Restaurant owners and operators face multiple staffing challenges. In an industry where burnout is common, turnover high, and advancement opportunities limited, simply attracting and retaining reliable and productive employees can be difficult. Even with a great team in place, however, the need for efficient and effective onboarding, complex scheduling, and compliance with location-specific labor laws can present significant challenges—especially for those operating multiple locations. To top it off, restaurants often experience seasonal surges in traffic, necessitating an influx of temporary workers. In many areas, that peak season is summer.

Even experienced managers can find themselves struggling to balance staffing demands with legal requirements, cost controls, and employee satisfaction. When you have so many variables to consider when hiring, scheduling, and paying a large number of employees, you need reliable technology that can sort through the data for you and provide the insights you need to optimize staffing, legal compliance, and profitability. In this article, we’ll explore how the right software can make it easier to meet your staffing challenges and make the most of the summer rush.

A Perfect Storm of Labor Challenges

As summer brings more customers through your door, your staff may work longer hours and take on more shifts, and you’ll likely also be adding people to your payroll. To fully capitalize on this surge in business, you need systems in place that allow you to ramp up hiring and scheduling without missing a beat.

Seasonal Hiring & Compliance

When you hire short-term workers, this often means adding staff with less experience during your most challenging season. This not only puts strain on your team but also adds complexity for managers. A patchwork of requirements from federal, state, and local governments as well as union contracts means that various locations have different considerations when scheduling shifts and allowing for breaks. As your staff grows, so does the complexity of ensuring compliance.

Break laws vary by state and sometimes even by city. Additionally, some locations have enacted predictive scheduling rules. These have a variety of requirements but typically state that employers must provide workers their schedules by a specific deadline (often two weeks in advance) and include limitations on last-minute changes. In some cases, a certain period of rest is required between scheduled shifts, and employers may face restrictions in reducing employees’ work hours. Often, employees are entitled to additional pay when their employers fail to meet the requirements of these laws.

Maintaining a Stellar Staff

Even restaurants that are not subject to these more stringent employment laws benefit from providing their employees stability, predictability, and balance in their schedules. As you add staff, you’ll also want to ensure that new hires are adequately supported by seasoned workers to ensure smooth operations and minimize workplace stress. At the same time, minimizing overtime for these experienced employees is key to maximizing profitability while allowing employees the rest they need to maintain high energy and a positive attitude while at work.

Labor Management Software Is Your Lighthouse

The right labor management platform takes the guesswork and headaches out of hiring and scheduling—particularly during peak seasons. To ensure the best fit for your business, choose a solution that’s designed specifically for restaurant operations. The right software will provide the clarity you need to tackle the summer with confidence.

Rosnet’s labor management tool is a key part of our intelligent restaurant management solution. Created by restaurant operators, Rosnet’s software is built to take on the specific challenges of the restaurant industry. Our labor management tool empowers managers to quickly generate compliant schedules that meet staffing demands while minimizing labor costs. Here’s how:

Automated Compliance Alerts

Labor law compliance is important, but it shouldn’t be a full-time job. While Rosnet’s software won’t interpret the law for you, it does include state-specific compliance logic as well as settings that enable you to track compliance with the rules in more specific locations. The platform can send automatic alerts when break rules, overtime limits, or predictive scheduling regulations come into play, empowering you to stay compliant without stress or last-minute scrambling.

Forecasting & Smart Scheduling

The data-driven insights that modern software provides take the guesswork out of scheduling. Rosnet’s solution uses each location’s sales and scheduling data to forecast staffing needs and build schedules that work through the peaks and valleys of consumer demand. The intuitive schedule explorer lets managers test out different schedules and view the expected impact on costs and service coverage.

Move from Chaos to Control

By implementing systems that make it easier to manage schedules, maintain legal compliance, and ensure appropriate coverage, you can face your peak season with confidence—whether that’s summer, winter, or anytime in between. Explore Rosnet’s website to learn more about how our solution can streamline administrative tasks like scheduling, budgeting, payroll, and inventory while boosting compliance, service, and profitability.