How to push on with F&B outlet expansion amid manpower shortages

Many F&B businesses face the issue of wanting to open up more outlets to grow their business but are usually faced with difficulty hiring more staff for the next outlets or are put off by the high manpower costs.


In this article we share some tip on how to push on with F&B outlet expansion amid manpower shortages

  1. Use self ordering solutions
  2. Be open to hiring part timers
  3. Partner with other organisations
  4. Be creative with recruitment ads

Use self ordering solutions

Self ordering solutions such as QR ordering and self ordering kiosks are great ways to help reduce your F&B outlet’s reliance on manpower to handle customers’ orders. QR ordering allows your customers to scan an ordering QR code in your restaurant when seated, or around your takeaway F&B outlet to browse your menu and place orders without having staff to manually take orders from them.


You can further reduce manpower reliance with QR ordering at your F&B outlet by enabling online payments. This allows customers to make payment online after adding items to cart to confirm their orders.


Self ordering kiosks on the other hand, are ordering terminals that you can set up in your F&B outlets for customers to place orders and make payments on their own. While most self ordering kiosks take up quite abit of space at F&B outlets, which holds some F&B outlets may not be able to accommodate, iMakan’s self ordering kiosks come in 3 variations, regular full sized 24” Kiosks that can be wall mounted or set up with a floor stand, a counter top self ordering kiosk and a Hybrid. 


A Hybrid kiosks is essentially a POS and a kiosk combined into a dual touch screen terminal that takes up no more space than a regular POS system.


Both of these solutions put ordering back into the hands of your customers to help your F&B outlet depend less on manpower.


Be open to hiring part timers

People looking for full time F&B work are hard to come by due to the long and tough working hours. On the other hand there are many people who are willing to work on a part time basis for extra cash. Hence, if your F&B business is not having luck in hiring full timers, you may want to consider hiring a number of part timers and work out a roster rotate your part timers according to your operational needs.


Make your recruitment ad interesting

With the labour shortage ongoing, hiring for F&B business is competitive. With every restaurant and F&B business posting up similar ads, hiring for similar job scopes and working hours, it all comes down to which F&B business is willing to offer a higher salary.


Besides an attractive remuneration package, you could include your F&B business’s positive working environment and opportunities for staff’s self improvement and career progression. 


There are ways in which you could attract more potential candidates to apply for your F&B business’s job opening.


Getting a Self Ordering Solution

If you are looking to get a self ordering solution such as a QR ordering system or a self ordering kiosk, for your outlet, click here to schedule a FREE demo on iMakan’s self ordering solutions that have been adopted and trusted by leading F&B brands in Singapore.


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