Restaurant Scheduling for Success
- excerpt from
Richard Saporito’s e-book “How to Improve Dining Room Service”
„This Tip will help maintain the staff
schedule keeping the dining room service staff tight and content which is
essential for pleasing paying guests.
Staff scheduling is
closely tied to dining room customer service and crucial for keeping your staff
tight, happy and well connected. In every way, a balance must be achieved by
matching the dining room service labour needs to forecasted business.
There should be a
system whereby the staff shift availability days can be communicated in writing
to the person who makes up the schedule. A simple staff shift availability
sign-up sheet posted conspicuously will do. There was a schedule maker from one
of my past restaurants who asked for shift requests on little pieces of paper.
The main point is that constant communication with the staff while staying
abreast of their available work shifts will facilitate the scheduling process
immensely.
Each staff member
should work a balanced number of shifts throughout the week. If the schedule
maker is burning out staff members with extra shifts or scheduling too many
staff members to work only 1 or 2 shifts, it will subtract from customer
service. Usually, a restaurant will get more efficiency from staff members
working 3, 4, or more shifts per week rather than only 1 or 2 shifts per week.
Though at times, one may have to bend this guideline to keep the work schedule
filled, but it should be kept to a minimum.
The person who
makes the schedule should be highly aware of the projected business in the
restaurant. The schedule should contain the correct amount of labour needed to
provide a proper level of service for each work shift. Seasonal aspects, (e.g.
busy holidays/slow summers), special occasions, private parties etc. must be
figured into the schedule. Any outside activity that may affect business in the
restaurant such as food festivals, parades etc. needs to be taken into account.
If there are separate dining rooms, the busy times must be properly forecasted
for each room especially if one dining room is more popular such as showing off
a special type of décor or providing entertainment on certain nights. If there
is outdoor seating, the weather should be watched closely for it can change
quickly.
Forecasting helps
to schedule the correct amount of staff with the perfect balance always being
sought. If there is light scheduling on a day that gets very busy, the dining
room customer service will be slow and inefficient --affecting sales and reputation.
On the contrary, if there is heavy scheduling on light business days, it will
become frustrating for waitstaff who will be working very few tables while
draining the payroll.
Generally, the
schedule should start Sunday; therefore, it needs to be posted by Thurs. or
Fri. of the previous week. Excel
spreadsheet formats are great for scheduling organization. The schedule should
be posted in an easily viewable location with enough copies available for all
staff. Staff phone lists should be printed, copied and made readily available
to all. This improves communication especially for work shift substitutions.
This leads to the
substitution process for staff work shifts. There needs to be a Substitution
Book readily available with blank spaces for names, upcoming dates and work
shifts for the next 1 to 2 months. If a substitution made, the information must
be recorded with the date and shift time a.m./p.m. etc. It must be initialed by
both parties involved and finally initialed by a manager ensuring no mistakes
in communication. A substitution mishap may result in a shift not being
covered.
Scheduling may look
great for payroll cost control, but it must be remembered that dining room
service staff are real people with real lives whose cheerful and efficient
service is what restaurants are dependent upon. The schedule maker needs to be
understanding towards the staff’s schedule requests, but should not roll over
and play dead (again, balance). It is impossible to please everyone 100% all of
the time, but a proper scheduling balance will truly have a positive effect on
restaurant dining room customer service and staff.
*** It is better
for a manager or service consultant to handle the schedule at the initial
phases of a new operation. Afterwards, it should be monitored by a second or
third person-- especially if the restaurant has just opened. Some mature
restaurants may let a senior member of the service staff handle the schedule
because there is better communiqué’ with schedule concerns.
Please use whichever system works best for the
establishment for the staff schedule is a strong part of customer service and
should not be taken lightly.”
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