President and CEO
What are you doing to balance labor costs in 2020? January 2020 is feeling a little bit like Bill Murray waking up with his alarm going off and the radio hosts saying “it’s Groundhog Day” again. The issue of 2020 for hospitality is again going to be increasing labor costs. Yes, it was the issue for 2019 and yes, it was the issue for 2018. A lot of what I would like to tell you this year is probably exactly what you have heard from us before, because it’s still important and the industry is still trying to find the right formula. Chad Mackay, chairman of our board and CEO of Fire & Vine Hospitality, was interviewed Anthony Anton President and CEO on national news about the challenges with labor cost. Chad said a lot of owners and anthonya@wahospitality.org managers know they need to change but haven’t done so yet. He went on to say he’s proud he made the changes he needed to and minimum wage is no longer an issue for his company. It made me picture Noah building the ark knowing the flood was coming and begging his neighbors to be proactive. Many in our industry are saying “no I’m not doing anything yet.” Guess what? The flood is here. The good news is our team has been working really hard to make sure you have a lot of information to help you make good decisions. In the past two years, we have produced numerous articles on trends, tips and tricks around labor cost. I don’t think there is going to be a singular answer on how to make the changes needed. But I am quite sure that most businesses still need to directly take action to have success in this new decade. While some of you are the people who built the ark to weather the storm, many of you now may be scrambling to find that helpful article from a couple years ago. I’d encourage you to look through the list of our resources, and if you see anything that you would want, go to our website and check it out or register in the members-only online HUB at access.wahospitality.org. Wahospitality.org: Doing service charges (correctly) Profit increases in a tough labor market Tip pooling—toolkit Commission pay—A road less traveled Videos with Rick Braa in the HUB (access.wahospitality.org): Labor cost management: Scheduling Labor cost management: Forecasting Labor cost management: Staffing Labor cost management: Trust and Track Members-only HUB (access.wahospitality.org): How to raise menu prices the right way Considering adding counter service? “We can’t ignore it”—Navigating third-party delivery pitfalls This issue of the magazine is devoted to hospitality’s labor and workforce. We hope the carefully curated articles in the following pages with words of wisdom from Washington state experts will inspire you and lead you to success in 2020.
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Washington Hospitality Magazine Update
Times, they are a changing. Just like you are constantly watching your menu to determine your most popular items, we’re constantly looking at our most popular news content here as well. We’re so excited that our website views and HUB registrations are hitting alltime highs. And we’re excited that the open rates on our emails are now setting the highest standard of any association’s open rates. This also indicates the ways you prefer getting your industry information. We’re going to put our effort into the communications assets you use most and tweak the way we do our magazine. You’ll still see six great issues from us this year and the content quality will be even better. This effort will allow us to spend more time ensuring that when you go to the HUB or the website, you’ll find the content on how to increase menu prices and calculate food costs. We’re looking forward to seeing how this experiment plays out. If you have any feedback for us, let us or your area coordinator know.
