Every restaurant owner understands that managing their team and optimizing operations is paramount in 2023. By ensuring scheduling is handled with care and precision, operators can save time, money, and resources and improve customer satisfaction within a single strategy. This article will take you through some essential tips on creating an effective restaurant employee schedule this year.
Utilize Technology
These days, staying ahead of the curve means utilizing technology. With scheduling software designed specifically for restaurants, it’s easy to create staff schedules effortlessly and keep track of availability or time-off requests instantly. This helps reduce time wasted juggling complex tasks while ensuring your restaurant is always staffed with qualified personnel when you need them most.
According to Synergysuite.com, a leading restaurant scheduling software provider, they say that “…Restaurant scheduling software allows you to easily create and manage schedules, manage compliance with labor laws, schedule staff at the levels you need and improve punctuality. Creating a roster with sticky notes was never a great idea… Save time, streamline operations, and reduce labor costs with a restaurant scheduling system that holds everything in one place, across all of your locations.”
Plan Ahead
Restaurants need to be strategic when it comes to staffing. Analyzing customer data and sales helps them predict peak periods, enabling them to avoid costly missteps like having too few or too many employees on hand. Additionally, taking special events into account, such as holidays and promotions, helps round out their staff scheduling for optimal service with minimal costs.
Planning Tips
- Understand your restaurant’s peak and slow periods and any special events or holidays that may affect your staffing needs
- Involve your employees in the scheduling process. Ask for their availability and preferences and consider their feedback when creating a schedule
- Communicate scheduling policies and expectations to employees, including shift start and end times, breaks, and overtime
- Ensure your schedules are compliant with labor laws and regulations
Comply With Labor Laws And Regulations
Keep your restaurant on the right side of labor laws and regulations. Brush up on best practices to ensure all employees are treated appropriately. Ensure employees are fairly compensated per minimum wage requirements and legal meal/rest break standards. Not only will this aid in avoiding any disputes or penalties down the road, but it’s also just plain good practice.
Communicate Effectively
A successful restaurant hinges on seamless communication when it comes to scheduling staff. Keep your team in the loop by providing their schedules well ahead of time and promptly alert them of any changes. Create a system for requesting vacations or shift switches, allowing employees to plan accordingly and better manage conflicts.
- Use multiple communication channels to reach your employees, such as email, text messages, and a staff scheduling app
- Establish a transparent process for employees to request time off or switch shifts
- Encourage open communication between employees and management
- Address schedule conflicts promptly and professionally. Listen to all sides and devise a solution that works for everyone
- Train your employees on using the scheduling software or other scheduling tools
Be Flexible
Navigating the nuances and trends in the restaurant industry can be unpredictable. To stay ahead of the game, a flexible schedule is essential for gracefully managing unexpected spikes in customer demand and large parties. Preparing to adjust your timetable accordingly will help keep customers happy and staff stress-free as they take on any unanticipated changes.
Tips To Improve Your Flexibility
- Be prepared to adapt your schedule as needed to accommodate unexpected events such as a large party or a sudden increase in customer traffic
- Encourage your employees to cross-train in different roles. This will give you more options when it comes to scheduling and will make it easier to adapt to unexpected situations
- Communicate with your employees about their availability, preferences, and any changes to the schedule
- Be responsive to your employee’s needs and be willing to make schedule changes when necessary to create a positive working environment
- Reward flexible and adaptable employees
Track And Analyze
With the right attendance data, you can build a team that boosts your restaurant’s performance more efficiently. Monitor and assess employee punctuality, presence, and productivity to pinpoint areas where improvements are needed before developing an optimized system for scheduling staff who best suit customer needs.
As a restaurant owner or manager, having an effective scheduling strategy is vital to your business’s success. With the help of software and other technologies, coupled with proper planning, fluid communication, flexibility for employees’ needs, and performance tracking, you can develop a schedule that satisfies everyone involved, from customers to staff members.
Jeena Alfredo is a passionate digital marketer at The Business Goals. She is working with other companies to help them manage the relationship with The Business Goals for the publications.
