Sponsored by Square
Restaurants have had a turbulent few years, including contending with pandemic restrictions that reshaped operations, dealing with smaller margins and increased ingredient costs driven by inflation, and navigating a tight labor market. Despite these headwinds, there are encouraging signs that speak to restaurants’ resiliency. In the first seven months of 2022, census reports showed food and beverage sales were up 20% year over year. However, according to Square data, restaurant teams only grew 8.6% in size over the same time period when compared to 2021. To meet growing customer demand and to stand out from competitors, it is more important than ever for restaurateurs to create an attractive workplace that will engage and retain talent.
Restaurateurs can leverage technology to attract new employees and set their existing staff up for success, ultimately leading to new efficiencies in front and back-of-house operations, improved customer satisfaction, and a stronger bottom line for your business.
Streamline Operations and Simplify Omnichannel Sales
One pandemic necessity that’s created new consumer habits is omnichannel ordering, which allows customers to order online and either pick-up in-restaurant or curbside, or have it delivered through delivery partners. While these tools are essential for expanding revenue streams and meeting customers where they are, they also add new levels of complexity for staff, who must manage and fulfill inbound orders from a variety of channels with both accuracy and speed.
To achieve greater automation and efficiency for employees, restaurants need tools that work together. With an integrated Kitchen Display System (KDS), your staff can view all orders synced across multiple channels, including through your website, point-of-sale, or third-party delivery apps. Square’s KDS offering allows workers to prioritize, expedite, and route orders to specific prep stations so that operations run smoothly, replacing messy kitchen printers and ticketing. By automating formerly manual processes and reducing complexity, workers are empowered to manage a high volume of orders while avoiding errors. Automation also frees up time for employees to complete other strategic tasks – such as providing a white-glove experience for diners, managing restaurant capacity and reservations, tracking inventory, or fulfilling delivery orders.
Intuitive, easy-to-use technology not only boosts accuracy and efficiency for staff, but also reduces training and onboarding time for new employees. Staff can be easily cross-trained to fulfill orders from multiple channels or provide front-of-house support, allowing you to allocate resources as needed. Your customers will receive a consistent and positive experience no matter who is on shift.
Modernize the Dine-In Experience
Faced with the return of in-person dining combined with staffing shortages, restaurants must consider solutions that will optimize employees’ time while offering customers a positive experience. By adopting self-serve and tableside ordering technology, you can maximize your staff’s bandwidth by reducing time running back and forth from the kitchens, cut down on long lines and wait times, and avoid order errors.
Self-serve options such as QR codes increase workflow efficiency for front-of-house staff and allow customers to use their mobile devices to order from wherever they are, whether that is at a table, parking spot, or curbside. Additionally, restaurants can leverage mobile POS devices, which enable staff to quickly and seamlessly take orders and payments tableside or in line, helping increase table turnover. A mobile POS also opens lines of communication between servers by sending real-time notifications when items are no longer available or when the next course is ready to serve.
It’s more important than ever to efficiently leverage your employees’ time. By utilizing self-serve and tableside options, servers can focus on building relationships with diners and handling complicated requests. Minimizing the amount of time employees spend on transactional tasks and improving the customer experience will also foster a sense of loyalty and appreciation among your guests.
Provide Compensation, Benefits, and Flexibility to your Staff
In addition to the downstream benefits that improving your omnichannel and dine-in technology offerings can have on your staff, the proper labor management tools can also have an impact on employee experience – and even more importantly, retention. Payroll and team management technologies, especially solutions that integrate with your POS, can provide employees with unique benefits like quicker access to funds, dynamic scheduling capabilities, and comprehensive benefit packages.
One of the most attractive benefits for frontline workers is the opportunity for flexible scheduling. Automated team management tools, such as Square’s Staff offerings make time tracking easy and allow your staff to update their availability. Reporting can offer visibility into your busiest periods, giving you the ability to resource your team appropriately and set them up for success. Team management software also streamlines tip distribution or tip pooling options across your team, ensuring equitable and timely payouts and saving you meaningful hours by reducing, or even eliminating, manual calculations.
By using an automated payroll service, you can save time with stressful, time-consuming processes such as tax filings and reporting while also providing timely wages and benefits for your staff. The right payroll tools can help you manage and provide worker’s compensation, health insurance, retirement, and 401(k) benefits. A number of payroll systems, including Square Payroll, also offer pay flexibility through earned wage access tools. With this type of benefit, employees have easy and faster access to a portion of their earned wages outside of their normal pay cycle.
Setting a strong foundation for your employees will have downstream effects on your entire business. By equipping your staff with robust and streamlined technology, you reduce day-to-day frustration and empower your employees to focus on what’s really important. Not only will your staff appreciate a seamless and flexible workplace environment, your customers will notice too.
