OpenSimSim

SocialSchedules, previously called OpenSimSim, is an all-in-one team management solution with world-class scheduling, time tracking, and instant messaging features. It stands out because of its highly intuitive drag & drop interface that makes scheduling a breeze.

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OpenSimSim (SocialSchedules) is a robust employee scheduling and time-tracking application that allows employers to minimize manual work and efficiently manage their employees.

It is an all-in-one employee management solution with world-class employee scheduling and time-tracking features, various third-party integrations, and compliance tools.

OpenSimSim gives you a bird’s eye view of your team’s daily, weekly, and monthly schedules and greatly simplifies resource planning. It provides you with all the critical information in a single dashboard showing you the workload and availability status of each of your employees.

OpenSimSim Filters

You can also apply different filters to see the schedules of specific employee types. For example, you can apply a filter to view the schedule of your customer service team only. Similarly, you could apply filters to view the schedule of a specific employee by their name.

This way, you can view any relevant information you need before making a schedule change or assigning a task to an employee.

OpenSimSim’s Employee Management

Using OpenSimSim’s modern drag & drop interface, you can easily assign tasks to different employees, edit shifts, approve/disapprove time-off requests, and perform several other routine employee scheduling tasks. For example, you can click on an employee’s work shift in the scheduler and add notes, assign tasks, or change their work timing.

Employers can also announce different shift opportunities that their team members can sign up for voluntarily. Managers have the option to invite specific employees to a work-shift opportunity or announce it company-wide. This is a great feature since it allows employers to get more out of a team member and provides employees the opportunity to make extra money, work overtime to make up for lost shifts, or trade shifts to manage their schedules.

OpenSimSim also allows managers to create multiple schedules and organize employees into different groups based on their shifts, departments, job roles, or any other criteria. You can also save schedules as templates to use for other departments.

Manager Visibility

Every schedule change or employee request instantly alerts the relevant stakeholders. For example, if an employee requests time-off, the relevant manager gets an app notification. Time-off requests can also be seen in your desktop app’s time-off section.

It also provides you with in-depth performance analytics using which you can see employee performance trends, time-in/time-out graphs, break times, etc.

Testing the Tool

One of the most impressive aspects of OpenSimSim is its onboarding experience. We signed up for its free account that offers all its core features for a limited number of users.

The signup process required just a few minutes, after which we were redirected to the onboarding stage. There, OpenSimSim asked us simple questions about our employees, job roles, and work timing to create a ready-to-use employee schedule.

In addition, its setup wizard walks you through each option in the dashboard to ensure that you understand exactly how to use the tool to its full potential.

Overall, there’s a lot to like about OpenSimSim because of its robust features, intuitive user interface, and helpful content.

OpenSimSim is a complete employee management solution, not just a scheduler. So, it’s not a good fit for any company on a tight budget looking specifically for an entry-level employee scheduling tool. Getting OpenSimSim wouldn’t make sense for such companies because they won’t be able to utilize all its features.

• Drag & Drop Employee Scheduler: OpenSimSim comes with a modern drag & drop & multi-purpose employee scheduler. You can use it to get a bird’s-eye view of your team’s schedule and assign shifts or tasks to specific employees. Plus, you can switch between daily or weekly views to get the information you need. ‍
• Notifications: The moment you finalize a schedule change, assign a new task, or change employee shifts, OpenSimSim sends email, and SMS alerts to the relevant team members. This streamlines communication and ensures everyone is on the same page.‍
• Employee Availability Management: OpenSimSim allows employees to set their available and unavailable time slots that managers can approve or disapprove. Managers also have the ability to invite an employee to a shift even if they’ve marked it as unavailable. Employees can request shift trades with colleagues and send in time-off requests. All requests generate instant notifications to update the key stakeholders.‍
• Private & Group Messaging: OpenSimSim’s instant messaging features allow employers and their teams to stay connected on the go. Employees can create group chat rooms for specific departments/job functions/sites or use private chats to interact directly with employees.‍
• Time Clock: OpenSimSim comes with advanced time tracking features that tell you exactly when an employee shows up for work or clocks out. It comes with GPS tracking and selfie-enabled click-in features to minimize time theft and ensure that employees are not clocking in on their colleagues’ behalf. 

OpenSimSim (SocialSchedules) also offers the following features

• Third-party app integrations
• iPhone and Android apps
• Labor Law Compliance Tools

OpenSimSim seamlessly integrates with several POS & payroll solutions, including Square, Heartland, ADP, Payroll Systems, Shift 4, POSitouch, Restaurant Manager, and Coastal Payroll, to name a few.

OpenSimSim offers three different subscription plans along with a generous free plan that includes all the core product features for one location, one department, and up to 10 workers.

All paid plans offer unlimited workers but apply different limits to the number of locations and departments. Here’s a useful table summarizing the plans on offer:

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Thanks to its well-rounded employee scheduling features and a wide range of integrations, OpenSimSim is ideal for all kinds of businesses, especially retail, restaurants, service-based companies, and manufacturing companies with field and shift workers. However, it works best for any company looking for an advanced employee scheduling tool that includes time tracking features and helps with labor law compliance as well. Small businesses with limited teams can also use its free plan to great effect. But if you’re on a tight budget, don’t need integrations, or need a basic scheduling solution, you can explore other cheaper options as well.

Getting started with OpenSimSim is pretty straightforward and doesn’t take more than a few minutes.

Here are the steps you need to follow.

Step 1: Go to OpenSimSim.com

Step 2: Click the Sign-Up button

Step 3: Create your business account by entering your name, email, and password

Step 4: Enter your business name, business address, and team size.

Step 5: Choose your industry

Step 6: Add at least three workers to your team and choose their job functions (you can add more if you want)

That’s it! You’re now taken straight to your employee scheduler, where you can get a bird’s eye view of your team's weekly workload.

You can get started by adding more workers to your schedule. You’d first enter their names and contact details. They're added to your schedule when they click the confirmation link sent by OpenSimSim and complete their sign-up profile.

OpenSimSim has a dedicated customer education section that contains detailed step-by-step guides for every product feature. They've created the help section in an online course format that covers all the core functions of the product knowing which is essential for a customer to get the most out of the product. The help section is divided into essential and advanced functions covering everything you need to know about the platform. 

Taking it up a notch, the company provides customer support or assistance in getting a client up and running. However, their dedicated customer support is only available to Enterprise users for now.

OpenSimSim, recently rebranded as SocialSchedules, is among the world’s leading employee scheduling and team management tools. Its success doesn’t come as a surprise considering the background and profile of its founder, Roger Avats.

Avats, a Harvard graduate and a military veteran, has over two decades of experience managing, building, and conceptualizing different HR solutions that simplify workforce management and make it accessible to small and medium-sized businesses.

Avats’ background played a crucial role in OpenSimSim’s success since he was already well-connected in the tech industry when he launched the product. Before OpenSimSim, Avats was the CEO of another HR tech company GMT which catered to the workforce management needs of businesses in a wide range of industries, including retail, banks, restaurants, hospitality, call centers, etc.

So, when he launched OpenSimSim, the satisfied customers of his previous products happily became the early adopters and helped him get the ball rolling. Recently, OpenSimSim rebranded as SocialSchedules and significantly improved its UI and features. 

Overall, OpenSimSim is an excellent example of a modern product that has evolved according to the needs of its target market and, as a result, maintained its position as an industry leader.