(Restaurant News Release) Recent research has debunked the myth that restaurants fail at about a 90 percent rate. Although the industry experts cannot agree on a failure rate figure, the fact remains that owning a restaurant is one of the most difficult careers to pursue. Restaurant owners must contend with wildly vacillating commodity prices, a transient workforce, and competitor restaurants that surrounded their business.
If you own a restaurant, you may need someone to pass you the Tums.
The increasing competitiveness of the restaurant industry requires restaurant owners to devise workforce management strategies that elevate their businesses to the top of industry. Although conventional strategies, such as controlling food costs through bulk ordering remain relevant, technology has introduced restaurant owners with multiple solutions to their workplace problems.
Use Technology to Enhance Workplace Management Solutions
One thing that separates the restaurant industry from other industries is the element of human touch. Our society can go the way of George Jetson and restaurant customers would still want personable service from a friendly host, busser, server, and bartender. However, automated workforce solutions enhance the efficiency of the smiling faces you put out on the floor to work a bustling Saturday night.
Scheduling
A vast majority of restaurant employees work part time for several reasons that include the need for supplemental income. This means restaurant operators require contemporary restaurant scheduling software to maximize workforce efficiency. All a restaurant owner has to do is plug in information such as employee availability and preferred workdays to churn out accurate schedules. Scheduling software also includes feature that account for the slowest and busiest day parts of the week, as well as account for expected holiday and private party customer counts
Reservations
Restaurant reservation software automates the mind-boggling and error prone manual way of setting reservations for busy day and night shifts. The software allows restaurant owner to obtain a quick and up to date view of the available seats for a busy Saturday night. Some software takes overnight phone reservations and instantly inputs the information into the system for managers to access the next day. By using restaurant reservation software, hosts can immediately update reservation charts on any given night to account for no-shows.
Food Costs
Food costs represent the most important cost on a restaurant owner’s income statement. Workforce management software allows restaurant owners to monitor food inventory by inputting daily counts and monitoring the counts for any sign of theft or inordinate waste. Restaurant food cost software also provides the tools to alert restaurant owners whenever a food item is much above or below predetermined par limits. The software also has the capability to spit out food costs under a wide variety of operational scenarios.
Enhance Training
A growing number of digitized workforce management solutions include software programs that present training modules. Servers can watch videos on how to approach, greet, and serve customers in an efficient manner. Back of the house employee utilize software to watch food safety videos. Restaurant owners can organize the files of every new employee by recording each employee’s vital statistic, as well as each employee’s training status.
The intense competition among restaurants requires restaurant owners to find workforce management solutions that match the fast-paced business world of the 21st century.
Synerion workforce management software enhances restaurant operations by helping owners and managers monitor labor and food costs, as well as maximize revenue through an automated reservation system.