ThisClicks helps managers schedule hourly shifts, picks up $4M investment

If you’re running a business that employs hourly workers, scheduling their shifts can be a major pain.

Most solve that problem with a whiteboard or a weekly schedule taped to the manager’s door and updated with a combination of phone calls, ad-hoc swaps, and notes scribbled in ballpoint pen. ThisClicks Interactive offers a better way: scheduling through a cloud-based app that integrates web- and phone-based communication.

With the company’s “When I Work” app, employees can get updates on their shifts via text message — or even via Twitter or Facebook — so you know that the messages are being received. Managers can plan everything via a web-based calendar. And if they need to find a last-minute replacement for somebody who called in sick, they can use ThisClicks to ping available employees.

A 2012 review of When I Work raved about its flexibility and power. Now, some moneyed individuals appear to agree: E.ventures, Greycroft, and Arthur Ventures have together invested  $4 million into ThisClicks in a Series A round.

In addition to When I Work, ThisClicks recently introduced an app to track employees’ hours worked and help manage payroll. Called WageBase, the second program integrates with the first one to simplify employers’ lives.

ThisClicks is based in St. Paul, Minn., and was founded in 2010. It claims that 3,000 companies representing 200,000 employees are already using its products, though its press release didn’t state that all 200,000 of those employees were actively using ThisClicks.