Reduce labour costs in your QSR – 6 tips for Success

A QSR’s workers is expected to have a skill set that is not always required in a regular restaurant. The work is incredibly compartmentalised and demands speedy task completion.

QSRs require significantly less labour than other types of restaurants, they must prioritise optimisation. A fast-food restaurant with takeout services may have more employees than customers on the premises at any given moment. This is one of the features of a QSR, and the focus is on labour optimisation rather than reduction.

Here are some ideas on how a QSR can go about achieving exactly that

A detailed task list

Any good QSR will divide the entire process into smaller parts and assign tasks using division of labour. As an outcome, at each stage of the process, an employee will be allocated a part of the task. It is important that each staff member’s tasks are clearly defined and that no two sets of task lists conflict.

Training programmes

This may seem to be counter-intuitive. How are we going to save money if we spend more? Training may take some time and money, but it is an investment in every sense of the word. Every money or time invested on educating staff good working skills is repaid in greater productivity. A smaller but well-trained crew is preferable than an untrained legion of workers rushing around the kitchen and the floor.

Flexible schedules

A QSR cannot afford to recruit all of the workforce it need without compromising its profits. Hire only part-time staff during peak hours. There’s no purpose in having idle employees all day long. It also makes perfect sense to always have contract employees rather than hiring all of the employees on the payroll. By using contract labour, the business saves money on several advantages that a regular employee is entitled to. Another strategy is to have variable shift timings so that labour may be allocated more effectively to seasonal peaks and long work hours.

Self-serving initiatives

Sometimes, in order to optimise labour, we must look at the big picture. Find locations where recurring manpower is used and truly assess their requirement. Check whether improved technology and equipment can free up some of those hours.

Performance appraisal and reward system

Human resource management is a fundamental requirement for every hospitality business nowadays. Create a grading system for employees and link this into your incentive programme. A healthy competitive market will improve output while using the same number of resources. Whatever is spent on rewards is repaid many times over through improved production and efficacy.