News

Survey: Restaurant operators' priority is improving guest satisfaction

March 13, 2013

A new survey titled "Strategies for Workforce Management in Dining," commissioned by Kronos Incorporated and conducted by Gatepoint Research, a subsidiary of SimplyDIRECT, reveals that the majority of dining executives are concerned about their ability to improve guest satisfaction, minimize employee turnover and prepare for the Affordable Care Act. The survey also found that the majority of respondents expect that a new workforce management system will help improve hiring and scheduling and reduce turnover.

"Strategies for Workforce Management in Dining" surveyed senior operation executives within mid- to-large companies in the dining industry. The study showed that the top-three priorities when considering workforce management are:

Improving guest satisfaction (69 percent); Reducing staff turnover (55 percent); andEnsuring compliance as well as absorbing anticipated costs associated with the Affordable Care Act (50 percent).

The survey also revealed that 44 percent of respondents currently use a POS application to manage their workforces and only 13 percent of all respondents are highly satisfied with their existing workforce management system or processes. Respondents from large organizations are further dissatisfied with their existing system or processes, with 34 percent from organizations with more than 5,000 employees stating that they are completely dissatisfied.

Also according to the survey findings, the biggest deficiencies experienced by all respondents with existing workforce management systems are schedule enforcement (46 percent); difficulty managing break periods or time off (26 percent); and insufficient analytics (20 percent). The survey also showed that dining organizations are vastly unprepared for the Affordable Care Act, especially in their ability to manage penalty thresholds.

More than half of survey respondents expect a new workforce management system to significantly enhance business processes and outcomes including improved scheduling (52 percent), better hiring (53 percent), and reduced turnover (51 percent).

Read more about operations management.