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Create a wide column on the left side of the sheet to list the job positions your A good way to make sure this
business requires, (not the individual employees). Then to the right establish a number happens, is to create a new policy where
of narrow columns, each representing an hour of your business day. Next, draw a hori- all employees are required to come to
zontal line or bar for each position showing the length of the shift. By doing this, you you, 10 minutes before their shift end-
can quickly assess your labor coverage, (the number of employees working). Because you ing time, to inform you that they will be
have listed the average hourly volume at the top of the chart, you will immediately see off in 10 minutes. I guarantee that all
when you’ll need more employees working, and when you can get away with less. This employees know when their shift ending
chart will provide you with a graphic representation of your coverage. After you feel time has arrived! This policy gives you a
comfortable with your coverage, you can schedule your employees to fill those shifts. chance to see if they have completed the
As you write your employee schedule, you should first write it on an “Em- tasks required of them before they leave,
ployee Schedule Worksheet.” This form not only allows you to record when an em- and more importantly, it puts the respon-
ployee begins and ends their shift, but also shows how long that shift lasts, and what sibility on them for being off the clock
the related expense is. Then, you can add the row across for each employee to see their on time! When I had an employee who
scheduled hours and dollars for the week, and you can add the columns down to see several times conveniently forgot to tell
how many hours and dollars are scheduled for each day. These daily totals will serve me his shift ending time was approach-
as “touch stones” for understanding what you had scheduled, vs. the actual number of ing, and he worked over his scheduled
hours and dollars you expended. shift, I conveniently forgot to schedule
him for one or two of his normal shifts
the following week. It was amazing how
Employee Rate Mon 3/22 Tuse 3/23 Wed 3/24 Thurs 3/25 Fri 3/26 Sat 3/27 Sun 3/28 Tot Hr Tot $
that improved his memory!
John Smith $8.00 6 AM Noon 6 AM Noon 6 AM Noon 6 AM Noon 6 AM 1 PM 7 AM 1 PM OFF Controlling your labor requires
6 hrs $48.00 6 hrs $48.00 6 hrs $48.00 6 hrs $48.00 7 hrs $56.00 6 hrs $48.00 37 $296 setting daily, weekly, and monthly bud-
Cindy Pierce $9.00 6 AM 1PM 6 AM 1 PM 6 AM 1 PM 6 AM 1 PM 6 AM 1 PM OFF OFF gets, scheduling to fit your anticipated
7 hrs $63.00 7 hrs $63.00 7 hrs $63.00 7 hrs $63.00 7 hrs $63.00 35 $315 volume, diligently managing your daily
Sky Burton $7.50 Noon 8 PM Noon 8 PM Noon 8 PM Noon 8 PM Noon 8 PM OFF OFF expense, and reacting to recover dol-
8 hrs $60.00 8 hrs $60.00 8 hrs $60.00 8 hrs $60.00 8 hrs $80.00 40 $300 lars if you run over budget. If you make
Roger Todd $8.00 1 PM 8 PM OFF 1 PM 8 PM 1 PM 8 PM 1 PM 8 PM 1 PM 8 PM OFF these efforts, your labor expense will go
7 hrs $56.00 7 hrs $60.00 7 hrs $56.00 7 hrs $56.00 7 hrs $56.00 35 $280 down, and your profitability picture will
Jose Gonzales $8.50 OFF 1 PM 8 PM OFF 8 PM OFF OFF 10 PM 7 PM OFF improve!
7 hrs $59.50 &56.00 9 hrs $76.50 16 $136
Total Hours 28 28 28 28 29 22
Total $ $227 $227 $227 $227 $235 $181

After you have written your schedule, and you feel comfortable with the
coverage and the number of hours and dollars budgeted, then transfer your employee’s
names and shifts to a posting copy. (You obviously won’t want them to see the wage rate
information that is on the Employee Schedule Worksheet.)
Now, diligently manage your daily labor so that your budget will become a
reality. Your goal exceeds merely staying within the hours and dollars you allotted for
the day. Your actual goal is to match or exceed that budget as a percentage of sales. For
example, if you projected that your sales for the day would be $1,000, and you sched-
uled $250 of labor, then your goal is to maintain a labor expense equal to, or less than,
25% of sales; (250 ÷ 1,000 = .25 or 25.0%). So, if you actually ended-up only spending
$200 in labor, but sales were only $500, then you generated a labor expense of 40%;
15% over your budget. Monitoring your sales throughout the day, and comparing them
to similar days in previous weeks, should give you some idea if you are on track to hit
your projected sales. If it becomes obvious that your are not going to achieve your
projected sales goal, then you will need to react and send un needed labor home, even
if it might require you to perform a job that would normally be done by an employee.
Be careful however. You don’t want to take on an employee’s job on a regular
basis. If your running a “tight ship” in terms of your scheduling, you’ll need to be avail-
able to help your employees, should you experience a surge of unexpected business,
and they become overwhelmed. Also, your time can be used much more wisely by
doing things like, promoting and marketing your business, creating detailed monthly
financial statements so that you can identify problems, and developing and monitoring
long and short-term goals. Remember, your job is to be the Captain of the ship, not the
deckhand! Ed Arvidson has been a consultant
To keep track of daily labor during the day, it’s helpful to have a small copy and educator to the Specialty Coffee
of the day’s schedule in your pocket. This allows you to take a quick look at anytime Industry for over 20 years. He is Presi-
to see when your employees are scheduled to start work, and the time their shift ends. dent of E&C Consulting, Inc. (www.
Employees who always punch in 5 minutes early, or work 10 or 15 minutes past their coffeebizconsultant.com) and created
shift ending time, will “blow-up” your labor budget. You must make it clear to your the industry’s first and premier virtual
employees that unless you’ve authorize it, no one is to punch-in before their shift start- coffee business school (www.coffeebusi-
ing time, or stay punched-in beyond their shift ending time! nessschool.com).