HotSchedules has changed the way our organization does business!
February 05, 2018

HotSchedules has changed the way our organization does business!

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with HotSchedules

HotSchedules is currently being using across our whole organization. We use HotSchedules for our employee scheduling as well as our time cards. Before Hotschedules we were using Excel spreadsheets to schedule employees, this is by far a better system. It allows for employees to take the responsibility into their own hands. It allows for the employee to set their availability on their own without a drawn-out process of contacting a manager and sitting down with them. It allows the employee to find coverage for their shift, again without intervention from a manager beyond approving the shift change through HotSchedules. The employee can also use it to request time off before we were using a Google Form that the manager would have to check for new submissions and move the information over to their Excel spreadsheet schedule.
  • All the information needed for your employees can all be found in one place. From the availability of an employee to their pay rate to their phone number. It's all just a click away. Before HotSchedules all of this information was kept in different places and the managers would need to open several documents and contact lists to find what they were looking for about a single employee.
  • Control over how indepth you use the product. The possibilities of this service are seemingly endless. However if you are solely looking for a specific feature HotSchedules offers you have the ability to soley use that feature. HotSchedules can simply schedule, or it can automatically schedule, or you can assign a specific job to a specific person on a specific day. For us, we have employees who are doing a specific job/task one week and then they are needed for a different job/task the next week. HotSchedules allowed us to narrow down our options starting with department, moving to location, moving down to the job they would be preforming for that scheduled day.
  • The ease of changing/releasing shifts. If an employee wants more hours they can go in and select shifts that are up for grabs or request to work on a specific day at a specific time. The opposite is also true. If an employee is worried they will have too many hours that week, they can release their shift and put it up for grabs by a different employee. And of course, all of this is fairly customizable to what you want your employees to have the ability to do, with or without your intervention and approval. In our case, if a shift lead releases a shift we only want other shift leads to be able to pick up the shift. HotSchedules allows us to do just that.
  • 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.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
Not kept informed
  • Excel
We have not used any other software that really compares to HotSchedules. Before Hotschedules we were using Excel to schedule all of our employees. It was confusing and a jumbled mess for each employee. Allowing the employee to see only their schedule has helped with confusion and overall tardiness around shifts. The managers still have the ability to see the full roster to see who's on their team that day, and the employee is able to clearly see their arrival and dismissal times.
It is very well suited for the restaurant industry, sometimes I think almost too much. If you are not in the restaurant industry it seems there are some features that you won't be able to/won't have a need to utilize. If HotSchedules can integrate into your point of sale it becomes even more useful and you can use it to analyze sales, etc.