FUTURE FORECAST Short Cuts when . . .

SHORT CUTS WHEN SHORT STAFFED

Future forecasts show that supply chain issues and labour shortages are going to continue through 2022. It is important to have systems in place to pivot your offering, a menu that relies on local products and ingredients, and dishes that can be implemented by all staff members.

Over the course of the last two years, restaurants have demonstrated they are nothing if not resilient. While the labour gap is a significant pain point for restaurants, it brings about an opportunity for the industry to create more permanent workforce solutions.

MENU HACKS

While multi-page menus once reigned supreme, the small menu is finally taking centre stage at restaurants. Although restaurant menus have been shrinking for years, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift to a more curated list of offerings.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the dining restrictions that have come with it have left many restaurants with fewer staff, smaller budgets, and reduced operations. As a result, many restaurants no longer have the workforce to prep many different dishes, or the funds to purchase a wide variety of ingredients. In fact, a recent study by One Table found that 60% of operators were purchasing ingredients less frequently than normal.

Whether you were already in the process of pruning your menu, or COVID-19 has forced you to axe a few dishes, going small can lead to some big gains.

Streamlining your menu can help to ensure that the dishes you serve are ones that your kitchen can handle efficiently and quickly, without placing a burden on your staff. Tied to the issue of efficiency is labour costs. When you have an excessively large menu, it takes a greater number of back-of-house staff to prep and cook all the different dishes you offer. However, when you offer just a few core dishes, you can get away with fewer staff in the kitchen.

Beyond lowering your labour costs, a small menu also can also help to simplify training. For back-of-house staff, a small menu means fewer dishes to learn, allowing them to get up to speed more quickly.

One of the most obvious benefits of a small menu is that it helps to reduce food waste. With fewer dishes on your menu, the question of how to do inventory in a restaurant becomes much simpler because it’s easier to keep track of how much you need of any given ingredient or to figure out which ingredients can be cross utilised in multiple dishes.

With more precise ingredient tracking, it’s easier to stay on top of ayour current inventory, avoid over-ordering in the future, and order locally when possible – all of which helps to prevent spoilage and food waste, as well as helping your bottom line.

TECH TOOLS

Many brands are finding the solution to the labour shortage is to integrate new technologies.

Line-busting tablets became a popular sight during the pandemic: employees walking down a line of cars in the drivethru and taking orders. Inside the restaurant, waiters can easily use tablets to take orders at the table and send them to the kitchen instantaneously, and quickly process payments, reducing time needed to travel back and forth to a shared POS system.

When seeking to alleviate labour challenges, back-of-house efficiencies are just as important as the front-of-house. Complete kitchen display systems (KDS) and KDS software can help improve back-of-house operations.

They cannot replace employees but can streamline food preparation and staff training. KDS’s reduce training time for new back-of-house employees as they can display the ingredients involved in a certain menu item, or cooking instructions for specific orders.