Ten years ago, HotSchedules co-founders, Ray Pawlikowski and David Cantu had the idea to provide online scheduling solutions to the restaurant industry – allowing employees to more easily gain access to their schedules and managers to more quickly post and edit employee schedules – all with the convenience of online access.

HotSchedules officially incorporated in 1999, then followed with the release of its first online scheduling solution in 2000. 2010 marks the HotSchedules 10th anniversary.

“HotSchedules was the first to market a powerful, flexible, and cost-effective web-based labor employee scheduling solution targeted specifically for restaurants. Prior to that, restaurants all managed their schedules with a slow, cumbersome paper-based system,” says Ray Pawlikowski, president and CEO, HotSchedules.

During the past decade, HotSchedules has grown from offering accessible employee scheduling solutions to providing a full range of labor management tools for restaurants to control labor costs and foster better communication and employee satisfaction.

“Not only can HotSchedules customers more conveniently create and check their weekly schedules, but they can also more accurately track and analyze labor and control overtime expenses,” Pawlikowski says. “Employee scheduling is a core part of our offerings, but our capabilities go far beyond just that.”

“HotSchedules has been an instrumental tool for our business,” says Darrin Heisey, Director of IT for Sonny’s BBQ. “It provides our team members with easy access to schedules and instant updates, and enables team members to change or pick up shifts with ease. Additionally, it has allowed our executive staff to directly communicate with those on the frontlines easily and efficiently. Congratulations to HotSchedules for 10 years of innovation in the restaurant industry, and we look forward to working with them for years to come.”

Year after year, HotSchedules has experienced steady growth, which the company attributes to the continued quality and innovation of its labor management tools, as well as its commitment to providing its customers with strong support and training.

To better cater to the lifestyle of its Generation-Y user-base, HotSchedules has recently expanded its external communications to various social media outlets, including a company blog, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and a Facebook page. As part of the 10th anniversary celebration, HotSchedules is hosting a contest through Facebook – “10,000 Facebook Fans by 10/10/10” – to encourage HotSchedules users to “Like” HotSchedules on Facebook and provide the company with valuable feedback on how HotSchedules can continue to improve its products and service.

“For all of our customers, we are more than just a vendor – we have become an integral part of their company culture,” Pawlikowski says. “If we can help each and every one of our customers add to their bottom line and make their restaurants a better place to work, then I know that we’ve done our job.”