Copyright (c) 2011 Joe Maas

Managing the cost of staff labor is a constant struggle for everyone in the hospitality company. Fortunately, there are methods to minimize the headaches and maximize your profits when it comes to restaurant staffing.

The restaurant business is often unpredictable–you just in no way know what’s going to hit you or when. We’ve all been in the position when you thought the night would be slow and you staff accordingly, only to get swamped. Or you scheduled for a busy night only to have those busy hours that you staffed for with a waitstaff standing around due to the fact organization is dead. Sadly, that’s the nature of the restaurant company. But here are a couple of pointers to aid reduce the expenses and headaches associated under or over-staffing.

Tip #1: Rank Your Team

Scheduling is often a nightmare, but it is completely essential to a restaurant’s profitability. The initial step is to look at a previous schedule. From the leading down, server by server, objectively assign each a number from one to five, 1 becoming soft and five being solid. Objectivity is essential here—this is simply an physical exercise to decide the greatest servers. It is not a job evaluation. It will be challenging, but dismiss any personal feelings you have about each and every employee and just make an assessment of the work. Absolutely nothing else matters to the restaurant’s labor price anyway. Regardless of whether or not you’ve performed a excellent job controlling your labor cost, this approach will have a positive impact on your staffing model and ultimately the bottom line.

Now that you have ranked your waitstaff, it’s time to use those rankings to rearrange the schedule. For the next schedule, make certain each and each and every shift has at least one server who is ranked a five and that periods with the highest volume have an appropriate level of fives. Let’s face it. Servers are creatures of habit the fives aren’t going to like this certain shift, but bear in mind that the employees work for you. Besides, it is up to you to manage egos and to sell your waitstaff on the notion. By producing a a lot more equitable schedule, you will ideally have less standing around, and at the end of the day, that means more cash in the servers’ pockets.

Tip #2: Measure and Manage Outcomes

One of the most powerful tools in controlling labor price is appropriate volume assessment. Several restaurateurs assume they will need a specific number of employees on a given day, with small or no critical reasoning behind the decision. We all know what happens when you assume. It doesn’t work.

To be powerful at forecasting calls for accurate information. Contemplate the volume trends and how numerous labor hours are assigned to handle the level of business you anticipate. The easiest and most successful way to do this is by entering each and every day into an Excel spreadsheet and visually comparing days of the week from past months or even years. It is also crucial to consider the metric and to maintain it consistent, as well as keeping notes.

Does the menu alter regularly? If so, make a note of when it changed and compare it to sales. Did construction impede traffic? A parade? Did it rain? Track anything that could possibly impact the number of men and women walking into the restaurant. The far more info you have offered, the less guesswork that is involved.

Most POS systems keep historical data, so you can look back over particular time periods. Pull the sales information from the prior month, and enter it into a spreadsheet in a week-per-week format, so you can compare days of the week separately. From this, discover the average every day sales for each day of the week.

If the restaurant does more than 1 service for every day, the sales data ought to be further broken down into meal periods (i.e., lunch and dinner). Clearly, this entails some function, but thankfully you only have to do this one time each day when you have a spreadsheet set up. With the data in hand, controlling labor costs just got less difficult.

Next, assign a number to those every day shift sales figures. That number signifies the number of waitstaff necessary for each and every period. Make particular that none of the numbers are below the minimum level needed to provide the expected level of service to the customer.

When scheduling, remember to consist of all of the tasks required to keep the restaurant working, frequently called side work. These duties consist of opening and closing duties and every thing above and beyond simply waiting tables. Staffing properly will aid control labor cost, without compromising on service standards.

Tip #3: Cross Train Your Staff

A third component of controlling labor cost is cross training. Absolutely nothing beats having a waitstaff entirely comprised of servers you ranked as fives, cross trained to function many distinct jobs, correct? Just know that it will not happen overnight. It takes time and effort, but there is nothing like having a bartender who can serve drinks but who also has the skills necessary to choose up a table or two when needed.

Train your servers so they can move into the hostess stand on a slow night or after their section is closed. Train your stewarding staff to prep, how to run a assist station, or to aid put up salads and function the cold side in the course of a rush.

By utilizing these three suggestions, you will easily get by means of the unforeseen busy times and, far more importantly, lessen the restaurant’s labor cost.

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