What is compliance and what does it mean? For us, it’s about covering all your bases as an employer. As advocates of making work easy, we’re passionate about streamlining day to day tasks, and automating the aspect of break management. Here are 3 must have features for labor management software to handle compliance:
What does meal and rest period tracking entail? First and foremost, making sure employees actually go on their rest or meal period, and having notifications to remind you to send them!
The hardest part of tracking meal periods? Ensuring that employees actually go. Unless you have the capacity to hire a manager solely responsible for sending employees on their breaks and covering other sections, you can never predict the environment of a restaurant floor. Whether its an unexpected 20 person walk-in party or a table of VIPs, the hustle and bustle of day to day operations can add to how managers can forget when to send their employees on their break.
When sending employees on their meal period, as a business owner, you must ensure two things:
With meal period tracking, it's key to be proactive rather reactive. Labor management software should have the ability to notify you of upcoming, and pending meal and rest periods. This way, you can properly plan breaks in advance and prepare for possible edge cases where employees may waive their meal or rest period.
And when meal or rest periods are missed, you should have the ability to set up waivers to occur at clock in before an employee's next shift.
As for scenarios where employees' wish to waive their meal or rest period before their shift starts, they should also be set up to occur at clock in and before a missed break.
Again, the labor management software should allow you to be more proactive than reactive; especially with shift violations!
To optimize your time, make the step of approving employee clock hour edits, easy for employees.
Stop chasing employees for signatures for clock edits and allow labor management software to empower staff to be proactive with their clock hours. You'll cover your bases and make it easy for employees by allowing them to approve clock edits from anywhere.
In an employee friendly state like California, record keeping like clock approvals need to be employee friendly too! If a part time employee works one day a week, you should be able to have them remotely approve their hours. Rather than sending in their hours and adjusting their pay (if necessary) for the next pay run.
The key to maintaining and even strengthening compliance is by streamlining the approval process by putting the process into your employees hands.Instead of power calling employees for their written agreement of adjustments, send them a message, and have them digitally sign their approval.
Saving paper and time? Sounds good to us!
For meal and rest period tracking, the other half of the compliance lies with document management. Though meal waivers are not required to be in writing, it's always about being as transparent as possible as an owner. And if a class action lawsuit claim may arise, you'll be as prepared as you can possibly be.
Accessing daily rosters and waivers should be easy, intuitive, and editable. On your daily roster, you should be able to edit or change meal period times, and confirm or deny meal waiver requests!
Documents like daily rosters are crucial pieces for daily restaurant operations and labor management software providers should be able to be automate daily rosters and do the heavy lifting; like sorting employee break times.
And in the case where employees (who work in shifts less than 6 hours) decide to forgo their meal or rest period, signed waivers are crucial in avoiding potential labor code related lawsuits. We don't believe that all employees are out there to sue you, but it's important to keep all your bases covered in an employee friendly state like California.
If you're looking for labor management software to stay on top of compliance, key factors like: meal period tracking automation, easy roster management and employee friendly clock approvals, should be the bare minimum features. After all, restaurant technology should be making work easy for you!
Not sure where to start with labor management software? Contact us for a demo!
“In the labor numbers, we were reporting about a $300 to $400 difference than what we were getting through Push!”
-Tara Hardie, ZZA Hospitality Group, 16 locations
