Ten years ago, Ray Pawlikowski and David Cantu debuted their HotSchedules online scheduling solution for the restaurant industry. Today, the company has evolved into a labor management solutions provider featuring a full range of tools for restaurants to control labor costs and foster better communication and employee satisfaction.
The company's core product remains its scheduling solution, allowing employees to easily gain access to their schedules and managers to quickly post and edit employee schedules via convenient online access. Innovations over the last decade have evolved the solution into a line of products that improve enterprise-to-employee communication as well as training.
"Not only can HotSchedules customers more conveniently create and check their weekly schedules, but they can also more accurately track and analyze labor and control overtime expenses," said Ray Pawlikowski, president and CEO, HotSchedules, in a news release. "Employee scheduling is a core part of our offerings, but our capabilities go far beyond just that."
Darrin Heisey, director of IT for Sonny's BBQ, said the company's solutions have been an instrumental tool for operations at the limited-service restaurant.
"It provides our team members with easy access to schedules and instant updates, and enables team members to change or pick-up shifts with ease," Heisey said. "Additionally, it has allowed our executive staff to directly communicate with those on the frontlines easily and efficiently."
Casual dining chain P.F. Chang's China Bistro, HotSchedules' first client, saw similar improvements as well as reduced turnover and increased sales per labor hour after implementing the HotSchedules solution. At a workshop session at the recent People Report Workforce Symposium Summer Camp, Peggy Rubenzer, vice president of training and development for P.F. Chang's, explained how the solution enabled the company to "laser focus" on labor projection and smart scheduling. After implementing the solution and interfacing with the point-of-sale-system at all P.F. Chang stores, the company says sales per labor hour increase from $80 to $115.
As effective as the scheduling solution is, the company has seen additional return on investment using it as a communications vehicle for emergency, general, training and HR updates.
"The value is in the scheduling," she said. "But these other pieces are things people don't think about — communication, employee recognition, training. The value of the communication tool is amazing."
Rubenzer said the communications tool allows the company to connect with its hourly employees in a way that the "messages don't get diluted by going through the various levels of managers."
For training updates, P.F. Chang's posts instructions related to operational or menu changes, and the page is viewed immediately upon employee log in. The solution also allows for video uploads and the tracking of views.
The company also uses the solution for employee recognition, posting customer comments for exceptional service or photos of top-performing teams.
HotSchedules continues to innovate and improve its solutions. To better cater to the lifestyle of its Generation-Y user-base, HotSchedules has recently expanded its external communications to various social media outlets, including a company blog, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and a Facebook page.
As part of the 10th anniversary celebration, HotSchedules is hosting a contest through Facebook — 10,000 Facebook Fans by 10/10/10 — to encourage HotSchedules users to "Like" HotSchedules on Facebook and provide the company with valuable feedback on how HotSchedules can continue to improve its products and service.
