Best Practices: Streamlining Employee Labor Scheduling

Control your cost of business. Easier said than done? Not for us. swarmer1-1024x1024

In an industry that serves high costs with oftentimes low profit margins, it’s imperative to put proven staff scheduling restaurant software, technology and systems in place in order to control labor costs without sacrificing service.

Hence, allowing you and your managers to not only make the most of your resources to lower costs, but increase performance by getting out in front and working alongside staff – all in the name of bettering your business.

Our methods of streamlining labor scheduling for clients, and hence our employee productivity measurement tactics, are spearheaded by our incredible Managing Partner Scott Mowrey. Pro formas don’t stand a chance of not performing well against our system!

Here are Scott’s recommended best practice steps for clients to Streamline Labor Scheduling. This system works for the majority of our clients, but you may have to tweak for your specific business needs:

  1. First, we utilize Staff Productivity Measurement as the foundation for our employee schedule template. We find this system effective because it equates to the measurement of the amount of sales created for each hour of labor. For example, a $50 forecasted productivity indicates the amount of total sales forecasted, divided by the number of hours scheduled for the staff (i.e. equal to $50). Another way to look at it: in order to generate $50 in sales, it takes one hour of shift scheduling kitchen labor. Hence, we target $100.00 in productively for the kitchen team and the same for the front of house (managers excluded).
  1. We then Forecast sales for each day of the week. In order to hit our labor targets, our team reviews: historical data, trends, and holiday/special event specs in order to determine the sales forecast. Knowing what sales we are scheduling for allows us to schedule the proper amount of labor needed to accommodate guests at that sales volume.
  1. Lastly, we Divide the Sales Forecast by the Productivity Target to determine how many hours are needed to schedule for the week. These hours are then spread appropriately throughout the week. *NOTE: in order to achieve premium productivity, restaurant staff needs to be trained properly and the work needs to be organized in such a way that it allows them to get their work done in the allotted amount of time.

photo: staff at work @Founding Farmers DC