Scheduling can be a real challenge for companies whose employees operate in shifts. Over- or underbooking employees can lead to lost wages, overtime and company-wide headaches.
ShedWool is working to rid Chicago, and eventually the country, of its scheduling conflicts. It provides an app that allows employers and employees to manage work schedules efficiently from any mobile device.
The company was created by CEO Corey Warfield, a veteran of the restaurant industry who was frustrated with existing scheduling methods. His 20 years of experience gave him exposure to old-school pen and paper tactics as well as expensive and cumbersome digital scheduling tools.
We have companies that say we saved them hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars.”
In March of this year, he officially launched the bootstrapped startup in Chicago, an area he is very familiar with.
“This is where the different industries are that can use our product,” said Warfield. “And because I’m from this community and I know people on a first-name basis, it really makes sense to focus on this market.”
The service is currently used in several hospitals, fire departments, police departments, retail outlets, hospitality companies and construction firms.
Visibility is a problem for a lot of these organizations — they often cannot get a comprehensive picture of the positions or shift times they need to cover in one spot. ShedWool allows managers to build out shifts in Lego-like blocks that are easily maintainable and malleable, with a large emphasis placed on automation.
“We have companies that say we saved them hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars,” Warfield said.
According to Warfield, the company has been getting the attention of larger firms, and he has already turned down multiple buyout offers. Instead, he plans to scale the company himself and hopes to add new members to the 12-person team over the next six months.
The company is currently developing capabilities that will allow employees to clock in and out via the app using geofencing, among other upcoming technological expansions.
“Right now, we’re a standalone solution that only does scheduling,” said Warfield. “However, the data that we are developing, it needs to talk to payroll solutions and HR solutions. So we’re aggressively looking to build some integrations into a number of POS systems and payroll software solutions, and we know that is going to help us get to the next level.”
