UniFocus  

Carrollton,  TX 
United States
http://www.unifocus.com

Welcome from UniFocus and Knowcross by UniFocus!

UniFocus x Knowcross = the leading workforce management platform for hotels. Labor management tools automate forecasts and schedules based on occupancy, employee availability, service standards and work rules. World class time and attendance software communicates schedules, facilitates shift swaps with tools like Shift Genius and real time compliance alerts. After employees clock in, the Knowcross suite streamlines guest service requests, housekeeping tasks, maintenance, inspections & glitches. www.unifocus.com

Brands: LMS, Global Time & Attendance, GUESTScope, STAFFScope, Pulse Survey, MEETINGScope

 Press Releases

• UniFocus Earns Approved Vendor Status with IHG Hotels & Resorts Global Franchise Estate for Advanced Workforce Management Technology (Jun 15, 2022)

  DALLAS, TX—June 6, 2022—UniFocus, the leading provider of Workforce Management Systems, has been awarded the designation of Approved Vendor by IHG® Hotels & Resorts for all brands and service levels across the franchise hotels that are part of its portfolio of nearly 6,000 hotels in over 100 countries around the world. The global hotel company’s franchise owners will have the opportunity to access advanced workforce management technology with a proven industry track record of optimizing workforce productivity and employee retention.

  “With a family of 17 diverse hotel brands under the IHG umbrella, we are committed to providing a high level of guest service and help our hotel owners operate more efficiently. UniFocus has the technological expertise to ensure that labor resources are utilized in a way that exceeds guest expectations and optimizes hotel operations,” said Christian Urbat, Head of Owner Solutions, IHG Hotels & Resorts. “Using UniFocus’ array of solutions, each of our locations can effortlessly staff according to projected demand and not just by the day but by the hour, maximizing productivity for each department area.”

  As an Approved Vendor, IHG hotel owners can optimize labor and operations with UniFocus’ Labor Management platform where advanced algorithms analyze occupancy, employee availability, compliance, and other business influences to accurately forecast staffing volumes. By going beyond simply inserting existing labor standards to create an employee schedule, UniFocus Labor Management technology is uniquely able to automatically determine the precise number of staff required to maintain service quality levels. This includes providing optimized scheduling for a hotel’s F&B, housekeeping, front desk, spa, maintenance as well as meeting and event operations to name a few examples.

  Using UniFocus’ Time & Attendance software in combination with its Labor Management platform, IHG properties can also ensure employee alignment with scheduling strategies while providing each staff member with enhanced shift flexibility. With many of today’s employees basing their continued loyalty to an organization on the ability to achieve a greater work/life balance, Time & Attendance notably allows them to select the shifts they would like to work based on business needs to prevent any lapses in service quality.

  “With the drastic shifts that have taken place in workforce management as a result of the labor shortage and rising employee expectations, we are honored that IHG Hotels & Resorts recognizes the tremendous value that our solutions provide in resolving these challenges and ensuring continued high quality of service,” said Moneesh Arora, CEO of UniFocus. “With our full suite of solutions now available to IHG-branded properties around the world, we look forward to each location experiencing a dramatic increase in both productivity and profitability while ensuring that business, guest and staff interests are always fully aligned.”

• UniFocus Donates Knowcross Task Management Suite to the NYU School of Professional Studies Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality (Jun 15, 2022)

  DALLAS, TX— May 26, 2022—UniFocus, the leading provider of Workforce Management Systems, is today honored to announce the donation of its suite of Knowcross task and workforce management solutions to the NYU School of Professional Studies Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality. Representing the latest advances in hotel operations optimization, access to Knowcross technology as part of the Tisch Center’s curriculum for undergraduate and graduate programs will ensure that students gain the first-hand experience they need to succeed in today’s increasingly complex hospitality environments.

  Knowcross solutions by UniFocus will be integrated into the Tisch Center’s Hospitality Innovation Hub, a cutting-edge portal hosting a range of technologies currently used by hotels around the world. Serving as a virtualized representation of a modern hotel business, the Hospitality Innovation Hub notably goes beyond traditional courses by providing students with the ability to discover how various industry platforms can influence performance across multiple departmental areas.

  “Our hospitality program strives to not just provide students with theoretical knowledge but to also empower them with real-world experience, with access to solutions such as Knowcross, offering a unique opportunity to learn how hotel operations and staff can be managed more effectively,” said Vanja Bogicevic, Director of the Hospitality Innovation Hub at the Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality. “UniFocus, with its suite of Knowcross platforms, will undoubtedly prove to be a tremendous asset as students learn how to navigate recent industry challenges such as the labor shortage. Our partnership with UniFocus will further allow students to discover new and innovative ways of reimagining the future of hospitality workforce management in order to address rising expectations of both guests and hotel employees.”

  Knowcross solutions to be made available to NYU SPS hospitality students include:

  • Knowcross Housekeeping- Leading to double-digit improvements in staff productivity as a mobile-enabled platform that automates housekeeping task assignments and updates completion status in real-time.
  • Knowcross Service- Ensuring the swift and effective management of guest requests to maintain consistently high service quality and satisfaction rates.
  • Knowcross Glitch- Providing hoteliers with the means to effortlessly track, investigate and resolve service issues before guest experiences are negatively impacted.
  • Knowcross Maintenance- Offering hotels the seamless ability to organize and oversee all onsite maintenance needs, with intelligent automation that ensures increased asset life while reducing operational downtime and repair costs.
  • Knowcross Inspection- Bringing hotel operations management into the 21st century by providing staff with the ability to review inspection checklists via mobile device, with managers automatically notified of completed inspections by email.

  “The priorities of managing a hotel business continue to evolve at an ever faster pace, so we are very honored that the Tisch Center sees the value our solutions offer in preparing future industry leaders to be able to adapt to shifting industry workforce needs,” said Moneesh Arora, CEO of UniFocus. “The unique learning experience that Knowcross solutions provide include the ability for students to see firsthand how the latest technologies can balance both guest and staff needs in order to run a profitable and adequately staffed hotel operation. In the next phase of our collaboration, UniFocus is also very pleased to donate our Labor Management and Survey Solutions to ensure that the students of the Tisch Center of Hospitality have the opportunity to gain experience using cutting-edge, staff performance-enhancing technology.”

• UniFocus Boosts Hotelier Capabilities to Attract and Retain Employees with Intelligent Tip Pooling (Jun 15, 2022)

  DALLAS, TX— March 17, 2022—UniFocus, the leading provider of Workforce Management Systems, has today announced its launch of an advanced tip pooling software feature. This feature streamlines hotel business operations while automatically providing employees with the precise amount of tips owed. Combined with UniFocus’ innovative instant pay capabilities (Rain), the new functionality will allow hoteliers to address widespread demands for flexible wage access which has become essential to creating and maintaining a loyal and productive workforce.

  Able to be integrated with UniFocus’ Time & Attendance platform or serve as a standalone solution, the new tip pooling feature notably sidesteps the need for managers to spend countless hours manually tracking the number of tips using spreadsheets. When integrated with a property’s point-of-sale system, the technology automatically calculates all tips received on a daily basis. Using a pre-determined set of parameters such as how many hours or covers an employee has worked, the feature can then instantly determine the correct tip amount for each individual staff member to ensure the accuracy of wages received.

  As an added bonus, managers can leverage UniFocus’ Time & Attendance platform with the Rain integration, providing their employees with instant access of up to 50 percent of their earnings in advance. To ensure maximum flexibility and convenience, UniFocus further provides employees with several options to receive payment in advance, including the use of debit cards which can be crucial for team members who do not have personal banking accounts.

  “As workers who often live paycheck-to-paycheck, frontline hospitality employees will begin to look elsewhere for better job opportunities if they feel that their current employer isn’t helping make ends meet,” said Mark Heymann, Founder and Board Director at UniFocus. “Our intelligent tip pooling technology sidesteps this ongoing challenge for businesses by removing a laborious, time-consuming and error prone process from the hands of managers and ensuring that each employee is paid both fairly and promptly. Together with our industry-leading instant pay capabilities, hoteliers can now live up to modern workforce expectations that increasingly require access to wages on their terms to gain their commitment, loyalty and trust.”

  By advancing the innovation of same day pay capabilities, UniFocus further enables hoteliers to earn a reputation as an employer of choice by addressing growing needs for instant wage access and ending employee reliance on predatory lending services.

• UniFocus Achieves Industry First in Spurring Workforce Management Motivation and Engagement with Unveiling of Gamification Capabilities (Jun 15, 2022)

  DALLAS, TX—January 20, 2022—UniFocus, the leading provider of Workforce Management Systems, has today announced the launch of advanced gamification abilities for its solutions, providing hospitality businesses with a powerful tool leading to enhanced productivity and the increase in labor management expertise across the breadth of an organization. With the new functionality, businesses can now ensure that managers are recognized for their ongoing efforts in learning how to maximize the use of technology to streamline and improve labor management processes, resulting in higher service quality, employee loyalty and increased business revenues.

  “Many regional and general managers provided valuable feedback that they would like a way to encourage operational managers to use the labor management system to its fullest potential,” said Christopher McNutt, Product Manager at UniFocus. “Our gamification feature encourages scheduling managers to schedule to standard, and reduce the risk of cost and quality issues, by allowing them to earn badges when these scenarios are met. It also presents a badge to managers responsible for forecasting each time they identify outliers, making system-generated forecasts even smarter. With badges able to be earned by all managers for accessing the dashboard, this has encouraged all leadership personnel to dig deeper into the tools already available to analyze the business and ensure their ability to stay on track.”

  Via the new My Dashboard feature, a portal serving as a personal space to customize individual software needs, UniFocus provides each manager with the ability to earn badges recognizing their completing of specific tasks. This can include earning badges for meeting weekly expense targets, learning a new labor management/scheduling process, ensuring that department attendance stays within acceptable levels and more. Personnel can notably use My Dashboard to review the badges they have earned as well as identify ones that have yet to be awarded. If a business recognizes that a specific software feature is not being utilized or if an organizational goal is not being met, additional badges can be created to drive behavior towards using the feature or meeting target thresholds.

  “This latest enhancement to our labor management technology is truly game-changing in that it provides businesses with the ability to actively play an influential role in promoting engagement while creating shareable expertise throughout an organization,” said Mark Heymann, CEO of UniFocus. “Using our gamification feature, team members can readily identify who within their company has relevant knowledge over a specific process such as shift scheduling or forecasting service demand. By identifying such experts, employees can easily gain access to knowledge over processes that they themselves may be unfamiliar with, minimizing learning curves and boosting overall business productivity and performance as a result. This can also lead to a cross-pollination of ideas where subject experts can share best practices with one another, potentially uncovering new and improved ways of accomplishing tasks that can now be put to use in benefitting the entire organization.”

  UniFocus achievement badges come in three levels- silver, gold and platinum. This feature further incentivizes team members to continue improving their knowledge and performance by allowing them to receive recognition with the leveling-up of badges. To maximize engagement, businesses can utilize UniFocus badges to recognize team member accomplishments in employee newsletters, on business social media channels, or by using the system to identify an employee of the month to name a few examples.

  “From the perspective of a scheduling or forecasting manager, many will feel a sense of pride in the badges they obtain each week,” continued McNutt. “Each badge can stack into achievements and comes with a number of points that add to a manager’s running total. Managers and their peers can be very competitive, so this can often lead to the comparing of trophy cases located in the profile screen which ultimately results in much higher engagement and more effective use of the labor management system.”

  About UniFocus

  UniFocus is the only complete workforce management platform designed to fundamentally shift the way service industries manage labor. The powerful platform helps managers plan with intelligent Labor Management tools that automatically produce accurate forecasts, optimized schedules based on business demand, employee availability, service standards and work rules. Staff is easily aligned with a world-class Time and Attendance module that communicates schedules and facilitates swaps with tools like Shift Genius that live within an intuitive mobile app. Once scheduled, frontline employees operate with ease from the industry-leading Knowcross Task Management suite that streamlines guest services, housekeeping, maintenance, inspections and glitches.

  With traditional workplace silos removed, managers benefit from a complete view of analytics and a personalized virtual assistant, Odin, that highlights opportunities to improve productivity and cost controls while keeping an eye on guest satisfaction and employee engagement. UniFocus is arming managers with best-in-class decision making technology in the hospitality, restaurant, retail, and healthcare industries. ⬡

• UniFocus Unveils Predictive Scheduling, a Powerful Tool Ensuring Fair Workweek Compliance and Effective Labor Coverage (Jun 15, 2022)

  DALLAS, TX—January 11, 2020—UniFocus, the leading provider of Workforce Management Systems, has today announced its launch of intelligent predictive scheduling capabilities for its Labor Management and Time & Attendance solutions, providing today’s hoteliers with the instantly accessible intelligence they need to successfully pivot their business operations in response to the growth in fair workweek laws. With UniFocus’ predictive scheduling feature, managers can finally balance fair workweek law compliance with employee wellbeing and trust while effortlessly aligning staff schedules to conform with business needs.

  From frontline hotel managers and HR directors to those responsible for ensuring legal compliance, UniFocus’ predictive scheduling feature is an essential tool to enable operators to incorporate the complexities of adhering to a myriad of fair workweek laws that can vary by state and municipality. The tool notably incorporates all local rules, instantly eliminating the guesswork that can stall scheduling operations or lead to non-compliant schedules and heavy fines.

  Unifocus’ predictive scheduling offers a clear holistic picture of how, when and where labor resources can be lawfully and effectively utilized. Managers are alerted when attempting to adjust set shifts or change hours from an employee’s previously assigned schedule that are non-compliant. When coupled with UniFocus’ advanced Time & Attendance platform, predictive scheduling also offers the option of overriding alerts with the payment of the locally mandated penalty to the affected employee. Penalty rates may vary by region, however, UniFocus with predictive scheduling can always automatically implement the correct rate which is then instantly added to an employee’s timecard for even greater efficiency, transparency, and legal compliance.

  “With hoteliers facing more limitations on the ability to adjust schedules that fall outside of permitted time frames, the industry is calling for solutions that don’t just follow legal requirements, but that also provide them with the means to make informed business decisions,” said Mark Heymann, CEO of UniFocus. “Predictive scheduling by UniFocus respects the needs of both employees and employers. Operators can plan their schedules with confidence, knowing they are always fully compliant and if they’re not, can understand the fiscal impact of choosing to make non-compliant schedule changes out of necessity. Predictive scheduling helps provide staff with a predictable work environment that breeds loyalty while preventing any coverage lapses that can impact the guest experience.”

  Predictable scheduling is also able to integrate with ShiftGenius, another high-value tool that gives staff members enhanced schedule flexibility while making managers’ lives even easier. The only tool currently available that provides employee shift flexibility without negatively affecting service quality, ShiftGenius enables staff members to select from a list of open shifts to create a schedule that perfectly aligns with both personal and work-related needs. Together with predictable scheduling, managers automatically ensure that any shift pick-up requests remain in compliance with regional fair workweek regulations.

  Predictive scheduling is one of many features UniFocus solutions that automates compliance with labor laws. Other functions include the integrating of rules regarding the scheduling of minors, ensuring adherence to employee break rules and more.

  About UniFocus

  UniFocus is the only complete workforce management platform designed to fundamentally shift the way service industries manage labor. The powerful platform helps managers plan with intelligent Labor Management tools that automatically produce accurate forecasts, optimized schedules based on business demand, employee availability, service standards and work rules. Staff is easily aligned with a world class Time and Attendance module that communicates schedules and facilitates swaps with tools like Shift Genius that live within an intuitive mobile app. Once scheduled, frontline employees operate with ease from the industry-leading Knowcross Task Management suite that streamlines guest services, housekeeping, maintenance, inspections, and glitches.

  With traditional workplace silos removed, managers benefit from a complete view of analytics and a personalized virtual assistant, Odin, that highlights opportunities to improve productivity and cost controls while keeping an eye on guest satisfaction and employee engagement. UniFocus is arming managers with best-in-class decision-making technology in the hospitality, restaurant, retail, and healthcare industries. Check us out at UniFocus.com to learn more about how service industries are rethinking workforce management.

• UniFocus Wins TechOvation Award for Spurring Innovation in Effective Shift Coverage and Employee Schedule Flexibility With ShiftGenius (Jun 15, 2022)

  DALLAS, TX—December 16, 2021—UniFocus, the leading provider of Workforce Management Systems, has today announced its winning of this year’s TechOvation Award for the development of ShiftGenius, a powerful scheduling feature for their Labor Management and Time & Attendance partners. Selected from a list of 10 semi-finalists, UniFocus’ ShiftGenius was named hospitality’s most innovative solution thanks to its unmatched capabilities in making manager lives easier, ensuring a greater work/life balance for employees and providing employers with a competitive edge in meeting growing trends towards schedule flexibility.

  Hosted by HTNG, the annual TechOvation Award is among the industry’s most prestigious and was created to recognize the contributions of solution developers in pushing technology innovation forward throughout the global hospitality industry. At this year’s awards which saw 19 companies take part, UniFocus with its ShiftGenius solution was selected by the judges as a semi-finalist and given the opportunity to present its innovation in front of a live audience at HT-NEXT. Consisting of hospitality professionals from around the world, audience members were tasked with selecting their choice for this year’s most innovative platform, with UniFocus’ ShiftGenius coming out on top by receiving the highest number of votes.

  “We are thrilled and honored that our industry recognizes the immense value that ShiftGenius brings in ensuring that hoteliers can effortlessly and instantly adapt to new labor market conditions and expectations,” said Mark Heymann, CEO of UniFocus. “Today’s workers influenced by the gig economy and ongoing impact of the pandemic, are more than ever seeking out greater control over the hours they work. At the same time, managers require intuitive tools allowing them to instantly make informed scheduling decisions that take both business and employee needs into account. With ShiftGenius, hoteliers can be sure that they always meet the service expectations of their guests while leveraging the platform’s scheduling flexibility attain a reputation as the ultimate employer of choice.”

  Launched in 2021, ShiftGenius serves as a standard feature for UniFocus’ Labor Management and Time & Attendance solutions. The platform is uniquely informed by an intelligent labor management system that leverages accurate, multi-variable forecasts and specific service level needs to automatically generate optimized schedules that ensure quality service. This makes UniFocus the only provider that can implement flexible scheduling options without risking service quality and significantly increasing manual admin tasks.

  UniFocus is uniquely equipped to provide a feature like ShiftGenius because it is informed by an intelligent labor management system that leverages accurate, multi-variable forecasts and specific service level needs to automatically generate optimized schedules that ensure quality service. This makes UniFocus the only provider that can implement flexible scheduling options without risking service quality and significantly increasing manual admin tasks.

  Building on an existing feature for finding immediate coverage when an employee is absent, ShiftGenius expands that concept to all open shifts, even before the schedule is published. ShiftGenius is smarter than a general blast – it allows managers to target whom they want to send the shift(s) to, based on their own rankings or groupings (like seniority and skills), cross-utilize within the property or across properties, all while providing visibility into availability, overtime, and other work rules. The UniFocus environment is real-time, meaning that the system won’t allow employees to pick up shifts that violate work rules and all updates are live immediately.

  If they chose to do so, this feature also allows managers to send out the entire open schedule for employees to select the shifts they prefer. Managers will still approve the schedules to ensure the business needs are met. With the current demands of the workforce, this allows employees to work shifts that fit with the rest of their lives.

  ShiftGenius is an additional, standard feature both in the web version and in the highly rated UniFocus mobile app.  Learn more about ShiftGenius. ⬡

• Curator Hotel & Resort Collection Partners with UniFocus for Labor Management and Time and Attendance Software (Jun 15, 2022)

  Bethesda, Maryland and Dallas, Texas — October 13, 2021 — Curator Hotel & Resort Collection (“Curator”) and UniFocus announced today a partnership agreement that provides Curator member hotels with access to the industry’s latest capabilities in labor management and time and attendance software to optimize productivity for today’s complex and ever-changing workforces.

  “In selecting a preferred labor management provider for Curator member hotels, we found that UniFocus has a proven reputation in delivering the exceptional service quality that guests staying at lifestyle, full-service hotels expect,” said Austin Segal, Curator’s Vice President. “Since several Curator member properties are already utilizing UniFocus technology, including Noble House Hotels & Resorts, we knew first-hand that the Company’s solutions continue to demonstrate that hoteliers can achieve a heightened level of productivity that each service area rightfully deserves, without running into the issues of overstaffing or sacrificing service quality from one area in favor of another.”

  Through the new partnership agreement, Curator hotel owners and operators can leverage UniFocus’ technology to predict precise demand across property operations and activities to ensure that employees are always exactly where they need to be to deliver unparalleled guest experiences. Going beyond simply plugging in existing labor standards into a management system, the UniFocus approach to workforce scheduling instead involves leveraging its adaptive technology to predict staffing trend needs for each service area. For full-service hotels, this can include F&B, spa, meeting, and event operations and departments such as housekeeping or maintenance that can be found at virtually any hotel.

  “There are several workforce management and time and attendance platforms that Curator evaluated during their selection process, but their decision to choose UniFocus as a preferred provider is evidence of our industry-leading capabilities and the unparalleled value we provide to independent hotels and resorts,” said Mark Heymann CEO at UniFocus. “From ensuring that operations can keep pace with the new dynamics of today’s hotel environments to identifying opportunities for increasing revenue and optimizing costs, we look forward to the opportunity to equip each Curator Collection hotelier with the adaptive analytical tools they need to always serve the best interests of their guests, employees and the business.”  ⬡

  About Curator Hotel & Resort Collection

  Curator Hotel & Resort Collection is a distinct collection of hand-selected small brands and independent lifestyle hotels and resorts worldwide, founded by Pebblebrook Hotel Trust and a group of industry-leading hotel operators. Curator provides lifestyle hotels the power to compete together while allowing its members the freedom to retain what makes their hotels unique. It offers independent lifestyle hotels the benefits of associating with other unique lifestyle hotels and brands while participating in best-in-class operating agreements, services, and technology. In addition to Pebblebrook, the founding members of Curator include Davidson Hospitality Group, Noble House Hotels & Resorts, Provenance, Sage Hospitality Group, Springboard Hospitality, and Viceroy Hotels & Resorts. For more information, visit www.curatorhotelsandresorts.com.

  About Pebblebrook Hotel Trust 

  Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE: PEB) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (“REIT”) and the largest owner of urban and resort lifestyle hotels in the United States. The Company owns 52 hotels, totaling approximately 13,000 guest rooms across 15 urban and resort markets. For more information, visit http://www.pebblebrookhotels.com and follow us at @PebblebrookPEB.

• UniFocus Expands Its Workforce Management Capabilities with Acquisition of Knowcross (Jun 15, 2022)

  DALLAS, TX — September 8, 2021 — UniFocus, the leading provider of Workforce Management Systems, today announced its acquisition of Knowcross, a global leader in task management and operational optimization software for the hospitality industry. The merging of the two organizations’ technologies under the UniFocus umbrella is set to provide service business operators a single, streamlined solution for determining the real-time labor needs of their business while ensuring timely service completion for maximum operational efficiency across each of their various departments.

  In addition to bringing together two best-in-class platforms, UniFocus and Knowcross will be infused with capital via Riverside to build an unparalleled ecosystem that meets industry needs in a post-pandemic world.

  The Knowcross platform is often the single most-used operational software in a hotel. This positions UniFocus and Knowcross to serve the joint customer bases of the hotel industry and healthcare like no other. Additionally, joining forces will bring Knowcross’s powerful task management and operations tools into the service industries UniFocus serves, such as the restaurant space. Beyond improving operational performance, operators in all industries served will be able to streamline health and safety and further ensure quality with integrated inspections while replacing and digitizing logbooks.

  “UniFocus’ roots are in labor scheduling, demand forecasting and time & attendance. Expanding our platform further into operations management was the natural next step,” said Mark Heymann, CEO of UniFocus. “Knowcross has a best-in-class suite of task management tools, and we are excited by the power and insights that will come from the countless opportunities to integrate our technologies. Together, our platforms will boost managers’ decision making by integrating data from forecasting, scheduling, task execution, as well as guest and employee satisfaction in one ecosystem.”

  UniFocus and Knowcross share a vision on each company’s roadmap and see this move as a way to accelerate both teams‘ plans for innovation and reaching new markets. With complementary geographic presences, the combined result is a truly global presence to deliver all solutions around the world.

  In today’s labor crisis, scheduling the right people, at the right time, and having them perform the right tasks are imperative as service industries seek out operational efficiencies. In this regard, the integrations between the UniFocus and Knowcross platforms are as powerful as they are endless. Combining scheduling and task communication within one easily accessible mobile app streamlines operations and keeps employees engaged.

  The precise demand-based scheduling from UniFocus’ Labor Management tool is taken to the next level with KNOW Housekeeping, KNOW Service, and KNOW Maintenance tasks, which have proven to create double-digit improvements in staff productivity. KNOW Glitch and the UniFocus Guest Scope survey tool ensure the quick resolution of guest’s issues and satisfaction with the resolution.

  “Our roadmap and customer requests were leading us into the Labor Management and Time and Attendance space,” said Nikhil Nath, CEO and founder of Knowcross. “As we explored our opportunities, the merits of joining forces with an industry leading platform was so compelling that it was an obvious choice to integrate the UniFocus and Knowcross platforms. The opportunities afforded by combined entities are quite phenomenal. We are looking forward to delivering a comprehensive workforce management system that was specifically designed for the service industry to our clients.”

  ABOUT UNIFOCUS

  UniFocus workforce management software provides all the tools you need to make labor force decisions with confidence. We help you optimize your daily operations with powerful yet flexible tools. Empower leadership and staff to create schedules that maximize customer satisfaction while minimizing wasted labor hours. Better labor management for contingent workforces in the hospitality, restaurant, retail, and healthcare industries. If you are in the market for a better WFMS, contact us today.

  ABOUT KNOWCROSS

  Founded in 2002, Knowcross is a global leader in hotel operations optimization software, developing proven service quality management solutions to maximize efficiency, productivity and elevate guest service - with a direct impact on increasing the bottom line.

  The innovative Knowcross cloud-based (SaaS) platform includes a suite of pioneering applications including KNOW Service, KNOW Housekeeping, KNOW Glitch, KNOW Inspection, KNOW Tenant and KNOW Maintenance. All Knowcross solutions support multiple languages, can be fully customized, and seamlessly interface to the leading PMS systems, in-room control systems, staff safety devices, messaging gateways and fire alarm systems.

• Changing The Playbook: How Labor Management Technology Can Transform Hospitality's Outdated Labor Structures (Jun 15, 2022)

  August 23, 2021 - By Mark Heymann, CEO, UniFocus - The widespread staffing shortages plaguing hospitality enterprises are not solely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Sure, the pandemic has intensified them, but the shortages are more so a direct byproduct of ineffective labor structures that fail to align with the needs of a new generation of workers. From low wages, restrictive shift duration limits and outdated overtime rules to a lack of flexible scheduling and work-life balance, the fundamental components of hospitality’s labor structure have a negative impact on the overall work environment.

  Take the restaurant sector, for example. A whopping 75% of all restaurant employees in 2020 were classified as Gen Z or millennials — two generations with far different work expectations and priorities than those before them. Now, fast forward to April 2021, when a record-high 5.6% of restaurant employees quit their jobs despite demand returning.

  Coincidence? I think not.

  There are currently more than 1.4 million restaurant job openings across the United States, with the 350,000 openings added since March representing the sharpest rise of any industry. It’s a microcosm of a larger problem that expands across the entire hospitality landscape. Rather than resisting change, organizations need to embrace it with an increased focus on policy changes and digitized labor structures that appeal to today’s workers.

  The Need For Flexibility

  The traditional five-day, eight-hour workweek should be in the rear-view mirror. Employees desire the flexibility to work different days and times that fit around their personal lives. Some may work multiple jobs, while others may have family obligations that prohibit them from maintaining a set weekly schedule. In turn, they need the freedom to fluctuate shift time durations and still maximize their hours over five days. For example:

  • Week 1: Three 12-hour shifts and two four-hour shifts.
  • Week 2: Four 10-hour shifts and one eight-hour shift.
  • Week 3: Two 12-hour shifts and three 8-hour shifts.

  However, federal and state overtime laws, as well as union contractual rules, created decades ago, restrict this flexibility. On the federal level, full-time employees are prohibited from working more than 40 hours per week, and for any time that exceeds the 40-hour cap, their employers are required to pay them 1.5x their hourly wage (time and a half). At many state and local levels, the overtime rule turns to eight hours per day. While most workers would welcome overtime, considering it gives them the opportunity to earn additional income, employers tend to avoid it due to cost constraints.

  Additionally, certain states like California require businesses to apply for an authorization waiver in order to schedule shift durations that are longer than eight hours. The cumbersome legal process disincentivizes the employer from incorporating flexible scheduling — especially during periods of volatile demand — to essentially penalize employees instead of protecting them. These types of policies need to be changed to support severely understaffed restaurants and hotels that are struggling to survive and recover from the pandemic.

  The Role Of Digital Transformation

  With more than 30 years of labor management experience, particularly in hospitality, I’ve witnessed a paradigm shift in the service workplace environment as the demands and expectations of the common employee have changed from one decade to the next. Gen Z and millennial employees are extremely tech-centered. After all, they were the first generations to grow up in the smartphone era. From social media and FaceTime to online shopping and food delivery apps, they’ve grown accustomed to the convenience factor of mobile technology and expect the same from their employer.

  The acceleration of advancements in AI-driven labor management solutions can help transform hospitality’s ineffective labor approach into a system that aligns with those generations. This new dynamic enables organizations to tailor their schedules to the needs of the individual employee while still aligning staffing levels with demand. They also automate mid-shift wage adjustments so managers can cross-utilize staffers at different hourly rates, which helps employees maximize their income per pay period.

  Labor management solutions with multiplatform functionality allow tech-savvy workers to clock in/clock out, adjust schedules, communicate with managers and complete training programs all from their mobile devices. In addition, managers can use mobile technology to distribute digital employee surveys that collect feedback on staff morale and workplace to address — creating staff-wide transparency that helps maintain high levels of employee engagement.

  The change in the relationship between employers and employees must be addressed. A greater balance between the two positions, coupled with advanced scheduling technology that allows for shift selections and greater shifting flexibility unique to each staff member, would overcome the fear of management taking advantage of its staff if regulations and rules are adjusted. For those organizations that try to move back to one-sided relationships, employees will leave to work for better workplace environments. It will also restrict their ability to attract and hire new employees.

  It’s time for hospitality leaders, federal and state lawmakers and even union contracts to accept the fact that the playing field for labor has changed. Now more than ever, restaurants and hotels are in need of a more modernized approach to labor management and workforce optimization. The adoption of innovative labor management technology that leverages artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced analytics can empower them to align with the times for sustained success.

• UniFocus Launches ShiftGenius, An Advanced Scheduling Feature to Find Coverage and Promote Employee Schedule Flexibility (Jun 15, 2022)

  DALLAS, TX—August 19, 2021—UniFocus, the leading provider of Workforce Management Systems, today announced a powerful scheduling feature for their Labor Management and Time & Attendance partners. ShiftGenius makes managers’ lives easier, helps employees reach a better-balanced schedule for their lives, and helps employers stand out in the labor market by addressing the trend towards more flexibility. Managers can send open shifts – whether a single shift or the whole schedule – to employees, who can then pick up shifts or create their own schedule.

  Anticipating that the gig economy will represent more than half the labor market by 2023, UniFocus is introducing ShiftGenius as a standard feature so that organizations are equipped to provide schedule flexibility to their employees. But for organizations to feel confident implementing flexible schedules, they must first ensure that their schedules meet the needs of the business.

  UniFocus is uniquely equipped to provide a feature like ShiftGenius because it is informed by an intelligent labor management system that leverages accurate, multi-variable forecasts and specific customer needs to automatically generate optimized schedules that ensure quality service. This makes UniFocus the only provider that can implement flexible scheduling options without risking service quality and significantly increasing manual admin tasks.

  

  “In today’s workforce, managers and employees working with shift-based work schedules need tools that allow flexibility and control of schedules,” said Mark Heymann, CEO of UniFocus. “Workers were already turning to gig work before the pandemic because it gives them control of their own schedules. The pandemic has complicated people’s schedules, which contributes to the labor shortage. So we’re thrilled to provide our partners the tools they and their employees need to ensure that business needs are met and to provide employees more control of their schedules. ShiftGenius helps our partners in the fight to be the employer of choice in their areas.”

  Building on an existing feature for finding immediate coverage when an employee is absent, ShiftGenius expands that concept to all open shifts, even before the schedule is published. ShiftGenius is smarter than a general blast – it allows managers to target whom they want to send the shift(s) to, based on their own rankings or groupings (like seniority and skills), cross-utilize within the property or across properties, all while providing visibility into availability, overtime, and other work rules. The UniFocus environment is real-time, meaning that the system won’t allow employees to pick up shifts that violate work rules and all updates are live immediately.

  If they chose to do so, this feature also allows managers to send out the entire open schedule for employees to select the shifts they prefer. Managers will still approve the schedules to ensure the business needs are met. With the current demands of the workforce, this allows employees to have schedules that fit with the rest of their lives.

  ShiftGenius is an additional standard feature both in the web version and in the highly rated UniFocus mobile app. ⬡