Restaurants live and die on repeat business, and the best way to entice people back through your doors is by providing a knowledgeable, motivated, and happy workforce.

We rounded up some of the best employee scheduling tools that will keep your employees smiling

Managing a staff, much like marketing a restaurant, has gone digital. You can use the following tools to create convenient schedules that work for your staff:

ShiftPlanning

Pros:

ShiftPlanning places everything into one hub. You’ll never have to worry about scheduling conflicts, payroll issues, and problems with employee hours. The system provides a collaborative schedule where employees can mark on the calendar when they need time off. You can try it out for one free month.

Cons:

Pricing is based on staff size, which can make it very hefty for some. If you have a small team working for you this is a great system, but a large staff means a pretty high cost

WhenToWork

Pros:

This one works similarly to ShiftPlanning but the tracking feature really stands out. You can receive extensive notifications when a manager or staff member needs to call out sick. You can view important data by department. Ultimately, this can help you with payroll and other important tasks because you can see who is actually doing the work.

Cons:

Employees can adjust certain things when you aren’t paying attention. Don’t give everyone access to the program. Try to limit it to a few.

EZShift

Pros:

EZShift has plenty of customizable schedules. You can quickly make numerous corrections to an event. To make sure employees are always aware of expectations, you can incorporate your rules and guidelines to taking time off or recording sick days. This will help your team understand the appropriate amount of time they need to give when they have to leave the building.

Cons:

Features are going to vary based on what package you subscribe to. Special request systems and internal messaging services aren’t available in certain pricing packages.

Workschedule.net

Pros:

Employees tend to make schedule changes without telling their supervisor. Workschedule.net enables them to swap shifts with a few clicks of their keyboard. The rest of the features are very similar to competitors.

Cons:

The site isn’t very easy to use. Make sure you read everything thoroughly before you create an account.

Paul Nugent

Paul Nugent

Paul Nugent is a small business advocate who uses his background in the startup space, along with his POS system expertise, to allow small business owners to make informed decisions within their specific budgets.