Human Metrics

Many here are not comfy with numbers, or managing people by numbers. But it would be good to hear some feedback from those who are comfy.

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We run a bar and restaurant fully on independent contractors paid above federal minimum wage (RM4.81/hr). We start green front-of-house (FOH) recruits at RM5/hr, and aim to get them to solo the bar + floor + housekeeping, at which point they get RM8/hr, with an additional RM2/hr if they are soloing. I recently provided our FOH scheduler with the following target metrics:

:one:
A FOH crew at x should be able to deliver normal service quality on a shift that generates 12x the cost of FOH labour in gross sales. For example, an RM8/hr freelance soloing get RM10/hr, and in a 7 hour shift, 12x gross sales means RM840. And a full day of RM8/hr pairs working together should expect to handle RM3840 without stress. In the past we have run RM6k days with more staff.

:two:
Sales will be volatile, and for example, the middle shift can expect most of their sales to be generated in the final 60 minutes before the night team turns up. A single RM8/hr staff should expect to handle rushes of up to RM350/hour purely in bar sales. The figure is double if you mix in 60% kitchen sales, as production does not occur in FOH.

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How about you? What sort of quantitative expectations/ limits/ budgets do you have of your teams?