One of the most frustrating elements of management in hospitality is the drift in labour cost. After a huge amount of effort working with the team to get to the right cost for a week, including NI and holiday, holding to the same labour cost in subsequent weeks seems to undo itself at a more rapid rate than we are happy with. 

We all hope that we can leave labour management alone to run itself for a few weeks (or maybe months), before revisiting the site and resetting the numbers. Having to go back to it early and rework it, undermines the focus and energy we put into streamlining the process in the first place. And ultimately, it leaves us with a sinking feeling and a bit of resentment for the team running the site, because we feel they could have done a better job managing it all.  

Our hospitality bones want to focus on service and sales growth, leaving labour management to run itself and not require too much of our time. This is possible, but the process needs to become more routine and more consistent first. How? One way I have found works well is using rota templates.  

If we put a load of effort into getting the rota right, we then want it to be repeated. Writing a rota is hard: deciding when people start, and how many you need is vital. But we also have to take a different approach to the ‘who’ and ‘when’ for each day of the week.  

The person who is best at line cleaning might always need to come in early on a Wednesday; the manager might always need to work on a Monday because there is a head office meeting, and then there’s the kitchen. Someone might work on a Thursday because they prepare the desserts for the weekend, and another might be the best at carving the Sunday meat. These intricacies all play a part in gross profit – in fact, there are more to consider before we even get to the simpler ones, like how many hours and on which days. 

Once you have considered all of the people and their particular skills and foibles, you can decide where an hour can be removed here and there. And, just as importantly, you have planned a rota that is economic for your business. 

Typically, a rota can flex up by 15% without needing any more people if the sales spread relatively evenly across the week. So, a rota for a £20k week will be pretty solid, up to say, £23k. 

In reality, not many rotas need to be written to optimise your business. If I take my own restaurant, there has been a £10k spread in sales across all the weeks of the year. The only exceptions are the very highest weeks, like Christmas, or whenever there’s special events and bank holiday weeks. But, generally, 5 templated rotas will run most of the year for the business. 

When I look at our customers, I find them gravitating towards starting from scratch, even when we have spent time writing the rota with them. Inevitably, these rotas cost more and have a negative impact on sales because they don’t consider all of the nuances that are required.  

This process doesn’t just apply to the rota – the same goes for your shift planner. A well-written shift planner will include all the detail needed to run your specific business really well: the right people in the right places and the critical float roles utilised effectively and with the right purpose. Having no shift planner equals a poorly run shift, as the team are not clear on what they are doing. Shift planning remains the key to a great team, great retention, great service and great productivity. 

Too often, I find that businesses treat the shift plan as an afterthought. Writing a plan for, say, 6-on shift is the best approach, as you can then add the 6 team members to that plan, rather than the other way round. The same goes for using templates – they will massively reduce the drift in cost because the basic principles are agreed first. Together, the two create a first-class business! 

A recent topic that seems to come up often when I talk to industry colleagues is the appalling damage covid has done to Gen Z. For a while there has been much talk of the academic damage done, but less energy is focused on the social damage, particularly when it comes to the implications it has had upon them entering the workforce.  

If you are currently employing 16–20-year-olds, you are dealing with a generation that were between 12-16 when the pandemic began. School closures, remote learning, and social distancing measures completely rid them of face-to-face interactions for a long time. Of course, this led to an increase in social anxiety and discomfort in real-world settings. For many Gen Z workers, the prospect of engaging with customers, colleagues, and supervisors in person is really daunting. And, of course, within our industry, the need for social skills when entering the workforce is essential! 

As an industry, we see it in the people we recruit. Our teams struggle with some basic engagement skills; eye contact, initiating conversation and smiling, among others. As operators, we are having to work much harder than we did pre-covid to help young people through this journey. And we must – our industry survives on young people and improves the lives and capability of so many. It also helps people to develop essential life skills. 

This is unprecedented territory for us all – how do we help? From talking to others in the industry, I know there has been a focus on teaching conflict resolution and better customer service etiquette, whether that is through mentoring, or role-playing different scenarios. The other big one is opening up communication, to create an environment where employees feel comfortable asking for advice or discussing challenges, whether it be job-specific or general social competencies.  

We rely on young people in our businesses, so we want to encourage and support them so we can retain them. Gen Z are tech-savvy, quick learners, and often more open to change and innovation than older generations. I find that these traits can be really undervalued by leaders, but in our post-pandemic world, they need more recognition – particularly now we are increasingly relying on digital solutions and service models everywhere! 

In our pubs, I always enjoy it when I see the younger members of the team getting dropped off in a nice Range Rover. Their parents could easily afford to give their children the money they are earning. But instead, they recognise that working, particularly in hospitality, gives them much more. For starters: a work ethic, an ability to understand the value of money, an ability to talk to other people and engage with different generations in a meaningful way. These skills are invaluable and cannot be taught by staying at home or by asking mum and dad to fund your life every weekend!  

And beyond this, I think that our industry is now more important to UK plc than it has ever been. It would be great if, at some point, the government stopped taxing us to the hilt, and instead helped drive an industry that prepares people for the working world in a way that school, or even university, cannot. It is real work, with real customers and real expectations. 

I heard recently that hospitality employs over three million people. But given the high staff turnover, the percentage of young people that are in some way involved and moulded by hospitality is immense. An incredible number of the people I meet have, at one point in their journey, worked in hospitality, even if it was only for a summer.  

We need more recognition for the job we do, and more support for helping people through this journey. One-to-ones and coffee chats are all part of the training journey, but I think that one of the most important things is praising people when they do a good job. This is the reinforcement people need to try harder, be braver and challenge their fears. 

I do not think I am alone in believing that our standards have dropped since covid. We are all working hard to build back and get to the levels we want, and even to go beyond that. Of course, many things have changed due to covid, but with change also comes a real opportunity for hospitality leaders to shape a more resilient and capable workforce. So, get to it!