How to get banquet staff to confirm their shifts

Why a posted schedule is not a confirmed one

Banquet crews change from week to week, the guarantee moves, and people have other jobs and lives. A name on a schedule means "assigned". It is the person's reply that makes it "confirmed". Keeping the two apart tells you where the risk is: a Friday dinner with every shift confirmed is safer than one where half the names are still waiting.

A routine that works

1. Post early enough to give time. Tell people when the schedule is up. Some places set notice by law; check yours. This page states none.
2. Set a reply-by time and say it when you post: "please confirm by Wednesday noon."
3. Check at the deadline. List who has not answered, by event, so the biggest events come first.
4. Chase by event, not by person. Captains can reach their own crew.
5. Line up cover for any shift still unanswered close to the date, from your on-call list.
6. Tell people on an event when it changes, and only them. See BEO change orders.

Assigned or confirmed: what each one means

Confirming does not change the count. It tells you how sure you can be that the person will arrive.

What the person sees on the Team plan

• The next 14 days of shifts, each with call time, room, event, role and break
• Confirm or decline with a tap
• Their availability, a way to report a call-out, and who else is on their events
• English or Spanish, whichever they pick

They open the shifts in the phone's browser from an email invite, with no app to download. The invite expires after 7 days.

What you and the captains see

Captains see the week and their own events in detail: the crew, who has confirmed and who has not, and the event's tasks. What a captain can change is your decision for each hotel: tick tasks only; also assign people and tasks; or also edit the event's counts and times.

If someone cannot make it

There are two paths, depending on how far ahead it is.

• Far enough ahead: the person hands the shift back and it is re-posted for someone else.
• Too close: it counts as a call-out. The shift becomes Needs cover, you and the captains for that event are told, and their tasks are flagged so nothing is dropped.

"Far enough ahead" is a hotel setting, the hand-back window. If you have not set one, Hotelwright uses 24 hours before the call time. The screen tells the person which path applies before they tap. You choose cover from the Suggested order or re-post the shift as an open shift.

When the event changes after people confirm

A change after publishing goes only to the people on that event. A guarantee move of 10% or more (the starting point; a hotel setting), or any change of time or room, notifies them and is highlighted on reprints. People can mute routine notices; shift offers always come through.

In Hotelwright

Captain logins, staff logins, publishing, open shifts and notices are on the Team plan. See the banquet captain and staff app, banquet staffing software and staff banquets from the BEO. If you work on paper, the banquet staff schedule template has a Confirmed column.