Named after Co-Founder Mason Fok’s dog, staff scheduling platform Tommy was developed to be the shift worker’s best friend by prioritising work-life harmony.
There’s a familiar sinking feeling that comes with accidentally opening a work-related message outside of working hours, and then a conundrum: do you switch the work side of your brain back on, or leave your boss on ‘read’ for the next 12 hours?
With many hospitality venues using WhatsApp and personal social messaging platforms for work-related announcements and requests such as organising schedules, updating team members, and more, it’s a dilemma many shift workers in the industry have faced – and something software developer Mason Fok sought to remedy in the creation of staff scheduling platform Tommy.
While there are already staff organisation apps in the market, Mason noticed a gap for a product that prioritises the worker’s needs and helps them to create a better work-life harmony.
“There are many scheduling apps that focus on the needs of the business first and the employees second. While this sounds right, it can lead to poor performance and burn out. Tommy’s mission is to make shift work better for everyone. Therefore, when building the platform we approached it from the perspective of the worker and introduced features that would specifically help them, which in turn benefits the workplace,” Mason says.
“One of the key aspects is that Tommy includes a messaging platform, so teams and managers can communicate via the app instead of their personal phone numbers or social media accounts. Messages don’t include read receipts after working hours either, so there’s no pressure for a team member to reply if they see a message but don’t want to respond right away. Swapping between work life and home life can be a barrier to fully relaxing and switching off after work.”
Mason and his team are also developing an AI-powered feature to provide shift workers with work-life harmony scores, a bit like the recovery score on a smartwatch. The private feature is not visible to the workplace and provides small nudges to encourage users that opt-in to prioritise their, and their team members’, wellbeing.
Of course, the app has also been built to serve the needs of the hospitality owners and managers that implement the platform. As part of the scheduling feature, managers can publish unassigned shifts that qualifying employees can express interest in, automate recurring shifts and shift reminders, and easily monitor staff costs while keeping secure information private.
Tommy also features time and attendance software, which enables team members to clock in and out of shifts using their own phones or kiosk devices with the option to switch on GPS tracking, which can only be accessed while the team member is clocked-in. From the clock function, timesheets can be automatically generated. What’s more, the app can be integrated with other tools the business may already be using, such as Xero, QuickBooks, and MYOB.
“One of the unique features of Tommy is that managers and supervisors can upload short videos for training purposes, which can be assigned to certain members of staff. For example, if a café is putting a new drink on the menu, instead of circulating a PDF document with examples, a tutorial video can be uploaded,” says Mason.
“Relevant staff will get reminders that they need to watch the video and then can access it at a later date via the library.”
There are three versions of the Tommy app. Essential is free to download and can host teams of up to 10, while the paid versions, Plus and Pro, both include unlimited team members, starting from $4.35 per month.
“The Essential plan works well for a small but well-established team in which there is a recognised level of trust. When the business starts to grow, that’s when you might want to upgrade to the Plus or Pro version to unlock some of the extra features such as user permissions, management, reporting, and activity news-feeds,” says Mason.
“We established Tommy for the nursing industry but have recently introduced a hospitality version. Before launching, we piloted the system with a number of businesses in the sector and the feedback was really positive. We purposefully made the platform affordable, as a lot of tech these days seems to be getting more expensive for features you don’t always need.”
Those curious about Tommy can trial the app for free for 14 days without having to provide credit card details.
For more information, visit mytommy.com
This article appears in the August 2025 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
