ShiftForce Blog

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shift planning

Manufacturing manager in a suit and blue hard hat using a tablet while overseeing production on a factory floor.

Shift Planning Hacks for Manufacturers That Want Less Chaos

Manufacturing is the backbone of so many industries, but let’s be honest—running a production floor can feel like herding cats with clipboards. Between changing order volumes, unexpected absences, and a million moving parts, shift planning often ends up being more chaos than strategy.

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Restaurant managers and staff collaborating with laptops and tablets during a shift planning and management meeting.

Shift Planning vs. Shift Management: What's the Difference?

If you’ve ever worked in a restaurant, hotel, or any shift-based business, you know the schedule can make or break your day. But while shift planning and shift management are often used interchangeably, they’re not the same thing. Understanding the difference can help you run smoother operations, improve employee satisfaction, and cut down on those stressful “Who’s covering tonight?” moments.

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How to Make Scheduling Employees Easier



For managers who schedule shift-to-shift employees, there is a lot to be taken into consideration. Each week presents itself with new opportunities and challenges- shift changes, availability changes, time off requests, events where more or less staff is needed. You always want to make sure you have enough staff to meet the demands of each shift, but you also want to ensure you aren't overstaffing and increasing your labor costs.

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How to Write Shift Notes

Shift notes help keep everyone updated and provide a record of what happened. Knowing who, what, when, where, how, and why something happened is crucial for the shift-to-shift productivity of your business.

It's an easy way to record everyone in one location for managers to review. There's an old saying for someone starting their shift, "don't go looking for the fire until you've read the daily log notes." Something may be happening for a reason and before jumping right into a shift to take action, take a moment to absorb the information and get a sense of what's happening and why.

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How To Be a Constructive Manager During the Holiday Season

Jingle Bells bring happiness and joy to kids and adults, but to anyone in a managerial role, it signals for the dreaded holiday season. It is an exciting time for family and fun for all, so it is important to stay connected to your team about the happenings and tasks needed to get done for a successful season beforehand.

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Improving Sales Performance - Be Kind and Get Paid

 There are many things you can do to help in improving sales performance for your restaurant. You can try the age old tactics of offering happy hour drinks and appetizers during slower times. You can invest in marketing or restaurant and menu redesign. You can

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Staff Scheduling for the Holidays

For restaurants, the holidays are your best marketing opportunity. The focus during the holiday season for your restaurant is, of course, capturing sales. You may think this is cut and dry marketing, but your employees are the biggest part of growing your sales during the season. When you

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The Importance of Sales Forecasting Methods

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could have a crystal ball into your restaurant's future to see the sales that will come in? Think of all the planning you could accomplish - you would know how much staff to schedule, how much inventory to have in stock, and what you

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Sell the SIZZLE, Not the Steak: Increase Restaurant Sales

You have probably heard the saying “Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak.” This essentially means you should be selling the benefits of your product instead of the features, or selling people what they want as opposed to what they need. Anyway you say it, this phrase

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