Start With Availability, Not Assumptions
Before you open a blank schedule, collect updated availability from every employee. A simple weekly form—paper, Google Form, or built into your scheduling tool—prevents the cascade of last-minute swaps that burns manager time and frustrates staff.
Make availability collection a standing deadline, not a scramble. Employees who miss it get scheduled based on last week's data.
Layer in Your Sales Forecast
A gut-feel schedule is almost always wrong. Pull your POS data and look at covers, revenue, and turn times by day-part for the past four to six weeks. Identify your busiest shifts and your slowest ones—then staff to the curve, not to a flat headcount.
Key metrics to review before building the schedule:
- Average covers per shift by day of week
- Table turn time by server (slower turns may need lighter sections)
- Revenue per labor hour for your target labor percentage
- Upcoming events or holidays that break normal patterns
Control Labor Cost Before You Publish
Once the draft is built, run the numbers. Total projected hours multiplied by blended wage rates should land within your labor-cost target—typically 28–35% of projected revenue for full-service restaurants.
If you're over, cut a slower shift or reduce double-coverage on prep. If you're under, check whether you've left yourself short on a high-volume night.
Publish the schedule at least five to seven days in advance. Staff who plan their lives around late schedules disengage—and leave.
Use Performance Data to Make Better Section Assignments
Not all servers are equal on a Saturday night. Per-server analytics—average check, turn time, upsell rate—tell you who belongs in your highest-volume sections and who still needs development on a quieter Tuesday.
Using this data isn't punitive; it's fair. Strong performers earn high-opportunity shifts. Developing servers get consistent floor time with appropriate support.
How Hubstaurant Automates Restaurant Scheduling
Hubstaurant pulls employee availability and your POS forecast data into one place and generates a draft schedule automatically. Because it already tracks per-server turn times and performance analytics inside the same system, it can factor real productivity data into section assignments—not just seniority or gut feel. There's no manual export, no separate scheduling app, no spreadsheet to reconcile.
For operators already using Hubstaurant for inventory, food-cost tracking, and vendor purchasing, scheduling becomes one less tool to manage and one less bill to pay.
Ready to Stop Building Schedules Manually?
If scheduling still costs your managers two or three hours a week, that's time better spent on the floor. Start a free trial of Hubstaurant and see how automated scheduling fits into your operation.