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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
(151-167 of 167)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
February 13, 2017
HotSchedules Helped our Business Get on Track
HotSchedules was implemented in our 2015 season and rolled over to our 2016 season. During our 2015 season, it was utilized by the majority of our large and high-volume restaurant. By 2016 our entire company was online and we began using more aspects of the program. This helps us to pull together a comprehensive list of who is scheduled to work and at what labor cost to us any given day is scheduled for. It is very helpful for us when making decisions to cut the labor cost in reaction to volume. It is also fantastic at communicating our scheduling needs to our employees. It is truly a Win/Win situation for everyone.
- Keep everyone in the management team involved in the daily labor spend.
- Connect all users in one system of communication.
- Assist in the planning and creating of staffing pairs and scheduling based on volume.
- Helps with accountability and tracking of written employee counseling events.
- There are some confusing aspects of the POS/HotSchedules integration that could be improved.
- The double verification aspect needed for on-boarding can be a deterrent for some employee users.
- The reporting tab is great but takes some time to pull the individual reports. Response time could be improved.
February 13, 2017
Prepared Meals Retailer Review
Hotschedules is being used throughout our retail store locations (13). It allows us to not only release/post a schedule for our team members but more so, for management to be able to better manage labor hours. Most team members also use the app to more easily view their schedules/make swaps etc.
- Ease in creating a schedule, being able to copy a schedule and modify
- Ability to see labor hours broken by down by day
- Ability to use forecast
- Notifications once a schedule is posted or changes are made
- Ease of creating a team member and amount of information that can be captured
- Webinars
- Would like help in using forecasting tool
- Need to learn more about labor analysis
- Would like to utilize the reporting feature more
February 13, 2017
Love the labor saving
We use HotSchedules for all locations and across all departments. We love all the features and use the logbook daily. Setting forecasts and labor budgets help us see where our problem areas are, and the reports make it easy to manage the roster. We like how it stores valuable information, like time off requests, availability, contact information, sales (with integrated version), and much more.
- Digital logbook - allows for all management to be aware of the happening of each shift, and can be used in court if needed.
- Scheduling templates - they make it easy to create and use different templates depending on the season and forecasted sales.
- Integration with REVEL.
- Account managing - ever since we lost Nathan Dale as our account manager, I have no idea who is responsible for answering my questions, and have to contact the regular customer care every time I have a question.
February 13, 2017
Efficient
We use Hotschedules for both front of house and back of house scheduling. It helps with making sure the staff know their schedules and are updated immediately when there are any changes made. Everything is online so I can approve or deny shift swap requests with my mobile phone. I can also look up my staff's phone numbers to call them if they don't show up to work.
- They have a mobile app for most functions on the go
- Easy to use
- Great communication tool to send messages to staff
- It would be great if I could make changes to the schedule with the mobile app.
- Sometimes [there are] glitches when changing through days on the roster screen in the app.
- Loads slow sometimes.
February 13, 2017
Online scheduling is no longer a novelty but a necessity
[It is being used for] one location of a restaurant group with 4 locations, growing to 6 locations in 2017. It streamlines the scheduling process for the management team and helps with shift trades and other on the fly shift changes. It is also used for forecasting of labor costs. We are looking to roll out in our new locations.
- Schedule assignment
- Forecasting labor costs
- Shift trades
- Easier user interface
- Better app
- Logbook/shift notes
February 10, 2017
HotSchedules makes sure everything is running cool.
It is being used across our whole organization. It does help address budgeting concerns, but it mostly helps with making sure that all our employees can see their schedules and communicate with each other about any scheduling challenges.
- It allows everyone to see their schedule on their phones as soon as it's posted.
- I can easily review staffing for all positions at both stores easily from my phone.
- Servers can easily communicate with each other about getting shifts swapped.
- The app, it would be great if it was free. Our staff often live paycheck to paycheck and getting them all to use the app is a challenge.
- Issues with the server going down. The system needs to be more stable.
- Better screen optimization on a computer. It's hard to make the schedule unless you are working on a desktop with any screen smaller than 20 inches.
February 10, 2017
Hotschedules Review
We use hotschedules for weekly staff scheduling in our retail stores as well as our culinary center.
- Ability to see scheduled hours by team member as well as by day/week
- Ability to schedule a team member to work in a specific location
- Mobile app makes it very easy to review schedules
- If using the schedule to block off time during a shift, the hours are counted twice. For example, if I schedule someone to work 11a-7p and want to block off 12p-1p for a meeting, it would count as 9 hours.
- Team member pay rates are visible to all users. Inability to track/forecast pay.
February 10, 2017
HotSchedules Review
We currently operate a single restaurant in Davidson, North Carolina. HotSchedules is used to schedule all employees from dishwasher to managers in our operation. HotSchedules has provided a platform that is fluid and ever changing, our staff has changing and developing needs in terms of daily availability. Hotschedules allows us to make on the fly changes to daily rosters. We have done away with the antiquated paper and Excel based schedules of the past.
- Costing of schedules is immediate, imported pay rates from POS system allows real time schedule costing for budgeting purposes.
- HotSchedules is fast to publish schedules to staff via personal cell phones and email platforms. As soon as we publish the schedules they are live.
- Hotschedules allows an efficient method to swap, drop, and trade shifts for staff. Also gives managers the ability to approve or decline based on pre-set criteria.
- Generating reports is clunky. Roster reports should be part of the daily plate or dashboard.
- New views while writing schedules are not as ideal and are harder to navigate.
We use HotSchedules to communicate with our staff, make schedules, coordinate shift changes and time-off. All four of our locations currently use HotSchedules! Allowing qualified staff to be scheduled faster, setting appropriate staffing levels based on expected business is much easier and faster. Making an effective, and efficient schedule is easy.
- Communicating with staff, quickly and clearly
- Communicating with staff in advance about upcoming specials and sales points is super easy
- The "paper trail" that HS provides is extremely helpfull in all aspects of scheduling and time off.
- I love that HS is ever evolving. The software developers are constantly taking our feed back and making effective changes that work intuitively with our scheduling.
- I would like to have the schedules separate. If one user is in the schedular tab at the same time as another user, one cannot move out of the schedule without "posting" said schedule. It causes some kind of glitch and the scheduler doesn't work properly. Only one user needs to be able to make changes to a schedule at a time.
- HS has gotten better at letting users know the intended purpose or best practice for an intended task, such as the request /time off functions. This information wasn't always conveyed previously, therefore limitations were exposed that could have been avoided.
February 03, 2017
HotSchedules is the bomb.com
We use HotSchedules across our whole organization. It is great with communicating each individual person's schedule, allows easy communication between co-workers, and allows our managers, who don't often see each other, the ability to communicate vital information about the day and staff. We recently started using HotSchedules train and it has been phenomenal with having a consistent program in place while also allowing us to individualize training by department.
- HotSchedules is very user friendly. We have staff ages 14-80 and every one in between. Not one person has difficulty using this program.
- HotSchedules reporting gives great insight to help keep our company's labor under control.
- HotSchedules Logbook is a great way to communicate with managers store-wide. We track every thing that happens in the same place that we all have way access to. Way less things get missed this way!
- I think as a manager, you should be able to assign to-dos to anyone on the organization and not just people on your schedule or job level.
February 03, 2017
Killing the scheduling game!
Hotschedules is currently used by our restaurant group for scheduling all staff. We use the logbook notes for communication between management from shift to shift. We use staff journal notes for individual employee logs of development and progressive discipline. We also use it for notification of employee reviews, staff messaging, shift swapping, labor cards and shift pre-shift notes.
- Efficient scheduling
- Efficient logging of employee progress
- Efficient communication between management
- The new scheduling update is a little more difficult than the previous
- Forecasting could be more user-friendly
It is being used by a department, though I tout its virtues often. We really like it for its accessibility by all layers of our department. Additionally, it can be used for blast emails, which is hugely useful when emergencies in scheduling arise or sudden changes need to be made. I have quite a few employees who get four weeks of vacation a year, many of them in the same restaurant and hotschedules makes it easy to determine what times are available for them.
- The requesting off option: it makes it easy to keep track of who is already approved and what slots are avaible. The new calendar option has improved this even more.
- The customer service this company offers is one of my favorite things. Everyone is always super nice, very helpful and quick to find someone to answer your questions if they cannot. They are fast, efficient and patient. Very good at coaching and walkthroughs with new products.
- The website and the app are easy to navigate.
- I love the new interface of the scheduling portion. You can cut and paste, you can do numerous schedules from just one page if you wish and it is easy to do multiple shifts for one person at one time. Love it.
- This is a small glitch but irritating: when a person is requesting time off, it only has two options: a) unpaid time off and b) request to work. This mixes my employees up who are trying to request paid time off. I don't know why they need to pick anything at all since they can put the "why" in their comments section.
February 03, 2017
Solid Scheduling Plus More
We use HotSchedules across our entire organization. It helps us with employee scheduling, ACA compliance, training and soon we'll be using it for inventory.
- Keeping track of ACA employee compliance.
- Allows managers to easily reach employees by using the mobile app.
- Training videos, ongoing employee training.
- Allowing admin to add a photo of the employee so we can easily identify all our staff in our organization. A name and a face is important!
- Allow certification reminders to go to select individuals depending upon the certification.
- ACA compliance, ability to adjust how the measure period is used. If an employee changes from part time to full time status (or vice versa) the measurement period shows hours worked as out of compliance.
- I've been trying to organize the HotSchedules team to present to our independent restaurant association. HotSchedules has the potential to add many more users in our county but they've been negligent in following through after an initial conversation with our rep. It's been surprising to me that they're not interested in pursuing more restaurant users.
February 01, 2017
HotSchedules: Restaurant Scheduling Made Easy
We use HotSchedules for all of our FOH scheduling. We also use it as our main method of communication between management and employees. It is the best scheduling software out there.
- Maintenance of schedules regarding shift trades and switches with mandatory management approval.
- Messages feature is the best and most convenient method of communication between managers and employees.
- Templates make scheduling quick and easy week to week. No starting from scratch every time.
- Shift trades, picking up shifts, easy communication from management to employees and easy template set up for easy scheduling each week.
- Being able to block days by schedule, not a blanket block on everyone.
- Client ability to change names of schedules and jobs, not set by HotSchedules.
- Do not allow someone to even attempt to pick up shift if there is time conflict. (If someone is scheduled 12pm to 8pm they should not be able to try to pick up a shift that is 4pm to 11pm.)
February 01, 2017
HotSchedules... taking the pain out of scheduling.
Currently, we are using hotschedules to coordinate the schedule for our F&B staff in the clubhouse. There are over 50 employees on the system and it has been invaluable to our organization. It has made schedule updates, communication and the scheduling process easier and more effective.
- Ease of scheduling multiple areas.
- Easy access to employee numbers and schedules.
- I like to see the roster on my phone.
- Unavailable days should be "grayed out" or blocked somehow. The wording inside the square is too dim and easy to override.
- Too many steps to preview the schedule.
- You have to re-log in too often.
- Templates should be easier to set up.
- It doesn't sync with our current POS (Clubsoft) so we miss out on a lot (!) of important features.
- Entering sales is TOO cumbersome.
February 01, 2017
Strongly recommend HotSchedules
I love HotSchedules. It allows for schedules to be accessed from anywhere and makes shift changes, messaging, and contacting employees easy and all in one place. I've used it for over 6 years now and it's never let me down.
- Shift changes
- Broadcast messaging
- Paperless hiring
- Blocked requests
- Being able to make changes to the schedule from the app would be nice
January 31, 2017
I've used HotSchedules for 10 years. Here are my thoughts!
We used hotschedules for scheduling purposes by the food & beverage department at our country club. We have a fine dining, casual dining, men's locker room dining, and banquet operations team that all get their schedules from HotSchedules. We wanted to have an easily accessible option for staff to keep up to date on their schedule and to notify them of any changes.
- I like the template tool for scheduling. When running a restaurant, you often want to have a similar number of servers scheduled on a week by week basis and the templates made scheduling much easier. It also helped with forecasting labor for budgets.
- I think the digital log book is a wonderful tool that when used appropriately can be a game changer for management communication. Its a great place to keep track of daily operations as well as any staffing issues that occur.
- Obviously, having an app that makes accessing schedules, requesting off, logging notes, sending messages, etc, makes HotSchedules much more powerful. It is easy to use, and has all the tools needed at your fingertip.
- One of the minor things that I found many staff complained about was the charge for the App. Although $3 doesn't seem like a big deal, many of our staff do not even have a credit card to be able to purchase apps. It seems like the cost for the app could easily be folded into the monthly charge for services to not add that burden to the staff.
- I think the time off request tool is not very user friendly and confuses a lot of people. I definitely think it could be fixed to make it easier to understand and easier to complete.
- Although the scheduling works great when you use templates, manually entering in shifts is a big ordeal. I wish that was an option that was easier.