On Christmas Day, several individuals from HotSchedules joined together to participate in “HotHope” – a program similar to other volunteer projects in which food and clothing is collected and donated to those in need. There was a big internal push for donations during the entire month of December, and a total of $1336.00 and 13 bags of clothes were collected from HotSchedules employees.

A handful of employees spent several hours on Christmas day organizing all the donations, packing them up and delivering them. Special thanks is extended to everyone who participated, and especially those who gave up their time on Christmas day, including; Justin Buckley, Esmer Rodriguez, Will Tung and Sam Ryan. But most of all, huge thanks to Elizabeth Arias for planning and executing this very worthwhile and time consuming project!

If that’s the precedent, then why would we continue to ask them to rely on static, often hard copy spreadsheets for their work schedules?  Try to imagine being one of them – your manager posts a new schedule, sometimes in the location on a bulletin board that you have to check in person.  Either that or you have to call and have someone read to you over the phone.  Or maybe your manager sends it to you electronically via your personal email address.  Hopefully it didn’t go to your junk folder or an account you closed and forgot to mention.

Once you finally know when you’re scheduled to work, what if you need to request a change? It’s your grandmother’s birthday on Saturday, and you forgot.  Worse yet, you requested a particular day off, and your manager forgot or lost the receipt you wrote the request on.  Or what if you realize you need some extra cash and want to add some hours?  Good luck with that.  I feel for ya.

With HotSchedules, you’d never have to deal with such seemingly ridiculous inconveniences. Your schedule can be accessed online or on your iPhone, Android or BlackBerry app as soon as it is posted. Shift trade or pick-up requests can be done instantly from the same device and once manager approved, push right back into the schedule. 

The convenience is nice, no?  But why, you ask, would a company invest in something like this merely to make working more convenient for hourly staff?  While there are a number of labor cost saving benefits that HotSchedules brings to managers and restaurant owners, there is at least one critical benefit that comes just from providing this convenience to your employees: You will be creating a better work culture.  Sound fluffy?  It isn’t.  Here’s why:

1)      Positive work cultures increase your sales.  I swear it’s true.  Who would you rather have serving your customers?  Happy, content workers who feel pleased and proud to work for you, or some grouchy, annoyed person who asked for the day off, but didn’t get it because their manager lost their request off?  And which of those is more likely to have a better sales day? It's common sense.

2)       Positive work cultures improve employee retention.  There are about a million scholarly and editorial articles that support this truth, as well as quote the costs to replace employees, but here’s one that hits home for me and it's by the smart folks at People Report: http://www.enewsbuilder.net/peoplereport/e_article000696365.cfm?x=b11,0,w.  
It quotes: “One of the most influential agents of change in today’s world is the constant wave of technological innovation… (which) provide a prime opportunity to improve not only the diner’s experience, but that of the employee as well.”   

So ditch the spreadsheet and make your company a better place to work!

 *Average age of hourly staff workers is now 29, according to Nations Restaurant News: http://nrn.com/article/foodservice-workers-managers-aging-gracefully

I've always known HotSchedules was the Utopia of work places, but now, the rest of the world does too. Recently, HotSchedules was honored as an Austin-based Top Workplace by the Austin American Statesman. This follows our earlier award by the Austin Business Journal as a "Best Place to Work 2011."

Now, for those of you who don't know, the way you get to be one of these places isn't all that easy, and most of the work rests on the backs of your employees. What happens is that the publication invites someone in HR or Marketing to participate by completing a simple form. Once you do, the real fun begins.

First, you have to assign each employee to a department or group of departments, ensuring that no one department has too few people in it. Not enough people and your responses won't be viewable, so when you’re a smaller organization like ours, it’s important to ensure that you have enough people in each bucket.

Next, the entire employee base gets a pretty lengthy survey to complete. Companies have to have a certain percentage of completions to even qualify for the award, so it’s critical that they complete it. But we did great there, with almost 90% of our company responding to the survey. Actually, make that "surveys" since this was the second survey we had done for a Best/Top work place award.

Let's think about that for a minute. In all of Austin, there are lots of companies. Tons, no doubt the bulk, didn't even APPLY for these awards. They knew better. Then there are those who applied, but didn't qualify - either they couldn't mobilize their employees to respond to the survey or the employee responses weren't as glowing as upper management had hoped.

By contrast, 90% of HotSchedules employees were engaged enough to respond, and they responded in a way that ensured a win for the company. That's amazing! 

Want to know the secret sauce?  The WHY behind our great results?  Here’s what I think:

1)    HotSchedules’ management team is focused on maintaining its family-oriented culture of FUN.

2)    HotSchedules is laser-focused on Service. With a capital S. That plays out in both our customer support team and how we treat each other around here, regardless of title.

3)    HotSchedules builds something that really and truly helps people be more productive and efficient and that makes us all feel good about coming to work.

Sappy enough for you? I really believe it. I’m drinking the proverbial Kool-Aid. So sue me. I tell people all the time that this is the Happiest Place on Earth. I can't say that in an official capacity, or Disney might call and ask for their slogan back. But as "corporate" offices go, I have never experienced better. 

I want to personally thank each and every employee who responded to those surveys.  They really are important and we appreciate the extra time spent on them.  You’re the best! 

1. running (~3 miles)
2. swimming (600 Meters)
3. strength (sit-ups, push-ups and the plank)
4. total weight loss and
5. percent weight loss

Each team got to come up with its own name and team flag. There were some super creative names too - like Team Skinny Jeans. That one has to be my favorite.

Back in mid-Sept., we had an initial weigh in for the weight loss categories, a race for the swimming and running categories and a test to see who could hold the plank for the longest after doing 50 sit-ups and push-ups. Phew. Makes me tired just thinking of it. This initial benchmark set the bar, and each team member trained for the next two months to try to improve on their time or weight loss by the end of the contest.

The teams also got bonus points if members committed to doing things like abstaining from alcohol, keeping a food journal, or taking a daily multi-vitamin, etc during the two month contest period.

On Friday, Nov 18, we held the final weigh-in and races, and we all cheered each other on. We had a couple of people lose up to 30 lbs!  Another guy who held the plank for more than 11 minutes!  Amazing.  

But more than just the individual performances, there was an outcome for the entire company as a whole.  The contest was a great reminder to pay a bit more attention to health, whether in establishing or enhancing a work-out routine, eating a more healthy diet or remembering to add vitamin supplements.  

Even further, it was a fantastic, two month-long team-building exercise for HotSchedules.  That’s just one more cool component of the HotSchedules culture that makes this a great place to work.   

Check out the pics in our Photo Gallery!

But since I'm a PC gal (I know, I know, one day I'll convert), I turned to a colleague and asked him to say a few words about this tragic loss - one that seemed to come too soon for a man too young:

"I think president Obama has said it best so far. 'The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.' I've been an Apple fanboy since I can remember. I played Oregon Trail in grade school on a Mac and bought a lime-green iMac as soon as I got my own credit card. His products have supported my education, my profession, and now my life as a father. Whether I'm using his gadgets to earn a pay check or to capture a moment with my kids, Steve's life's work is part of my life everyday."

 - Brandon Gadoci

 I'm not really sure I can sum it up better, so I'll end with the proveribal substitution for 1,000 words:

Yesterday and today, portions of the HotSchedules team took turns putting in a few hours at the Capital Area Food Bank. If you've never done it, you should. Who knew sorting cans and frozen food could be so fun? I swear I'm not being sarcastic.

Here's how it worked: Each day, twenty or so of us went down to the Food Bank and got a brief description of what we needed to do. I was part of Shift 2 (today), so I can't speak for yesterday's crew...although, I did hear that they take the no open-toed shoe policy very seriously.

Anyway, we were assigned to frozen meat. Some of us sorted it, checked it for ickiness and then sent it down a conveyor to others who sorted it by type and boxed it up. Another group palletized it, got rid of the extra boxes and threw out the meat that didn’t pass the ick factor. 

After a short break, we did a quick clean-up, then switched to frozen bread and pastries. All in all, it took us maybe 2.5 hours and we managed to process enough food to create 5,500 meals. And that was just today’s group!  Amazing!  

What’s even more amazing is how much fun you get to have with colleagues you may not interact with on a daily basis. I got to sort with three co-workers I don’t get to talk to everyday and we joked and laughed and had a blast.

So, let’s see if I can sum up the advantages to our volunteer work:

• Do something good for the local community
• Get that warm fuzzy feeling for doing something good
• Skip work for a few hours
• Hang out with fun people and have a good time

Yep, that pretty much sums it up.  If your team, group or company doesn’t volunteer at the Food Bank, they should!!

Oh, and one more thing - the Food Bank is SUPER low on food!  Even if you don’t volunteer, grab a can or two or three off your shelf, or throw a few extra in your shopping cart and donate them.  Thank you!

I admit, however, that there was an element of anxiety threaded through all the excitement. A good portion of us, myself included, were concerned that we might be portrayed as a company made up of full-time vacationers and part time workers.  Or that you have to be a Millennial to work here.  Or that we cater to employees with no work ethic. A quick browse through some of the comments attached to that article, and you might find our anxieties were warranted.