A good staff schedule keeps your restaurant running smoothly. A bad one costs you money, service quality, and staff morale. Here\u2019s a no-fluff guide on how to get your scheduling right.<\/p>\n
Restaurant scheduling is often harder than it looks. Unlike most industries, demand in a restaurant is rarely stable. A slow weekday lunch and a packed Friday dinner require completely different staffing levels, and things can shift quickly even within the same day.<\/p>\n
If your staffing schedule<\/a> doesn\u2019t reflect this, you will either end up paying for idle staff or running short during peak rush hours.<\/p>\n On top of that, restaurant roles are usually not interchangeable. A server can\u2019t just step into the kitchen mid-service, and a line cook can\u2019t cover your bar. This is why restaurant scheduling requires that you don\u2019t just fill shifts, but ensure that every role is covered at the right time with the right people.<\/p>\n Another consideration is the nature of the workforce itself. Many food service employees are part-time or work around school or other jobs. This means that availability can change often, and last-minute call-outs are pretty common.<\/p>\n Putting these factors together can make it much harder to build a stable, predictable schedule for your restaurant staff week after week.<\/p>\n With all that said, restaurant scheduling<\/a> can be straightforward if you set a few core habits in place.<\/p>\n Here are the five best practices you can follow to make scheduling more predictable and productive at your restaurant.<\/p>\n Before you build your schedule<\/a>, look at your numbers. Your POS shows you exactly when you\u2019re busy and when you\u2019re not. Most of the data you need is already there, such as:<\/p>\n If you find that Friday nights are your busiest times, that\u2019s where you need to schedule more people. If afternoons are slow every week, you don\u2019t need your full team on the floor.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how restaurant managers typically make a schedule: they look at who is available on which days, and assign them shifts accordingly. Unfortunately, this is a sure way of ending up short-staffed during a rush.<\/p>\n The right way to build your schedule is around demand, not employee preferences. Based on expected demand, you can figure out how many staff to call:<\/p>\n Expected covers \u00f7 covers per server = servers needed<\/em><\/p>\n For example, if you\u2019re expecting 150 covers on a Friday dinner, and one server can handle around 25 covers, then you\u2019ll need about six servers on the floor.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve determined this, that\u2019s when you turn to availability. If you don\u2019t have enough people, now\u2019s the time to fix that. Post the shift, ask for swaps, or bring in someone extra if needed.<\/p>\n A split shift is when an employee works two parts of the day with a gap in between, usually lunch (11-2), followed by a break (2-6), and then dinner (6-9).<\/p>\n Split shifts are useful for restaurants because they line up well with your lunch and dinner rush, and help you avoid having idle staff during the afternoon lull.<\/p>\n Here are some things to keep in mind when assigning split shifts:<\/p>\n Employee no-shows are part of the job. While you can\u2019t exactly avoid them, you can control how prepared you are when they inevitably happen.<\/p>\n First, it\u2019s important to have a no-show policy that clearly communicates:<\/p>\n While this is a start, simply having a policy isn\u2019t enough. You also need a system for filling in the gap if an employee fails to show up unexpectedly. Here are some ways you can prepare for this:<\/p>\n Labor cost is the percentage of your revenue that goes towards paying your staff, and it can be a great indicator of how well your schedule is working.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve overstaffed, your labor cost will go up. If you\u2019re understaffed, labor cost is lower, but service goes down and revenue drops. Either way, these fluctuations can show that your schedule isn\u2019t lining up with demand.<\/p>\n The general benchmark for labor cost in the restaurant industry is between 31%-37%<\/a>, but this can vary slightly depending on the type of restaurant:<\/p>\n If you\u2019re staying within these ranges, you\u2019re generally on track.<\/p>\n Managing your restaurant staff is much harder if you\u2019re still building your schedules manually.<\/p>\n ZoomShift is a team scheduling software that helps you build schedules, share them with your staff instantly, and handle things like shift swaps and time-off requests without the back and forth.<\/p>\n You can clearly see who\u2019s working, who\u2019s available, and whether you\u2019re over- or under-staffed, all in one organized place.<\/p>\n With real-time visibility into hours worked and overtime alerts, ZoomShift can also help you stay on top of labor costs and adjust shifts before they become a problem.<\/p>\n<\/span>5 Best Practices for Restaurant Labor Scheduling<\/span><\/h2>\n
1. Use POS Data to Forecast Demand<\/h3>\n
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2. Schedule Around the Rush (Not Employee Preferences)<\/h3>\n
3. Use Split Shifts Well<\/h3>\n
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4. Plan for No-Shows in Advance<\/h3>\n
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5. Track Your Labor Cost Every Week<\/h3>\n
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\n Type\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n Labor cost %<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Quick service<\/td>\n 20%-30%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Fast casual<\/td>\n 25%-35%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Full service<\/td>\n 30%-40%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/span>Use ZoomShift to Schedule Smarter<\/span><\/h2>\n