Restaurants run really well when the right team of people are in place to take care of the customers – as well as each other. Team is the key word here. When the staff operate as a team and help each other when it gets hectic, the customers do what they came to do – they have a great time. I know this because I am a customer and I notice this when I dine out. When the staff are smiling and helping each other serve us – we have a blast. It goes smoothly when people work well together. Customers are confident in the service and glad to be there. I also used to be responsible for building a team of wait staff that worked well together each week – hopefully providing our customers with that same experience. I’ve been on both sides and I know when the right team shows up – customers enjoy themselves. It’s that simple and also that difficult.

So – my point is it’s really tough to schedule people. It is not something that software and inputs like availability and seniority can solve alone. People have personalities – some that gel and some that do not. They have relationships with each other that can cause issues at work, they have events that happen in their lives that can temporarily effect their ability to perform. Throw in unexpected changes in the weather and things like last minute reservations and scheduling becomes very tough to master. Software can certainly help build a schedule faster – but in the end – a person does the scheduling and a person decides which available staff members will make the best team….and they only know that from getting to know the different personalities on staff and having worked with the team themselves.

I saw this message below posted tonight on the message wall of one of our customers. It was a scheduling manager posting a message to all staff. I could not agree more and it inspired me to write this blog post…

“Please be advised that not all swaps will be approved, because not all combination’s of people work well together.“

What a great message to share with staff – because it is so true.

Keepin’ it simple and fun…
Wes