by Abby Henson | Jan 9, 2018 | Blogs
February promises to be an exciting month, as S4Labour are exhibiting at two of hospitality’s biggest trade shows in London.
First up is Pub18, the UK’s only dedicated pub industry show, which opens its doors at Kensington’s Olympia on Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th. Two weeks later we will be taking our place amongst a host of first-rate exhibitors for Casual Dining at the Business Design Centre, Islington, on Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd of the month.
Trade shows are always a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate S4Labour to new operators and catch up with existing users, as well as rubbing shoulders with inspiring and influential people from all sectors of the industry.
Attendance at both events is free with advance registration. Sign up for Pub18 here, and Casual Dining here. We’re looking forward to seeing familiar faces and forging new relationships.
by Abby Henson | Jan 5, 2018 | Blogs
2018 is upon us, but for hospitality operators, the new year is all too often not a happy one.
After December’s glut of sales, January can feel like a famine. With the public watching their waistlines and looking after the pennies once more, footfall at most sites will be down causing revenue to suffer. More than ever, writing efficient rotas must be a priority for managers. Effective scheduling minimises overstaffing, reducing labour spend, but also protects against understaffing, ensuring sales opportunities are not missed and service levels are retained. Here’s our best advice:
Are your staff deployed effectively?
It all Starts with Forecasting
Accurate sales forecasting is pivotal to efficient scheduling. If you do not have a firm idea of how busy your business is likely to be, it will be very difficult to deploy the right level of staffing. It’s a great idea to equip yourself with as much information as you can before making a forecast; considering weather conditions, recent trading patterns, previous years’ data, and events in the local area will contribute to accurate predictions.
Identify Slack & Stress, and Redeploy Accordingly
We think of overstaffing as slack – times of wasted capacity and labour spend – and understaffing as stress – times when staff are rushed to the point of missing sales and delivering sub-standard service. Understanding and identifying these conditions, and redeploying labour accordingly, is an ideal way to improve the efficiency of rotas without having to cut your employees’ hours. Taking one person off Wednesday afternoon and moving their hours to Saturday night may have little impact on Wednesday but allow your weekend team to work far more efficiently, having a big positive effect on sales and customer experience.
Kitchen and Front of House teams should be considered independently
Consider Business Areas Individually
Efficient scheduling is not just a matter of how much you are spending on labour. Where the wage budget is spent is also of great significance. It’s important to consider the different areas of your business individually. You may be achieving your targeted labour percentage, but a deeper look can reveal major issues. An overstretched kitchen and underworked front of house team could at first glance balance to give the impression of an efficient site, but neither department is working efficiently. The best rotas are written by area, ensuring efficiency across the board and delivering the best results.
Shorten, Split, and Stagger to Save
We often speak to operators who we feel apply an overly blunt approach to their scheduling. They might know they need five people front of house on a Saturday night, and that their site is open from five o’clock till midnight, and therefore rota five employees to start at five and finish shortly after midnight. We feel this approach is too inflexible. The peak of trade may come between seven and ten, so is there really a need to have all five employees starting at five and finishing after midnight? Shortening shifts, staggering start times, and utilising split shifts are all important tools in keeping labour spend tightly controlled.
It’s not too early to plan for big days ahead
Schedule Ancillary Tasks on the Rota
It’s likely that your hourly-paid team members will be eager to retain their busy schedules from the festive period into January, but with reduced sales it is often very difficult for managers to do this and still hit their labour targets. It can often feel like a balancing act between keeping staff and area managers happy. An effective compromise can be scheduling employees for shifts where the focus is on tasks that don’t directly generate sales. Deep cleaning is probably welcome after a busy December, and it’s not too early to start planning for Valentine’s and Mothers’ Days, as well as Easter, which comes early this year. If you have any particularly social media savvy employees, it can be a great idea to schedule some time for them to create posts to advertise any January offers, potentially driving sales.
S4Labour provides the insight managers need to make accurate sales forecasts and write optimised rotas, resulting in reduced costs, increased sales, and improved service levels, supporting the year-round success of their business.
by Abby Henson | Dec 8, 2017 | Blogs
We are delighted to announce that we have established an integration with leading data and business analytics providers Tahola.
We will work together with Tahola to provide the hospitality industry with a solution that meets organisations’ labour management and business intelligence requirements. This will result in reduced costs, improved processes, and increased revenue for operators.
Both companies recognise the effectiveness of enhancing their own specialism through integration, adding further value for their users. In line with this, Tahola have developed an interface allowing its analytics solution to plug into S4Labour’s labour deployment data, saving mutual customers time and minimising the need for investment in costly bespoke integration work.
S4Labour’s Gareth Thomas, who worked closely with Tahola in establishing the project, enthused about the partnership saying, “Tahola are an excellent organisation who are at the cutting edge of data analytics for hospitality. I’m very excited about working with them to deliver great outcomes for our clients.”
What does the partnership mean for customers?
By combining the speed and capacity of cloud computing with a simple interface to S4Labour and Tahola’s intuitive dashboards, we can provide detailed, near-instant answers to key questions. This frees up managers to focus their attention elsewhere. Data is also visible on mobile devices, allowing managers to spend less time in the office and more time leading their teams and delivering great service to maximise sales.
by Abby Henson | Dec 7, 2017 | Blogs
Congratulations are in order for three S4Labour clients who have been confirmed as finalists at the 2018 edition of the prestigious Publican Awards.
Seafood Pub Company claim their 2015 trophy
Seafood Pub Company will vie to claim the hotly-contested Best Food Offer category, an accolade they previously won in 2015, while Anglian Country Inns beat off stiff competition to take their place amongst the candidates for the Best Accommodation Operator prize. Completing the trio are Albion & East, whose Canova Hall site has been nominated for Best New Bar.
Seafood Pub Company operates twelve food-led pubs in some of Lancashire and Yorkshire’s most picturesque locations, with an ethos of sourcing quality local produce to serve classic British dishes and fresh seafood specials. They began using S4Labour’s innovative labour management software in May 2016 and have thrived since, adding two new sites to their estate.
Anglian Country Inns – themselves twice previous winners of the Best Food Offer award – manage eight destination pubs with rooms spread across Norfolk and Hertfordshire, and have won a host of awards and plaudits for their stunning refurbishments of historic English inns. They became S4Labour customers in early 2015 and their directors have often spoken warmly of the relationship between the two companies at industry events since.
Backed by renowned hospitality investment partners Imbiba, Albion & East took on S4Labour in their Martello Hall site last year, while their second venue Canova Hall opened this autumn. With an offer that’s part restaurant, part cocktail, part nightclub, and wholely impressive, they have been earning rave reviews from customers and the press.
We are delighted to work with a superb array of clients from all sectors of the hospitality industry and proud to be a contributing factor in their ongoing success. We wish Seafood Pub Company and Anglian Country Inns the very best for the Publican Awards finals night in March.
by Abby Henson | Dec 1, 2017 | Blogs
We often hear from S4Labour users who wish to reset their password, either because they wish to change it or because they cannot remember the original.
Resetting a password is a quick and simple process which can be done by following the process below:
Step One
On the S4Labour login page input your email address into the Username field, and click the blue Forgot Password link.
Step Two
Clicking the ‘Forgot Password’ link in Step One will trigger an automatic email to be sent to your inbox. This email will contain a link and an eight-digit security code. Click on the link in the email.
Step Three
Clicking the link in Step Two will take you to a new page, which will prompt you to enter the security key and your new password, before clicking the “RESET Password” button.
Following the above steps will allow you to log into S4Labour using your new password.
If you have any further queries, please contact our support desk by emailing s4labour@cattonhospitality.com or calling 01295267400.
