We are a diverse industry in every way. With a licensed trade market of around 100,000 sites, and a licensed market of another at least 100,000 outlets, we are massive. We have sites in every town, many villages, and in most communities; whether we are a morning coffee shop or a late-night bar, hospitality is everywhere.
As a result, we need team members available around the clock. Most importantly, we need people to work during the times that suit our customers best. Unlike other places that dictate when they must engage in an activity, we are based entirely around when our customers want to come. This means we operate all day and all night in one guise or another and figuring out the mix of staff we need, and when we need them, is one of our biggest challenges.
It has always been the case that we have a mix of people doing different hours. In one of my own sites this week, we have 6 people FOH doing full time hours, 6 people doing between 12 and 25 hours, and 9 staff members doing 2 shifts a week or less. BOH is more extreme, with 4 doing full time hours, 1 part time, and 6 doing less than 2 shifts a week, in other words, our ‘one shifters’.
For us, all of the one shifters are working between Friday evening and Sunday evening. If we had any more full timers their hours would be wasted, because we would put them on midweek when we haven’t got the sales to support them.
We are very lucky with our one shifters. Many of them start with us while they are still at school and have parents who want them to develop a great work ethic early in their lives. A few of the parents often time their Sunday lunch booking to pick up their children at the end of their shift. I think they like seeing them hard at work. It has really developed a sense of community for our group of one shifters, who all love their job and have new friends and therefore want to come to work.
Most of them end up going to university, which means we hope to have them for at least 5 years; from their last two years at school, through to gap years and university holidays. We flex up their hours over the busy Christmas period and over the summer holidays, which is important for us.
The other added bonus for one shifters is pay rates. When fully costed, someone earning the new National Minimum Wage (NMW) will cost £16.10 per hour, which is 32% higher than their base pay rate. However, a single-shift worker on the NMW will cost just £13.90 per hour—resulting in a savings of over £2 per hour. Similarly, someone earning £10 per hour will cost £11.20 as a single-shift worker, creating a savings of nearly £4 per hour simply by working under a single-shift arrangement.
So, the question here is, do we continue doing what we have always done, or do we start switching some evening shifts in the week to one shifters? Historically, these shifts have been staffed by full timers, but if we can make this move, we will have a substantial saving.
But what about quality, I hear you cry. How do we ensure our one shifters are just as skilled and effective as full-timers? After all, saving 30% on staff costs is irrelevant if it compromises guest satisfaction or reduces sales.
We are fortunate; our length of service for our one shifters is actually better than full timers. And yet, the quality of the team is just as good. Of course we have people, both full time and part time, who go off the boil, but that is the same anywhere. Training might take longer, but this is because they are only doing one shift a week, but training what you would achieve in one week with a full timer still requires the same number of shifts. The real point to consider is whether or not they have forgotten everything since they learned it the week before. It doesn’t always happen, but if they do, then perhaps it is right to cut your losses, unless you can find them a job that requires less skill.
But that aside, moving the mix of our team could be one of the solutions to the combined NI, NMW and pension challenge. I think it is worth giving some thought to!
