Breaking into the restaurant industry is notoriously difficult. The dire statistic everybody knows is that one of every two new restaurants close after only being open for a year or two. Of those that survive past this point, their financial situation is often still precarious.

In the last few years, many restaurants across North America have taken advantage of new software that has empowered them with various tools which give their budget a boost. Read on to see how employee scheduling software can give your restaurant a major advantage.

Perfect Schedules, Quickly

Employee scheduling software’s primary function is to create responsive, flexible schedules in up to 80% less time than it would otherwise take. This doesn’t just ease what can be a frustrating process; it keeps your employees spending their time at work where they’re most effective.

Even outside of work, this software can reduce the phone calls and text messages needed to create a schedule by as much as 70%. This software saves everybody time, and time is money. The industry leaders in employee scheduling software provide a restaurant labor costs calculator so you can actually quantify how much your restaurant can save.

But the schedules it produces are also better. Staff can submit leave requests and tell their managers their availability remotely by phone, while the software uses automation where possible to factor in for variables in the schedule which are constant. This way, all staff will feel like the restaurant values their time because it takes their needs into account, while managers know they will always be amply staffed.

Detailed Intelligence, Updated Constantly

Employee scheduling software makes it easy for managers and executives to know everything that’s going on at their restaurant, both in terms of hard data and anecdotal descriptions from front-line workers.

The manager-facing dashboards display all the important statistics that give a complete picture of the economic health of each restaurant location, such as labor costs, total sales, expected sales, and more. It all gets updated in real time, so your decision makers always have the latest information at their fingertips. There’s even a section for weather, which for seasonal restaurants may help explain why a shift was particularly busy or quiet.

But crucially, there’s a built-in section for staff feedback. Employees can leave comments anonymously if they prefer, so they feel comfortable being candid. All the staff rate how they feel the shift went, and the software also gives managers the average rating.

Simplify Communications

Sometimes it feels like there are so many modern communication tools that wired get crossed, and staying connected paradoxically becomes more confusing. Employee scheduling software cuts through this Gordian knot by creating one centralized place where you can chat with your entire team, or create any number of smaller groups as needed. This way, you connect quickly with only the people you need to.

The restaurant industry is not getting any less competitive, and you need the right tools to keep you in business. For restaurants looking for a modern, technological solution, look no further than employee scheduling software.