Cutting restaurant payroll costs can be tricky! With the ongoing crisis of restaurant staff shortages not easing anytime soon, it's time you look for new ways to creatively reduce payroll costs without losing valuable team members.
We have pulled together a few ways you can reduce payroll costs, optimise output and identify new opportunities to save without reducing hours or headcount.
Maintain a happy work environment! Rewarding and recognising loyal staff is essential so they stick around.
During the pandemic, restaurants and cafes were forced to close, causing staff to retrain and increasing turnover in the hospitality industry. This year alone, the hospitality industry lost 5.7% of its workforce in June 2022*, and having a revolving door of employees can significantly drain your finances, constantly needing to hire and retrain. Employee stability can reduce your restaurant payroll costs, so it's a great place to start.
Diverse and flexible teams almost always save money. Can one of your servers also work behind the bar? Is your bartender also trained to step in and help the kitchen when you are down a staff member or having a busy night?
When it's hectic in the kitchen, you might think it would be impossible to bring in team members from other jobs to help, but if you have intelligent cooking systems like those from RATIONAL, there is a high level of automation with easy-to-understand digital displays that require little training. Therefore, if your current team can fill in the gaps, it will run smoothly and efficiently.
Make things simple for you and your team!
There are several ways automation can help your restaurant or cafe run smoothly and reduce labour costs. For example, is your food business more focused on fast food, where you can employ self-ordering kiosks or enable a tabletop ordering system, where customers can scan a QR code, browse the menu and order at the touch of a button? If this isn't an option, what about your servers using digital devices where orders go straight to the kitchen? This can improve service time and table turnaround. Your servers can take an order and start serving another table without needing to input an order on a till or talk to the kitchen directly.
As mentioned briefly above, you can introduce automation easily in your restaurant kitchen with RATIONAL's iVario Pro . The iVario is a next-gen Bratt pan with sensors that can recognise load quantity, size of food and condition that automatically adjust the cooking process, lightening the load for your kitchen team. The iVario also combines multiple cooking appliances (stove, deep-fat fryer, pressure cooker, bain-marie) into one quick cleaning appliance, enhancing your kitchen team's efficiency from cooking to close-down.
Do you have too many workers scheduled during slow times? Need more on busy Friday nights when you have events? You must evaluate schedules regularly. As your restaurant grows, your scheduling needs will evolve with it. You can even introduce digital timekeeping tools to monitor who clocks in too early, is close to overtime, or doesn't clock out. Small savings on accurate timekeeping add up!
Reducing payroll costs isn't always about cutting hours; it's about employing new ways to enhance efficiency across the team.
Initial short-term investment in training, new equipment and digital aids might seem counter-productive if you are trying to cut your restaurant payroll costs, but they can all add to big long-term savings. We hope our cost-reduction strategies in restaurants will help alleviate pressure. But remember, keep your team informed and part of the conversation if you make changes, as change can be unsettling.
Interested in learning more about how RATIONAL's intelligent cooking systems can improve your team's efficiency? Contact us today!