Labor costs are at an all-time high, employee turnover remains challenging, and compliance is more complex than ever. Yet, poor scheduling practices continue to fly under the radar at many restaurants.
Managers are often overwhelmed and undertrained, leading to shifts that are either overstaffed, wasting money, or understaffed, hurting the guest experience. At the same time, above-store teams lack the visibility to step in proactively.
The result? Missed opportunities, rising costs, and reduced profitability.
During our most recent Ops Innovators webinar, two seasoned operations leaders discussed 8 red flags of restaurant scheduling to help other brands overcome these common challenges.
Travis Scarborough, Senior Operations Specialist at LM Restaurants, brings insights from a dynamic, multi-brand group that includes the 23-unit Carolina Ale House and nine other distinct restaurant brands. Danielle Neal, Assistant Director of Business Systems at DMCP Group, LLC, a Dunkin’ franchisee operating 34 locations, also led the discussion.
In case you weren't able to attend live or just want a refresher, let’s take a look at what they covered:
1. You Prioritize Speed Over Quality When Building Schedules
Creating schedules quickly might feel productive, but rushing through the process often leads to critical staffing issues. Misalignments between labor needs and actual sales impact everything from customer satisfaction to employee morale.
“The whole business really starts with having the right people, at the right place, at the right time, so when you write a bad schedule it impacts your sales and your staff morale, service times are probably high, or you’re overstaffed and raising costs for the restaurant, or you’re understaffed and the guests aren’t getting the experience that they deserve.” - Danielle Neal, Asst. Director, Business Systems, Dunkin’ - DMCP Group, LLC
The fix: Review post-shift data to compare actual to scheduled labor cost percentage.
2. Your Forecast Is Off
Forecasting isn't just about projecting sales, it’s the foundation for everything from staffing to inventory. Inaccurate forecasts lead to bad schedules, wasted prep, and unhappy guests.
“Hands down our best operators are great forecasters, not only does it impact the whole scheduling piece, but it also impacts what our kitchen and bar managers are ordering and what we are prepping to.” - Travis Scarborogh, Sr Operations Specialist, LM Restaurant
The fix: Leverage forecasting technology that includes:
3. You’re Chasing the Wrong Labor Metrics
Low labor cost percentages might look great on paper, but they can hide deeper problems. The real measure of success is how closely your actual labor aligns with sales-driven demand.
“The daily payroll control report is a snapshot of the business metrics that you need, your labor, your sales, and what the variance is to see the whole picture of the business.” - Danielle Neal, Asst. Director, Business Systems, Dunkin’ - DMCP Group, LLC
The fix: Compare the number of hours that should have been worked to the number of hours that were actually worked.
4. You’re Flying Blind When It Comes to Labor Improvements
Visibility is power. Without data shared across all levels of the organization, decision-making becomes inconsistent, and accountability goes out the window.
“The dashboard. If everybody from the assistant manager to the GM to the area director to the VP of ops is looking at the same data from the dashboard then it is the best starting place to make sure the whole team is in the same place and moving towards a common goal.” - Travis Scarborogh, Sr Operations Specialist, LM Restaurant
The fix: Prioritize data visibility at every level. Utilize reports for insights into:
5. Slow Data Is Holding You Back
If managers are waiting hours (or days) for labor and sales data, they’ve already missed the chance to fix issues in real time. Fast data empowers quick, on-the-fly decision-making that drives better labor outcomes.
“Seeing real-time data filter through at your fingertips allows managers to stay in position and make decisions and implement change without having to go to the back office.” - Danielle Neal, Asst. Director, Business Systems, Dunkin’ - DMCP Group, LLC
The fix: Look for a mobile app that provides labor cost data down to the 15-minute interval (or even more frequently) if your POS system supports it.
6. Data Errors Are Costing You Time and Money
Inaccurate employee records, schedule mismatches, and punch-time errors may seem minor, but they often lead to costly payroll mistakes and frustrated teams.
“Before using Crunchtime, our managers had to manually assign [alternate IDs to employees in two different systems], and inevitably there would be an error causing people to be paid incorrectly.”- Travis Scarborogh, Sr Operations Specialist, LM Restaurant
The fix: Demand tight integrations with POS, HR, payroll, and accounting platforms that move data points reliably, including:
For the final two red flags, check out the webinar recording here.
A big thank you to our webinar speakers, Travis Scarborough and Danielle Neal, for sharing their frontline experiences and actionable strategies to improve restaurant scheduling. Their insights highlighted just how critical it is to align labor practices with both operational goals and employee success, especially in today’s challenging labor environment.