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Guide to Calculating Canada's Emergency Wage Subsidy Amount

With the recent release of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy application portal, here's a quick guide on how to calculate your wage subsidy amount and tips to assist you with your application.

Push Operations | COVID-19 Response for Business

As provincial, state, and local governments consider reopening their economies during the COVID-19 pandemic, the team at Push is doing our part to help keep communities healthy and safe. We’re seeing an increase in the number of reports related to essential workers testing positive for COVID-19 and in efforts to help employers protect employees (and their business), Push Operations has created a platform for all essential services to help monitor employees’ health.

What is the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA)?

What is the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA)? In short, eligible employers are required to provide employees with paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave for specified reasons related to COVID-19. These provisions will apply from the effective date of April 2020 through December 31, 2020.

What You Need to Know About Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act

What's available under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES)? The Employee Retention Credit is a refundable tax credit equal to 50% of qualifying wages employers pay to their employees after March 12, 2020 and before January 1, 2021.

Canadian Businesses: What are the Work-Sharing & Business Credit Availability Programs?

What the Business Credit Availability Program (BCAP)? It's a program that helps Canadian businesses obtain financing during the current period of significant uncertainty. The BCAP will support access to financing for Canadian businesses in all sectors and regions. The objective of the Business Credit Availability Program is to improve access to financing for credit-worthy

COVID-19 Relief Plans Canada: Province-Specific Updates

In efforts to make applications easier for you and your team, our team put together a quick guide on everything you need to know about provincial COVID-19 response.

What You Need to Know About Canada's Wage Subsidy Programs

First of all: What’s the difference between the 10% Wage Subsidy and the 75% Subsidy? The eligibility for the 10% and the 75% subsidy differ. Small businesses can claim the 10% subsidy even if they do not report a drop in revenue.

Stay Compliant Under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA)

The FFCRA requires employers (businesses with fewer than 500 employees*) to provide employees with paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave for reasons related to COVID-19. The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) administers and enforces the new law’s paid leave requirements. These provisions will apply from the effective date April 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020.

Employee Guide: How to Apply for EI in Canada

If you are applying to EI, here is a quick guide on how to apply for EI with Service Canada. Please note: this guide is for NEW EI applications. You may also experience a slow loading time with the website as thousands of others (Due to COVID-19) are trying to process their claim as well. Do not refresh the page at any point in time as you may have to restart your application.

Resources for Temporary Restaurant Closures

Restaurants across Canada and the US are doing their part to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Restaurants are limiting their dine-in to takeout only, and in some cases closing their doors entirely for the time being. Even a temporary business closure can be tough, we commend them for this difficult decision to keep our communities safe.

How to Create a Restaurant Equipment Maintenance Checklist

Making a restaurant more efficient is a continual effort, fortunately, making a restaurant maintenance checklist is one of the less labor-intensive...

How to Write a Restaurant Employee Schedule in California

An employee schedule is an important part of your restaurant labor management process. You will lose money when your schedule is not done correctly. When planning your schedule, keep in mind the best working hours, how many hours each employee gets (along with how many they were promised upon hire), time off requests and overtime.

California Labor Laws: What is a Blended Rate and When is it Used

In short, blended rates are rates that are calculated using the different forms of compensation an employee receives. The total is then divided by the total of numbers worked in order to get the blended rate...

California Overtime Law: How to Calculate Blended Rates

The first step of staying compliant is understanding that a penalty is owed. The second part? Accurately paying the correct violation amount. In the most simple case, where employees don't receive any bonuses and other forms of payment that are included in blended rate calculations, find an employee's blended rate is fairly straightforward. To help shed some light on how to calculate blended rates, here are 3 simple steps:

What is Human Capital Management?

Defined by research firm Gartner, human capital management (HCM) is a “practice related to people resource management. These practices are focused on the organizational need to provide specific competencies.” Simply put, human capital is the human resources available in your business and managing human capital covers the acquisition, management, and optimization of the human resources available within your business.

5 Ingredients to Spice up Your Restaurant Management

Opening a new restaurant involves a lot of important topics. This handbook will help guide you through the management and operations portion of building your new restaurant. If you are looking for the technical details of How to Open a New Restaurant including getting started and financial information check out our guide on that!

The Ultimate Guide to Opening a Restaurant in the US

In an effort to provide our readers with the best content possible, we’ve created a comprehensive guide to opening a restaurant. We’ve tapped into our network of professionals and have interviewed top experts in the field. From successful chefs, restaurateurs, restaurant consultants, lease brokers, bankers, and multiple industry experts, we’ve compiled their advice to help guide you through opening the restaurant of your dreams.

The Handbook to New Restaurant Management

Opening a new restaurant involves a lot of important topics. This handbook will help guide you through the management and operations portion of building your new restaurant. If you are looking for the technical details of How to Open a New Restaurant including getting started and financial information check out our guide on that!

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Guide to Managing a Restaurant with Technology

When looking for software to introduce to your restaurant business, you should be looking for 2 key factors: 1) Restaurant focused & 2) Ease of use.

Canada Statutory Holiday Guide: Everything You Need to Know About Provincial Statutory Holidays

General holidays, also known as statutory holidays, are fun - for the most part. They’re occasions for family and friends to come together to celebrate something; and these outings usually consist of a big holiday meal. Meaning, holidays don’t quite mean the same for restaurant businesses. To make matters more difficult, statutory holiday eligibility rules, and calculations vary from province to province. As payroll experts, our team here In efforts to make general holiday calculations easier for you and your team, we’ve put together a quick guide on everything you need to know about statutory holiday calculations.

5 Mistakes Most Restaurant Managers Make when Hiring Employees

When it comes to the success of your restaurant, few things are more important than your staff. Hiring the right people and providing them with the training, tools, and resources they need to succeed should be at the top of your list of priorities as a manager. However, this is not always easy, especially when you have a lot on your plate.

Understanding the Importance of Labor Costs: 3 Tools to Save Money

Those in the restaurant industry are well aware that labor is one of the highest costs in running a restaurant. However, simply cutting hours is not always the solution in cutting costs. It may seem an easy fix to cut hours but there's possible chance of decreasing morale and inciting job security fears.

Restaurant Highlight: Hart House's Edwyn Kumar

Fresh off their 30th Year anniversary, Hart House has been described as an idyllic, charming and inviting restaurant – and those characteristics don’t come without merit.

Restaurant Marketing: Grand Opening Checklist to Create Buzz

There’s a lot to do and think about leading up to your restaurant’s grand opening. You want to make sure people show up, enjoy the event, and spread the word to their friends and family. Thinking ahead, making detailed plans, and collaborating with the right people in your local community can help keep you on track and ensure your grand opening makes a splash.

Developing a Restaurant Concept: 3 Must Have Tips

Choosing a concept is one of the most important steps of opening a restaurant. Your concept is your overall idea. It’s what defines your brand and the unique experience you’ll offer your customers. There’s a lot to think about when starting a business. A well-developed concept plan will provide you with a complete vision of your establishment and can help guide you in decision making.

How to Create a Quality Employee Training Guide

Building a quality team should be a primary goal for your restaurant business. But it's essential to have a comprehensive employee training guide. This will be a key tool in perfecting your the onboarding process.

How Big Data is Changing the Restaurant Industry

Around 48.4% of Fortune 1000 companies are achieving “measurable results” from investing in big data and 80.7% of executives described the investments as “successful.” Big data is extremely large data sets that may be analyzed to uncover patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions. In short, it’s a lot of numbers—millions and billions of numbers—that can tell you more about your customers.

California Restaurant Labor Laws: A Step-By-Step Guide

If you’re looking to open a business in the California's hospitality industry, we’ve gone ahead and compiled all the need-to-know facts about the state's labor compliance! In comparison to other states and federal labor laws, California labor laws are complex and are highly in an employee’s favor. However...

Avoiding Restaurant Lawsuits: How to Track Employee Meal Breaks

Compliance is one of the biggest factors to consider when establishing restaurant employee policies and processes. Studies by Seyfarth’s 2017 Workplace Class Action Litigation Report found that in 2016 workplace class action settlements hit a total of $1.64 billion; and the settlement value tripled for wage and hour litigation. That means more and more employees are suing their employers, and they’re winning bigger settlements.

Everything You Need to Know About Labor Law Posters

Being in compliance with all of labor laws and its notices is a given. However, it's one thing know what labor laws entail, and another to fully understand their actions. Here are the key things you need to know as a restaurant owner and manager to remain in compliance about labor law posters.

Keeping Up with Restaurant Labor Compliance Laws

Labor laws are an important consideration in just about every aspect of restaurant management. Whether you’re hiring, firing, setting wages, or scheduling shifts, it’s important to pay close attention to how labor compliance laws should affect the decisions you make. Failing to comply can expose you to unnecessary risk and bring about legal and ethical issues. That’s why it’s important to make sure you’re aware of all the relevant regulations; and understand how they affect your industry, business, and employees.

Restaurant Marketing: How to Attract More Foot Traffic

Restaurants need a lot of things to succeed: great food, professional staff, high margins. But, at the end of the day, a successful restaurant can be heavily dependent on one thing: foot traffic Can you get people into the door? Can you keep people coming back? How do you attract more customers to your restaurant? Knowing your customer and communicating with them.

3 Common Compliance Mistakes That Restaurants Make

Owning and operating a restaurant comes with many responsibilities and challenges. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day operations of your business and lose track of the multitude of laws and regulations you’re expected to comply with. In order to avoid any ethical and legal issues from arising and threatening your business, it’s important to make sure you fully understand and adhere to all relevant laws and requirements.

Restaurant Employees: How To Properly Onboard A New Hire|Restaurant Employees: How To Properly Onboard A New Hire|New hire checklist

How To Successfully Onboard A New Hire

Onboarding a new employee ensures that they are well-trained and able to perform their job to the standards you expect of your employees. Without a standard process to onboard new hires, employees may misunderstand their duties, feel misaligned with company culture, take shortcuts in their work, or even quit quickly. Properly onboarding a new employee will help that new hire become a member of your team and embody the behavior and skills that you expect from someone working in that position.

Restaurant Tools: Restaurant Opening Checklist

Opening a new restaurant is exciting but stressful. There are a lot of decisions to be made and sometimes, it’s hard to keep track of everything that has to be done.

First Impressions Matter: Linking Employee Onboarding and Retention

First impressions are priceless. Unfortunately, when a restaurant owner or manager does not recognize how important these first impressions truly are, there can inevitably be a high cost to their business. Business owners may not realize how a lack of proper and efficient onboarding can affect employee turnover in some serious ways. For example, according to ContractRecruiter.com, “New employees who went through a structured onboarding program were 58% more likely to be with the organization after three years." That fact is huge considering that Gallup has found "that only 12% of employees strongly agree that their organization does a great job onboarding new employees."

4 Things New Restaurant Owners Need to Know About Labor Compliance

4 Things California Restaurant Owners Need to Know About Labor Compliance

When it comes to labor laws, simple mistakes or misjudgments can lead to thousands of dollars in fines and lawsuits. It's imperative that new restaurant owners educate themselves and conduct the necessary research regarding labor compliance laws. Existing restaurant owners should review these laws frequently; and ensure they're up to date with any changes regarding the federal and state labor laws in which they operate.

Restaurant Management: How to Build a High Functioning Restaurant Team

Building a team of any type is definitely an art. As a restaurant owner, building a team is essential for the smooth operation, function, and success of your restaurant. Your restaurant management team is the heart of your team. What you do to help nurture your management team will allow each restaurant team member to thrive in a way that can only help your amazing restaurant grow. If your team is happy, then your customers are happy. The energy is contagious. Now, the question is, how do you, as a restaurant owner and manager, build that high functioning restaurant team that is motivated and driven? You want to ensure that you build a restaurant team to truly represent your brand and bring it to life while helping your employees feel valued.

Restaurant Marketing: Creating Your Online Community

Restaurants are built around social activities. People attend brunch after Sunday church, grab drinks for a big game, eat dinner before a movie. It makes sense why restaurants are huge on social media (more than 200 million Instagram posts are tagged #food and more than 100 thousand posts are tagged #torontorestaurants).

Restaurant Uniforms: What to Consider

If you’re considering adding or changing your staff uniforms, it’s important to think about how these changes may affect your brand, your business, your employees, and your customers. Research shows 75 percent of customers prefer employees in uniform, and they can help promote brand awareness and boost employee performance, and...

Restaurant Staffing: How to Avoid Overworking Employees

Restaurant work is hard work. It can be exhausting—both physically and mentally—and team member exhaustion can hurt customer service, operations efficiency, and employee retention. It’s important as a manager to keep your team from burning out. Here are some ways to help avoid overworking your employees.

Dealing With Restaurant Reservation No Shows

No shows can be a very frustrating issue for restaurant owners to deal with. A no show reservation can greatly affect a restaurant's daily revenue. It's more than turning away guests. Restaurant margins are thin and the unnecessary costs behind of a no-show can range from labor costs for overstaffing employees to food waste and costs.

Restaurant Operations: Navigating Guest Holiday Parties

The holidays bring extra business and opportunity for restaurants. It’s an exciting time of year, but it typically means you’ll be juggling at least three weeks of holiday parties, business gatherings, and other events on top of the regular holiday rush. Planning ahead, communicating with your staff, and developing specific policies and standards for holiday reservations will limit stress and help things run smoothly.

Restaurant Hiring: 5 Tips to Help You Stand Out from Your Competitors

Restaurant Hiring: Standing Out from Your Competitors

As a manager, you want to build a team of dedicated and enthusiastic employees to work with you every day and help your business thrive. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to find and keep the right people, especially since restaurant managers face some of the highest turnover rates across all industries.

Restaurant Opening: Defining Your Target Customer

Defining your target customer is possibly one of the most critical aspects to consider when opening a restaurant. It is essential to ensure your restaurant business is a true success. Upserve.com reported that “As of 2017, the amount of money Americans spend on eating out has surpassed the amount they spend to eat at home.” With such a dramatic statistic in mind, any restaurant owner (present or future) must truly know what to expect when envisioning an ideal customer. Thinking of this from the framework of who, what, when, how, and why questions, restaurant owners must take the time to allow for thorough and constructive research. More specifically, they must ask themselves honestly:

Restaurant Locations: Factors to Look For

The restaurant business can be tough. Choosing the right location for your restaurant will improve your chances of success. In fact, 63% of voters claimed that location affected their dining decision. It’s all about location, location, location. You want great access to customers, you want them to notice your restaurant, and you want to make sure that you aren’t losing all your sales income on rent and wages. To make sure you choose the best restaurant location, look for the following factors when deciding on a space.

Restaurant Purchasing: Buying a Profitable Restaurant

Ready to buy a restaurant? Congratulations! Now pump the breaks. Investing in a new business can be exciting but it’s important to be aware of the key factors that play a role in ensuring the restaurant you buy will be profitable for you. Before you sign any leases, contracts, or agreements, here’s what you should do:

Buying a Restaurant: How to Find the Right Restaurant Broker

Buying a restaurant is a big step that requires a lot of planning, brainstorming, research and finding the right people to help you along the way. You may have accountants, legal experts, and financial planners on hand but a restaurant broker can connect the missing pieces. They're someone who’ll guide you along the complex process of finding the right restaurant, negotiating, closing the deal, and also staying in touch afterwards. Your relationship with your broker is such an important one that you need to invest some time in researching and finding the right broker before you even start looking around for a restaurant to buy. Here are 5 tips on how to find the right restaurant broker:

Restaurant Equipment: How to Not Overspend

Before you open a new restaurant, you need a few things. You need refrigerators, ovens, cutlery, freezers, appliances, and software. These are just a few items that are necessities. But the most important part of running a restaurant? You need equipment. Finding equipment is another step off the restaurant opening checklist but it's stressful. Making smart investments in your equipment can set your restaurant up for success, reduce unforeseen costs, and increase efficiency levels.

Restaurant Operations: Holiday Preparation Tips

The holiday season marks one of the most busy and exciting times of the year for many restaurant owners and managers. Restaurant sales can increase significantly during the final months of the year, so it’s important to make sure you and your staff are adequately prepared. Here are a few tips to help you plan for a smooth and profitable holiday season:

5 Things to Consider for Reservation Software

Ready or not, technology is here to make our lives easier. Restaurant technology is no different Restaurant.org reported that “32 percent restaurant operators consider their operations to be lagging when it comes to technology use.” This is quite concerning considering that technology can work to make or break a restaurant owner’s hard work and business potential. This is especially true since 73% of diners believe that using restaurant technology can help improve their own experiences as a guest.

Restaurant Marketing: How to Market your Restaurant

7 Things You Should Be Doing to Market Your Restaurant

Marketing is both a science and an art. But you don’t need to have a marketing degree to put your restaurant on the map. In fact, the internet and social media have made it quite easy to spread the word around and feature your restaurant on the most popular platforms at a fraction of the cost other traditional media advertising would charge you. But in the overcrowded market and with a lot of competition you need to know what you’re doing if you want to stand out. The following 7 marketing strategies will help you get the attention of your customers and increase your business.

5 Ways to Motivate Restaurant Staff to Boost Sales

Employees who do their job well are more likely to bring in more sales, whether that’s through upselling, great quality work, or fantastic customer service. If staff members are not motivated to do their job well, sales will suffer. Keep your team motivated by giving them training, a “why”, and a goal to work toward. Make those goals fun and rewarding with an employee incentive program, and make sure to recognize everyone’s hard work and effort.

5 Things to Consider Before Buying a Franchise

Buying a franchise is a major financial, professional, and personal decision. If you want to open a restaurant, but don’t want to set up a whole new business system and brand, franchising may be a good option.

The Importance of Staff Meals for Restaurant Teams

In the restaurant industry, high turnover is extremely common. Ever-changing staff results in an endless stream of new employees who have to be trained, and feeble workplace relationships that can have a negative impact on communication and teamwork. Staff meals are one practice that is gaining in popularity as a means to improve employee retention, increase morale, improve employee relationships and skills, and reduce waste. Sitting down for a communal meal as a group will unite and engage employees, bringing everyone together as a team.

Restaurant Sales: 4 Upselling and Cross-Selling Tips

The main objective of any restaurant owner is exceptional customer service. According to a recent survey, 95% of customers feel that great customer service is a major factor in choosing a restaurant. Upselling and cross-selling are two techniques that double as ways to provide exemplary customer service and increase restaurant profits.

6 Hidden Profit Sucks at Your Restaurant (& How to Fix Them)

Restaurant margins are low. That means, for your restaurant’s bottom-line, every decision matters. So, here are some hidden profit killers and how you can make adjustments to maximize your bottom line.

Restaurant Staffing: What You Need to Know About Gen Z

Restaurants are turning to the next cohort as millennials approach midlife. Generation Z (born mid–’90s through to early 2010s) are your future workforce. If you’ve been doing things right, they may already make up a significant portion of your staff. Employment of teens and young adults in hospitality and retail is significant. Over 80% of Gen Z say they got their first paid job in a restaurant, and the majority (by over 70%!) would recommend the experience.

Cutting Restaurant Costs: 10 Easy Steps

“A penny saved is a penny earned” couldn’t ring more true than in the restaurant industry. On average, the net profit margin is 5%-15%. That’s tight. Why? Because COGS (cost of goods sold) is high: the payroll, rent, utilities, credit fees, and food add up. Here’s 10 tips on how you can reduce the cost of running your restaurant and, ultimately, increase your bottom line.

5 Things to Consider When Looking at Delivery Services

The convenience of having a Skip the Dishes courier deliver you a bottle of wine, or a bowl of soup when you’re too sick to leave your home is the culprit behind high demands for food delivery services- which are getting increasingly more popular and available. Third party delivery services have the ability to help you market your restaurant to a whole new audience and cover potential additional labor costs that you would otherwise be faced with if you use a in-house courier model; but they can also pose other issues. Here are 5 things to consider for both in- house and third party delivery services.

Restaurants: Personalizing a Guest's Dining Experience

Whether you’re a restaurant manager or the owner, your ultimate goal is to offer the best dining experience to your customers. You’re not just looking to see smiling and satisfied customer leaving your restaurant, you want those customers to come back for more. In other words, you want them to become regular customers. We all know that’s not an easy target to achieve. Especially with the cutthroat competition in the restaurant world. After all, that’s what every other restaurant in town is trying to have guests dine at their restaurant. So apart from offering a unique menu and an excellent service, how can you possibly achieve that?

Restaurant Sales: How Customer Retention Affects Revenue

The number of items a customer orders isn't where you'll find your biggest profit generator. A single table that orders 30 items once a year won't be where your profits lie. Rather, it's the table who orders 15 items but return once a week. Ordering more items on the menu isn’t the only reason why restaurants experience big leaps in profits. It's the customers who enjoy their experience, and consistently return to your establishment. Studies show that even a 5% increase in customer retention leads to an increase in profits up to 95% and retaining customers is by far more inexpensive than acquiring new ones. This, is why (if you aren't already) you should be working on investing in customer retention initiatives. After all, loyal customers are returning customers.

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Restaurant Employee Engagement and Customer Experience

Many restaurant marketers may categorize restaurants in the food business. However, they're primarily in the services business. Their ultimate goal is to deliver a great customer experience, which includes great food. This experience can only be achieved when a restaurant has a highly motivated and engaged workforce that is willing to take ownership of the customer experience.

California Labor Laws: Mileage Reimbursement

As per California’s Labor Code Section 2802, employers must reimburse their staff for all reasonable expenses that incur while on duty. This can range from delivery driving expenses (gas and wear-and-tear of a vehicle) to picking up an item for your business. Anything that requires an employee to use their personal vehicles other than their normal commuting is required to be reimbursed. And failing to pay these expenses is an easy path to a class action lawsuit.

Building the Ideal Restaurant Atmosphere: Sound

According to a 2018 Zagat study, noise is the number one pet peeve of customers. Not the service, the prices, or the parking. Noise. Restaurants are busy environments. Things are all happening at once: people talking, music playing, dishes and utensils clanging, the occasional sizzle from a frying pan, and 110 other things.

Going Green: Environmentally Friendly Restaurants

The shift to sustainability has been happening for a long time. However, up until now, it has been a small part of the restaurant owners worries, but in recent years there has been a dramatic shift in attitude. In March 2018, fast food giant McDonalds set to significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

5 Restaurant Grand Opening Ideas That Actually Work

Conducting a grand opening for your restaurant may seem like a daunting task, but with the help of some of these seriously rad grand opening ideas, you can set a precedent for the future success of your restaurant.

Things to Consider When Negotiating a Restaurant Lease

Negotiating your restaurant lease is the first step of ensuring the safety and integrity of your restaurant business. As you embark on this initial step, there are several things to keep in mind in order to guarantee that your restaurant lease will fit your personal and business needs effectively. Firstly, it's important to remember the purpose of your lease; which is to ensure that both parties understand each other’s responsibility regarding the space. The lease will protect your business against potential liability concerns and your rights as a tenant.

How to Save Money on Your Restaurant Contractor

Whether you’re building your restaurant from scratch or you’re renovating it, the process, in either case, is far from being simple. As usual, you aim for the stars which is quite understandable. After all, you do want your restaurant to be the best in town, if not the nation. But neither the design on paper or the finished one in your head mean much until all work is done; and you got the keys to your restaurant in your hand. And to reach your goal of a brick and mortar restaurant business, you’ll have to work closely with a restaurant contractor.

Menu Hacks: How to Maximize Customer Spending

The decor and music is what sets the atmosphere for your restaurant, but the menu is your only way to persuade your customers to buy more. There are many mistakes that can trigger price anxiety in your customers or even confuse them about what to pick. However, all of these can be solved with a few psychological tricks that will make your dishes look reasonably priced, high-quality, and irresistible to customers.

How to Save Money When Opening a Restaurant

Restaurants fail for a lot of reasons. Poor management. Boring food. Bad timing. The number one reason? Under-capitalization. It’s about the money. To reach your dream of running a restaurant, you need to stay within your budget. The smallest savings add up to a better bottom line. Here’s a few tips to save you money upfront (and in the years to come), build a more thoughtful financial plan, and make better money decisions.

5 Reasons Why Employees Quit & How You Can Help Them Stay

The restaurant industry’s employee turnover rate is high, and it’s climbing. In 2016, the annual employee turnover rate was 73%. That means, on average, out of 100 employees, only 27 remain from the original staff after a year. That’s shocking, and it’s costly. High employee turnover can hurt a restaurant's bottom line: it causes a spike in training, a lack of stability in staff scheduling, and a lower productivity level. In fact, replacing one hourly employee can cost up to 16% of the persons annual salaries. In short, learning how to increase employee retention, even by one person, can help your business succeed.

Restaurant Start-up: Lease Terms to Look Out For

It can be daunting when navigating the waters of restaurant leasing. Whether your restaurant business is brand new or you are moving spaces and just getting ready to enter into a new lease, there are some important terms and leasing principles to keep in mind. It’s important to do your homework as a restaurant owner to ensure that you are up-to-date on leasing terms. It is in your best interest to ask questions and ultimately, to consult an attorney to review the lease with you. Remember that you will likely have this lease for a number of years. It would be a true worst case scenario to be locked into a lease not having an in depth understanding of what you signed only to find out that it could negatively affect you in some way or even force a restaurant owner to close the doors. A typical restaurant lease can be up to 40 pages long and peppered with provisions, fine print, and words that make your brain hurt.

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California Labor Laws: Meal and Rest Periods

In an employee friendly state like California, labor laws are always in favor of your staff. Meaning, being an employee friendly business is more than a bonus; it's a requirement. Labor compliance laws set the standard of what your employer practices should be; and in a chaotic environment like restaurants, it's a competitive advantage when retaining employees.

California Labor Laws: Overtime

As an employer, you may find yourself paying a lot of overtime. But the question is, are you paying it correctly? Overtime is one of the biggest costs of managing labor, and any mistakes in payment could potentially lead to a class action lawsuit.

California Labor Laws: Restaurant Tip Sharing

In the state of California, every employee is required to paid minimum wage. Though federal laws and other states allow tipped minimums, the state of California does not. In an employee favorable state like California, any employer who employs 26 or more employees has to pay each of their employee no less than eleven dollars ($11.00) per hour for all hours worked. Employers who employ 25 or fewer employees, have to pay to each of their employees no less than ten dollars and fifty cents ($10.50) per hour for all hours worked. Therefore, tips are paid on top of an employee’s minimum wage.

California Labor Laws: Clock Edits

When it comes to rounding hours, staying compliant can be a slippery slope. In a state like California, where labor laws are in high favor of employees, business owners and employers should be aware of the strict rounding policies.

Besst Compliant Labor Management Software

3 Must Have Features for Compliant Labor Management Software

What is compliance and what does it mean? For us, it’s about covering all your bases as an employer. As advocates of making work easy, we’re passionate about streamlining day to day tasks, and automating the aspect of break management. Here are 3 must have features for labor management software to handle compliance:

Employee Payroll Canada Day 2020 Statutory Holiday Rules

Employee Payroll: Everything You Need to Know About Canada Day 2020 Statutory Holiday Rules

Usually, July 1st marks Canada Day - but this year, Canada Day is observed on July 2nd. This doesn't mean Canada Day celebrations will be moved to July 2nd. But rather, premium statutory holiday pay, and statutory holiday eligibility will be observed on July 2nd.

Restaurant Management: The Value of Pre-Shift Huddles

With the hustle and bustle of the restaurant environment, it can be difficult to check in with your employees, and for your employees to check in with each other. This, is where the value of pre-shift huddles is exemplified!

Restaurant BOH Management: 3 Things We've Learned from "Ratatouille"

How many times have you watched a movie that inspired you? Whether in your personal life or professional life, movies have a tendency to invoke feel-good moments and relate to your own personal life. In this case, Remy, the main character in Disney's Ratatouille embodied key qualities of every aspiring chef. And with his culinary idol's ghost helping him pave his way with the motto "anyone can cook," we've put together 3 restaurant back-of-house management tips we've learned.

Technology Disrupting the Restaurant Industry

Restaurant Technology: 5 Tools Disrupting the Restaurant Industry

The dining experience is changing with the fast paced culture and demand for convenience. In turn, technology has played a large role in the restaurants industry’s adaptation to its changing environment. The National Restaurants Association 2017 study notes that 4 out of 5 restaurant owners found that technology increases sales, makes their restaurant more productive, and provides their restaurant a competitive advantage.

3 Key HR Interview Questions for BOH Employees

Restaurant HR: 3 Key Interview Questions for BOH Employees

Kitchen staff are one of the hardest employees to hire and retain. The work hours are long and the expectation level is set high. Though back-of-house (BOH) staff are working behind the scenes, a restaurant can't be a restaurant without them. And with quality dishes, you need passionate employees. When hiring new employees, here are 3 must ask interview questions for BOH employees:

All in one payroll pos scheduling hr software system

Understanding the Restaurant Industry: 3 Benefits of an All-In-One System

More often than not, restaurant software providers offer 1 out of 3 things that you need. If there's labor forecasting, you may need to export your hours into another software provider; and then cross reference the two. The automation of pulling sales, or calculating labor costs is great, but without the step of streamlining steps 1-3, its like having a cupcake without the frosting.

Restaurant employee tracking report software

Restaurant Analytics: 3 Labor Metrics That Your Restaurant Should Be Tracking

The best part of running a restaurant? Touching tables, building relationships and sharing your love of hospitality! But that's just the easy part. Far too often, metrics other than food costs and labor costs get overlooked. And you can only fix things that you're aware of. When evaluating your restaurant analytics, factors like turnover rates are unassuming at first, but they always come back to haunt you. To help ease the storm of restaurant management, we've compiled 3 key labor metrics that you should be tracking:

Restaurant Labor Management Minimum Wage Increases

Restaurant Labor Management: 3 Tips for Minimum Wage Increases

Labor cost is always rising and on October 1st 2018, the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba will introduce a new minimum wage for all employees. Minimum wage hikes are great for employees but they can be costly for business owners. The key here, is to prepare for change. So we’ve put together 3 tips to manage minimum wage increases:

Restaurant Technology: Looking for a Restaurant POS System For You

The best POS system out there, is dependent on your business model. Are you a small business with minimal square footage? Maybe opt for a cloud based POS system. Are you a multi-unit restaurant group that needs robust reporting and reservation capabilities? Maybe a hardware based POS solution is the best option for you. The key in looking for restaurant software is finding something that is flexible to your restaurant; not a “one size fits all” model.

Restaurant Labor Real Time Data Reports System Software

Restaurant Labor: The Value of Real Time Data

Restaurant management is more than just evaluating numbers. Especially when it comes to growth. This is where restaurant real time data comes in. Instead of solely focusing on crunching numbers, owners and managers should be looking at employee performances, customer satisfaction, and questioning what they aren't excelling in.

7 Common Misconceptions about Scheduling

Restaurant scheduling... seems like a simple task right? Think again! All businesses with 10 or 100 employees can understand the complication of creating an employee schedule. Yes, your business is growing, which means more employees; which equals to more administrative work; which results in less time interacting with your employees and customers. So we've put together a list (for those who are new to the industry, or for those who are looking to improving their methods) of 7 common misconceptions about scheduling.

Save Money Restaurant Employee Labor Costs Software System

Restaurant Employee Labor: 3 Ways to Save on Labor Costs

With the recent increases in labor in BC, Ontario and Alberta in the last year, labor cost is only going up. And as one of the biggest expenses in running a restaurant, our team put together 3 tips on how to save on restaurant labor costs!

Restaurant Management: 3 Time Management Strategies

Restaurant management isn’t an easy task. You’re consistently dealing with factors like balancing books, managing employees, and calculating labor costs. But luckily for restaurant management, restaurant software programs and their useful tools are are slowly being introduced. As a business owner, workforce management software aims to ease the daily administrative tasks! As an advocate of making work easy we've put together 3 time management strategies with workforce management software:

Restaurant Management Integrating Time Clock in and Payroll system software

Restaurant Management: Benefits of Integrating Time Clocks and Payroll

Generally, restaurant management is made up of three parts: scheduling, time tracking, and payroll. You can’t have one without the other; but you can make the payroll processing simpler and faster with an integrated workforce. As advocates of making work easy, we’ve put together three reasons as to why you should be integrating your time clock to your payroll system:

Scheduling Restaurant Employees schedules online software system

5 Key Trends to Look for When Scheduling Restaurant Employees

When creating a restaurant employee schedule, its crucial to schedule strategically. Its about knowing where you're spending your labor, what departments your employees excel in, and how you can optimize your labor. Here are 5 key trends that restaurant managers should be paying attention to when scheduling their employees:

Restaurant Management centralized cloud based HR Software system

Restaurant Management: Why You Should Consider HR Software

What is HR or Human resources and what exactly does it mean? For restaurant management, HR can mean a lot of things. In actuality, restaurant management is more than just payroll and scheduling. Restaurant owners also need to be aware of employee performance, annual leaves, and workplace happiness; which can all contribute to HR.

5 Places to Visit in Yaletown

Pssst... did you know? Late April to May is the best time to travel to Vancouver! And though Vancouver is notorious for its rain, the sun is just starting to peak out in May. With a quick weekend trip to one of the most beautiful cities in the world, one of the must-see areas is Yaletown. Once an old warehouse district, Yaletown is now one of the trendiest areas of Vancouver.

4 Key Traits to Look For in Restaurant Payroll Management Software

Looking for a solution for your restaurant payroll management woes? Payroll management software sounds like an easy enough solution right? But not quite. When looking for restaurant payroll management software, a cookie cutter payroll software isn't going to cut it. You need something that caters to the restaurant industry. So I've put together a quick checklist for you! When looking for a new restaurant payroll management software provider, you need to look for 4 key traits:

employee restaurant payroll software systems

Understanding Restaurant Payroll

As a restaurant owner, you were many different hats. You’re in charge of managing employees, making sure your guests enjoy their experience, and running your business operations. And one of the biggest pains, especially if you are not an accounting professional – is restaurant payroll. Its crucial for restaurant owners to understand the complexity of restaurant payroll to fully succeed in managing their business. Its different than the average payroll for a corporate office or retail store.

3 Must Read Tips for Managing and Retaining Millennials at Your Restaurant

Managing millennials is very different than managing other generations. They have a strong sense of purpose - when they feel as though their efforts are genuinely appreciated and their ideas are actually taken into account, they're more than likely to excel at their work. In the age of instant gratification, millenials tend to be less committed to their job if they are unhappy. But empowerment brings loyalty, and with loyalty, employees are much more productive in a fun workplace. Happy employees leads to happy customers, which ultimately leads to a more profitable business. With the restaurant industry constantly struggling with high turnover and employing a large amount of millennials, here a three ways to manage this young, tech savvy generation.

Restaurant Labor Scheduling: Why We Love Restaurant Reports

Seriously, we love restaurant reports. They’re valuable pieces of information that allow you to look at your business collectively, without bias. They're labor scheduling tools that help you optimize your employee scheduling process. You may assume that this Monday morning is your slowest day, but it could be the Tuesday night instead. Numbers don’t lie! Let us show you how real time reports can be significant to your business.

Staff employee clock in scheduling software system

Restaurant Time Tracking: 3 Ways to Ensure Your Staff Clock In & Out

Half the battle of controlling restaurant labor costs, is ensuring staff’s worked hours are tracked accurately. Implementing restaurant time tracking software is the first step in the right direction. But ensuring staff clock in and out is the real battle – especially if they’re used to old fashioned methods of pen and paper.

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