Schedulefly takes pain out of shift scheduling

Schedulefly was recently featured in Nation's Restaurant News - the news leader of the food service industry. We were thrilled to see our online employee scheduling software highlighted on the front cover! Check out the article here...

Schedulefly Launches Twitter Integration

Schedulefly users can now post updates to their Twitter account while checking their work schedule, posting messages or trading shifts. More and more people are using Schedulefly on a daily basis to connect with their co-workers for various reasons. We thought that the Twitter question "what are you doing?" was a good question to ask Schedulefly users while they are logged in - since they are often taking some action or learning something that directly or indirectly affects those around them....

A couple of examples:

1. You’re Requesting Time Off: Drop a tweet to let Mom, Dad, big brother and little sister know that you just asked off for the family beach vacation - WELL in advance. They can now send the deposit and start planning!

2. You’re Picking up a Shift: It's Friday morning and you just picked up a Friday night shift. Drop a tweet to your friends to let them know you'll be arriving fashionably late to the party that night....but with cash in your pocket!

3. You’re Reading a Message on the Company Message Board: You just read a message from your manager that tomorrow night is half price appetizers and $2 Margaritas - Spread the Word! Drop a quick tweet to let your crew know....your manager will thank you.

We've also added the twitter timeline of a user to their Schedulefly profile - along side their contact information and upcoming work schedule.

Twitter is fun and certainly useful. It definitely adds some fun and usefulness to online employee scheduling at Schedulefly. Thanks Twitter - for a great API!

Cheers
Schedulefly Team
Follow us on Twitter - http://twitter.com/schedulefly

Schedulefly Featured On BiteClub.com

We ran across a very cool social networking site for the Restaurant+Bar community called BiteClub.com. It’s kind of like Facebook, but created by and for members of the food and bar industry.

Join BiteClub and you can:

- Maintain a direct dialogue with restaurant and bar insiders
- Promote your restaurant, bar or product
- Post and find jobs
- Create a culinary group
- Discover new places
- Plan and promote your events

Schedulefly has created a BiteClub profile in their Product section and is busy connecting with restaurant and bar owners, managers, employees and other businesses in the industry. It is a great tool for making connections in the industry. Make sure to connect with us after you Join!

Our online scheduling and employee communication platform was recently featured in their latest member newsletter....included below.

Happy Thursday Biters, Are you... • A BiteClub member who loves the community? • Someone who loves turning other on to new things? • Always hanging around with service industry types? Then you should become an official BiteClub Ambassador. We have launched a new program where we are enlisting 20 people to represent BiteClub in their region, and get rewarded for it. Check out the details HERE. What's Happening On The Site How To Get A Job Sometimes we need to be reminded of the fundamentals, the basics. Here's a great blog written by a Human Resources manager. Need a job? Follow these tips for a resume that will get you noticed…in a good way. If you have some input, please weigh in. The "you people get paid hourly" Guy Funny and even if you're not in the bar industry, you’ll say, “What a cheapskate!” CLICK HERE. Schedulefly Schedulefly is an easy-to-use online employee scheduling software application serving the restaurant industry. Restaurant managers create, post and manage weekly schedules from anywhere, anytime. Employees simply login at www.schedulefly.com to check their schedule, read important company messages, trade shifts with other employees and more. Schedulefly allows you to improve the relationship between management and an increasingly web-savvy, mobile workforce. CLICK HERE for more information. Rossy Rossy is a chef among chefs. She makes an amazing hot sauce. She's always biting and if you catch her online, which you usually can, drop her an Instant Message. She's delightful! Rossy's Snapshot: Location: Canada Gender: Female First job: Nutrition & Kitchen manager at a Daycare Center Where I work: Arbour Restaurant Best things about my gig: Full freedom to create & cook whatever I want Worst things about my gig: Occasional menu interference. Paperwork. Joined BiteClub for: Networking, Friendship, connections Signature recipe: Phad Thai Home Town: Panama & Canada Favorite restaurants: Centro, North 44, Smokeless Joe, Richlee's, ByMark, Kama, 1985, La Mexicana, Susur, etc etc etc This is always in my fridge: Garlic, Sambal Oelek Favorite munchies: Dim Sum, Smoked Oysters, grilled cheese Interests and hobbies: Art, reading, live music, theatre, movies Recommended reading: Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, Da Vinci's Kitchen, Eat Pray Love Tools of the trade: HTC phone, pen & paper, digital camera, Advil, water bottle, tunes, sense of humour, knife Last vacation: Bordeaux, France What makes a good chef: genuine love for the trade, one who knows how to listen, when to ask for help & never stops learning. My biggest responsibilities to the public: To not poison them Learn more about our Featured Biter on her profile, CLICK HERE

Schedulefly Success Story - Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers

Mellow Mushroom redefines the employee scheduling process and improves restaurant operations with Schedulefly.

CHALLENGE:
Mellow Mushroom’s primary challenge was keeping track of employee schedules on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. On what should have been a light responsibility, the business owner and scheduling manager were both devoting several hours out of their workday to chronic scheduling pains.

Scheduling errors cost the company money in over and under-staffed shifts, not to mention valuable time that could be spent on other restaurant activities. “We were inundated on a daily basis with phone calls, voicemails and emails from our employees asking to reschedule their shifts for various reasons,” said Karen Busick, Mellow Mushroom scheduling manager. “Since we relied on one master scheduling book, every schedule change was an exhausting and tedious correction. All it took was one employee missing a shift for us to waste hours trying to find a replacement.”

Mellow Mushroom needed an easy-to-use solution to streamline the scheduling process. They needed an effective system to communicate instantly with the entire staff about scheduling or restaurant news. Mellow Mushroom could not afford to waste time and money manually correcting the scheduling book – this valuable time needed to be spent better serving their customers.

SOLUTION:
Fox discovered Schedulefly after looking for a new system to rid his business of their scheduling dilemmas. He immediately recognized that Schedulefly aligned with the restaurant’s needs. “Before Schedulefly, we relied on one scheduling book in the back office,” said Fox. “The book was borderline illegible with eraser marks and sticky notes added each time there was a schedule change. We knew we needed a solution that was user-friendly and could be accessed anywhere at anytime.”

Schedulefly delivered a complete scheduling solution that immediately satisfied that need. Soon, all of Mellow Mushroom’s staff had web access to Schedulefly. They could log-in and post shift change and time off requests. In addition they could customize their communication settings to receive emails or text messages with schedule updates. “I rely heavily on the Internet and my cell phone for communicating, as do most of my co-workers,” said David Focault, Mellow Mushroom server. “I used to waste a ton of time driving to the restaurant just to check my schedule – now it’s as simple as checking email right online.”

RESULTS:
Mellow Mushroom management now enjoys more flexibility. They no longer sort through heaps of information – all of the scheduling data is cleanly organized online. Even the historical data is saved to reference at any time. In addition, they connect with the whole work staff quickly and easily on the message boards. “If we have a 70 degree day in January we can open our patio for business,” said Fox. “In that scenario we need more staff – we simply post a message on Schedulefly and we schedule available staff effortlessly”.

Using instant communication functions like text messaging and online message boards has made scheduling simple – in addition to creating a sense of community among the restaurant staff. “I check out Schedulefly to stay informed about social gatherings with my co-workers,” said Focault. “If my co-worker’s dog is sick, I know about it. It is really great how connected we have become as a staff since instituting Schedulefly.”

However, the greatest value is freeing time to better serve the customer. “Schedulefly has saved me more than 5 hours a week, which translates to nearly 960 extra hours over a year,” said Busick. “That’s huge.” And with more than half of Busick’s work day freed up to focus on the customer experience, Mellow Mushroom continues to thrive as a popular dining destination. “When you consider the low subscription fee, time savings and improved operating efficiency – Schedulefly really is a no-brainer,” concluded Busick.

Download the PDF version of this case study.

The Schedulefly Team

Schedulefly Network (BETA) Launched!

We are excited to announce the first release of the Schedulefly Network - a new enhancement available inside our online employee scheduling and communication platform. This feature allows all of our customers to connect with each other and share tips, best practices and general industry knowledge. It is a great place for newly opened restaurants to learn from experienced restaurateurs - as well as a place for schedulefly users around the world to make new friends and connections with people in their industry.

The Network also allows our online scheduling customers with multiple locations to create private discussion groups across locations. This is an ideal communication platform for our chain, franchise and food group customers.

We are considering adding a way for our users to invite non schedulefly users to join a network group. This could allow our customers to invite their customers to join a group and be alerted to new menu changes, specials and promotions. The alerts would be sent via the delivery method of choice - RSS, text message or email.

More to come as this exciting new feature evolves....

The Schedulefly Team

Schedulefly Growing....

Schedulefly, the leader in online restaurant scheduling, today announced that its web-based scheduling platform has reached over 2000 users worldwide. Companies like the Melting Pot¸ Mellow Mushroom, and Caffé Luna have turned to Schedulefly to allow managers to create, refine and update schedules – and automatically push new or updated information to employees via text messages, emails or an online, 24/7 portal.

For years, restaurant managers have relied on antiquated scheduling methods, often using paper calendars in common areas to display shift assignments. This system frequently breaks down when employees switch shifts or if management needs to add or remove staff after setting the schedule. Schedulefly automates that process, providing an online format that simplifies resource allocation and provides instant feedback to an increasingly web-savvy workforce.

“Restaurant managers can spend a majority of their time in organizing staff schedules and communicating with staff,” said Weston Aiken, founder and president of Schedulefly. “To provide the best customer service possible, you must have the right people on duty at the right time. The Schedulefly solution provides a cost-effective method for gaining complete control of the scheduling process – and helps managers reach a workforce accustomed to communicating via email, text messaging and social networking.”

Schedulefly helps managers save time on critical scheduling tasks while reducing errors by allowing staff to:

- Access the latest work schedules online
- Communicate with management and other employees via a central interactive message board
- Switch or trade shifts – with management approval – quickly and easily
- Upload training manuals, handbooks and flyers to stay up-to-date on the latest restaurant information

“Schedulefly is beneficial for a number of reasons. Most important to us is that we can expect our staff to know their work schedule 100% of the time with 100% certainty as opposed to the old paper schedule.” said Parker Kennedy, owner of Caffé Luna. “It is helpful from an organizational standpoint as well, allowing us to communicate remotely."

Read this release at Carolina Newswire....

Timely Alerts for Schedulefly Users....

We've launched a few changes over the weekend to help our admins more efficiently manage their staff's time off requests...

* Email and text message alerts sent to admins when a time off request is made
* Ability to block time off requests for an entire day

We have also simplifed our alerting system - giving every user the option to be alerted by email and/or text message when one of the following events take place...

* New Schedule Posted
* Posted Schedule Changed
* Shift Given Up
* Shift Picked Up
* Time Off Request Submitted
* Time Off Request Declined
* Company Message Posted