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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Jolt
Score 9.5 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Jolt is a task and workforce management, with time & attendance, remote (selfie) login, scheduling, and simple tasking tools, from the company of the same name in Provo, Utah; useful for small teams that could leverage frequent communication.
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Pricing
HotSchedules
Jolt
Editions & Modules
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Offerings
Pricing Offerings
HotSchedules
Jolt
Free Trial
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
HotSchedules
Jolt
Considered Both Products
HotSchedules
Verified User
Director
Chose HotSchedules
Jolt has features I wish HotSchedules had, specifically labor management. Currently with HotSchedules, leaders have to use a separate spreadsheet to track labor for the week so that they can plan around that. However, other than this, HotSchedules seems easier for the employees …
I have only used the scheduling tool provided by Chick-fil-A. I chose HotSchedules because at the time, I knew I needed something with more functionality than what the Chick-fil-A tool provided. My best guess at that was that Chick-fil-A was going to go with HotSchedules, and …
These are all schedulers I've used in the past, and while none of them have too many flaws, they simply don't have all of the other functions of Jolt. Jolt bundles in so much more than the competitors.
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.
There is no better way for Cleaning & Maintenance Lists. The follow-up is automatic, it is user-friendly for leaders, and easy to update as needs change.
I am excited for the new updates coming out that will help our new hire training!
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.
Time management and tracking of daily employee productivity.
Allows for instructional data to be added to all our checklists, audits, etc to provide hands on training all the time!
Ease of use. It's a breeze to create new lists and use the lists already created
Mobility- my staff is on the go and being able to grab an iPad at the beginning of their shift and take it with them through the day completing tasks and allowing for more autonomy in our work force
Versatile. Can be use for simple list down to more complex guides and checklists with calculations and scoring.
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.
We would love to see a "favorites" icon that can be enabled for any label. We have dozens of labels specific to products/processes that are grouped within a multitude of categories. If one is not familiar with which category a label is stored, it requires the use of the search function in Jolt (which is definitely a nice feature and great time saver). However, we were able to create a category called "favorites" and duplicated our frequently used labels into this location for ease of access.
Jolt is very user friendly and offers a lot of solutions to my companies needs. If it offered a Payroll piece and a Point of Sale piece it would make it a complete system that would solve 99% of my companies needs.
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 system itself is very user friendly and every one of our team members is able to use it easily. The only difficulty that we have occasionally run into is a lack of connectivity between the Bluetooth printer and the iPAD. There are only two or three of us on staff that are well versed enough with the product to be able to fix it when there is this kind of issue.
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.
When I have had questions or needed technical support, I have received a very prompt response to my emails. The answers are concise and if there are instructions they are easy to follow and implement. All interactions I have had with the Jolt team have been a very positive experience.
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.
Jolt provides a full house of solutions. I would have to go with at least two of the other companies to capture all the solutions I was looking for. Jolt gave me all of it. I also want to be clear that other companies promised solutions that they hadn't built out yet. Jolt is upfront and honest about things they are working on, but they won't sell them to you as a means to get you in, only to disappoint you. I have a lot of respect for that.
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.
Food safety processes have reduced significant amount of time managing.
Cleanliness- Saved some labor dollars here by implementing a more consistent process. Added some training videos on cleanliness to help give a clear message of the expectation.
Recipe Management- We have saved thousands on having the ability to upload live recipes and be global rather than having the paper copies of recipes laying around and possibly not being up to date.
