Tell Your Managers Not to Blindly Duplicate the Restaurant Schedule
Are your labor costs spiraling out of control and eating into your profits? Do you feel overwhelmed trying to keep these expenses in check? Let’s dive into today’s tip and take the fifth step toward controlling your labor costs and learn how to proactively control labor costs with effective scheduling.
Are your managers just copying one schedule from one week and pasting it into the next week? Sure, that’s the magic of scheduling software—copy, paste, done. But that has nothing to do with sales, does it? Step five in this seven-part series is all about ensuring that management schedules staff according to the sales and a staffing guide you create.
Bringing in too many people or bringing them in too early can throw your labor costs off balance because you are literally using dollars you didn’t need to use. So, what do you do?
Start with a sales forecast
Begin with a sales forecast that breaks down sales by the day of the week, not just a vague monthly estimate. Use your POS system, DSR tracker, QuickBooks, or other sources to gather historical data. This information is readily available and essential for accurate forecasting.
Utilize a staffing guide
Next, use a staffing guide to determine the exact number of cooks needed for both AM and PM shifts. Better yet, leverage scheduling software to build templates for various sales levels. For instance, using a tool like 7shifts, you can create a $40,000 week template for your kitchen, as well as templates for $45,000, $50,000, and so on. Specify the start and end times for each position to ensure you stay on budget. This meticulous planning is powerful and well worth the effort to avoid overspending on labor.
Adjust for randomness in business
Understand that there will be days when unexpected busyness occurs. For example, you might have a lunch rush on a Tuesday with three servers, only to find yourself overwhelmed. Your instinct might be to add another server for the next week, but if the rush was a one-off, you could end up overstaffing.
If this happens once, don’t change the schedule. If it happens twice, still hold off. But if it happens a third time, it’s time to adjust the schedule. Three weeks make a trend, and it’s crucial to respond accordingly to ensure labor costs align with actual business needs.
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