What is everyone using for managing team tasks?

[cupzcoffeeaz]

Hi All,

Curious about what software or way you manage your team tasks?

I have a coffee shop and I was using a checklist for my team to do. At the moment the checklist is owned by everyone, but I’m realizing that is an issue. If everyone owns it no one owns it.

I am thinking of creating checklist based on the shifts given that everyone in my team is cross functionally trained and we all rotate stations.

I’m trying to figure out how to do this effectively so I can hold the team accountable

[LLCafe]

We have a couple of businesses and use a couple of different things. For our cafe (mostly bag lunch catering) we use Trello because you can have checklist show up automatically and it can be whatever you want it to be with some imagination.

For our Restaurant we like 7Shifts task management because they can be assigned to a position so whoever is working that position that night is responsible, they can be assigned to a department or even individuals. You can even schedule the tasks to show up at a certain time during the shift and track who did the tasks so it's super powerful for repetitive checklists like opening or closing.

[mksavage]

This is such a great question, @cupzcoffeeaz! Similarly, we have found that "If everyone owns it no one owns it."

I love the suggestions from @LLCafe -- I'll definitely be looking into those systems. 

Our team has struggled with using online/app-based checklists, so we have actually switched back to using paper checklists on clipboards that we print each week. We have all tasks assigned based on the station, not the employee, since our employees also rotate through stations each day. They have to sign off on having done the tasks, so we can hold the person assigned to that station on that day accountable for what they signed off on. Then the manager does a check (at opening or closing) to make sure all the tasks were done well, and hold them accountable if they weren't. It's not very fancy, but it's been effective for us. 

[jsestby]

We use Restoke. It has all suppliers, ordering, tasks, recipes, pretty much all back of house in one place. 

[mksavage]

Definitely going to look into this, thanks for the recommendation @jsestby !

[DinaLRosenberg]

ugh- this is so true- when it's everyone's job it becomes no one's... 

we have tried task lists.. we have tried "areas of pride".. none of these things seem to work for us. We've basically taken to having a team meeting every morning to go over the goals of the day and what needs to happen.  It's exhausting but it's the only thing that's really working for us.

Honestly I would LOVE the ability to have this in Square through shifts/payroll.

Additionally I would love a "note" or open function in different areas so we can internally keep track of certain things... for example in inventory a free field where we can keep track of who entered the item, where overstock inventory is located, etc.

[mksavage]

Oooh, the idea of having these tasks linked to roles in Square is an interesting one. That would be a really cool integration. Honestly, the fewer apps we have to use, the better (at least for our team). I would have thought that people would love digital systems, but our team definitely prefers to use as little technology as possible -- they're super comfortable with Square, but anything else we've introduced has been a challenge to train/maintain. 

[DinaLRosenberg]

Agreed- the beauty of square is that it's about 90% of the functionality our business needs.... it seems like a lot of what's "left" would be handled with open notes boxes that would allow the end user to customize the solution for their unique business,

Just like there is a notes field in appointments (which we use) it would be amazing to have the same in every other function (invoices, inventory, etc.)

[Anthem]

This very much lines up with what we have found as well. Seems we've become so accustomed to notifications they have become ineffective, at least in our environment. Alarms get turned off because it's inconvenient at the time then there is no visual reminder to get back to it. notifications get ignored and pile up until there are so many that staff doesn't want to work through and clear them out. 

good 'ol laminated paper, required pictures with each shift creates extra work for my manager but a level of real-time accountability that no tech solution (as much as they should) can recreate. 

[Donnie-M]

@DinaLRosenberg 

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have.

The moral of the story:  If a task is assigned to everyone you are gonna ensure that no one does it.  Doesn't matter if anyone can do it, the only person you count on to do it is who you assign or no one.

[mksavage]

Ha! Love this @Donnie-M ! So true!

[TCSlaguna]

We also use a paper checklist whereby staff sign off on having done the tasks. Manager checks at the end of the day to make sure the people working that day are held accountable. 

We also have a sheet of paper that is laminated with regular weekly tasks. People sign off with a dry erase marker. Then we can wipe clean and start over the next week. 

[vinesandrushes]

This is what we do for weekly/monthly and also for opening/closing tasks on busier days

[QSR-Owner]

@LLCafe suggested 7shifts and I second that.  Great reporting for attendance too!

[MnSelectrical]

Has anyone looked into MeisterTask? Setting our company up with this Team Task account this week. Let me know if anyone has dealt with this company in the past.

[cupzcoffeeaz]

Let me know how it goes 

[Donnie-M]

I use jolt.com and have really good luck with it, but not the cheapest, but I use it for task management and cooler temperature monitoring and prep label printing.

[Honeybeard]

Monday for task management
Homebase in case someone needs a hand with schedule.

Just don't fall for Homebases BS traps.

[Michael_L]

Started using Todoist.com - the task sharing and collaboration is pretty good. 

[mksavage]

I use todoist.com for my own personal to do list management (as well as my grocery list) and love it! We found it a little challenging for team tasks because there's no way to know who completed the task.

[cupzcoffeeaz]

Thanks for sharing I was testing it and I saw the same thing.