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Restaurant owners are focused on rebuilding after the pandemic, making restaurant management
a challenge. Restaurants that survived 2020 had to build new areas for takeout and delivery.
They renovated dining rooms and deployed new technology. Restaurants spent money to operate
at a time when they could least afford it. And now, some parts of the country are raising the
minimum wage. Competitive businesses can’t allow labor costs to climb out of control – during
post-COVID19 recovery or any time in the future.
Fortunately, your point of sale (POS) system’s restaurant management features can help you
overcome the problem of controlling labor costs. Here are six ways:
- Time Tracking
Your managers’ time is a premium. Don’t make them spend it keeping track of when employees
clock in or out and take their breaks. Your POS system’s time clock function can take this
burden from your managers and accurately track when your employees work, down to the
minute. Also, with unique login credentials for each worker, you can eliminate the problem of
“buddy punching.” When only employee can punch in for themselves, you’ll never have to pay
when a friend clocks in for someone else. - Work allocation
Effective restaurant management requires assigning work fairly. You need to cover all tables and
assignments, but you need to make sure all servers get their share of tables (and tips) and a shot
at working the busiest shifts. Not treating employees fairly can lead to higher turnover, and in an
industry where employee churn can be as high as 70 percent, you need to hold onto your best
workers. Your POS system can automate scheduling and table assignments to keep them
equitable. - Training
When your POS system is easy to use, you can minimize training time. Systems that display the
information a server needs in a logical order and with minimal clicks help new employees learn
quickly. Easy-to-use POS systems also decrease the time that managers need to spend on
onboarding new employees and focus on their other responsibilities. - Efficiency and Automation
Your POS system can also streamline processes, saving your employees steps and eliminating
the chance of error. When your operation runs like clockwork, whether taking tableside orders and payment or automatically sending online orders to the kitchen, you save time. Those seconds or minutes that you shave from each process will help your team do more each shift they work. And, maybe, they may even enable you to have fewer people on the schedule.
- Self-service
Restaurant management solutions, including tabletop tablets and freestanding kiosks, can also
help control labor costs. For example, COVID-19 makes it necessary to assign employees to
disinfect the dining room and other restaurant areas. Kiosks allow customers to place their own
orders, so you could reassign employees to cleaning, eliminating the need to schedule more staff.
Self-service also helps keep guests and employees socially distanced, an extra benefit during the
pandemic. - Reporting
POS reporting features will benefit restaurant management by providing data so you can make
smart decisions. POS reports will show you when your restaurant is the busiest, and you need
more staff on hand. It will also show when lulls occur, and you can get by with fewer employees.
Reports can also show you who your most productive employees are so you can schedule them
during high-traffic times to maximize revenues.
Furthermore, cloud access to reports let you keep a close watch on schedules and expenses,
whether you are in the restaurant, at home, or on the road.
Small Changes, Big Differences in Restaurant Management
The idea of making more changes after a year of nothing but change may seem discouraging. But
using your POS system’s features to improve restaurant management and control labor costs is a
change for the better. Contact Everything But The Food to learn more about how you can cut
costs and operate more profitably.