Right now, there's a perfect storm brewing in the foodservice industry. Despite thousands of new hires in July, restaurants and bars across the U.S. find themselves 1.2 million workers short of where they were in February 2020. Meanwhile, guests are surging back to in-house dining.
With fewer employees around to serve and cook, restaurants are limiting service, overscheduling staff and experiencing increased employee burnout. And the challenge doesn't end when restaurants finally get new employees in the door.
From there, restaurants spend an additional $821 on training, according to Cornell's Center for Hospitality Research. Factoring in the cost of recruiting, hiring, and loss in productivity, restaurants spend thousands of dollars on each new hire. In an industry afflicted by high turnover, those costs can spell disaster.
To survive the post-pandemic era and the labor challenges, restaurants need to boost employee efficiency and reduce training costs. That's where automation can make a significant difference.
Saving time on everyday tasks
As labor challenges abound, restaurants need to accomplish more with less support. That means simplifying everyday tasks such as labeling. If an employee creates 150 to 200 labels by hand per day, they'll spend about an hour each day on that task alone.
But by automating their labeling systems, restaurants significantly reduce the time it takes to design and print standard labels for prep ingredients, to-go items, retail goods, curbside pickup and delivery orders.
The DateCodeGenie® automated labeling system, for instance, makes it quick and easy to modify designs or build templates from scratch using custom fonts, logos and branding. The solution also allows users to create labels that display ingredients, allergens, nutritional info, QR codes, price, barcodes and more. Plus, users never have to worry about time-consuming software upgrades. DateCodeGenie updates occur automatically without charge.
Streamline training and improve accuracy
When an entire kitchen (or every kitchen within an organization) uses the same, standardized process to create labels, it increases consistency and accuracy across the board. That's certainly the case with businesses that use the centrally managed DateCodeGenie.
With its user-friendly interface and intuitive touchscreen, the DateCodeGenie requires very little training to use effectively. The device automatically populates labels with dates, times, food codes and other information. This function further reduces the risk of labeling errors—especially for new employees. Plus, system administrators can use the device to store training materials—such as recipes and videos—that employees need to achieve success.
While helping to lower the cost of employee training, the DateCodeGenie also reduces the cost of standardizing labeling and training systems across multi-unit operations. Through the DateCodeGenie online portal, system administrators can modify label designs, standardize device settings and update menu items across all devices within their organizations.
In these challenging times, improving efficiency, streamlining the training process, and reducing costs through automation isn't just a luxury. It's a necessity. For that, there's the DateCodeGenie.
To see the DateCodeGenie in action or request a personalized demo, visit ncco.com/datecodegenie-rb today.
This post is sponsored by NCCO