Sponsored by: Fourth
Faced with the challenges of rising labor costs and high employee turnover, operators are looking at data to solve many of these issues. Employers know that while labor is the largest expense in running a foodservice business, technology can help them keep these costs in check. Operators are investing in scheduling software and other solutions to help them predict their staff needs, order the right amount of food while limiting waste, and to improve employee engagement.
Sales figures provide critical data for predicting staffing needs, but other factors like the weather, public holidays or local events also have a bearing on what happens on a particular day. More and more, operators are using detailed reporting to help them analyze past sales, forecast future sales, and determine how many workers they will need for each shift. The challenge is that there are many points of seemingly disparate data from various sources. Operators have to figure out which data is relevant and accurate to help them avoid under/overscheduling and under/overordering.
Fourth, together with Nation’s Restaurant News, conducted a survey to determine operators’ approaches to forecasting and labor scheduling, and how they connect the two. Operators have a certain level of confidence when it comes to how they plan for the future, but there are areas where they can improve and can increase their financial success.
Download the Industry Insights today to see:
- The most common ways to forecast sales, and the varying levels of accuracy in each approach.
- The most popular approaches to setting labor schedules, and the role sales data plays.
- Which KPIs these operators found most valuable, as well as how they gather and use this information.
- How optimistic operators are about the future, and which issues worry them most.
