Mama Fu's Taps Online Scheduling Tool to Track & Review Store Labor Mgmt Performances

Mama Fu's has successfully implemented the HotSchedules Enterprise online employee scheduling and restaurant labor management solution and the powerful, on-demand Digital Logbook, for all its corporate locations in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas. Mama Fu's, a growing, fast casual restaurant offering freshly prepared Pan-Asian cuisine, completed the HotSchedules roll out in August 2009.

Prior to selecting HotSchedules, Mama Fu's knew that it needed a more robust restaurant labor management tool to not only provide more efficient employee scheduling, but also to improve the quality and consistency of communication between managers. The Digital Logbook is already providing Mama Fu's with a more permanent online record to capture and archive important data from each shift that's easily shared and searchable among managers. "We are constantly researching the best-in-class tools and applications that will improve our overall efficiency and make our staff as effective as possible. HotSchedules has proved to be just that for everyone from our corporate managers to our hourly employees," says Steve McManus, COO, Mama Fu's.

With HotSchedules' user-friendly scheduling and labor management solution on board, Mama Fu's managers and staff have experienced:

• Improved communication: Replacing email as the main form of communication between management, the HotSchedules online portal allows for a better and more centralized way to share information among the management team so everyone is on the same page.
• More detailed and consistent logbooks: The HotSchedules Digital Logbook provides Mama Fu's managers with a powerful web-based logbook for communication and documentation that can be easily searched and reviewed from anywhere, anytime. The Digital Logbook allows store and regional managers to track and document daily shift highlights, as well as issues with food & beverage, repair & maintenance, guest services, safe count tills, employee performance, store deposits with tracking numbers and much more.
• Cost-effective and efficient scheduling abilities: Before HotSchedules, Mama Fu's managers would spend hours every week using Excel spreadsheets to schedule employee shifts and would be forced to calculate only average wages for each job code. With HotSchedules Enterprise forecasting, managers can plan more accurately for substantial labor cost savings each week, by accurately "costing" the exact schedule each week, down to the penny. And with built-in state-specific overtime rules, managers can keep a close eye on labor overtime costs that can quickly spin out of control.
• Interface with the POS: Additionally, HotSchedules interfaces with Mama Fu's Aloha POS platform, enabling the company to enforce employee clock-in times to further drive down unnecessary labor costs.

"Since going live with HotSchedules, Mama Fu's has been very pleased with the ease and friendly user interface of the application. Our managers have found it very simple to set up store scheduling templates and make changes to the schedules," says Cody Armand, director of operations, Mama Fu's. "The training process has also been seamless with HotSchedules' online training and tutorials. It can be difficult to get all of our managers into one place at one time so HotSchedules' online seminars have been ideal to learn at their convenience."

HotSchedules allows the corporate team at Mama Fu's to track and review each store's ongoing labor management performance. "This is especially helpful at the franchise level. We want to see our franchisees grow and be successful, and HotSchedules not only provides a more efficient way for employee scheduling, but it allows us to see how well our franchisees are costing schedules on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis," says McManus.