% of the time the chat is actually helpful, but that seems like a high estimate when I think about my experience asking for support.
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've never found another platform that does exactly what Shortlist does in terms of payments, taxes, project management, and on-boarding. We use other sites to source our new vendors (like Indeed, craigslist, etc...) but ultimately we direct all those applicants to our onboarding in Shortlist. I wish some of the more "minor" platform issues we've had over the last year were fixed sooner (or fixed at all) but it does the job!
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.
