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Effective Labor Scheduling Can Boost Restaurant Efficiency

Jan 26, 2019

 

Labor is an expensive aspect of running a restaurant and restaurant staff scheduling has an immense impact on whether or not your operation runs efficiently. How much time are you spending on scheduling? How do you intelligently streamline scheduling and employee communication? How do you manage last-minute phone calls and shift swaps?

Let’s start with technology. Sure, pen and paper works, but why not embrace new tools that are specifically made for restaurant scheduling? There are many scheduling apps on the market that allow you to easily drag-and-drop shifts onto your calendar (and make changes) and share with employees. Some even have additional features like tracking labor hours and dollars, forecasting sales, time clock, POS integrations and more. We are a fan of Hot Schedules, a tool to help manage all aspects of restaurant scheduling needs. It integrates with nearly all POS systems and is very user-friendly, simplifying the many challenges managers face while scheduling staff.

But scheduling smart doesn’t merely mean the random filling in of time slots on a calendar and calling it a day. You need to assess your staff – your best or senior workers will shine during busy times. At the same time, you still want to allow newer employees to have their share of the peak times as well. Make sure to rotate appropriately.

Always make sure there are open lines of communication. Ensure there are simple ways employees can voice their requests and that they have up-to-date information readily available to them as well. Keeping your staff in the loop will help avoid confusion, conflict and promote smoother operations.

Further, effective labors scheduling needs to be done in conjunction with labor budgets and guidelines. If the goal is to run labor at 20% of forecasted sales, then that tells you how much you have to spend on total labor. There is a broad range of ways to forecast sales — we like looking back at the previous five consecutive weeks,  averaging them together to get to average weekly sales. There is a good chance the projected, forecasted sales will be within 3-5% of the average assuming there are no major holidays, sporting events or unpleasant weather expected.

Finally, if you are trying to micromanage labor and scheduling, refer to the five-week previous history and look at sales by the hour. You can use this as a good guideline to understand the sales volume throughout the day. This information may allow you to better schedule servers and perhaps stagger the incoming staff, as needed.

If you need more help with managing scheduling and labor, please contact Synergy.

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Is Wait Time a Problem for your Restaurant? Check your Efficiency

Jan 15, 2019

There are multiple facets in a restaurant that can either decrease or increase efficiency. When we think from a consumer’s perspective, food should be received as described and promptly. Wait time is a large factor when people are making their dining choices. In just a few clicks, people can even check live wait times at certain restaurants via Google Maps. If wait time has been a particular issue for your restaurant, it’s time to dig a little deeper.  

 

Issues that Impact Wait Times at Restaurants

Menu

Is your menu too complex? Do you have too many items on your menu? How simple are the items to execute? Understanding the elements of your menu is crucial. Inefficiencies in the back of house are directly correlated to long wait times for your guests. Making sure you have in place easy-to-follow procedures for prep and cooking will ensure smoother operations.

Kitchen

Even with solid procedures in place for the back line, if your kitchen space isn’t organized, efficiency will suffer. Is there enough space for your staff to freely move? Is equipment strategically placed to ensure flow of movement and easy access? How well is space being utilized when it comes to storage?

Technology

Is your restaurant point of sale system simple to use and up-to-date? Getting orders to the kitchen should be a streamlined process. Some point of sale systems include additional features like inventory control, employee time-clock, and even table management.

POS system

Front of House

Another consideration is your mix of dining room tables. The rule of thumb is that you only get 75% occupancy at a table. If you have a large number of four-tops, you are probably only seating three people at them at best.  Moreover, if you are seating two people at a four-top, that means you are wasting a table and only getting 50% occupancy which directly impacts wait times.  It would be prudent to carefully look at the number of guests in a party and maybe consider adding more two-tops tables to accommodate smaller parties which will directly impact table turns and wait times.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are numerous ways you can increase your restaurant’s efficiency which will, in turn, assist in reducing guest wait times. If you would like a detailed operations assessment to uncover areas for increased productivity, please contact Synergy.