Jrock Labor yield question

Okay I must be having an idiot moment.

Using your labor yield formula I am trying to figure it out backwards. How many hours would be available to meet those ranges. Make sense?

I figure anything over 36 would be considered minimum hours to schedule/ use and still be productive and providing guest satisfaction.

On the other side with your formula we are hitting pretty effiecient most of the time but I am curious how many hours we need cut to be efficient.

I have never heard of this Labor yield so I am very curious.

We have been working on our labor the past couple of months and trying to hit 21% without salaried. (Just as a starting point) When I add in our salaried our labor is ridiculous so just trying to find a REAL way we can control our labor. The labor yield might give us a edge we don’t currently have.

Couple other questions… Do you do your labor daily? Keeping track of hours over and under? What percent do you strive for? Does it include salaried? Do you use and avg. hourly rate?
Does that rate include taxes and work comp? Are you and salaried manager in there?

Gosh thanks for your time and insight… I wish I had gone to school for this, heck you oughta open one with all your insight…I’d go.
:smiley:

Guest,

Actually it’s pretty simple:

Net sales / Ideal Labor Yield ( $28 ) = Labor Hours

Example:

$1000 / $28 = 35.71 hours


Couple other questions… Do you do your labor daily? Keeping track of hours over and under? What percent do you strive for? Does it include salaried? Do you use and avg. hourly rate?
Does that rate include taxes and work comp? Are you and salaried manager in there?

  1. Do you do your labor daily? Actually it’s more like hourly. I’ve got a POS system (Point Of Success) where all I have to do is click on the “Manager” key and it gives me sales figures, ideal food cost, # deliveries, and Labor %.

  2. Keeping track of hours over and under? No, I do not use that procedure. I’ve used it in the past for about a month but found that the business is never exact, so why should I be trying to match with exact numbers taken from averages.

  3. What percent do you strive for? Does it include salaried? 16% Labor cost is where we’re goaled, not including the salaried manager. However, this is a variable cost and the percentage varies with sales. Naturally, the busier you are the more productive your crew is and these sales take care of your labor. If you’re a lower volume store your labor will be close to 20%. Side note: Minimum wage here is still $5.15.

  4. Do you use and avg. hourly rate? No, this labor is calculated by the POS system so it is 100% accurate as long as you’re accurate in the information you store inside it.

5. Does that rate include taxes and work comp? No.

6. Are you and salaried manager in there? No, just my salaried manager works in the store. I’m proud to say this just started this week. He was my assistant making $8.00/hour and now he’s the General Manager making $500/week plus bonus. I’m extremely proud of his determination because I’m not the easiest guy to work for.

As far as the school thing is concerned, I learned all this stuff as I was coming up in the business. Luckily, I worked for some extremely knowledgeable owners who were more than willing to share this information with me. As far as I’m concerned, why would I charge anyone for this info when it was given to me free? I just want to contribute because I think this is a fantastic business… and I kinda dig the success stories. The only thing I ask is if you DO find something that I’ve offered useful in any way, make sure you pass it along to your people so they can one day become successful in business.

Knowledge is power.

-J_r0kk

you need to schedule your crew as lean as possible, but enough to provide good service thru peak periods…

your management staff must be keyed in to function as a laborer during those peak times…

now, you need to build up your sales to meet your desired labor %'s…

there are minimum staffing requirements that you may deem appropriate, in order to build up sales…

heavy delivery orders drives up labor…

heavy carry out drives down labor…

your product mix will determine your labor %

Semper Fi
U.S.M.C Auditor

Thanks for the replies. Makes sense now with what I was trying to do.

Gosh can’t wait to win the lottery I am sure to get a POS 1st. :lol:

For now good ol pen and paper will do.

I agree with what you are saying about the free advice and all the help it has been over the years from some great people. You and most of the others are adding to it daily. That is what is great about this sight its great advice great people and free.

Congrats on your new salaried manager it sure is nice when we find people who want to grow in this business. Re lights the flame inside when others are as excited about this crazy business as we are.