by Abby Henson | 11 Oct, 2017 | Blog, Sales Figures
At S4Labour we work with over 100 of Britain’s best hospitality organisations, ranging from award-winning single site and small multi-site operators right up to some of the country’s best-loved national brands.
There are numerous reasons why they find us to be the perfect partner in ensuring their sustained success, but don’t just take our word for it, here are six reasons to work with S4Labour, backed up by testimonials from six of the very best operators around.
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1 – Control Labour Spend
With rent increases, business rent hikes, and a rise in commodity prices all too familiar to today’s hospitality industry, keeping costs down in other areas can be critical to profitability. Labour is often the biggest cost to operators, but one that can be typically reduced without diminishing sales by identifying overstaffing and promoting better deployment. S4Labour makes this easy, leading to savings of 10% on annual labour spend for many of our clients.
“Since the introduction of S4Labour we have had total control over our labour, allowing us to make educated decisions on staffing. It is the best addition to our set-up that we have made this year.” – Patrick Gray, Ops Director, Kua Aina
2 – Drive Record Sales
S4Labour is not just a tool for reducing overstaffing. By using its intuitive labour demand graph to identify and rectify overstaffing, its users can drive increased sales by ensuring attentive service and maximised upselling opportunities. Record sales, coupled with tight controls on labour, result in maximum profitability.
“Your labour system is doing wonders at City Pub Co – well done!” – John Roberts, Founder, City Pub Company.
3 – Improve HR Processes
People are at the heart of any hospitality operation. S4Labour’s extensive HR module allows users to quickly and easily manage the human side of their business, making everything from managing holiday accrual to staff contracts run more efficiently than ever before.
“We couldn’t have won without S4Labour” – Chris Carsons, CEO, Deviate Bars, Winner of Best Turnaround at the Great British Pub Awards 2017
4 – A Fully Integrated System
We understand the numerous systems that contribute to running a successful hospitality business. We partner with EPoS firms, training providers, payroll bureaus, property management systems, and others to ensure our clients have a seamless, integrated solution.
“We use Zonal for our EPoS system, and the fact that S4Labour run a seamless integration with Zonal for importing sales figures has always been a real benefit. Our accountant has found S4Labour’s payroll export to be a hassle-free way of ensuring staff are paid correctly and on time.” – Clive Price, Managing Director, Barons Pub Co.
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5 – Designed by Operators for Operators
S4Labour was created by people with a wealth of hospitality industry experience across all industry sectors, with our management team having held senior positions at leading brands including Mitchells & Butlers, Whitbread, and ASK Italian.
“It is clear that the program has been designed by actual restaurateurs for true life operations, as opposed to theoretical programs that serve very little purpose in the real world. This is a very refreshing change.” – James Kerry, Owner, The Winery
6 – Quality Ongoing Relationship
Our clients regularly tell us how much they value the quality of the ongoing relationship they have with S4Labour’s people. With first-rate trainers, account managers dedicated to helping your business succeed, and a seven day support desk service, an experienced professional is always on hand to help you get the best results.
“The training provided was extremely efficient and help and support has been ongoing. S4Labour is a key tool in our labour management and in increasing our productivity and efficiency.” Darren Rumbelow, Operations Manager, Albion & East, Part of Imbiba Partnership
by Abby Henson | 9 Aug, 2017 | Blog, Sales Figures
Barons Pub Company is a collection of food-led pubs in the south of England. It was founded by Clive Price in 2000 and has grown healthily since. Averaging a new site acquisition every two years, Barons expanded outside of its Surrey heartland for the first time in early 2017, opening The Black Boy near Reading. Barons pubs have won a host of local and national accolades, including the coveted Shepherd Neame Food Pub of the Year 2017, while Clive himself was a finalist in the prestigious BII Licensee of the Year Award in the same year.
Barons have been using S4Labour since 2015 to control costs, generate sales, and provide better insight across their growing estate. We met Clive to discuss his business, its success, and how S4Labour helps to drive it.
Clive outside his Rose & Crown site
How was Barons founded and developed to its current form?
Having worked in a wide range of hospitality jobs since the age of fifteen, as well as gaining a degree in catering management and economics, by the year 2000 I felt I had gathered enough experience to start out on my own. So Barons was born, originally as a single site restaurant which soon developed into a string of popular pubs. Our ethos has always been a simple one – promoting high quality food and drink in line with great hospitality from warm and friendly staff. Increasingly we have focused on attractive refurbishments of sites, which based on customer feedback and financial results, has been part of a winning formula.
How is the business structured today?
We employ 350 people across the seven sites, as well as fifteen head office staff who are based at our flagship site, The Cricketers at Horsell near Woking. I originally founded Barons with a business partner, who moved on from the business in 2008, although several other members of our head office team are approaching ten years’ service. We have recently appointed a dedicated administrative assistant at every site, which has helped create a professional atmosphere and freed up managers’ time to focus on guests.
What makes Barons unique and successful?
I believe that at its heart, hospitality is about making people feel good, and that this goes deeper than quality food and polished service. We pride ourselves on being the best we can, and identify several core company values. Amongst these are the celebration of success, covering everything from a new barman’s first perfect pint to winning a national award, and a desire to evolve and embrace change to stay on top of our game. This has created a positive, professional, forward-thinking atmosphere that has been at the core of our success.
Barons prides itself on staff satisfaction and motivation
What led you to decide an advanced labour scheduling solution would be of benefit to Barons?
There were numerous factors. We were frustrated with the lack of management control we had over labour costs. The pen and paper approach we were using felt dated and caused issues such as rotas going missing and difficulties accessing historic data. As we opened more pubs, we realised we needed a system that would give us insight into all sites quickly and easily.
What led you to decide that S4Labour was the best option for you?
The system came highly recommended to us by a former colleague, and when it was demonstrated we liked it straight away. It was clear that S4Labour would provide the solution we were seeking at a reasonable price, so we were very happy to proceed with the relationship.
What other tools do you use in your business, and how have these been able to operate alongside S4Labour?
We use Zonal for our EPoS system, and the fact that S4Labour run a seamless integration with Zonal for importing sales figures has always been a real benefit. We run our payroll through a local accountant, who has found S4Labour’s payroll export to be a hassle-free way of ensuring staff are paid correctly and on time.
How have processes changed as a result of using S4Labour?
We don’t see S4Labour as a stick to beat managers with, rather as a tool to help them optimise their rota-writing process. It has more often been used to identify understaffing than overstaffing, which has led to better scheduling, with increased sales and better service as a result. This success has prompted a wider technological push within our business, including the introduction of a new automated table reservation process.
How has your relationship been with individuals within S4Labour?
They’ve been very helpful. We always get a prompt and useful response to queries. Since our initial training we have felt that we are dealing with individual professionals who care about our needs and want to work with us, rather than a faceless corporation.
S4Labour integrates seamlessly with Barons’ other systems and processes
What’s next for Barons?
Ten years ago, I wrote a plan for how I wanted the next decade to look. This has now been delivered with a high level of accuracy. The core of our business is in excellent shape, and with the increased control we now have, there’s no reason this can’t continue for the next ten years. Turnover for the twelve months to September 2016 was £9.7 million, and this is projected to rise to £12.5 million for 2017. Profits are also likely to increase, in part because of better cost controls. We will continue to focus on delivering great hospitality in attractive pubs, and may seek to acquire sites with the potential to develop an accommodation offer. Ultimately, we are targeting twelve to fifteen sites, and will use S4Labour to help us reach this goal.
How do you plan to use S4Labour in the future to further improve processes and drive ongoing success?
As our business grows, any system that gives more management control is very welcome. We have recently started using S4Labour’s new HR module, which will give us greater insight into the human side of our business and save our administrative staff a lot of time. We will also continue to use S4Labour to optimise staff deployment to drive profits. We have been able to use the system to identify potential cost savings of £7,000 a week, and that we were underspending on labour at weekends by as much as 8% of sales. Rectifying this has led to happier customers, more profits through fewer missed sales opportunities, and more motivated team members.
What challenges do you face?
Without question our biggest challenge is cost pressure. Business rates have doubled in recent years and our rents have risen in response to our success. I approve of the National Living Wage as it encourages people to forge long-term careers in hospitality, but it is also a strain, while commodity prices have increased by 40% in some areas. S4Labour gives us better insight into and control of costs, which is a big help in planning for the future.
What advice would you give to any similar business that was looking to engage S4Labour?
Do it – especially if you are still working with pen and paper or a spreadsheet. There are so many benefits, including greater insight, control of costs, and clarity of communication, especially across multiple sites, that it quickly pays for itself.
by Abby Henson | 9 Jan, 2017 | Blog, Sales Figures
In any hospitality business, having the right number of people working, both on any given shift, and in terms of total team size, is important to ensuring great service levels, constant brisk trade, and more money in the till.
We’ve all been to pubs and restaurants where there simply aren’t enough people working. The staff look stressed and overwhelmed, and are simply too busy to deliver the service we’d like. The atmosphere may turn frosty, as customers resent long waits at the bar or their tables, and ultimately many give up and go elsewhere, costing hundreds in lost sales.
Yet the converse problem can be just as bad. Numerous studies have found that the slowest service occurs in restaurants not when they are busiest, but quietest. With few customers compared to staff, team members feel no need to hurry, and allow lethargy to take over, chatting or standing idly.
Right-size your team to keep staff and customers smiling
It’s easy to tell when a hospitality business has the right number of staff working. The team seems attentive and focused, lines at the bar are dealt with quickly, customers feel well-looked after, and there’s a general buzz about the place that screams “well-run, thriving business.” This is a message that is sure to keep the punters coming back for more. The challenge for managers is to write a rota that promotes these conditions time and again.
S4Labour is the perfect tool to help them. By considering projected and historic sales figures, the distribution of sales by hour throughout the day, and industry-tested metrics for sales driven per labour hour both on the front and back of house, the system guides managers as they aim to write the best possible rota. Times when staff are harried and rushed (stress), and left standing with little to do (slack), are minimised, meaning wages are seldom wasted and sales opportunities are rarely missed.
Then there’s the wider consideration: how many employees should a site have? All in hospitality motivated workforce with a keen appetite for the job and the energy to do it well.
An effective way to manage staffing levels on a weekly basis can be to look to give hourly staff around 70% of the hours they would ideally seek to work, typically corresponding to their low-end expectation of what a work week should be. This should be enough to keep team members satisfied, as well as controlling costs, and crucially leaves the flexibility to rota on additional hours when you know you are going to be busy. An employee who doesn’t feel like they’re already working at their capacity is going to much happier and better motivated when you ask them to pick up that extra shift when you’ve got a wedding party on.
An often-overlooked but important factor in optimising staffing levels is the full-time and part-time balance in the team. Most hospitality business peak heavily on weekends. If your team is comprised entirely of full-timers, you are likely to find that after the weekend rush is over, you are left with staff hungry and expectant for shifts, but no shifts to give them without breaking your labour budget. A staff-force composed predominantly of part-timers, who only want to work a couple of shifts a week, can give you valuable flexibility in your rota. Particularly in businesses that trade hard on the weekends and are quiet through the week, this is a great way to control labour costs and keep employees happy.
We work in a people businesses, and right-sizing your team is a great way to keep customers coming through the door and leaving with smiles on their faces.
Featured image by Katemangostar – Freepik.com
