Restaurant Labor Management

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We increase your restaurant’s efficiency, productivity, and profit margin by identifying areas where you may be losing money.

If you’ve been in the restaurant business for a while, you know that serving great food in an entertaining atmosphere is not the only aspect to running a successful restaurant business. Proper labor management is crucial to a profitable restaurant business. To maintain a healthy bottom line, you need to make the most of your staff while keeping costs in line.

A huge part of your budget — typically 30% to 35% — will be allocated to employee wages and other labor related expenses, with hourly employee labor costs totaling about 20% to 25%. Ever-rising minimum wages and growing price tags on benefits can make it difficult to keep those costs under control. Savvy labor management strategies can help keep your labor expenses in line without resulting in a decline in the level of customer service you deliver.

Analyze Labor Costs

It’s important to make sure your restaurant is financially viable. Dividing your employees into categories can help you analyze where your labor dollars are being spent, and where you might be able to maximize your labor investment. This will allow you to analyze if you’re getting the productivity you need for the money you’re spending. If not, it may be more beneficial to cross-train employees in multiple disciplines so that your restaurant can deliver a consistent level of service during slow times as well as busy times.


Optimizing your employee schedules to match demand means you don’t pay for unproductive employees on slow days and have adequate staff to maintain the level of customer service associated with your brand during the busiest of times. An effective solution will predict labor needs and produce accurately planned schedules. Our proprietary reporting feature can help you compare actual labor costs to estimated costs and assist you in making appropriate adjustments in the future. Your restaurant operations can make or break your business.

POS In and Out Analysis and Schedule Enforcement

Minimizing overtime and enforcing proper timecard procedures to eliminate early clock ins and late clock outs is a good move budget-wise, and a policy that will help preserve the standard of customer service you deliver. Overworked employees will become weary and customer service may suffer. Optimize schedules with the help of your labor management process and have practices in place to cover last minute employee emergencies rather than asking someone to work overtime without checking the schedule.

A professional restaurant labor management consultant can objectively assess your restaurant operation and help identify methods to increase your efficiency, productivity, and profit margin by identifying areas where you may be losing money or not capturing potential profits. An objective analysis can also point out potential problems before they occur, discover the source, and offer possible solutions.

If you’re considering hiring a professional restaurant labor management consultant to improve your restaurant’s performance and profitability, The Gilkey Restaurant Consultant Group is a solid choice for your restaurant business. Our experienced team can help you find where you might improve your labor management techniques and practices to increase profitability. As an objective third party, we can help you identify issues and see where improvements can be made that will increase your profitability. Contact us today and learn how our consultants can enhance your labor force efforts!