Running a restaurant is a complex juggling act. On one hand, you want to provide excellent service to your customers, and on the other, you need to ensure that your expenses, particularly labor costs, are kept in check.

Exquisite customer service begins with a happy and productive staff that works collectively to serve customers and ensure they return to your restaurant for the food you offer and the elevated customer service and friendly atmosphere.

Saving on labor costs though takes even more effort to be achieved and in this delicate balance between motivating your employees and lowering labor costs, POS software comes into play.

How to maximize staff productivity while saving on labor costs?

Manage Labor Scheduling Efficiently

Labor costs are often one of the biggest expenses for a restaurant. To control labor costs, it's essential for restaurants to accurately track employee hours. A reliable POS system offers you robust time and attendance features. This allows restaurant owners to monitor when employees clock in and out, helping to prevent unauthorized overtime and minimize time theft.

POS software can help you optimize staff scheduling in different ways:

Labor Forecasting: you can forecast your labor needs by analyzing historical sales data to predict peak hours. This helps you schedule staff more efficiently, ensuring you have the right number of employees on hand during busy times and avoiding overstaffing during slow periods.

Shift Management: POS software can allow managers to easily create and modify employee schedules, taking into account employee availability. It also helps monitor overtime which affects labor costs in real-time.

Employee onboarding, training, and performance

The onboarding process for new staff members is crucial for the staff to know what to expect and what is the overall work structure. After the onboarding, train your employees to represent your restaurant and reflect the best image to your guests.

Training boosts employees’ productivity and ensures your staff is ready to perform any required task and resolve any aroused issue. It also reduces employee turnover according to research compiled by RAIL Media, the average cost of replacing an employee (salary aside) is $5,864 for each person. For the average full-service restaurant operator, that could run up to $146,000 annually.  Train them on the menu, food hygiene, and the customer service, and make sure they can answer any customer’s concern.

Use the reporting capabilities of your POS software to track individual employee performance, offering feedback and incentives to improve their productivity.

Your POS software should provide access to essential performance metrics, such as sales per labor hour, table turnover rate, and customer satisfaction feedback. By tracking these metrics, restaurant owners can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions about staffing levels.

This way, you ensure that you keep your productive staff that generates the most profits for your business.

Automate routine tasks

Your POS software should be your best business companion because it significantly improves the efficiency of your restaurant operations:

Quick and Accurate Order Entry: A user-friendly POS system makes it easy for your staff to take orders and automatically send them to the kitchen for preparation, minimizing errors and reducing the time it takes to process orders.

Faster Payment Processing: Streamlined payment options, including the ability to split bills, apply discounts, and accept various payment methods, make the checkout process faster and more convenient for both staff and customers.

Adding self-ordering kiosks increases your sales as well and frees up your staff’s time so they can focus on issues that require their attention.

Employee feedback and recognition

Motivation is the key to boosting employees’ performance. A happy and motivated workforce is more productive. Encourage a positive work environment by enabling employees’ transparent feedback where they can offer suggestions for improvement.

“we’re like a family” or ‘We’re your second home” shouldn’t be a cliché. You should apply these two sayings if you want your staff to be productive. Therefore, it’s important to reward your employees, offer them incentives, and secure a healthy work environment them where they can be heard and promoted according to their performance to retain them.

Integration with payroll systems

Seamless integration with payroll systems simplifies the process of paying employees accurately and on time. This eliminates the need for manual data entry, reducing the risk of errors and saving valuable time.

As a restaurateur, maximizing staff productivity and minimizing labor costs are essential for long-term success. Along with modern POS software, you should empower your employees to achieve their goals while achieving yours.