What technology helps improve restaurant productivity?
Scheduling tools, time and attendance controls, POS/KDS best practices, and digital checklists/routines - especially tools that reduce confusion and help managers make faster decisions.
How to Increase Employee Productivity in Your Restaurant
Overview
Running a restaurant is a constant race against the clock. Guests expect fast service, accurate orders, and a clean, welcoming space - while you're managing labor costs, callouts, vendor issues, and a kitchen that never stops moving. When employee productivity is strong, shifts feel controlled, tickets flow, prep stays ahead, and managers spend less time putting out fires. When it's weak, everything gets harder - more mistakes, longer waits, stressed staff, and overtime that eats your profits.
The goal of increasing employee productivity isn't to push people to "work harder" until they burn out. It's to remove the stuff that slows good employees down- unclear standards, messy handoffs between FOH and BOH, poor station setup, weak scheduling, and tools that create extra steps. Most productivity problems are system problems first - and once you fix the system, your team naturally moves faster with less stress.
Start With Clear Standards and Simple Expectations
If you want to increase employee productivity, remove uncertainty first. Most restaurants don't have a "people don't care" problem - they have a "people aren't sure" problem. When standards are vague, employees lose time asking questions, waiting for direction, fixing avoidable mistakes, or doing tasks in the wrong order. Clear expectations speed everything up because the team doesn't have to guess what "good" looks like.
1. Define simple, role-based standards - Spell out what "done right" means for each position. For servers, that could mean greeting within a set timeframe, following clear steps of service, and using a consistent process for coursing and check drops. For line cooks, it might be prep pars, plating examples, ticket calls, and keeping the station clean between pushes. For dish, it's the flow of clean items back to the line, how racks are loaded, and what "caught up" looks like. For managers, it includes pre-shift planning, communication, and how to adjust when volume spikes or someone calls out. Keep standards short, practical, and easy to repeat.
2. Use checklists - Opening, mid-shift, and closing are where productivity is won or lost. Checklists prevent missed steps that create chaos later. A strong close reduces overtime and next-day cleanup. A strong open prevents scrambling during the first rush. Make checklist items specific and measurable - "restock cups to par, "prep salsa to 2 quarts," "sanitize the line" - not generic lines like "make sure everything is ready."
People follow rules more consistently when they understand the reason behind them. Tie standards to outcomes - speed, food safety, guest experience, and cost control. When the team understands the purpose, they're more likely to repeat the right behaviors automatically - reducing rework and manager time spent correcting the same issues.
Clear standards, repeatable checklists, and simple training create consistency - and consistency is what makes a restaurant faster.
Fix the Workflow
When productivity is low, it's tempting to focus on individual performance - who's "slow," who's "not urgent," who needs coaching. But in many restaurants, the bigger problem is the workflow. If the system is messy, even your best employees will look average. Fixing workflow means removing friction - fewer unnecessary steps, fewer bottlenecks, and fewer moments where people are waiting on each other.
1. Find the bottlenecks - Every restaurant has a few choke points that control speed for everyone else. Common ones are expo, the pass, the host stand, the drink station, the fryer station, and dish. If expo gets backed up, food dies in the window and servers hover. If dish falls behind, the kitchen runs out of pans and plates, and the whole line slows down. Walk the floor during peak times and look for waiting- employees standing still, lines forming, or stations constantly running out of basics. That's where productivity is being lost.
2. Improve station setup - A strong station setup is silent productivity. In BOH, make sure mise en place is truly set - tools within reach, labels clear, backups easy to grab, and pans/utensils standardized. In FOH, tighten the drink station, condiment area, to-go setup, and side-work placement so servers aren't taking extra laps. Small fixes matter - moving cups closer to the soda machine, storing lids and bags together, or keeping the most-used items at arm level instead of down low.
3. Reduce rework by tightening handoffs - A huge productivity killer is work that has to be done twice. Examples- unclear modifiers that cause remakes, missing allergy notes, food that's run to the wrong table, or prep that doesn't match the line's actual needs. Create simple rules for handoffs - how tickets are called, how "86" items are communicated, who confirms special requests, and when servers should check the window. When handoffs are clean, you cut comps, reduce stress, and speed up service automatically.
Fixing workflow doesn't require a remodel. It requires attention to where time is leaking - and simple changes that help your team move faster without working harder.
Schedule Smarter to Match Real Demand
Scheduling is one of the biggest drivers of employee productivity, yet it's often built on habit instead of data. When schedules don't match actual demand, productivity drops on both ends. Overstaffed shifts create idle time, side-work drags on, and labor costs creep up. Understaffed shifts create stress, shortcuts, mistakes, and burnout. Smart scheduling isn't about cutting hours - it's about putting the right people in the right roles at the right times.
1. Use real sales and traffic patterns - Look at hourly sales, order volume, and ticket mix by daypart. Most restaurants have predictable spikes - lunch rush, dinner rush, delivery surges, weekend patterns. Build schedules around those realities instead of copying last week's template. For example, if your sales spike sharply between 6.00 and 8.00 p.m., that's where you need your strongest closers, extra expo support, or a floater. If late nights consistently die off, tighten those hours instead of keeping a full crew until close "just in case."
2. Staff roles, not just headcount - Ten people on the floor doesn't help if they're all in the wrong spots. Productivity improves when each shift has coverage for critical roles- expo, prep, runner, dish, shift lead, and a swing or floater who can plug gaps. A missing dishwasher or weak expo can slow everyone down, even if labor looks "fully staffed"on paper. When building schedules, ask - Who owns each function during the rush? Who backs them up if volume spikes or someone falls behind?
3. Cross-train to protect productivity - Callouts happen. Productivity crashes when only one person knows how to run a station or handle a key task. Cross-training doesn't mean everyone does everything - it means enough people can step in to keep service moving. Train servers on basic expo support, cooks on adjacent stations, and leads on multiple roles. That flexibility keeps the shift from unraveling and reduces panic decisions like pulling managers into hourly positions for entire shifts.
Smarter scheduling reduces stress, improves flow, and helps your team stay productive without feeling stretched thin.
Improve Communication Between FOH and BOH
In most restaurants, productivity doesn't break down because people aren't working. It breaks down because people aren't aligned. FOH is trying to keep guests happy, BOH is trying to keep tickets moving, and managers are stuck translating between the two. When communication is unclear, you get remakes, dead food, long waits, and a dining room that feels tense. Tight communication creates speed because it prevents the problems that slow everyone down.
1. Run short pre-shift huddles - A good huddle doesn't need speeches. Keep it to five minutes and cover only what affects the shift - 86'd items, prep risks, big reservations, promotions, and one priority (example. "Tonight our focus is clean modifiers and accurate coursing"). When FOH knows what BOH needs - and BOH knows what FOH is promising - tickets flow with fewer surprises.
2. Standardize how orders and modifiers are entered - Many "slow kitchen" problems start at the POS. Vague notes, inconsistent modifier use, and missing allergy flags create confusion and rework. Set simple rules - where to put allergy notes, when to use "on the side," how to handle substitutions, and what needs manager approval. Train servers to read the ticket back to themselves before sending it. That extra five seconds can save five minutes of remake time later.
3. Use expo as the communication bridge - Expo is where speed and accuracy meet. If expo is weak, FOH and BOH start shouting across the pass, food sits, and the kitchen loses rhythm. Make expo responsibilities clear - pacing the line, calling out delays, checking plating standards, confirming modifiers, and coordinating runners. Even in smaller restaurants, assigning an expo role during the rush - manager, lead, or strongest employee - can dramatically improve throughput.
4. Create simple "signal systems" for real-time updates - You don't need fancy tools to improve communication. Whiteboards for 86 items, printed shift notes, ticket rails organized by priority, or a quick "86 call" routine all help. If you do have a KDS, use it properly - keep bumping disciplined, use hold/fire features if available, and make sure FOH understands what the screen status actually means.
Better FOH/BOH communication doesn't just reduce conflict - it reduces rework, which is one of the fastest ways to improve productivity.
Reduce Mistakes With Better Training
One of the fastest ways to increase employee productivity is to reduce mistakes. Every mistake creates extra work - remakes, comps, long conversations with guests, time spent searching for missing items, and managers stepping in to fix preventable problems. Better training and coaching doesn't mean longer training manuals. It means teaching the right habits, reinforcing them consistently, and correcting issues early - before they become "how we do things here."
1. Build training around repeatable routines - New hires don't fail because they didn't read enough. They fail because they don't have a clear routine for the shift. Train by station and by moment - opening setup, peak service, and closing. Use short "show, do, review" cycles. For example, instead of explaining the entire POS in one sitting, teach the top 20 order patterns they'll enter most often, then add edge cases later. In BOH, teach mise en place standards and portioning first, because consistency there prevents slowdowns and quality issues during the rush.
2. Use micro-training - Productivity improves when you reinforce one small skill at a time. Spend 3-5 minutes before a shift on one topic - correct modifier entry, how to call for help during a rush, proper portioning, how to stock a station to par, or how to pace a table. Micro-training works because it's easy to repeat and doesn't feel like a lecture. Over a month, those small lessons compound into better habits and fewer avoidable errors.
3. Coach in the moment - Coaching doesn't need to be harsh, but it does need to be direct. When you see a problem, address it quickly and specifically- what happened, what the standard is, and what to do next time. Example - "That ticket needed an allergy flag. Next time, use the allergy button first, then add notes." Or "We're getting behind because plates aren't being run. When food hits the window, runners move first, sidework second." The goal is to protect the flow of the shift while teaching the behavior you want repeated.
4. Track repeat errors - If the same mistakes keep happening, it's usually a training gap or a system problem - not a one-off. Keep a simple list for a week - top comps/void reasons, most common remakes, frequent late tickets, portion problems, and recurring guest complaints. Then train and coach directly against those issues. Fixing the top three repeat errors often improves productivity more than adding more staff.
When training is simple, ongoing, and consistent, productivity becomes the default - not something you have to force every shift.
Keep Staff Motivated With Fair Systems
Productivity drops fast when employees feel like the system is unfair. If one server always gets the best section, if the same cook is stuck doing the hardest station every night, or if sidework is uneven and poorly enforced, people stop pushing. They may still show up, but effort becomes the bare minimum. The good news is you don't need complicated culture programs to fix this. You need fair systems that make hard work feel worth it - and make expectations consistent for everyone.
1. Make the work feel evenly distributed - Start with the basics- fair sections, fair station assignments, and fair sidework. Rotate the tough spots and spread out the pain points (closing duties, heavy prep, dish support). When the workload is balanced, your strongest employees don't get punished for being capable, and your newer employees learn that the standard applies to everyone. Productivity improves because people stop spending mental energy on resentment and start focusing on the shift.
2. Recognize the right behaviors - If you only praise speed, you'll get speed without accuracy - wrong orders, missed temps, skipped cleaning, and guest complaints. Recognize behaviors that protect the operation, clean modifier entry, strong ticket pacing, consistent portioning, running food without being asked, keeping stations stocked, helping dish catch up. Keep it specific and timely - "Thanks for calling out that allergy and confirming it at expo - that prevented a remake and kept us moving." That kind of recognition reinforces the actions that actually improve productivity.
3. Use simple incentives - Incentives can work, but only if they feel fair. Avoid rewards that turn coworkers into competitors or encourage cutting corners. Team-based goals usually work better, hitting a ticket-time target while maintaining guest satisfaction, reducing remakes, keeping labor on track without short-staffing, or completing closing duties on time with a clean inspection. Small rewards can be effective - first choice of shifts, a staff meal upgrade, gift cards, or a rotating "shift MVP" perk. The point is consistency, not size.
4. Protect energy and reduce burnout - People perform better when their lives aren't constantly disrupted. Too many last-minute schedule changes, clopenings, or unclear break coverage kills morale and slows the shift. Do your best to post schedules on time, limit sudden changes, and ensure someone is assigned to cover breaks. When employees trust the system, they show up with more focus - and productivity naturally follows.
Fair systems don't just keep people happy. They reduce turnover, stabilize performance, and make productivity sustainable.
Use Technology to Help Staff Move Faster
Technology won't fix a broken operation by itself - but it can remove the daily friction that slows good employees down. The right tools make expectations clearer, shifts more predictable, and managers faster at making decisions in real time. That leads to fewer mistakes, less rework, and smoother service.
When employees can quickly see their schedule, updates, and shift responsibilities, you reduce late arrivals, no-shows, and constant "What time do I work?" messages. Digital scheduling also helps you manage swap requests, time-off requests, and coverage without a messy text chain. Less confusion up front means less chaos during the shift.
1. Use time and attendance tools - Missed punches, early clock-ins, buddy punching, and unapproved overtime quietly inflate labor costs. Modern time tools help you set rules, prompt managers to approve exceptions, and keep timecards clean. When labor is controlled, you can staff confidently and avoid last-minute cuts that hurt service and productivity.
2. Reduce ticket errors POS + KDS - A big productivity win is simply getting orders right the first time. Digital workflows - when used properly - support clean modifiers, allergy flags, coursing, and pacing. KDS screens can also improve flow by showing what's behind, what's due next, and where the line is getting stuck. That means fewer "Where is that ticket?" moments and fewer fires caused by miscommunication.
3. Digitize daily routines - Opening/closing checklists, temp logs, line checks, and task assignments can become quick, trackable routines instead of paper that gets lost or skipped. When managers aren't buried in clipboards, they're more present on the floor - fixing bottlenecks, coaching in real time, and keeping the shift moving.
4. Use real-time labor and sales visibility - When you can see labor vs. sales as the day unfolds, you can make smarter calls - add support where needed, cut at the right time, or redeploy people to the station that's falling behind. The result is a more balanced shift - and a team that feels supported instead of constantly scrambling.
Improve Productivity With Altametrics
If you want a more productive restaurant, focus on the systems that drive every shift - scheduling, timekeeping, and labor visibility. Altametrics helps restaurant owners streamline workforce operations, reduce timecard headaches, and make smarter labor decisions with tools built for real-world restaurant speed. Learn how Altametrics can help your team move faster with less friction by clicking "Book a Demo" below.