HotSchedules Launches New Affordable Care Act Advisor Module
Austin, TX (PRWEB) January 15, 2015 -- Today, HotSchedules, an intuitive mobile and web-based employee scheduling solution for the restaurant industry, announces the release of its ACAdvisor module, aimed at helping employers successfully manage schedules and preserve employee hours, while controlling labor costs under the Affordable Care Act’s Employer Mandate.
The ACAdvisor module is the first solution of its kind to offer restaurant and hospitality businesses a solution to track, manage and monitor ACA employment statuses and execute a cost-effective labor strategy in real-time through efficient and intelligent labor scheduling.
The new module comes at a time when many large employers are anxious to get a system in place to deal with the Employer Shared Responsibility Provision commonly known as the Employer Mandate, which requires businesses to “Play” by providing full-time employees health care coverage options or “Pay” hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties if they’re not compliant.
The restaurant industry has raised concerns about how the Employer Mandate would impact business-as-usual, largely because they employ variable hour employees, instead of the traditional 9 to 5 work hours. Among the biggest challenges is the change to the definition of a full-time employee, which was reduced from the long-standing 40-hours to 30-hours per week.
“After speaking with many owners as well as the hourly workers, we realized just how important it is that restaurants have instant visibility into scheduling data so that employees can continue to get their hours and employers can keep staffing their restaurants without worrying about sacrificing guest satisfaction or the additional labor costs,” said David Cantu, Chief Revenue Officer.
With the ACAdvisor module, managers will be able to view part-time and full-time statuses, measurement, administrative and stability periods, as well as hourly thresholds right from HotSchedules, so that they can make real-time decisions about schedules and ongoing shift trades.
“It’s going to be a win-win for both the employers and their staffs,” Cantu added.
Scott Severson, Chief Operating Officer of Fortney Hospitality Group, Inc. agreed, "The ACAdvisor module is a must-have tool for anyone in this industry. We’ve been with HotSchedules for five years and are excited to see the module in action. As a 'beta tester,' the tool helps us effectively and efficiently manage the 30 hours requirements, and related cost of healthcare. Managing without it has proven to be incredibly challenging and time consuming for our restaurant managers, and takes them away from what matters most - taking care of our customers."
The ACAdvisor module works frictionlessly with the HotSchedules’ POS-Integrated version and includes:
- Custom ACA Configuration: Ability to set company-wide measurement, stability and administrative periods, designate administrators and measure employees over a look-back period.
- ACA Status Management: Ability to set full-time, part-time and new hire statuses and get access to alerts to make status adjustments in real-time.
- Scheduling: Ability to use up-to-date employee data - including scheduled versus actual hours worked visible in the scheduler - to generate schedules that align with ACA statuses and labor strategy.
- Reporting and Monitoring: Ability to see the most up-to-date full-time and part-time employee mix, analyze workforce data during look-back periods to make status determinations during admin periods and view historical changes to employee statuses.
“We built the the ACAdvisor module with the goal of bridging the gap between corporate-level strategy and store-level execution,” said Casey Clinkenbeard, Vice President, Product. “It lets corporate administrators and executives own their high-level ACA strategy and empower on-the-ground managers to schedule employees according to their employment status.”
The ACAdvisor Module is currently available for current and new HotSchedules customers who qualify as applicable large employers. Visit http://www.hotschedules.com/acadvisor to learn more.
About HotSchedules
HotSchedules is a registered trademark of Red Book Connect, LLC, which is a global mobile solutions company providing innovative technology for the restaurant, retail and hospitality industries. The company delivers a comprehensive suite of customizable software designed to automate managerial challenges such as hiring, training, scheduling, business intelligence, shift communication, labor and inventory management. Its world-class products include HotSchedules, Manager’s Red Book, Digital Red Book, Macromatix and Schoox. Red Book Connect is proud to serve more than 1.8 million users in over 108,000 locations across 26 countries. For more information visit: http://www.redbookconnect.com.
Mary Kay Hyde, Red Book Connect, http://www.redbookconnect.com, +1 512-904-2065, [email protected]
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