Methods for Controlling Your Restaurant’s Labor Costs

Strategies for cutting labor costs has long been an area of interest in the restaurant industry. David Peters, founder of The Restaurant Expert, recently published some advice on maximizing profitability by controlling labor costs in your restaurant. He recommends the following:

Don’t overschedule – Though you may be tempted to keep lots of staff around in order to provide optimal service, often bringing in more staff has the opposite effect. If there are more staff members than there is work to do, your team will likely be distracted from work by socializing with one another.

Use the numbers to guide your scheduling – Develop a reasonable sales forecast each month and use it to guide your scheduling for the following month. Take advantage of the wealth of information your restaurant systems have to offer, using it to adjust and refine your schedules.

Track your labor cost—every single day – It’s easy to run daily reports in a POS system. Take a look at the information each day and use it to refine your schedule and control your labor costs.

For more details, read the article in full at The Restaurant Expert.