3 Easy Ways to Turn Your Restaurant into a Well-oiled Machine

If you could put the tedious tasks of running a restaurant on auto-pilot and focus on the good stuff—like making money, delicious food, and delighting customers— would you?

If the answer is no- you can stop here. 

If the answer is yes— we've got some tips for you!

3 Easy Ways to Turn Your Restaurant into a Well-Oiled Machine

1) Streamline paying your people

Payroll technology has made leaps and bounds in recent years, making it easier to manage than ever. But without modern technology or a savvy HR department, payroll is highly complex and painful for most businesses— and that was the case before 2020.

Response measures to aid American companies and workers during the pandemic made processing payroll feel like quantum physics with various tax credits to track, specific codes to implement to report on paid leave, and payroll data to pull together for loan applications. We’re not at the end of the tunnel yet, so there is still plenty of time to make your life easier by streamlining payroll.

Here’s how to do it:

Sign up for a subscription-based online payroll software

Often, these software platforms can communicate with other tools you use in your business, like POS systems, time clocks, and accounting software. Instead of manually pulling employees’ hours and details from one system to the other, you can create a consistent flow of information and reduce the time it takes to pay your employees.

The easier your payroll software is to use, the more cost-effective it will be in the long run. Some online payroll systems like Symply offer a service to manage payroll for you if you prefer to leave it to the professionals. 

We specifically suggest choosing a monthly subscription-based software because it allows you to streamline the cost of running too. There are no hidden fees with a subscription model, and you are charged the same price every month, no matter how many payrolls you process. Typically the cost is based on how many employees you have in the system instead + a monthly base fee. 

Here are some of our favorite options:

• Symply (obviously) - Great for businesses with multiple locations looking for full-service payroll and a system to grow with
  
• Patriot Software - Good for businesses that are comfortable handling payroll and taxes themselves. Works best if you have an accountant managing payroll or someone on your team with moderate payroll and tax knowledge
  
• Everee - Good for businesses looking to offer on-demand pay to their employees
  

Encourage direct deposit

Dealing with physical checks and check delivery is time-consuming and a hassle. If you encourage your employees to sign up for direct deposit, it will put a lot of time and money back into your business. Check delivery is often an additional fee for payroll services, and that doesn’t include the labor within your organization to manage check distribution. Physical checks leave more room for error due to lost or damaged checks, bad prints, and bank issues.

2) Use operational Checklists

Restaurants, in particular, are bound to checklists— especially if you operate a franchise. There are checklists for just about every operation and requirements for executing each checklist multiple times throughout the day. 

If your current procedure involves updating, printing, and manually storing checklists regularly, I’m here to tell you that there is a better way.

There are many software programs and apps on the market to streamline your to-do’s and workflows, and some you can even use for free.

Most restaurants could benefit from streamlining:

• Manager/supervisor checklists
  
• Kitchen prep checklists
  
• Kitchen inspection checklists
  

Meazure Up, and Process Street are excellent tools for creating repeatable checklists. Both software programs have a free option, so you can check it out before you commit.

3.Onboarding New Hires

This is one of the easiest processes to streamline these days, and you might think you have it simplified already, but trust me, there’s more. Most companies believe every employee must fill out the same paperwork, so that means it’s streamlined, right? Not entirely— but what it does mean is that it is the perfect process to put on autopilot. 

Current payroll and HR technology make it possible to onboard new employees with their paperwork completed before they step foot in the restaurant. This could cut out an entire day of orientation because, more than likely, you do not need a paid trainer to walk an employee through filling out their paperwork.

Most platforms that offer self-service onboarding have I-9 and W-4 document signage and storage built-in, meaning you don't have to worry about updating or storing paper forms.

Next time you evaluate hiring processes, consider looking into a payroll and HR software that offers self-service onboarding like, Symply. Self-service onboarding takes the work off of your plate and empowers employees to take control of their information.