Find out how a buffet restaurant chain increased its profitability and efficiency with WorkforceHub.
The Problem: Increasing Costs were Shrinking Margins
The margins at the restaurant chain’s eight locations were shrinking due to rising food costs. Therefore, the owner was searching for ways to bolster the bottom line. Competition was tight and an attempt to raise menu prices cut business.
Because raising menu prices was counterproductive, he turned to labor costs. Since labor costs account for at least half of expenses in any type of business, it made sense to consider how he could trim in this area.
Restaurant Workforce Management is Complex
As is the case in many restaurants, employee management in this particular chain was fairly complex. Staff consisted of both part-time and full-time employees. Additionally, they had different pay rates.
Most employees were hourly, apart from eight full-time head cooks and four managers, each of whom managed two restaurants. Multiple locations added a layer of complexity as several prep cooks and servers split hours, working in different restaurants within a single pay period.
Unplanned Overtime Drove Costs
Because workforce management was complicated, the managers struggled to limit unplanned overtime. If one of the locations had an unusually busy night, managers couldn’t just send employees home. During busy times, the supervisors were juggling so many balls that checking who had moved into overtime hours was impossible.
Since few employees wanted to work overtime, he knew the staff would welcome proactive overtime management. But to achieve that, he needed a new system. Specifically, he needed an employee timekeeping system for restaurants that could automatically track and prevent overtime shifts.
Solution: WorkforceHub
After researching various solutions, some of which were designed for restaurant owners, he chose WorkforceHub. WorkforceHub is an all-in-one solution that handles time and labor and core HR functions. This restaurant owner was especially interested in the timekeeping and scheduling functionality of the system.
Setup was quick and easy. The employee schedule enforcement feature was key. Each manager entered all employee and shift information in less time that it had previously taken to build just one monthly schedule in Excel. The schedule enforcement tool prevents out-of-schedule punches. If an employee tries to punch in before their authorized start time, the clock locks them out.
To keep overtime under control, WorkforceHub sends a manager alert before a worker hits the hours threshold, which is fully customizable within the system. Accurate break tracking has also delivered savings.
Timekeeping Accuracy for Mobile Employees
The mobile features are invaluable for managers and employees that split hours between locations. No more retroactively guessing punch times after the fact or forgetting to punch.
For an affordable per employee, per month price, WorkforceHub delivered an affordable solution that quickly paid for itself within just a few weeks. And now, many months later, the solution continues to limit the cost of labor during every shift.
Get Started Today
WorkforceHub is a powerful and fully integrated HR solution that makes it easy to optimize the performance of your managers and employees. The result is improved efficiency across the entire organization.
This system is created for busy employers who need to streamline scheduling, automate time and attendance tracking, maintain regulatory compliance, and reduce labor costs. Best of all, it’s built for small businesses and fits into nearly any budget.
Try it for free today or explore additional features.
We also work closely with resellers and referral partners to provide this capable platform to a wide range of clients.
