Not all of us were born with the ability to plan perfectly.
Likewise, not all of us can maintain a work-life balance.
This is especially difficult in industries such as restaurants, where the dizzying pace of work and the great demands of superiors can take a toll.
When it comes to managing staff schedules in a restaurant setting, especially for chains, many complexities arise. Different shifts, dealing with last-minute changes, and ensuring that the right number of people is available - how do you reconcile it all?
As you might guess, we have an idea. And we're here to tell you more about it.
If you want to make your restaurant business run smoothly, schedule employees better, minimize labor costs, or improve customer service - read on, because we can help you.
Common challenges in restaurant employee scheduling
Scheduling your personnel in vibrant industries such as restaurants is always tricky. Let's look at some specific challenges for managers related to planning their staff.
You need to manage both availability and preferences
One of the first hurdles in restaurant scheduling is balancing employee preferences and their availability with your business needs.
Your crew has various personal commitments, school schedules, or other jobs that affect when they can work. If you don't consider these areas, you will probably cause frustration, lower satisfaction, and even increased turnover.
Example:
Restaurant managers may schedule Andrew to work the following few evenings. Suppose they overlook Andrew's preference for morning work hours or a rotating schedule. Since Andrew has school lessons in the evening, he won't be able to come to work.
Solution:
To prevent such situations, use restaurant scheduling software that allows workers to enter their availability and submit vacation requests well in advance. In this way, the manager will adjust the employee schedule without last-minute disruptions.
You must avoid overstaffing and understaffing
The balance between having too many or too few associates during busy hours can make or break a restaurant's service quality.
Overstaffing wastes resources and generates labor costs. For example, during peak dinner hours, if too many people are assigned to the same shift, you pay some crew members despite the fact that they do nothing.
Understaffing leads to compromised service quality. Too few employees during peak hours, and you hurt customer satisfaction and your sales.
None of these are beneficial.
Strike the right balance with these tips:
Forecast customer demand based on historical sales data or busy periods like weekends. But don't act on suspicions – rather, bet on solutions like employee scheduling software for restaurants.
Apart from that, real-time performance metrics can be monitored to adjust the schedule further. Then, you’ll keep staffing optimized and improve operational efficiency.
You deal with last-minute changes
Another common issue is handling last-minute changes. After all, different situations happen: your specialists may call out sick, face personal emergencies, or submit time off requests.
Or it could be your restaurant that experiences an unexpected increase in customer traffic.
Thus, it may be difficult to quickly assign employees to open shifts or split shifts while keeping restaurant work schedules consistent at the same time.
Best practices to handle such a situation:
- Implement a restaurant schedule for shift swaps so staff can adjust among themselves.
- Keep a list of representatives who are available to pick up shifts last minute.
- Make it clear in your work schedule that flexibility is a key requirement for some positions.
- Create an on-call schedule and notify staff quickly when shifts need to be covered.
- A flexible overtime schedule also ensures coverage.
You must be compliant with labor laws
Compliance with labor laws regarding overtime pay, breaks, and working hours is a must. Not only in the restaurant industry.
Non-compliance risks fines, lawsuits, and harms your entire team’s morale.
For example, you can't schedule personnel to work longer hours without mandatory breaks or extra pay. Or assign employees tasks for which they are not authorized. Or intentionally enter incorrect work data so you don't have to pay overtime.
To avoid violating labor regulations, restaurant staff must be given fair work hours, proper breaks, and appropriate overtime schedules.
How to achieve this:
- Regularly review your scheduling process to verify if you’re meeting labor laws.
- Use a restaurant schedule template or whole system with advanced features to track how long teams work.
- Always stay up to date with local labor regulations, and adjust your work schedule as needed.
The benefits of a robust scheduling system
Now, let's gather all the benefits of a robust system for scheduling restaurant employees.
Improved efficiency and productivity
The fundamental advantage is that a robust platform for restaurant scheduling can boost efficiency and put the right staff with the necessary skills in place at the right time.
No guesswork. No gaps in coverage.
For instance, if a restaurant consistently gets busier during dinner hours, a good schedule system will account for that and allocate more people during peak times.
Additionally, such systems reduce downtime between the same shifts and keep operations flowing smoothly.
Thus, employees will know what’s expected of them. And when your crew understands the timing and flow of the day, productivity naturally increases, and resources are maximized.
But that's not all. With the right employee scheduling template or restaurant scheduling software, managers can easily assign roles based on the specialist's work patterns and experience.
Enhanced employee satisfaction
A fair, transparent scheduling system makes a huge difference in how personnel feel about their job. If they are given a predictable and fixed schedule that considers their preferences, they’ll likely be more satisfied with their work environment.
Also, avoiding back-to-back same shifts or ensuring the entire team has enough time to rest between shifts promotes a healthier work-life balance.
The result is higher satisfaction and less turnover.
Using restaurant scheduling software also makes it easier to review shifts, requests for time off, or swap shifts in advance.
Such transparency contributes to more trusting and positive relationships in the company.
Better customer service
What about the customer's side?
We can find perks here, too.
Look from this angle: Thanks to the restaurant scheduling system and accurately entered data (like staff availability), you'll always have a team that is properly planned to serve tables, assist in the kitchen, and manage orders.
Thus, you will minimize wait times, enhance customer satisfaction, and boost customer service.
Also, when your restaurant staff are well-rested, adequately prepared, and positioned in the right roles, they can focus on providing excellent service. Which also contributes to a better experience.
Yes, to proper planning with intuitive tools for restaurants.
No, to an overworked or overstretched crew.
Cost savings
With too many employees at once, you're paying for labor you don't need. The other side of the coin is understaffing, which makes you miss sales opportunities.
So, are you still wondering about manual planning?
Hope not, because that only contributes to higher costs. Whereas, with the right restaurant schedule template or software, you can save money, forecast busy periods, and adjust accordingly.
You will better manage expenses, operating costs, and salaries.
Moreover, you will retain your team members for longer.
Since you effectively take care of your current employees (i.e., pay them appropriately, look after their rights and time off) with the scheduling system, you also save on the cost of hiring and onboarding new people.
How Unrubble can transform your restaurant’s scheduling
One of the best solutions for scheduling employees in a restaurant is Unrubble.
With Unrubble, you can streamline your entire scheduling process, reduce errors, and ensure a happier, more productive team.
All while keeping your restaurant legally compliant and efficient.
Check out Unrubble features below, and you'll learn the whys and hows.
Automated scheduling
Unrubble takes the headache out of manual planning by offering automated tools that do the heavy lifting.
No matter if you’re handling multiple shifts for servers, cooks, or other staff - this Unrubble scheduling is fast and works without errors.
It considers employee availability and your needs to guarantee full service during busy hours. You can easily modify schedules and assign fixed shifts or rotating ones in seconds.
This feature speeds up the process by up to 10x! Thus, you can focus more on running the restaurant and less on managing.
Real-time updates and communication
Restaurant operations can be unpredictable. Fortunately, with Unrubble’s real-time update options, managers can quickly adjust plans on the fly.
Does someone need to swap shifts last minute or cover an emergency? No problem - Unrubble notifies staff instantly through its app.
No more scrambling to fill open shifts. Personnel work together seamlessly, and real-time notifications eliminate communication delays.
Everyone is on the same page.
Internal and external regulatory compliance
Unrubble helps you stay compliant with labor laws without the hassle.
It offers an essential safety net to avoid potential fines and legal issues. It tracks work hours, breaks, and overtime pay to verify if you meet regulatory standards.
In addition, your data is fully encrypted. Only authorized people within your company can access it, so don't worry about security issues.
Unrubble also adheres to stringent GDPR regulations.
Employee self-service
This option lightens the administrative workload and empowers staff members. They can input their availability, request time off, and swap shifts with minimal need for managerial intervention.
Managers can approve or deny requests in just a few clicks, and employees can easily view their upcoming shifts.
Unrubble builds a sense of autonomy and responsibility, which ultimately contributes to a more motivated workforce.
Integration with payroll
This platform integrates directly with your payroll systems. It accurately tracks hours worked, including any overtime, and feeds this data into your payroll processing.
No more manual entries, no more payroll errors. Crews get paid accurately based on their actual hours worked.
As a result, you can save time, further minimize costly mistakes, and improve the overall efficiency of your payroll operations.
Pro tip:
If you do not have time, use Unrubble's ready-made templates, forms, and lists, for example:
Unrubble: your restaurant schedule solution
Much of your scheduling stress can be alleviated through Unrubble automated capabilities.
Instead of spending hours creating and adjusting plans, automate the entire process with our tool.
Moreover, focus on other critical aspects of running the restaurant and still have the right staff at the right times.
Unrubble’s automation handles it all, and its real-time notifications keep everyone updated on any last-minute adjustments.
All the necessary functions are built into the platform, so you don't need to download other applications. But if you need additional functionality, go ahead! Integrate the apps you need and extend the capabilities of our scheduling software.
For who is Unrubble the best?
Do you think Unrubble is not for you?
You're most likely wrong.
Unrubble is a versatile tool that adapts to unique needs. Its users can be large enterprises, companies in the medical industry, small restaurants, as well as large restaurant chains.
Let's focus on the latter group for a moment.
Handling different shifts across numerous restaurants can be a logistical nightmare. Yet, Unrubble’s centralized platform oversees restaurant work schedules across all locations from one dashboard.
That's why this software is particularly beneficial for restaurants with multiple locations and large teams to manage.
For chain restaurants that operate on rotating schedules, Unrubble will ensure that no staff member is assigned the same shifts over and over. In this way, it maintains employee satisfaction and better work-life balance.
So, what do you say? Is Unrubble worth checking out?
Find your best schedule for restaurant
Have you felt overwhelmed managing your restaurant employees so far? We hope that after reading this article, that will change quickly.
Efficient scheduling is something you need. With the right tools, like Unrubble, you can streamline planning, improve satisfaction, and ultimately elevate customer service.
That is: you can experience many real advantages.
Unrubble solves the existing challenges. It offers automation, real-time updates, and self-service features.
If you want to make life easier for your staff and yourself, give Unrubble a try and see how it transforms your restaurant business.
Start your free trial and experience stress-free scheduling.
