Great American Restaurants Leverages HotSchedules for Restaurant Labor Management, Employee Scheduling, and Digital Logbook
Fast-growing 11-unit chain uses HotSchedules to improve labor cost control, increase productivity, and enhance communication between managers and employees
Austin, TX - February 22, 2010 - HotSchedules today announced that Great American Restaurants successfully implemented HotSchedules Enterprise for restaurant labor management and online employee scheduling. Great American Restaurants is an 11 unit, Virginia-based restaurant group that operates under the banners Artie's, Carlyle, Coastal Flats, Mike's American, Sweetwater Tavern, Silverado, Best Buns Bread Co., and Jackson's.
Great American Restaurants first implemented HotSchedules in two locations in 2007, and the feedback and results were so positive that the company's leadership team decided to roll-out chain-wide. For an easy, flexible and cost effective roll-out process, the company sent one manager from each location to the headquarters for training via conference calls and webinars.
"We've experienced outstanding service throughout our roll-out and use of HotSchedules, and the on-demand training sessions are very informational and to the point," said Colleen Sisk, Talent Development Manager and HotSchedules project leader for Great American Restaurants. "HotSchedules empowers us to be much more efficient and accurate with our labor management while giving our employees an invaluable tool for their work-life balance."
Thus far, Great American Restaurants has used HotSchedules primarily for its employee scheduling capabilities. The company's employees can log on to HotSchedules online from a computer or mobile device (including the HotSchedules iSchedule app for the iPhone) or dial a 24-hour bilingual toll-free automated line to access their schedules, view shifts available for pick-up, check manager approval of shift changes, request time off and more. They can also opt to have alerts sent via email or to their mobile phones via text message. Additionally, the weekly scheduling process is much more efficient for managers.
The average Great American Restaurants location employs over 100 staff and management - so creating weekly schedules with constantly revolving time-off requests and shift changes was a daunting weekly task for managers. HotSchedules allows managers to dramatically reduce the time it takes to create and change weekly shifts. Additionally, Great American Restaurants leverages the HotSchedules Digital Logbook, a powerful web-based management communication and documentation logbook that replaces the old method of paper red books and encourages accountability and communication among store and district managers.
As a focus in 2010, Great American Restaurants is working to increase productivity by analyzing sales trends and staffing for optimal service through HotSchedules sales forecasting and robust reporting. By interfacing with the company's POSitouch point of sale system, managers leverage HotSchedules template generator to match labor with sales forecasting for optimal service and labor cost savings. While most locations have only recently gone live, Great American Restaurants is already seeing an impact on labor costs and enhanced productivity. The immediate savings have come from HotSchedules' POS interface with POSitouch, which leverages enforced clock-in and provides managers with overtime warning reports and detailed labor pro-forma with drill down capabilities to review variances.
'Our managers will never go back to the 'old way' now that we have HotSchedules," Sisk commented. "Now, they can spend more face time serving customers and talking with employees about issues that are more important to the overall business than scheduling."
"With a decade of experience in implementing our solutions in independent and chain restaurants, we've created a roll-out program that was fast and seamless for Great American Restaurants," said Justin Buckley, vice president, client services of HotSchedules. "Also, we will continue to work closely with their management teams to analyze performance and increase labor cost control, as we do with all of our customers. We're committed to helping position Great American Restaurants for success, and an effective labor management training program ensures the greatest ROI."
About HotSchedules
HotSchedules, innovators of the most widely-used restaurant workforce management solutions, sets the industry standard for service, support and labor management expertise. By engaging with its clients as partners, HotSchedules vastly improves management-employee communications, resulting in greater employee satisfaction and retention-and offers a fast, proven ROI through reduced manual scheduling and labor costs. From independent restaurants to corporate chains, HotSchedules' suite of solutions empowers restaurant staff and managers with all the tools they need to communicate effectively and efficiently. More than 2,750 restaurants and over 300,000 users rely on HotSchedules every day. HotSchedules complements its product offerings with a world-class, bilingual support staff at the company's headquarters in Austin, Texas.
HotSchedules' corporate and franchise clients include such well-known concepts as Outback Steakhouse, the Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Chang's China Bistro, Carino's Italian Grill, Chili's, Carrabba's Italian Grill, Fleming's Steakhouse, Applebee's, Jamba Juice and many others. For more information, visit www.hotschedules.com.