Sunday, April 7 2024
When you set yourself the task to define hospitality staffing benchmarks and KPIs you set yourself up for success. Benchmarks and KPIs are proven, in hospitality and all industries, to enable teams to work together toward specific goals and overarching business growth.
In this Culinary Staffing blog, we’ll walk you through 10 facts to define hospitality staffing benchmarks and KPIs. After you’ve read all the way through you’ll be ready to define and set your own hospitality benchmarks and KPIs for your business.
Before we leap into different hospitality staffing benchmarks and KPIs to set, it’s time to define hospitality staffing benchmarks and KPIs. The definition is broad, encompassing:
The best working definition of hospitality staffing benchmarks and KPIs is the goals you set for your staff. Those goals are built to be achieved through tangible steps for your customer service and business success.
Narrowing and defining your hospitality staffing goals is a non-negotiable requirement. Benchmarks and KPIs are only as effective as they are clear and easy to understand. As you read through these upcoming facts of hospitality staffing benchmarks and KPIs, consider how you would narrow these topics to fit precise business goals.
These 10 facts of defining hospitality staffing benchmarks and KPIs are applicable across all hospitality businesses. Some will be more or less important depending on your business structure and goals. All of them will help you create a business and staff plan to create guest satisfaction.
Your staff turnover rate is a benchmark to meet for yourself and your business. How often do you have to bring in new staff because of turnover? What’s the reason behind the turnover? Set yourself a benchmark to improve if this is an issue.
Time-to-fill vacancies is a benchmark that often goes hand-in-hand with your turnover rate. If you’re struggling to fill roles it could tell you something about how people are finding your business as potential employees. This is another benchmark to set if this is a problem you face.
Training completion rates are something you’ll come up against no matter what. In training new employees and implementing regular training across the board, having benchmarks for timeliness and effectiveness makes your training more efficient. You can increase benchmarks as the training becomes more advanced.
Occupancy rates have two meanings in hospitality. One is the occupancy of a hotel or similar business. The other is the occupancy on any given night of a restaurant or similar service space. Setting benchmarks for each of these will help you focus on bringing in and serving guests with the best possible service.
Service-time rates often pair with occupancy rates as a benchmark goal. How long does it take for someone to get seated after they’ve entered your restaurant? What’s the turnaround time on a meal ticket? Set quarterly benchmarks on service time for continual improvement.
Customer satisfaction scores are the culmination of many other hospitality staffing benchmarks and KPIs. You can get a direct score from customer reviews and feedback. Aiming for higher scores and better reviews is a regular need to create a flow of continuous improvement in this area.
The labor cost percentage benchmark is more on the budget and managerial side of the hospitality equation. How much does it cost to serve each customer in relation to each employee? How can you lower these costs without taking away from your staff and guests? The answer will change depending on your employment and training models.
Employee productivity can be reviewed through many of the benchmarks on this list. It stands alone in importance because it tells you how well your staff is doing and how they’re maintaining work standards.
Upselling metrics are a unique benchmark to set for any staff who work on selling services to your guests. How often do guests upgrade their rooms? Do they opt for the steak and lobster combo over just the steak? Set tangible upselling goals to meet this niche area of customer service and profit-boosting.
Guest request resolution time slips into the same category of benchmarks as occupancy and service-time rates. How long does it take for a guest to get a side they’ve added to their order? If there’s a problem with a dish, is it prioritized by the kitchen? Set these benchmarks as a general rule for when requests arise.
Of course, benchmarks and KPIs aren’t the end-all-be-all of hospitality planning. As your business shifts with guest needs and staff situations, reevaluation is necessary. Some ways to effectively evaluate hospitality staffing benchmarks and KPIs include:
These tips will keep you prepared to change benchmarks as needed and remain agile with your business.
The pool of information around hospitality staffing benchmarks and KPIs is wide, varied, and difficult to navigate without support. Your staff and managerial team will provide a great deal of that support. To get started, read through our answers to these frequently asked questions. You’ll learn where to begin setting your benchmarks for success.
In the hospitality industry, benchmarks are ways of measuring goals for the business, customer experience, and industry success. These benchmarks are most often used for internal review and improvements. They can also be used to compare your business against your competition to see where you stand in the hospitality industry in your area.
Some key factors to evaluate in hospitality staff performance include:
The overall evaluation of hospitality staff performance hinges on efficiency and guest satisfaction. Any factors in that arena in your business are worth evaluating.
A KPI or key performance indicator in the hospitality industry is similar to benchmarks but is more specific. It’s a clearly defined goal for you, your employees, and your business. The important factor behind every KPI you set is your ability to measure your success. Setting KPIs, therefore, comes with a need for improvement and a direct way of measuring those improvements.
Some key tips on setting KPI targets for your staff are:
When it comes to setting KPIs for your whole staff, communication is the most important step. Include your staff in decision-making around what the KPIs are. Ask them what they think needs improvement. You can make it an anonymous survey. Keep them in the loop and you’ll see success in your KPIs.
The golden rule in hospitality is to do unto others as you think they would want done unto them. This is a slight twist from the typical golden rule of doing unto others as you want done to you. This change comes from the guest-facing foundational goals of hospitality. If you’re wondering what to do, in any situation, think about how it will affect your guests and act accordingly.
Defining your hospitality staffing benchmarks and KPIs gives you clear, achievable staff and business goals. That provides the building blocks of a successful business with room for growth. The process starts with hiring the right staff. From front-of-house perfection to back-of-house efficiency, your staff makes your business work.
Culinary Staffing is here to help you cultivate the best staff for all your jobs. Our team of staffing experts has been finding and placing the best of the best since 1999. Contact us today to learn how we can place the staff you need on your roster when you need them.
