Setting Up the Staff Schedule for Your Restaurant

Hiring & Training Staff

Creating a staff schedule for your restaurant is more than just filling in shifts. You’ll want a system that keeps things running smoothly, makes your team happy, and ticks all the labour law boxes. With the right approach, you can streamline operations and keep your staff motivated. 

Here’s a step-by-step process to help ensure you’re ticking off all those boxes. 

Choose a Scheduling Frequency

Start by deciding how far in advance to create your schedules. More importantly, you want to consider the pros and cons of your intervals. 

• Will it be weekly? If so, it can make scheduling more flexible, but also provides shorter notice to staff.
• Will it be monthly? That gives people plenty of time to plan around their shifts and prepare ahead, but it may lack flexibility. 

A 2-2-3 schedule, more standard and offers the best of both worlds, may be ideal. But there’s no right or wrong way to schedule. The only one that matters is the one that creates the best fit for your restaurant crew. 

Gather Relevant Information

Before creating the schedule, collect the following essential data:

• Employee availability and preferences (i.e., ideal time to work).
• Time-off requests.
• Notes on previous schedules and their success (if available).
• Sales forecasts and historical customer patterns (perhaps you need to schedule more staff members during busier hours/high traffic times).
• Local events or holidays that may influence traffic volume.
• Weather forecasts (if they influence foot traffic and customer visits).

Set Clear Time-Off Policies

Set clear guidelines for time-off requests by establishing a deadline or a grace period for employees to submit applications. Establish guidelines around how requests should be submitted, and identify periods when time off may not be granted. Having a system in place improves employee morale and reduces turnover. 

Clearly and Fairly Define Shifts

Analyze your restaurant’s hours of operation and divide them into clearly segmented periods, such as morning, afternoon, and evening. Create or download templates for these shifts, and consider how you’ll distribute and rotate them. 

Comply With Labour Laws

When creating a schedule, remember labour laws and regulations. This means adhering to maximum working hours per day/week, mandatory breaks, overtime pay, and restrictions for minors and part-time workers. It’s vital to follow these rules for the health and safety of your workers, in addition to fulfilling their rights and obligations as an employer. 

Plan the Schedule with Care and Precision

Next, start filling in your schedule. Assign shifts that suit employees’ skills, experience, and preferences. Pay attention to busy times like weekends and dinner rushes, and schedule enough staff. Stagger shifts to allow time for prep and restocking. 

Leverage Scheduling Technology

Lean into technology, whether software, apps, or even generative AI chatbots, to help you complete your schedule. Apps, such as Homebase, Sling, and 7shifts, feature user-friendly drag-and-drop interfaces, automated shift assigning, and other features that make scheduling faster and easier. 

Even ChatGPT can pitch in if you know the right prompts! While it’s not the same as using a dedicated scheduling app, tools like this can free up your energy for other parts of running your restaurant. 

Publish the Schedule

Once you’ve created the schedule, post it. Post it simultaneously on every medium, so your employees know when to check for it. If it's via an app, remind your staff through notifications or mobile alerts. You can also post printed copies, as long as they're visible in common areas.

Allow Flexibility and Shift Swaps (When Appropriate)

Schedules are meant to set expectations, but they shouldn’t be overly rigid. In other words, allow for shift swapping, especially when employees have legitimate reasons (e.g., vacations, medical appointments, family emergencies). 

Need to swap shifts? Most scheduling apps make it easy, but even a good old pen and paper can do the trick! Flexibility = happier teams. 

Track and Refine the Schedule

Lastly, track the effectiveness of your schedule over time. Check for things like how labour costs compare against sales, so you can optimize your staffing. 

Watch for signs of inefficiency, such as employees misunderstanding their schedules or voicing concerns about the current setup. Be proactive and make adjustments when necessary to address these issues.