The short version
Labor scheduling isn’t about filling slots—it’s about matching bodies to sales without overstaffing slow hours or burning out during peaks. If your labor % is creeping up, it’s probably because your schedule doesn’t flex with real data.
The real math: labor targets vs reality
When owners say “labor is killing us,” what they really mean is:
- Shifts overlap too much during lulls, burning hours on prep or side work.
- Peak hours are understaffed, leading to OT, comps, and lost sales.
- Staff skills don’t match the shift—rookies on busy nights, pros on dead mornings.
On paper, your target might look like this:
Weekly sales: $20,000 Target labor %: 28% → $5,600 labor budget Average hourly wage: $15 → ~373 hours to schedule
In real life, if you stack too many bodies from 11–2 but starve the 5–8 dinner rush, your effective labor jumps to 32% because sales suffer and OT kicks in.
Adjusted: $19,200 sales (due to slow service) → $5,600 labor = 29.2% (still over target) Plus $300 OT: total labor $5,900 → 30.7% labor %
Nothing changed in your payroll system. Your “labor problem” came from mismatched hours you never forecasted right.
Where scheduling quietly wrecks prime cost
There are four usual suspects that turn a solid budget into a margin killer:
1. No daypart sales breakdown
- Scheduling flat “9–5” shifts when 60% of sales hit between 12–2 and 6–8.
- Ignoring weather, events, or trends that spike certain hours.
- Building around availability first, not sales peaks.
2. Skill mismatches and cross-training gaps
- Strong closers stuck on openers, leaving weak teams for busy closes.
- No floaters trained for multiple roles, so you overstaff “just in case.”
- High-wage staff doing low-skill tasks during slow periods.
3. Hidden hour creep
- Early arrivals and late punches adding 15–30 min per shift unnoticed.
- Breaks not staggered, creating mini-staffing gaps or overstaffed lulls.
- Manager overrides for “favors” that add up over the week.
4. Zero review loop
- No weekly check: actual hours vs scheduled vs sales.
- Staff never see how their shifts tie to prime cost or bonuses.
- Only fixing after payroll hits, not forecasting ahead.
Quick 3-day scheduling audit
You don’t need a full overhaul. Grab last week’s data and run this three-day check.
Day 1: Break down sales by hour/daypart
- Pull POS reports: sales by hour for the last 7 days.
- Group into dayparts (breakfast/open, lunch, happy hour, dinner, close).
- Calculate ideal staff per daypart: e.g., $500/hour sales ÷ $100 sales per staff = 5 bodies.
If your schedule has 7 people during a $300/hour lull, that’s your creep.
Day 2: Map staff skills and availability
- List each employee: roles, strengths, availability, wage.
- Score them: e.g., 1–5 on speed, multitasking, closing efficiency.
- Match high-scorers to peak dayparts; use lower-wage for preps/lulls.
Day 3: Build and test a “prime” week
- Start with sales forecast: last week +10% buffer for trends.
- Assign shifts: stagger starts/ends by 30 min to flex with peaks.
- Run a quick huddle: “This keeps us under 28% so raises stay real.”
How to tighten scheduling without losing the team
The goal is efficiency, not squeezing hours. A few operator-tested rules:
- Forecast first, availability second. Build around sales, then fit people in—not the other way around.
- Cross-train for flex. Everyone knows 2–3 roles so you can shift without OT.
- Spot checks, not micromanagement. Managers review punches daily with staff, not as gotchas.
- Visual tools at post. Shift charts with sales targets and roles at manager station.
When you tie your schedule to real prime cost math, your labor % finally reflects what’s happening on the floor.
Where the RPS tools plug in
Good scheduling needs data under the hood. That’s where the RPS stack fits:
- Labor Planner: rough in shifts by daypart and see projected labor % before posting.
- Prime Cost Calculator: tie labor to food cost for a full prime view—don’t schedule blind.
- Break-Even Calculator: know your minimum sales per shift to justify staffing levels.
- PrimeShift Labor Audit service: if DIY feels like herding cats, we rebuild your schedule for you with intake, recommendations, and a “what if” tester.
Simple next step for this week
Don’t rebuild everything. Pick one daypart that’s always a mess (e.g., dinner rush).
- Pull sales data for that daypart over 7 days.
- Reassign 2–3 staff based on strengths and stagger starts.
- Run the Labor Planner to check projected %.
If you do nothing else and just nail that one block, your overall labor will drop 1–2% in a week.