A CrunchTime article on restaurant labour argues that removing shifts often backfires, because a thin floor slows service. It proposes four alternatives: stop overtime nobody planned, forecast demand so shifts are neither over- nor under-staffed, cross-train staff, and make shift swaps easy. In an operator survey the article cites, 38% of a week's shifts were not staffed correctly.
Why cutting shifts is the wrong first move
When the wage bill runs past budget, most managers open the roster and start removing shifts. A CrunchTime article on labour cost argues that this frequently costs more than it saves: with fewer people on the floor, service slows and whoever is left gets stretched to cover the gaps. It offers four changes that lower the cost while leaving the floor properly covered.
Stop overtime that nobody planned
Overtime premiums pile up quickly, and a lot of that overtime is never a conscious decision. It creeps in while the schedule is being put together. CrunchTime recommends two safeguards. The first is scheduling software with labour-rule checks that warn a manager when a proposed shift would push someone into overtime, before the roster is published. The second is live alerts through a mobile app during service, so the manager sees a line cook heading into overtime while the shift is still running, not after payroll has gone through.
Measure over- and under-staffing, not just total hours
CrunchTime cites a recent operator survey in which 38% of a week's shifts did not have the right number of people on them. That figure covers two separate problems. Short-staffed shifts hurt service and food quality. Overstaffed shifts are harder to notice: the extra wages leak straight out of profit, and managers above store level often miss it until the payroll figure comes in high.
The fix the article describes is demand forecasting that can be adjusted for holidays and events, rather than simply rolling last week's numbers forward, combined with software that builds the schedule automatically. Putting a roster together by hand while juggling all of those variables can take a manager four hours or more every week, the article notes. Auto-scheduling hands that time back and makes a wrong staffing level less likely.
Cross-train your team
Cross-training came up often in that survey: over half of the operators who responded listed it among their main ways of managing labour, rising to 70% for brands running 51 or more locations. CrunchTime suggests a three-part approach:
- Decide which roles it is realistic to cross-train. Servers and hosts, on the front of house, are usually the simplest starting point.
- Set up structured training on a learning management system, so staff can work through modules on demand during slow stretches of a shift.
- Pair that with hands-on shadowing of an experienced colleague instead of leaning on the software alone.
Make shift swaps simple
CrunchTime ties rigid scheduling directly to staff turnover, and turnover is one of the biggest hidden labour costs a restaurant carries. One figure stands out: 30% of restaurant operators say they are not confident they can change a schedule once it has been published. A scheduling app where employees can post their availability, ask for swaps and message their manager closes that gap. The manager approves a change in a few taps, and staff who have some say over their hours are measurably less likely to quit.
Staff for the day you actually get
Taken together, the four changes are about precision rather than austerity: rostering for the trade a restaurant really has on a given day instead of the trade the schedule assumed. That recovers hours that were already being wasted, without taking away cover the floor still needs.
What this means for your restaurant
- Before removing a shift, check whether overtime is being created by accident while the roster is built, and set up alerts that catch it during service.
- Track how many shifts each week were overstaffed as well as understaffed. The overstaffed ones cost you profit quietly.
- Forecast demand with holidays and events built in, rather than copying last week's roster.
- Start cross-training with front-of-house roles, and give staff a simple way to request and swap shifts.
Sources
This article summarises the reporting and guides listed above; the figures belong to those sources and are attributed in the text. Check anything that affects your business against your own platform agreements, payout statements and advisers.