Whether you are looking to actively scale your business model or are faced with staffing and supply disruptions, protecting your earnings and improving profitability is critical to your current operational plan. These attributes can also help you attract investors or secure small business loans to maintain your existing footprint or expand into new locations.
Labor is not only one of your highest costs, it can also make or break your brand. When we look at the fast-casual, quick service, or other high volume restaurant models, back of house labor is typically a low-wage, high-turnover role.
As you grow, it becomes harder to stretch your kitchen leadership to meet the increased demand. The result can be inconsistent menu execution and disappointing customer experiences with your brand.
Typically, the standard options to address back-of-house concerns are:
- Increase hourly wages
- Increased staffing
- Incentivize employees to stay
- Expand training programs
Each of these changes should have a positive impact on your operations. However, implementing these changes not only takes time and added effort for your staff, but it will also have a significant impact on your profit margin.
An alternative approach is to transition key menu items from cook-from-raw to fully-cooked sous vide ingredients.
With this one change you can quickly realize: