SocialSchedules Reviews

Pros

Ease of use. Messaging system and shift swap approvals.

Cons

There wasn't much not to dislike about this product. I've had no user issues with it, nor manager issues with it.

Pros

I really like how we can make frequent updates/changes to the staff. We are a job training program with shifts going to Managers, temporary interns, and volunteers. I like how convenient it is for users to interface with it. It’s very accessible.

Cons

I can’t really think of anything. I know sometimes the interface for messages for managers can get cluttered because they are inundated with staff individual and group messages. It might be nice if there was an easy way to sort or archive certain threads or easily click on a user and see all the messages associated with that person.

Pros

Everything is great about opensimsim except in January of 2019 the update they did made their system non-compatible with use on iPad.

This is a huge huge downside of the product someone not to smart didn’t keep the system compatible with iOS on an iPad cuz I used it for over a year that way.

I don’t carry or want to carry a laptop with me everywhere which means I get chained to a desk to write schedules now that I can’t use my iPad anymore. Two thumbs down!!!!

Cons

Everything is great about opensimsim except in January of 2019 the update they did made their system non-compatible with use on iPad.

This is a huge huge downside of the product someone not to smart didn’t keep the system compatible with iOS on an iPad cuz I used it for over a year that way.

I don’t carry or want to carry a laptop with me everywhere which means I get chained to a desk to write schedules now that I can’t use my iPad anymore. Two thumbs down!!!!

Pros

Being able to easily set and send schedules

Cons

Glitches in the software when scheduling or swapping or dropping shifts

Alternatives Considered

HotSchedules

Reasons for Switching to SocialSchedules

Met with owner great guy and gave us a free trial and we loved it great company

Pros

Super easy to use and set up. It has been as smooth of a transition for our employees One could hope for. Most employees have been able to get it set up and availability updated with no direct instruction other than our expectations.

Cons

A few simple features I would like to see on the app are: view only first initial of last name on printed schedule (privacy issue of employees), hide total hours on printed schedule, select individual rights for remote clock in (paid version).

Alternatives Considered

When I Work

Reasons for Switching to SocialSchedules

When I Works app was very glitchy and its expensive for just a scheduling package. Free trial only allows you to schedule out 10 days and that made the testing out process double the work.

Pros

It gives us ease of access to schedules for multiple locations, and easy to identify and contact an employee that is working.

Cons

Setting up mutiple locations and schedule labeling/identification.

Alternatives Considered

Spark Hire and HireVue

Reasons for Choosing SocialSchedules

More centralized location of schedules for multiple locations.

Switched From

Microsoft Excel

Pros

I like the price, because we are a non-profit organization with about 20 volunteers. I needed something that would keep track of everyone and with your product I can see the schedule on my phone or computer. It is very handy.

Cons

I'd like to be able to schedule people from my phone.

Alternatives Considered

When I Work

Reasons for Switching to SocialSchedules

OpenSimSim allowed me to schedule out for months at a time. The When I Work program only let me go out for 10 days.

Pros

web-based, price, and on-boarding for employees. The software gives you the flexibility that you need when running payroll.

Cons

No phone app. It is difficult to navigate the first uses.

Alternatives Considered

Paychex Flex

Reasons for Choosing SocialSchedules

Employee visibility of whats happening with their wages.

Switched From

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

Reasons for Switching to SocialSchedules

price

Pros

SocialSchedules is easy to read and manage. Our schedules are published every Friday, and we receive a notification as soon as our manager sends it through. I can see my weekly schedule, and I can see a countdown until my next shift is scheduled to start. I can also rotate my screen sideways to see the schedule for the week along with who else is scheduled to work each day. This makes swapping shifts easier if necessary. I can also message my coworkers in the app and receive managerial notifications in the messaging section or in the "Schedule Notes" section on the home page, which is flagged with a red dot if there is a note that needs to be read. Submitting time off requests is a piece of cake, truly. There is even a segment to leave a note about why you are requesting off, which comes in handy! Overall, I enjoy this product.

Cons

I do not like how I cannot see my total weekly hours after the initial schedule notification is opened. I must manually count my hours if I want to know my exact weekly total. I also do not like how I cannot see the day of the week I am looking at when requesting time off; it would be more convenient if there were a calendar layout as opposed to manually scrolling to the date, month, and year you need.

Pros

I've been using OpenSimSim now for over a year. I really enjoy all of the benefits of the program. Obviously, the greatest thing about OpenSimSim is that it is free; however, I also really love the ease of use. If I am unable to put in the schedule for my agents, it is easy to instruct one of my mentors to do so. The platform is colorful, fast, and the notifications setting is much appreciated by myself as well as my staff.

Cons

I feel like the platform is geared more towards businesses that consistently have weekly set schedules. With the type of business we handle, I wish there was an easier way to create multiple shift opportunities for one day. We could really benefit from being able to quickly create shift intervals. The mobile app lags a bit when a shift is posted, preventing agents from applying for the shift in a timely manner. I also wish the chat system was an API that could be integrated into other programs so that everything can be uniform.

Pros

Its simple and easy to use. It gives you all the information that is required to make informed decisions when planning your teams hours, it gives clarity and removes confusions when dealing with shift swaps and holidays, Both employer and employee are on the same page via a cloud format that automatically updates every one when changes are made. Can roster multiple departments so when in a big retail business you can plan for team members to be working in a different department too. The messaging function is the easiest way to connect with 100+ people in just a few clicks, this helps drive engagement through communication.

Cons

A few upgrades that would improve this further is:
A function to save and print time off requests and approvals so that we could go paperless and keep complient with the IRD -this would also give option for the employee to complete a virtual signature on screen

Also editing a master roster would be great - currently not an option to edit a roster without having it uploaded into an actual week - master rosters are forever changing so would be great to keep these updated simply as things change.

I always found the name OPENSIMSIM "out there" and odd however UBER would have also sounded strange until it was a house hold name, SIMSIM could be as big soon enough!!

Pros

Love the interface. Communication process is great and customer service is amazing.

Cons

-want to be able to easily black out dates for time off requests.
-a way to force staff to look at messages even or notes and “agree” that they have read them would be awesome.
-would love to have an interface to build “standard shifts” that you can then just mine from and add a little easier.
-also on the time off requests it would be helpful to have a limit on requests. So for example, if 3 people are already requested the 10th of the month off and we had set the limit at 3 requests, no one else could request off or make them u available.
-admins should representative the only ones to be able to edit workers availability

The blackout dates would for sure be the most helpful though. And ensuring that an alert is sent to employees when blackout dates are entered by managers.

Pros

The best part about this product is the ease of use and functionality from a team member perspective. This a very easy to use software for team members to understand, learn and utilize on a daily basis.

Cons

There are several limitations concerning this software from a management/admin perspective. Specifically to my unit, the use of sections is limited too much, including being able to view things by section. This software seems ideal for a place that has 1 location (a restaurant) and is able to split people into several sections. However, my account has upwards of 15 locations (which doesn't even take into consideration that there are several accounts within my company), which make it hard for me to view and manage my team's schedule in that regard.

Pros

Ease of use by managers, administrators and regular staff. Straight forward and up to date, even old timers can quickly gain the skills to use opensimsim. I love how you can select particular staff, times, breaks and see a total hours per week. Shift dropping and swapping is also a function that helps take stress off myself as a coordinator. the messaging tool is great also and saves some time in last minute needs and cuts out emails.

Cons

This software works perfectly for my personal use.
Another department here onsite use opensimsim for their rostering but use the publishing option to send out shifts for the whole department at once. They do seem to have trouble working around this but are quite new to the tool as well

Pros

I like that you can see who is all working for the week. I like how it prints out the responsibilities per each person.

Cons

That you cant upload Docs for the staff to see, no files to put things for the staff to see on sales, labor or any sort of spreadsheets.
You cant do the scheduling on your mobile device. You cant see the reason why people have took off via mobile

Pros

I like how easy it is to add new employees to the system. I like how the everyone can know what they need to through the app. I also like the budgeting feature to help keep our production costs down. I also like the messaging feature, I don't use email anymore.

Cons

One thing I don't like is how I can't assign more tasks or positions to one person per shift, or maybe I just don't know how. Another thing is, sometimes I would like to see all of my employees schedules at once instead of scrolling up and down.

Pros

I am involved in a totally volunteer environment and this is the best option for us to control the shifts. It allows for members to be responsible for their own work shifts. We have members from 14 - 89 and they all use it.

Cons

I wish I could customise each week. As in we only patrol or do shifts on weekends and public holidays so really most weeks Mon to fri is blank. Would be better if not there at all. Minor bug and really only applies to our organisation.

Pros

Firstly I use the standard version so it's free, one of the only free rostering software packages I could find

Cons

Lack of auditing tools. I would have liked to be able to track back who has authorised annual leave and also have the ability to input sickness etc

Pros

It's Free! It's a smooth running app. It's convenient, user friendly and my staff loves using it!

Cons

Nothing.

Pros

I have been using it for more than a year to organize my 25 workers and it has been incredible!! Every worker can easily access his/her schedule on the app and the administrators can easily modify schedules or add/delete shifts as necessary.
I don't know how we survived without this app for so long. Obviously there was a great deal less organization back then.
I recommend it to everybody that needs to have the schedule always at hand, specially when you have multiples sites and workers on a day to day basis.

Cons

If I had a doubt it took me a bit to solve it, although when I needed extra help I could do it with a live chat.

Pros

Schedule is alway at your fingertips ok your phone
You can edit and add shifts between employees.
Send out group messages.
Complete shift swaps
And manage all requests off.
It’s brilliant and bang for your buck is unparalleled

Cons

The program at times has technical difficulties which renders it useless.

Pros

It's Free!!!!
It also has some great features, I really appreciate that they added the reminder feature to remind employees when shifts are coming up. Really easy to use. posting a schedule doesn't take more then 5 minutes and they have made it easy to copy over the previous weeks schedule.

Cons

it can get a little buggy sometimes and you have to refresh. The only thing that I would like to see different would be the ability to change availability for my employees. or to schedule folks even when they show up as unavailable

Pros

GPS function, change shifts on the go, great messaging, easy shift allocation as SimSim learns over time with suggestions.
Customer service is very good with online chat, and tech desk resolution if issue not resolved in chat.

Cons

Can't enter regular shifts as recurring. So we have to continue with Jorte Calendar to keep regularity of shifts (daily, weekly, bi weekly, 4 weekly, monthly etc...).
Some updates can be frustrating as you have to 'find out yourself' while using.

Pros

Love the ease of use for both the administrator and the user. We have been using the OpenSimSim for a year now and have had not issues with it whatsoever. The functionality of the software is easy to use even for the least tech savvy individual. Our employees love the app and they love how easy it is to request time-off and to view their work week calendar.

Cons

The administration scheduling side can get overwhelming with a large number of employees by not being able to see the week without scrolling up and down. Minor issue but would be great if there was a way to zoom in and out rather than scrolling up and down so much. But, other then that not too many cons when it comes to OpenSimSim.

Pros

The ease of use is what we like most. Any one of our coordinators can send out shift opportunities and we can keep them organized according to who sent the opportunity out.
Our staff has never had a problem downloading the app onto their devices, and they all enjoy how user friendly it is.
When I have run into a small problem or question, the support staff was right on top of it.

Cons

It would be better if , when a staff member declines a shift, that the program would keep track of who declined. Also, a red flag of some sort for a declined shift would be good.