OSI Restaurant Partners Streamline Restaurant Workforce Management and Communication

OSI Restaurant Partners has selected and implemented HotSchedules' Enterprise Edition restaurant workforce management and labor scheduling solution. OSI Restaurant Partners has grown to one of the largest restaurant companies in the world. Operating in 49 states and in 21 countries around the globe, OSI's portfolio of restaurant brands consists of Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba's Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine, Lee Roy Selmon's, Cheeseburger in Paradise and Blue Coral Seafood & Spirits.

In only four months, OSI rolled out HotSchedules to nearly 1,200 restaurants serving 110,000 employees with HotSchedules' innovative Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model and virtual training program. Each location used a combination of HotSchedules' staff training DVDs and labor management training webinars to educate its managers and employees on the system. For each restaurant concept, the total implementation time was less than four weeks. Additionally, the deployment came in under the projected budget, and the company estimates cost savings, due to greater efficiency and time savings since implementing HotSchedules.

HotSchedules' Enterprise Edition interfaces with OSI's point of sale (POS) system, so managers can easily compare expected costs with actual expenses and even enforce the schedule to prevent employees from clocking in early. Additionally, Overtime Warning Reports consider actual labor plus upcoming projected hours to notify managers of potential overtime scenarios before they occur.

"Within six weeks of using HotSchedules, our managers had reduced the time it takes them to create schedules by 50 percent," says Jeff Wallett, IT director, at OSI. "This component alone has led to cost savings in our operations, and our managers are enthusiastic about the ease-of-use and simplicity of using HotSchedules anywhere, anytime."

Instant communication
HotSchedules gives OSI's managers the ability to communicate quickly and easily with employees, at the restaurant or corporate level. This reduces the burden on managers, who previously had to be pulled off the floor to take calls about schedules and requests. Additionally, it provides OSI the ability to easily distribute important messages or surveys to its employees company-wide, whether it's crisis communication (through HotSchedules' Emergency Communications Portal) or sharing discounts from corporate partners.

OSI's decision to take HotSchedules enterprise-wide shows a strong commitment to its employees, and it has quickly become part of the company culture. With HotSchedules, all front-of-house and back-of-house employees have access to on-demand scheduling tools online from their computer, web-enabled phone, or through the HotSchedules toll-free, 24-hour service line. Additionally, both the support center and automated phone system provide a Spanish-speaking option. HotSchedules provides instantaneous communication and confirmation by giving employees the ability to:

• Check their schedules from any location and at any time
• Request time off
• Pick up shifts
• Send messages to managers or other employees
• Get notified via email and SMS text message when a shift change is picked up by another employee and approved by a manager
• Receive SMS text alerts if an employee's schedule is modified during mid-week

"With Generation Y entering the workplace, work-life balance is more important than ever to employees, and HotSchedules' tools provide an excellent level of control and flexibility for our employees to balance their work with their everyday lives," says Blaise Hadley, regional vice president, OSI.