Here's what ACTUALLY works for getting labour costs under control

I'm going to make a bold claim: if you spend five minutes reading this post, you could find a way to take 2-4% off your labour costs inside two months.

I know that sounds like a big promise. But we've just finished running our latest round of labour cost bootcamps (yes, we’ll be running more of these in the new year!), and we're seeing these kinds of improvements consistently when venues implement the strategies I'm about to share.

Here's the thing - most venues are making the same few mistakes with labour costs. And the solutions aren't complicated or revolutionary. They're simple, practical steps that I know work in the real world because I’ve used them myself.

Let me share the five specific things that have made the biggest difference (if you use Loaded, all these tools are already at your disposal - if you don’t, I’ll link to a few templates so you can tackle some of this manually):

1. Automatically calculating the real impact of small changes

One thing that's surprised almost everyone in our bootcamps is seeing exactly what small improvements in wage costs can do to their bottom line. We use our net profit calculator (which you can play with here) to show this, and it's often a bit of an eye-opener. For example, we worked with one venue that discovered a 2% reduction in their wage costs would mean an extra $40,000 in profit each year. That's the kind of number that makes you sit up and take notice.

2. Getting weekly budgets right‍

If you saw last week's email, you'll know this is something I bang on about a lot. But with good reason - when venues get their weekly budgeting right, everything else becomes so much easier. The places that are getting the best results are:

• Doing their budgets well before the week starts (no matter what).
• Looking closely at what happened in previous years on the exact same day.
• Dialling in events, functions, and other opportunities, as well as any risks that might affect revenue.
• Getting their managers involved in the conversation on building accurate daily sales targets.

Without this bit sorted, everything else just gets harder.

3. Weekly labour tracking so you can see your progress

Here's where things get practical. We've found that having a simple weekly labour cost tracking report makes a huge difference. We have this automatically for you in Loaded, of course, but I’m talking about getting tactile. There’s something that makes the information more important and tangible when you take it out of the software and get it written down. It’s even better when you can get your managers to start doing this each week. The venues getting the most value are the ones that:

• Take the time to review and then write down their actual costs vs what they planned.
• Notice when things keep going over budget in the same ways and create actions to solve these.
• Talk about what worked and what didn't in a weekly management catchup.
• Prioritise the specific improvements they’re going to make in their upcoming roster and management of their shifts each day.

We've got a template for this that works really well - grab it right here.
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4. A stepwise roster building process (this is the big one, folks!)

Once you’re managing your labour efficiently it all becomes second nature, but until then it can be hard to be truly, consistently systematic in the way you’re building your roster.

To help, we’ve put together a checklist that helps make sure nothing gets missed. It covers things like:

• Starting you off with a baseline roster template that you copy to your actual roster for the week. That way you can see whether any adjustments you make have increased or decreased your overall labour cost.
• Are there any functions or events this week that should affect your roster this week?
• Are any staff unavailable or on leave that are going to require team changes for particular shifts?
• Ensure all team pay rates are accurate and you have pay adjustments set up

We have a full checklist available, which includes the complete process and also runs through a series of questions to make sure you are considering the improvements you could potentially make from every possible angle.

Get the full roster checklist over here.

5. Quick end-of-shift updates for accountability

This last one is simple but it's made a massive difference for lots of venues. At the end of each shift, managers check and approve all hours worked, then send a quick message (text, email, whatever works) to you or the General manager answering:

• Did we make more or less than we expected today sales wise, and how much?
• Did we spend more or less on labour than planned in the roster, and why?
  
  

It takes about two minutes, but it helps catch problems early and gives owners and managers a really clear picture of what's actually happening in their business.

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What I love about all this is that we're seeing venues make real improvements - usually around 2-4% off their labour costs (with some outliers where improvements are as high as 12%) - without cutting corners or making their teams unhappy. If anything, their teams are happier because everyone knows what they're working towards and the exciting news is that they’ve now got an opportunity to pay their best people better than they currently are.

If you're reading this thinking it could help your venue, I'd suggest starting here this week:

1. Start by using our net profit calculator (over here) to see what difference these changes could make for you
2. Pick just one of these things to work on first - trying to change everything at once rarely works well

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And if you'd like some help getting there faster, we're regularly running Fully Loaded bootcamps to give you hands-on help with all this. Just let me know if you'd like to hear more, and potentially sign up (they’re completely free).

Remember, getting your labour costs right isn't about making dramatic cuts or setting impossible targets. It's about building simple systems that work week after week.

Go well, and talk soon!
Rich.

P.S. Wondering what an all-in-one platform built by hospitality veterans who know exactly what it takes to run a successful venue looks like? Book an online demo below, and we’ll show you the magic.