3 unconventional reasons to move your restaurant staff scheduling online

More benefits of online scheduling

2. Serenity

The only time most restaurant people use the word “serenity” when it relates to scheduling is when they throw their hands up in the air and yell “SERENITY NOW!” re-enacting the famous Frank Costanza scene from the TV show Seinfeld. That’s because they face an endless stream of scheduling fire drills, mistakes, and changes as well as a cluttered, unorganized mess of sticky notes, backs of old receipts, and coffee-stained scraps of paper.

Not so in restaurants that use web-based scheduling tools. Everything is nicely organized and everybody is in sync. Owners, managers and staff have one easy place to store information and communicate. Time off requests, shift trade requests, shift notes, employee files, training documents and more are all conveniently stored in one place and accessible from anywhere, anytime from the palm of your hand or the tips of your fingers.

“I can’t tell you how much more organized we are now that we moved our scheduling online. It’s gotten rid of so many headaches and made everything run so much smoother at our restaurants,” says Steve Quarles, Regional Operations Manager, Hooters of South Florida.

3. Freedom

Most restaurant people imagine a tether tying them to the restaurant when they think of scheduling. Whether it’s the manager piecing the schedule together, the employee who need to put in his time off request or the owner who wants to know who is on her bartending crew tonight, all scheduling-related issues happen on the premises.

However, the millions of owners, managers and staff at restaurants around the world using web-based scheduling enjoy the freedom of not only accessing their restaurant schedules, but also communicating with each other and making adjustments from wherever they are. All they need is an online connection and any web-enabled device, such as a phone, a laptop, or a tablet. This cuts that proverbial tether and creates an important sense of freedom.

“I LOVE being able to find out when I’m working, put in time off requests, and even pick up shifts from the convenience of my iPhone, and all of my teammates feel the same way. It’s a huge benefit of working at Pi Pizzeria,” says Kelsey Zehner, a server at Pi Pizzeria in St. Louis.

If your team frowns and gets anxious when the topic of scheduling arises, or they feel tethered to the restaurant when it comes to any scheduling-related issues, there are several web-based solutions available. Most providers focus on certain niches (independent restaurants, chains, etc.), and all of them offer solutions that turn frowns into smiles and anxiety into serenity, and cut the unnecessary tethers that tie your team to your restaurant for issues that could be just as easily handled on the fly from anywhere.

Wil Brawley is a partner at Schedulefly, a company that provides restaurants with Web-based staff-scheduling and communication software. He is he author of Restaurant Owners Uncorked: Twenty Owners Share Their Recipes for Success.