A typical restaurant is staffed 95 hours per week. The countless weeks I was in my restaurant each of those hours certainly proved out in the P&L. Customers had an extraordinary experience, labor was kept in check, mistakes were at a minimum, waste was non-existent and gross profit was above average. However, these hours are not sustainable. If I stepped away, would the P&L prove sustainable?
I will focus several subsequent posts on how I reduced “employee theft” in my restaurant using managed video. Let’s be very clear – I’m not talking about a premeditated theft of $20 out of the register. Instead, I am referring to a more dangerous and habitual operational problem that bleeds the top line, bloats food and labor costs and ultimately erodes gross profit to unacceptable levels.