While it’s true that more restaurant operators are automating front- and back-of-house processes right now, they are also focusing more on how they can make the most of their staff – and keep the people they have. According to Nation’s Restaurant News Intelligence, this is the top priority for operators. It ranks higher for them than reducing labor costs, as well as streamlining both back- and front-of-house operations. The labor shortage of the past few years has required operators to adopt technology that supports employee retention efforts. That includes taking such steps as digitizing the onboarding and training process, automating scheduling, and adopting labor-enhancing tools to help them deliver quality service (as opposed to bringing in technology designed to replace human labor). This is a beneficial talking point for operators managing staff. Regularly collecting feedback from staff about their pain points can help you identify where technology might help lighten their load and enable them to focus on guest-facing work. It may even help you keep them from moving on to a different job. When we think of restaurant automation, images of robotic fry cooks tend to spring to mind. But as the recent National Restaurant Association Show revealed, advances in artificial intelligence and automation are beginning to transform restaurant roles well beyond the fryer. For example, when the restaurant group Boqueria Kitchen transitioned from a manual system for tipping out and managing payroll to an automated one, it saved about 3,000 labor hours – or the equivalent of 1.5 full-time managers, according to a report from Restaurant Dive. Such automated systems are also helping restaurants improve their compliance accuracy, which in turn allows managers to spend more time making sure guests get great service. Beyond day-to-day restaurant management, more operators are leaning on automated communication tools like ChatGPT to help with employee screening and onboarding in an effort to retain staff. As a Restaurant Business report about ChatGPT indicates, that has involved using a bot for such tasks as drafting business-wide announcements about menu changes or training tasks, as well as checking in on employees to see how they are doing if they have been absent or are looking to switch a shift. To be sure, this technology still requires human oversight. In workplaces ranging from courtrooms to nonprofits, AI communication technology has shown itself capable of making embarrassing errors – and businesses using it for applicant screening must ensure the technology can assess candidates without discrimination. But these early uses of automated communication could be important indicators of how restaurant labor – as well as its management – could evolve. At the recent National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, the organization’s CEO, Michelle Korsmo, said the industry has about two job openings for every potential worker. As a result, restaurants are currently vying for workers who have significant bargaining power – leverage that often makes it difficult for all but the most highly resourced businesses to compete for labor. This ongoing need for support has only sharpened the spotlight already cast on technology – particularly on the urgent need for many restaurants to automate tasks ranging from order taking to food preparation. Automation will make the industry look a lot different by 2030, Korsmo said. A Restaurant Dive report about the automation technology on display at the National Restaurant Association Show identified several stand-out tools, including robotic fry stations, smart combi ovens, hygiene scanning and safety software, and robotic burger stations – tools that can help a restaurant manage tasks that are not only tedious or time-consuming but are also important to get right. While ensuring near-term survival has had to be the priority for many restaurants in the past few years, taking a longer-term view of your staffing needs is important too. How might you rethink your staffing structure in the coming years? If you’re already operating with a slimmed-down team, what tasks are slipping through the cracks as a result? Where might you automate tasks that currently stretch your staff in ways that have the potential to compromise your service and safety? Short on staff? Whether you are or not, tech tools may help you reorganize tasks so you do the most with the people you have on hand – and support them in ways that promote retention. Take the burden off of staff (and give guests some freedom to order and pay when they like) by enabling table payment via mobile phone or tabletop kiosk. Tie this to a guest’s loyalty program data so when they order, they are receiving targeted recommendations that complement their favorite dishes and may help you boost check totals. The targeted communication can help provide the quality experience a guest might otherwise appreciate in a server. QSRweb.com suggests that pizza restaurants (and even some other restaurant types) could also benefit from a grab-and-go setup that requires little staff intervention: They can simply place a customer’s pizzas in a warmer that can be unlocked by the person’s mobile app when they come to collect their pizza. Where is your restaurant especially labor-heavy right now? Could technology lighten the load? You may already be introducing new tech tools in your kitchen that can increase its connectivity – such as temperature sensors that can alert a manager to a malfunctioning cooler or systems that can process multiple order streams and churn out directions to help kitchen staff prepare orders at the appropriate time. Going forward, this kind of connectivity with external hardware systems may even help restaurants bring the dishes of top chefs into their businesses without the trained staff generally required to prepare them. One new company called CloudChef aims to be “Spotify for food” with the help of a cloud software platform that uses sensors and cameras to capture and share the process of a chef working through a recipe. All cooking decisions are done by the software, while human staff are still needed to portion and plate food, as well as to move it around the kitchen during preparation. The company’s only U.S.-based, company-owned kitchen so far is in Palo Alto, Calif. (meals are available through third-party services like DoorDash), but it offers a window into how restaurants and labor needs may evolve in coming years. In an industry that struggles to attract and retain staff, having to assign tasks that are not simply repetitive or dangerous, but which also simply keep people from the profit-making areas of their work, can make it difficult to keep your best employees. A talented general manager, for example, likely didn’t join the business for their love of paying invoices or reordering supplies. Automating such tasks has benefits beyond boosting the efficiency of your business. After all, when your senior-level staff can move repetitive admin off their plates, they have time to focus on developing new marketing ideas, helping chefs bring new menus to fruition, greeting guests and correcting problems that stand in the way of positive online reviews. We’ve all had this experience in a restaurant at some point: The food has been eaten, beverages consumed, and all that stands between you and the next item on your agenda is your bill – if only you could get the attention of your server. This experience was the topic of a recent article in the Washington Post in which a diner praised the food and service of a certain restaurant she had visited, then walked out without paying when she was unsuccessful in hunting down her server or her bill in the empty dining room at the end of the evening. She emailed the restaurant later and settled up – but it’s a shame that the experience at the tail end of this person’s meal (and not the quality food and service leading up to it) was what this guest remembered. If making these final guest impressions positive is a challenge in your restaurant, tab management technology may help – and in the process, allow you to alleviate labor challenges and increase bill totals. It can help you take advantage of impulse orders – and extra round of drinks mid-meal, or a dessert, for example – that might be reconsidered if a guest is unable to flag down a server in the moment. It allows a guest to settle up whenever they choose – and not let any delay in receiving their bill tempt them to tip less than they otherwise would. What dangerous and/or repetitive kitchen tasks can you outsource to automation this year? These tasks, which could include anything from working the fryer to chopping vegetables, tend to be ones that aren’t attractive to current or potential staff. This, in turn, sends operators into an endless cycle of having to attract, hire and train workers. When you consider new tech, think about its impact on your current and future labor spend, as well as how it affects the language you use in job postings. Changes you make on the tech side can have a positive impact on your culture if you use them to turn your open positions into roles of increasing responsibility. Chances are good that your restaurant has felt some urgency to adopt new technology in the front and back of house in the past two years. But the focus on having the right combination of technology can make it easy to ignore some foundational human elements that, if not in place, may prevent you from getting the experience and efficiency you’re after. Specifically, is your team on board with the changes you’re making? Do they know what problems your technology is there to help solve or simplify? Do they understand how your new tools and systems work – and if not, can you provide clear training to support them? If you’re just beginning to review options, involve team members in the process of selecting new technology to help ensure they are invested in the result. Finally, to what degree can you rely on your tech vendor for training, repairs or basic support when something goes wrong? Making sure your employees can get guidance in using new tools and systems should be a key part of your investment. Not every restaurant has the resources to invest in the latest tech. But observing what happens for those that do can offer a window into how the industry is evolving – and what consumers will begin to expect as a result. Taco Bell is now making a significant move into edge computing – technology that is currently already being used in sectors such as energy and manufacturing to make fast decisions (with help from 5G internet speeds) from data collected by connected devices. Taco Bell is using edge computing to support digital order placement, which allows it to process requests and account data using a mix of cloud services, connected devices and software at the restaurants themselves – and to do so at lightning speed, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. A computer server at each restaurant accepts data from digital and in-person orders and loyalty accounts, then combines it with kitchen operations to make rapid decisions. In practice, this means an employee can be alerted at the precise time he needs to drop potatoes into the fryer for an order of nacho fries so they are ready just as the delivery driver arrives to collect them. |
Subscribe to our newsletterArchives
April 2024
Categories
All
|