Warm weather is here, and patio season is upon us. Whether that looks like tables on the sidewalk or a rooftop bar, there’s no denying that outdoor dining brings new obstacles and challenges to the already complex life of a restaurateur or employee.
It’s also important to note that using outdoor space and adding more seating to your restaurant can increase your revenue by 30%. Here’s how 7shifts team management platform can help you turn your best summer ever.
Staffing for summer
Hiring
Make sure you have enough staff to cover the busy summer season with 7shifts’s Hiring Tool. You have the ability to build custom job postings in order to find ideal, qualified candidates for your restaurant's roles. Once you find your ideal candidate, their information is automatically filled into 7shifts so you can get your new hires on the schedule instantly, without the extra work. It costs an average of $5,864 to hire a new team member. Reduce that cost with 7shifts.
Tip Pooling overview
With more customers dining inside and out on the patio this season, you need the ability to create custom tip pools that fit your restaurant’s needs. Tip pooling can help you determine which type of tips are included, which roles receive tips from the pool, and how distribution is calculated. As always, our product works better when integrated—sync tips directly from your POS or 7punches, set your unique tip pool rules, and send calculated tip payments through select payroll software providers!
Employee Doc Storage & Certifications
With the extra summer staff, you want to make sure you stay organized and compliant. Employee Document Storage & Certification allows you to upload unlimited documents and certifications to your employees’ profiles. You can access key employee docs across all locations and get reminders 30, 45, 60, or 90 days before certifications expire.
Onboarding (beta)
Get your new summer hires scheduled fast by digitizing your employee onboarding process. With 7shifts’ Employee Onboarding, you can collect, track, and store important employee documents, such as tax forms.
Vacation & Summer Schedules
Find Who’s Available
Did you know that unexpected employee absences can cost you $1,685 each year per employee? With 7shift’s mobile-exclusive Find Who’s Available feature, you can stop stressing about your employees calling in sick or no-shows for their shift. 24-hours before any shift starts, you can easily find shift coverage while avoiding labor violations, overtime, and scheduling conflicts.
Shift Pool
With the extra summer help, you want to make sure you’re not spending all your time manually switching shifts. If you don’t need immediate shift coverage, you can get your team to use 7shifts Shift Pool, which empowers your employees to adjust their own schedule by trading or offering up their shifts. With Shift Pool, managers get less last-minute phone calls but can still monitor and approve all changes - it's a win-win!
Patios, backyards, rooftops, and more
Task Management
Opening up your patio adds another layer of the business. This comes with added day-to-day tasks for staff to complete, from setting out chairs and tables each day to keeping the patio swept and tidy. With Task Management, you can set up a recurring task list exclusive to the patio, assign tasks to departments, roles, or even specific employees to ensure your summertime guests have a great experience at your restaurant.
Weather Forecasting
With weather forecasting built right into your 7shifts schedule, you have at-a-glance insight into how to schedule your staff each day of the week. Schedule smarter, keep your labor budget in control, and ensure you have the right number of staff each day this summer, rain or shine.
Assign Stations
Outdoor dining, bar, and event spaces that open in the summer come with an added scheduling challenge. To ensure you have the right coverage in all areas of the restaurant, customize station names and assign employees to stations. For example, Outdoor Bar, Rooftop Deck, Dining Room, Inside Bar. When employees show up for their shift, they’ll know exactly where they’re working for the day.
Special Events
Event management
The shift to warmer weather signals the start of a busy event season, from weddings to birthday parties to networking parties. These events will often bring new guests to your restaurant, and you want to make sure you maintain a high level of service to turn them into loyal customers! With 7shifts’ Events Management, you can conveniently view your custom events alongside your schedule, making sure you schedule the right amount of staff on busy nights. Your employees will also be able to view events on their mobile app, keeping them accountable and prepared for the day’s events.
Communications
Staff communication: Messaging, Announcements, and Attachments
During the summer, with new staff, special events, food and drink specials, vacation requests, and more, keeping the staff informed is a must! With 7shifts messaging and announcements, managers can quickly communicate menu updates, personnel changes, and even attach files to quickly let staff know about important details. You can even see read receipts on announcements to ensure everyone is in the know.
Manager Log Book
Ensure all managers are communicating efficiently and effectively this summer with Manager Log Book. Create custom categories to track what’s important to your restaurant, and sync with your sales and labor data to get an instant snapshot of the day-to-day operations. Even managers need summer vacation! Because Manager Log Book is a digital record and can be automatically sent out to all managers each day, every manager can be kept informed even if they’re not in the restaurant. Manager Log Book also acts as an archive of your operations. If you’ve been using the log book since last summer, instantly search past log book entries for insight into seasonality.
Simple to set up, easy to use. Give your restaurant the team management tools they need to be successful. Start your free trial today.
Start free trial
No credit card required
7shifts Staff
7shifts team of writers and experts in the hospitality industry.