Sponsored by Crunchtime
Navigating labor laws while managing a workforce can be daunting for restaurant owners and operators. Taking into account wage regulations, overtime, and scheduling requirements demands meticulous attention to detail. As a restaurant brand grows and scales, it can be easy to overlook or miss important details, potentially resulting in costly penalties or legal issues.
Crunchtime Labor & Scheduling is a comprehensive software tailored to the unique needs of labor management in the quick-service restaurant sector. It enables operators to schedule their workforce compliantly, giving them peace of mind that stores are adhering to all labor laws. “We make sure that operators have up-to-date information regarding their labor law configuration,” says Garrett Tietjen, group product manager of labor and scheduling products at Crunchtime. “We provide them the tools they need to stay compliant.”
Replacing traditional pen-and-paper or spreadsheet-based processes, Crunchtime automates tedious scheduling tasks, making it easy to create and publish a fully compliant employee schedule. Predefined labor rules ensure compliant scheduling across the organization, whether a manager has one day of scheduling experience or ten years.
Built-in compliance guardrails automatically flag the operator if the proposed schedule has any violations. The system accounts for meal breaks, minor labor laws, overtime, Fair Workweek laws, and other labor regulations, ensuring that each schedule meets legal standards. “We alert them again if they fail to make the changes,” Tietjen says. “If they decide to finalize the schedule, they are aware of the violation and may owe the employees extra money.”
Laws across jurisdictions can vary greatly, so Crunchtime allows operators to tailor the labor rules as they see fit. “In Crunchtime, labor laws are configured by our customers because we believe that they should have the flexibility to configure them how they want to,” Tietjen says. “Our customers can tailor the configurations based on different interpretations of the laws and adjust settings according to their preferences.”
Crunchtime is currently preparing to launch a new reporting tool that will help restaurants stay compliant with even less effort. “The report examines a restaurant’s current labor rule configuration and determines if it matches the labor law statutes at the city, state, and federal level. Any rules that need corrective action are then flagged,” Tietjen says. “Ultimately, this takes the complexity out of labor law compliance and makes it easier for operators to stay up to date with changing laws.”
Crunchtime helps operators decrease the risk of non-compliance and avoid violations that can result in costly fines or lawsuits. “There is a regular flow of news about quick-service restaurant chains facing fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for labor law violations,” Tietjen says. “Our goal is to give our customers the ability to confidently comply with the rules to ensure they are not among them.”
To learn more about Crunchtime’s labor and scheduling software, visit Crunchtime.com
