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HotSchedules has become a reliable solution for businesses in various industries, including restaurants, amusement parks, resorts, and …
Overview
What is HotSchedules?
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 SchedulesThe scheduling and labor management software reduces the time it takes managers to create and…
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What is HotSchedules?
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…
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The Lightspeed Restaurant POS, from Lightspeed in Montreal, is a restaurant POS and management system designed to enable users to sync the user's menu with major food delivery apps, manage all orders and and reach new customers.
Product Demos
HotSchedules Demo: The Employee Experience
YouTube
HotSchedules Demo: Creating a New Schedule
YouTube
Demo of Red Book Keep
YouTube
HotSchedules Demo: Navigating the Schedule
YouTube
HotSchedules Demo: Employee Shift Release & Pick-Up
YouTube
HotSchedules Demo: Submitting Time-Off Requests
YouTube
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is HotSchedules?
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, availability, skill level, and certification compliance.
Work Schedule AppThe HotSchedules mobile app lets employees check their schedule, request time off, swap shifts, manage availability, and send messages. All shift requests require a manager's approval.
Forecasting and ReportingWhen integrated with the POS, the tool pulls time and attendance, sales and guest data into the system. The forecasting engine shows past sales trends, which makes it possible to build schedules with the right amount of labor. There are also over 40 reports.
Multi-Unit Store ViewThe Above Store Console provides reporting and visibility across stores, anywhere and at any time. It can be configured by region, state, country.
Bilingual App & SupportThe mobile app is available in English & Spanish. Employees can call into the AVS or Customer Support Center to get their schedule in English or Spanish - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
HotSchedules Features
- Supported: Online Scheduler
- Supported: Time-Off and Availbility
- Supported: Work Schedule Mobile App
- Supported: Scheduling Templates
- Supported: Employee/Staff Communication
- Supported: Sales and Labor
- Supported: Forecasting Engine
- Supported: Reporting
- Supported: Point-of-Sale Integration
- Supported: Centralized Communication
- Supported: SMS Messaging
HotSchedules Screenshots
HotSchedules Video
HotSchedules Competitors
- When I Work
- ScheduleFly
- Crunchtime
HotSchedules Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Mobile Web |
| Supported Languages | English, Spanish |
HotSchedules Downloadables
Frequently Asked Questions
When I Work and ScheduleFly are common alternatives for HotSchedules.
Reviewers rate Usability and Support Rating highest, with a score of 8.9.
The most common users of HotSchedules are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
HotSchedules has become a reliable solution for businesses in various industries, including restaurants, amusement parks, resorts, and retail establishments. Users have reported significant time savings and improved efficiency in scheduling processes. For example, a restaurant manager praises HotSchedules for reducing their scheduling time from over 3 hours to just 30 minutes per week. This software enables employees to cover their own shifts with approval, allowing for better shift management and flexibility. It facilitates communication among team members, ensuring constant checking and trading of shifts in an amusement park setting. Multiple departments at a resort rely on the platform to handle last-minute schedule changes, call-offs, and requests for added shifts.
HotSchedules assists food and beverage departments by providing easy access to availability, time off requests, and labor forecasting. This improves communication between staff and management. The software's user-friendly interface allows for generating and posting weekly schedules effortlessly. It also serves as a means of communication with staff members across multiple locations within a restaurant group.
Moreover, HotSchedules Train formerly Schoox is utilized for employee orientation and training purposes. The software not only helps with controlling labor costs but also offers features like sales forecasting and labor cost analysis. Across organizations, HotSchedules proves valuable by assisting in proper staffing needs and managing labor expenses effectively. In retail settings, the product streamlines employee scheduling while enabling them to view their schedules easily and make shift swaps when necessary.
In conclusion, HotSchedules is highly regarded for its ability to save time, improve communication, increase flexibility in scheduling processes, and provide various features that benefit different departments within organizations. Its broad range of applications makes it suitable for businesses of all sizes across multiple industries.
Users highly recommend signing up for HotSchedules and getting familiar with the application. They also suggest using the convenient mobile app and setting up email notifications for easy access to schedules and efficient shift swapping. Additionally, users highly recommend HotSchedules as a reliable solution for scheduling needs in various work environments. Overall, they find HotSchedules to be a valuable tool for controlling expenses, allocating labor, improving communication, and making positive changes within the service industry.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
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March 10, 2017
HotSchedules is king
All of our staff scheduling is done via HotSchedules. It's a great tool for staff to use to see their schedule anytime and allows for shift swapping and live updates.
- Organizing schedule for staff.
- Allowing for shift swapping.
- Seeing live updates as schedule is changed.
- User interface is not as intuitive as I'd like.
- Mobile app is lacking in functionality.
- Load times are a bit long.
March 10, 2017
HotSchedules Makes Restaurant Management Easy!
In 2013, we purchased and opened our second location. Our first location was already busy and our managers used the paper Redbook. We knew we would have a challenge to keep both locations communicating with several managers across three shifts. I originally discussed the online tool at the NRA show and we knew this is what we truly needed to keep everyone in the loop of what was going on. Our first need was that of communication but after being shown the other modules, we knew we could benefit from most of the others. Scheduling was a major issue. With over 60 FOH employees, the little stack of shift change slips was getting out of control. My managers could never look back and go back to paper scheduling. For the record, we do have a backup spreadsheet that still documents all shifts, in case the internet ever goes down. Our Employee Handbook specfically addresses employee accountability to only use HotSchedules as the way to communicate and manage shift changes. Even last minute requests are allowed as long as they are done through HotSchedules. On the communication side for my managers, we use the LogBook and the Staff Journal. Every shift manager is required to put in shift notes and communicate all issues. My kitchen managers use the LogBook to communicate to the FOH any new specials to run, inventory issues, or other kitchen information that all managers need to be aware of. We use the Staff Journal to keep track of employees who are tardy, have performance issues as well as noting positive things such as great customer feedback or going above and beyond. We have used the Staff Journal as evidence in Unemployment disputes on how and why an employee was terminated. It's all documented. We also use HotSchedules Train, which we still refer to as Schoox. Our employees first day is spent watching videos we have created for orientation.
- Communication Tool - if you are struggling with keeping your managers or staff apprised of every little detail, then HotSchedules covers your communication needs. You can check all of this information on your phone, so you're never away from the store!
- Scheduling - if you are constantly trying to manage a paper schedule with many requests off, shift exchanges and accountability of when they made the request, scheduling is beneficial as it leaves an electronic trail of when the employee made the request.
- Train/Schoox- holding your staff accountable to ensure that information is distributed evenly to everyone is a great feature of Schoox. You have a record that the employee watched a video and they take a test to ensure that they understand the knowledge.
- The Staff Journal is an all or nothing area. As the GM I have to use a separate tool to document things on my managers, as they can see everyone in HotSchedules. Having a way to not have a manager see other manager's Staff Journals would be extremely beneficial to me.
- Being able to cherry-pick individuals' access. Right now I have about 5 managers access levels. Some levels don't allow managers to make approvals. One stops the notifications from popping up because that got annoying.
- Having 2 logins for ASC. I have 2 logins, one to login to HotSchedules and one to go to ASC. But then somehow my ASC login, is now a staff member in scheduling. On occasion when I do work the floor, my staff cannot schedule me as my ASC login is not a scheduled person. It's all confusing and no one can fix it. Plus then it never shows on my calendar that I have to work.
- I would like for both locations to somehow be integrated where if we grant access to the other location to a specific employee, they can see the schedule for the other location and easily pickup shifts.
March 10, 2017
Love HotSchedules... Not their updates sometimes
Hotschedules is being used across the whole organization with each department writing their own schedules. The logbook feature is also being utilized multiple times per day as a way for management and owners to document the shifts. The biggest problem that it addresses is communication. We are able to instantly share vital information with employees and between management.
- The ease of use for the staff members.
- Documentation from the logbook has been the biggest advantage.
- The latest update for scheduling was extremely difficult to use. The older way was much easier for our chefs who aren't exactly tech savvy.
- The template system never really worked for us as there were too many outside factors effecting a cookie cutter schedule.
March 06, 2017
Scheduling Nirvana
We use Hotschedules for both our locations for all scheduling and messaging needs across the company. It gives our staff the capability to communicate with our managers and vice versa. It gives them the ability to coordinate swapping shifts in a manner that is always documented so that nothing slips through the cracks.
- Hotschedules messaging service works like an email service for us to be able to communicate with one individual, a department or the entire staff. It gives us the ability to send out important information to our 400+ employees at each location.
- The ability for employees to switch around their own shifts without having to track down a manager and have them change the schedule saves a tremendous amount of time and makes it very efficient.
- The rosters and app are very helpful to seeing who is on the shift and how many hours they are projected and being able to call the employee directly from the app.
- How the scheduling piece changed a few months ago makes it more difficult to make a schedule. This change caused the managers to have to spend more time making their schedules.
March 06, 2017
Feeling Blah
[It's being used] across the company by all managers and employees. No real issues, but I do feel there are products out there with the same or better tools that might be less expensive.
- Scheduling of employees
- Projections and forecasting
- Daily review of staffing levels
- Forecasting area is confusing
- Delete areas that are used to eliminate clutter
- Creating grids (for holidays for example) is difficult
March 03, 2017
It's Great
Hotschedules is used to make all the schedules in our restaurant. It makes it very easy to control labor. Also makes it very easy to make sure all employees have their schedule.
- Communication with Staff
- Control Labor
- Easy access for employees to get their schedules
- I wish the AM shift was separate from the PM shift per employee.
- It should show you what time the employee requested off. This way if you have 2 employees who requested off the same day and you can only give one of them off, then it makes it easier for you to decide who gets the day off.
March 03, 2017
Few years of HotSchedules, an honest opinion.
We use it for scheduling labor and to provide labor cost analysis as well as sales projecting/forecasting. Obviously, it helps the restaurant manage schedules - good tool for helping us identify those who did not take breaks with the SSC report. We print out rosters daily to help us plan and assign staff accordingly.
- Scheduling, although I am not a fan of the update. Different and took some getting used to.
- Good for managing labor as in identifying costs and helping report hours worked - projected vs. actual.
- If team buys the app it's a great tool for communicating with staff - in-app messaging and broadcast messages.
- The cost of the app - should be free with limited functions as many of our staff do not wish to buy an app.
- Scheduler - new update with the auto posting changes is a bit annoying. Liked having a draft in place and revisiting several times before final post.
- The recruiting part - should be open to people outside of hotschedules.
March 03, 2017
Love it.
HotSchedules is an incredible scheduling system that helps keep communication at the forefront of the company. From other standpoints, it also greatly helps with payroll; it can be linked with the POS system to make sure employees are not clocking in too early or too late. I recommend the system to anybody with employees.
- Linking with POS to keep an eye on payroll.
- Built in messaging system.
- Easy to use and navigate.
- It would be nice to have the ability to overwrite approved time off. Things change, and staff can work partial.
March 01, 2017
Hot Hot HotSchedules
HotSchedules is used to staff the entire stadium by area, stand and job position.
- As a stadium it gives us instant connection and ability to adjust staffing on good or bad weather days.
- We also have the payroll portion of hotschedules which allows us to control early clock-ins in a very large facility plus it made payroll a 3 click process.
- Scheduling can be done as if you were scheduling 10 different locations. Which in a stadium we are. It's easy.
- Communication between staff and overall year round has helped with annual retention rates. I have a 90 % return season to season for staffing.
- Ability to add photos and attach videos to messaging would be great. I send out a refresher on register use on every season prior to our customer service training schedule.
- Combine with a partner and combine liquor and food training that automatically adds that to the employee's profile when completed. And notify the employer when it is due.
- Preferred old scheduling of cut and paste into scheduling and not having to hit a letter to paste a shift into place.
March 01, 2017
HotSchedules makes our staff happy!
We are a single location independent restaurant. HotSchedules is being used for scheduling all of our hourly staff at our coffee shop. It addresses a couple of scheduling problems that we used to face before using HotSchedules. First, communication of the schedule. It puts the current, up-to-date schedule in all of my staffs' hands, all the time with access from anywhere. It creates ownership/responsibility of their own schedules and making changes to the schedule by allowing for messaging, swapping, releasing and picking up shifts with ease of communication from anywhere. It also gives me the ability to quickly monitor and create new schedules with tools for analysis.
- End user functionality, streamlined app for staff to access their schedules, communication with each other, and request changes.
- Adapt to feedback. The new release of the scheduler is amazing. Added features that I always wished were there and now are easy to access and toggle between.
- Additional tools for analysis. Labor and sales data analysis is very helpful!
- Would love to see them integrate with more POS companies. We just switched from Aloha to Toast. (Of course I want them to integrate with the company we are using!).
- A small thing, but it would be really amazing if staff had the ability to split their shifts and release part of their shift for pick up, like the first hour, or last hour!
- When the system is down, there is no way to access the schedule at all. Doesn't happen often, but would be great if there was some kind of back up where we could log in to our restaurant and see a roster report of the most recently updated copy before there was a glitch in the system.
March 01, 2017
HotSchedules is HOT
It facilitates the scheduling for the restaurant and allows managers to focus on managing rather than solving shift issues.
- Use historical data to facilitate schedule writing
- Allows for ease of labor tracking
- Simplified tool for scheduling
- Reports could be explained better
February 27, 2017
Simple, Quick Scheduling
I use hotschedules to schedule 3 store locations with employees who float from store to store. It saves a lot of time to be able to schedule all 3 stores in one place as well as having all employees with access to schedules, requests for time off and trading shifts. Just log in and it is all there.
- Allows me to catch scheduled overtime immediately
- Eliminates scheduling employees for time previously approved off
- I can check who is where anytime, anywhere on the app
- Wish I could work on schedules on the phone app
February 27, 2017
HotSchedules, our best tool!!!
We use most of what it has to offer. GoHire for onboarding, interviewing, recruiting, etc., and we also use it for all scheduling and labor management. We also use the messaging feature quite a bit. All of our employees are reimbursed for the cost of the app as well so we know they use it. Main problem it addresses is making sure the building is staffed properly. We use the forecasting and projections a lot which really helps us manage our labor.
- I really like the forecasting, we only started using this a few months ago but I already see the difference.
- Also like how easy it is to communicate with your staff through the messaging app.
- I also like how easy a manager can manage shift changes and see staffing levels at any time anywhere.
- The templates are a great help as well.
- The assessments on gohire could be a bit more efficient, they take a long time.
- Would like to have the onboarding be a little easier.
- The lack of training received when signing up, constant follow up with new products.
February 24, 2017
HotSchedules Review
[It's] used across the whole organization by our ops teams for all scheduling and online hiring purposes.
- User-friendly - easy to use, great copy and paste features, short cuts to other functions while using scheduling functions.
- Web-based - mobile integration, shift swap/change approvals done electronically, can access the program anywhere.
- Labor and sales reporting, labor budgeting/forecasting.
- Program seems to have issues that prohibit access more often than I'd like.
- No emergency back up plan when rosters aren't available.
- Doesn't export the email addresses from Aloha into HotSchedules for new hires.
February 24, 2017
HotShot HotSchedules! Gold Standard.
As a general manager for a small business, HotSchedules provides me with critically important tools that allow me to maximize my labor cost potential across my entire business. Their industry leading technology allows my entire team to identify areas of opportunity through in depth analysis of each department. Not only has this allowed us to make drastic improvements to our bottom line but, the value of having these tools to help develop newer members of my team is simply invaluable.
- The use of schedule templates and the schedule creator are so user-friendly that they have taken a complex task and made it all doable in a very short amount of time. After creating thoughtful templates and casting accurate sales projections the schedule writing process has saved my team countless hours of time to be more productive elsewhere.
- Broadcast messaging is a wonderful way for my leadership team to get important messages out to the entire team at a moment's notice and can rest assured that everyone will receive it.
- The labor pro forma by week day view is a highly effective way to view daily labor performance and stay proactive on meeting labor targets.
- It would be nice if the schedule creator tab for labor budgeting contained projected sales that were manually adjusted and not just generated forecasts.
- The ability to track when and who created or made adjustments to schedule templates would be huge!
February 24, 2017
HotSchedules - Helpful for a Busy Restaurant!
We use HotSchedules to schedule our front of house staff at a busy restaurant. We are open 7 days/week for AM and PM services and needed a reliable and user-friendly scheduling program. We used to write our schedules in an old-school Excel layout and are so glad to have changed! Employees love the ease and convenience of the phone app, and the managers appreciate the quick and effective tech support that HotSchedules provides.
- Customer Service - Easy to contact, and they follow through with your requests and get back to you once the issue is resolved.
- The app is awesome! Makes it very easy for staff to release and pick up shifts.
- Some of the integration issues can be challenging with our Micros system. Detailed customer service from staff who are experts in Micros would be helpful.
- It would be helpful to have a way for the staff to be able to review the management schedule. As of now, we had to add every manager to every schedule in order for staff to see their schedule which is a hassle.
February 22, 2017
HotSchedules is a true benefit for restaurants!
I'm head of operations over 3 restaurants and all locations use HotSchedules. It is used primarily for scheduling of staff and communicating directly with staff, although the integration with the POS system (Aloha) allows scheduling managers to look at sales trends without being on the actual POS terminal. It addresses problems with staff who request coverage or swaps and it helps to keep the open door policy together with direct communication to the managers of the location.
- Provides an easy way for staff to receive schedules.
- Provides an efficient way for staff to find coverage for shifts, with multiple ways to accomplish this (mobile app, web app, telephone).
- Keeps an accurate account of employee records through the Log Book.
- Managers receive a lot of sales data to help create schedules.
- Direct line of communication from staff to management.
- Lacks the ability to prevent a single staff member from requesting a particular set of time off.
February 20, 2017
Keep HotSchedules Hot
Our entire property uses HotSchedules. We use it for front desk, housekeeping, engineering, kitchen staff, restaurant staff, and managers. It makes it easier to look up schedules instantly, rather than walking to a specific department to find out who is working. It is also helpful when staff can make their requests online, instead of having a lot of paper laying around offices. It helps organize too when the requests were put in from the staff so that in the event there are multiple requests off, we can then look to see who put in [a request] first.
- Different job positions within one department makes it easy to schedule.
- Contact information for fellow employees and managers are readily available, allowing there to be no excuse for call ins without notification.
- Putting an employee on different schedules is easy as well, if they are working within two or more departments. Everything is accessible is one place.
- Having to post after a change is made is frustrating, sometimes we are just looking at something, and don't want to save the changes.
February 17, 2017
Great tool for the industry
It is used across the board. It addressed availability issues as well as miscommunications.
- ACM management helps plan out the year on a weekly basis
- Ease of access from home or cell phone so you can work anywhere or check schedules
- Alerts for schedules posted so you don't have to check all the time
- [Don't] charge for app so it doesn't turn people away from using it
February 17, 2017
Superior Scheduler!
HotSchedules is implemented in our management of receptionist/assistants/front desk supervisors and inventory managers. This allows for ease of scheduling employees and allowing them to check and switch schedules. Communication between employees has also increased since they are allowed to message each other when they are away from their actual jobs.
- Allow receptionist/assistants to easily swap shifts
- Managers have a much easier time scheduling staff members
- Managers are able to hold employees accountable for shifts, with time stamping and the ability to see when a message was opened
February 16, 2017
HotSchedules Review
We use HotSchedules to coordinate scheduling for our roughly 40 employees. It allows us to schedule far in advance which allows our staff to manage their schedule constraints (vacation, appointments, etc.) far in advance as well.
- It gives us convenient visibility into how many hours each employee is scheduled to work each week. This allows us to avoid overtime when employees are swapping shifts.
- It allows employees to swap shifts without input needed from a manager. Managers are still required to approve changes.
- It allows everyone to see their schedule on their phones in real time instead of referencing a paper schedule in a particular location.
- Every now and again it seems like a shift I posted goes missing. It's very possible this is user error but I'm very diligent when I'm scheduling and it surprises me when this happens.
- I wish I could send a mass text to all people with a particular job. For example, I book a party and I want to let all our servers know there is a party available for them to pick up.
- I used to not like the functionality of the old scheduler (it was tedious and cumbersome to use...still better than a paper solution) but the new scheduler is awesome.
February 15, 2017
A great tool for restaurants
Our restaurant group uses HotSchedules for the scheduling of our staff. All front of house restaurant staff use it for their scheduling: to view schedules, to swap schedules, to make time-off requests, to change their availability, and to use the messaging features in order to reach out to management or other staff. It allows employees to manage a lot of their own schedules while management can still have the power to approve or reject requests.
- Useful features all in one, such as allowing employees to adjust their availability, request off, or message other staff and/or managers. It makes it a useful tool for employees to use.
- Easy to maneuver website and phone app, so that even our non tech-savvy employees are able to use it.
- Easy for our managers to use and pull up daily schedules of front and back of house staff, allowing them to view today's staff at a glance.
- Some features seem to be harder to find on the phone app than on the website. For our employees who use mainly one or the other, sometimes it can be hard for them to find certain functions.
February 14, 2017
HotSchedules Rocks!
[It's] used across our whole organization for onboarding, scheduling, training, and communication.
- Scheduling/managing shift trades and requests
- Digital Logbook
- Online training
- Better integration with digital onboarding and POS system
February 14, 2017
HotSchedules helps!
Our company uses HotSchedules for staff training, scheduling and manager notes. Hotschedules is used across the whole organization and helps with keeping schedules accessible to all employees from anywhere. Manager logs help with communication between management and ownership with regards to daily events, sales, and operations.
- Scheduling
- Mobile Application
- Manager log
- We could use one log-in for each person with choice of multiple locations' schedules.
February 13, 2017
Can't live without HotSchedules
We use HotSchedules to schedule all our FOH and BOH staff, as well as our managers. It allows our team members to switch shifts, pick up shifts, and send messages. I also use it to send group messages about important specials, menu changes, reminders, meetings, etc. All of our restaurants use HotSchedules and now we can't live without it.
- It makes scheduling a complicated FOH team -- many of whom are cross-trained in multiple departments and appear on several schedules -- VERY easy, because I can see when they're scheduled already elsewhere. I also love not having to keep manual track of requests for time off from employees, and I don't remember everyone's individual availability.
- We've just started integrating HotSchedules with our Aloha POS system and it's made forecasting and budgeting much easier. Even our chefs -- who claim they are terrible with computers -- feel comfortable using it to schedule with labor forecasts in mind.
- I like being able to send messages to my entire team, and my team members all get the HotSchedules app and get notifications on their cell phones when they have new messages, so it's much more convenient than email.
- The new HotSchedules update has some bugs with the scheduling app. Sometimes when you try to drag a shift into place, the entire screen scrolls up much too quickly, especially if you're just doing it on a small laptop screen... the small area where shifts appear should be larger.
- Some compatibility issues with different internet browsers. I switch back and forth between Safari and Firefox, and sometimes functionality works better in one vs. the other.