Catering events have many moving parts that can be difficult to keep track of. However, staffing should not be one of those things.
In the past, people have used a spreadsheet system, or even a daily calendar, to keep a catalog of staff, events, and availability. Maybe at one time this was an ideal system, but with recent changes in the world, including COVID-19, and near-daily technology advancements, there is now a more efficient way to track event staff with event staff scheduling software.
Even if you feel like your current system is working, look at these problems that may indicate an issue in how you are handling things now.
Even in the era of technology phone tag still exists, but there are more ways to miss contact with someone.
If you find yourself calling, and/or texting someone and never receiving a reply back, it can be incredibly frustrating. The uncertainty of the situation can lead to undue anxiety over staff coverage.
If you are trying to contact someone, and they do not respond back, it is understandable if you take it personally. It can be frustrating not knowing whether or not you will have the coverage needed for your next shift.
In a COVID-19 world, availability can change without notice and you can lose half your available staff in an instant.
Not knowing, or having to keep track of when someone can come back to work is just one more thing to add to the stress of an incredibly stressful industry.
“I didn’t know I was scheduled!” is probably one of the most irritating things to hear from an employee, yet sometimes it may be genuine. However, true or not, that does not help no show induced staffing shortages.
These are just three of the more prominent signs that you need a better staffing solution.
And now that you are aware of the issues and realize that scheduling software is the answer, a new question arises. How do you know what software application to use?
With how time intensive the catering industry is, you may not have the time to invest in finding one that works for you. Plus, you may not like it when you do use it and you will have wasted precious time, and money. Not to mention the flip-flopping between systems that can alienate you and your staff. So, it is imperative that you are confident in your first choice. To help you, here is a comparison of a few staff event software systems.
Let’s dive right into 7Shifts scheduling.
They offer a free package for up to 10 employees. Which seems like a nice idea. They have what they consider to be an intuitive scheduling application, that focuses on the scheduling needs of the restaurant industry.
Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks. They only allow minimal tools for the smaller, less expensive, packages and in order to obtain the more useful tools you need you may end up paying up to $76.99 per month per location. That is not including the Add-ons that you can purchase such as Tip pooling ($24.99), Manager Log Book ($14.99), and Task Management ($12.99) keeping in mind that these prices are also per month per location. They do offer a free 14 day trial.
WhenIWork seems to be pretty standard, boilerplate kind of schedule management.
Simple tools such as employee communication, and schedule creation. Pricing wise, they offer a Small Business package that works for scheduling for up to 100 employees for $2.00 a user.
Mind you, that is just for scheduling and messaging. If you want to also have the ability to track time and attendance it is $4.00 a user. Their Enterprise package is for 100-10,000 employees and offers more features than the small package but at an unspecified price. They, like 7Shifts, offer a 14 day free trial.
Quickstaff is made especially for event based companies who use on-demand or temporary staff as their workforce.
Other staff scheduling software assumes that your staff are employees. It assigns shifts to a staff, whereas Quickstaff ASKS your staff if they can work. When your staff can say “No”, scheduling gets a little more complicated.
Quickstaff is an easy to operate, and intuitive scheduling system. You invite staff to work events. They receive an email where they can accept or decline a work assignment, and all of that is tracked in the system.
You can also assign staff by roles, such as server, kitchen assistant or photographer. Which means you can simply invite staff based on what you roles you need for an event. You can create and customize however many roles you want!
If more staff accept a position than you need, Quickstaff automatically creates a waitlist in case someone becomes unavailable.
Staff can also block out dates and times when they're unavailable, so you don’t waste your time trying to schedule them.
And even before you book an event, you can see if there are enough staff available on your roster for the dates.
You can easily create detailed notes about your events, including location, clients, special instructions, dress codes, etc. This ensures that each member of the staff is fully aware of the expectations for each event. And if something changes about an event, you can send a message to only those staff working the event.
And you can setup automatic reminders for those staff, say one day or two days before the event starts.
Finally, you can broadcast a message to your entire staff roster! Or only to those with a specific role, for example, servers, kitchen assistants, whatever custom role you create.
Quickstaff offers 3 staffing packages:
Unlike the previously mentioned staff scheduling software, Quickstaff includes all features standard in every package. So even if you are a small business, you are not being treated any differently.
Out with the old and in with the new! Choosing the right software can do more than ease the strain on day to day planning.
It can help with other aspects of staffing problems such as reducing a high turnover rate caused by frustrated staff; eliminate coverage gaps at events; and more importantly it will improve the quality of service provided to your clients by streamlining your business in a way that is invaluable to your business.
Try out Quickstaff with a free 14-day trial! There's no cost and no credit card required. Cancel anytime.
