Embrace the gig economy
For the past several years, unemployment has been at record lows and demand for hourly employees has been at all-time highs. And with the advent of the “gig economy,” services like Uber and Lyft have helped popularize the idea of picking up extra shifts here and there to make some extra cash.
Finding employees to pick up extra shifts has been a challenge for restaurants for a long time. Just one employee calling in sick on a busy night can throw off an entire schedule—and convincing someone to pick up extra shifts can be like pulling teeth. But with the advent of instant access to wages, that phone call just became a whole lot easier. A conversation that once ended with, “I’m not on the schedule, so I can’t come in tonight” suddenly becomes, “I’m not doing anything tonight, I may as well come in and make an extra $50.”
In a perfect world, your schedule would give you the ideal staffing for each shift, and no one would ever be late or sick. But that’s not the world we live in, and variances are inevitable. Use the gig economy to your advantage.