1. Optimize manpower structure and service process
Due to the various types of restaurants, the manpower structure and service process can be adjusted in a targeted manner. Generally speaking, the manpower structure is to set up suitable positions according to the actual situation.For example, you could consider hiring more hourly workers during peak meal times, rather than hiring many employees to meet peak dining demand, and then most of them are idle during off-peak times.
Optimization of the service process could also be a great point to reduce labor costs. For example, in the whole process from the customer entering the restaurant to the checkout, the waiter taking orders can be replaced by the customer’s self-ordering, and the cashier’s checkout can be replaced by the customer’s self-checkout, etc. (pay first and eat later can protect financial security to a certain extent).
2. Reduce labor costs by using technology
We can also reduce labor costs through technology, by mainly integrating these three aspects:
Customers order, pay, and pick up by themselves.
Real-time update of inventory status to avoid refunds caused by repeated orders
Reduce financial risk
3. Eliminate unnecessary management positions
In addition to using the necessary technology to reduce labor costs, this could also be achieved by eliminating unnecessary management positions. After all, the salary of a management position is much higher than that of an ordinary employee. What’s more, Optimizing staff scheduling can also be of great help. For example, if there are not many customers at dinner time, the corresponding number of waiters present can also be reduced. By optimizing staff scheduling, the maximum use efficiency of employees can be achieved, thereby reducing labor costs.
4. Upgrade your menu
Apart from personnel arrangement, improving the efficiency of personnel utilization can also start from your menu. A good menu can greatly reduce the cooking time of dishes, thereby improving the efficiency of employees. Optimizing the menu can be mainly started from these two aspects.
Firstly, when choosing a new dish, do not take the distinctive taste and good appearance as the only criterion, but also consider whether the dish can be pre-made in advance and batch manufactured; secondly, delete dishes with poor sales and poor customer feedback from the menu.
5. Optimize product processing flow
Optimizing the processing flow is conducive to speeding up meal delivery, and rationally arranging staff time to improve staff work efficiency. So, how do we optimize the processing flow? Mainly from following these three aspects:
Prepare meals in advance according to business data of the past and ingredient storage characteristics (to reduce the time for preparing materials in the early stage).
Reduce the proportion of dishes with complicated production procedures.
Increase the proportion of quantifiable processing of dishes, and reduce the technical difficulty of dish production, so as to speed up meal delivery.
6. Restructuring of the kitchen staff
The goal of reducing labor costs can also be achieved by de-chefing or reducing the number of chefs. For example, most of the dishes are processed into semi-finished products through the central kitchen and distributed to each store, which reduces the difficulty of making dishes and also the processing steps accordingly, thereby reducing the labor cost of the chef. But not all restaurants are suitable for de-chefing. The central kitchens mentioned above are generally only available in chain restaurants. Therefore, de-chefing needs to meet the following criteria:
Products are easy to standardize and quantify production.
Restaurants are generally chain stores.
The production technology is not too demanding and does not affect product quality.
A hot pot restaurant is an example that can be de-chefing, with a central kitchen delivering semi-finished products to each store.
7. Optimize restaurant layout and table setting
Perhaps you are wondering, what does optimizing my restaurant layout have to do with reducing labor costs? The main core of reducing labor costs is to improve the work efficiency of your staff. Optimizing the layout of the restaurant can reduce the time for employees – especially waiters – to walk around, so as to quickly complete actions such as ordering, serving food, and cashing. Therefore, in the design of the restaurant, how to make your waiter take less time moving around to serve more customers is indeed a question worth considering. In addition to optimizing restaurant layouts, optimizing table settings can also improve employees’ productivity. Does your restaurant often have customers calling the waiter and asking, can we have more paper towels, please? Where are the chopsticks? Could you please give me a glass of water? If you integrate paper towels, napkins, kettles, etc. with the table, customers can serve themselves without raising their hands to ask the waiter.
After using these seven methods according to local conditions, then you can effectively reduce the input of labor costs, thus paving the way for the further development of your F&B business.