4 tips for Understaffed Restaurants to Still Make a Profit Despite Shortages

Surviving inflation, making a profit, and managing an understaffed business are some of the concerns on the table for many restaurants and dark kitchens worldwide. The latter is increasingly becoming a key challenge, as reflected in some recent statistics.

According to a study by the National Restaurant Association, the food service industry has lost nearly 750,000 jobs— this represents a difference of 6.1%∼ in the workforce compared with data from pre-pandemic levels.

Diners have also noticed the lack of staff, resulting in complaints. Yelp data shows that in Q1 2022, consumers mentioned long waits (23%) and short staffing (229%) more in reviews than in Q1 of the previous year.  

This situation has no easy way out, as more than raising wages is needed to solve it. We did our homework, so today, we bring you four tips to drive your restaurant or dark kitchen and still make a profit,  even with an understaffed operation.

#1 Take a look at your menu and consider simplifying it

Your menu draws people in, but some items are more popular than others. If you have a limited team to prepare and serve clients, it's time to change your menu.

Simplifying your menu is challenging, so here’s a  checklist to help you reflect on your current one.

Bear in mind: This is not an exact formula; it’s only a starting point to assess whether or not a dish gets to stay on the menu or if it's time for it to go.

How does it work?

1. Take a dish from your menu

2. Run the checklist to assess the selected dish 

3. If there are more affirmative answers, keep the item. If the opposite happens, then you might consider restructuring your menu  

#2 Time is a crucial ingredient: Measure it and analyze it Use time-saving tools

Updating information in online ordering tools, such as menus, promos, and so on, can waste time you could use for other essential tasks. Solutions like Deliverect allow you to update menus on multiple platforms easily. 

Check the back and front of house—BoH & FoH—for bottlenecks or inefficient processes. Doing this will make your restaurant more cost-efficient while operating with less staff. 

In this process, we are looking for:

• Remove time-wasting processes

• Task standardization

• Make adjustments without compromising food or service quality

Manage personal time scheduling

Create a system of employee schedules to control availability, worked hours, and more, so you can make decisions such as staff rotation, number of personnel available, and better estimate labor costs. 

With these, you will be able to adjust schedules to reduce costs and the tasks assigned to your staff, and these changes should not be permanent; but temporary adjustments.

Other actions that can help you save time are:

• Buy pre-cut vegetables / pre-prepped ingredients. 

• Review and replicate best practices from other restaurants.

• Analyze lessons learned and insights from the food service industry.

#3 Take care of your staff and foster a culture of cooperation

Use the staff you have at your disposal to do some magic. Taking care of your staff is crucial. You must inspire, train, and, most importantly, cultivate a collaborative culture.

Build a culture of collaboration

Start by training your team to wear different hats when necessary. If someone from your staff is less active, they can lend a hand to those who require help—considering they must be previously trained. 

For example 

A waiter can instantly cash out a customer if they are waiting to pay at the checkout counter. This is achievable as long as everyone is aware and taught to act.

To promote training and a positive culture, you could also:

• Carry out staff-only promotions

• Encourage breaks to avoid burnout

• Offer performance benefits 

• Perfect your standard operating procedures (SOPs) 
  

#4 Invest in staff recruitment

Consider designing a budget to recruit staff, just like you would invest in using advertising to draw customers in.

You can explore doing it yourself by placing ads on your social media channels and setting aside a budget for ads. 

Nowadays, there are multiple platforms to find waiters and kitchen workers, from the most typical ones, such as LinkedIn or popular job directories in your city or country, to people or companies that specialize in recruiting qualified personnel. 

Feel free to use your own resources, such as a website or a sign outside, to let others know you need assistance. Your consumers would better understand what you're going through and that you're working on it.

Every restaurant and dark kitchen is unique, and these are only a few ways to overcome the current staff shortage context while still being a profitable business. We trust a business owner or manager like yourself, who takes the time to research, read, and take care of their business and staff, will succeed at it.

Count on us to help you care after your team, food, and business, as we already do for thousands of restaurants and dark kitchens worldwide.