Hospitality Operational Assessments
Identify the problems that are costing your business money
A hospitality business can be busy and still be underperforming. High sales do not necessarily mean high profits. Excessive staffing costs, poor purchasing, waste, inefficient kitchen processes, inconsistent standards and weak operational controls can all quietly reduce your bottom line. Create Hospitality carries out practical operational assessments designed to identify where your business is losing efficiency, profitability and consistency.
Looking beyond the obvious
When a hospitality business is struggling financially, the problem is not always a lack of customers.
You may have:
Strong sales but poor GP
High labour costs
Excessive food waste
Over-ordering
Poor stock rotation
Inconsistent portion control
Too much preparation
Inefficient kitchen layouts
Poor communication between front and back of house
Inconsistent standards
Excessive reliance on individual members of staff
Lack of procedures
Poor management controls
Create looks at the operation as a whole to establish what is actually happening and where improvements can be made.
Improving profitability
Profitability is not simply about increasing prices. Often, significant improvements can be made by controlling the costs associated with delivering the existing sales.
We can assess areas such as:
Food costs
Are you buying too much? Are products being wasted? Are portions consistent? Are expensive ingredients being used appropriately?
Labour costs
Is the business staffed according to demand? Are team members being used effectively? Is excessive preparation creating unnecessary labour?
Purchasing
Are you ordering based on actual requirements or habit? Are multiple people ordering independently? Are high-value products being overstocked?
Kitchen operations
Is the kitchen organised efficiently? Are staff spending too much time walking, searching, preparing or correcting mistakes?
GP improvement
Gross profit is one of the most important measurements in a hospitality operation. Create can assess your purchasing, recipes, portion sizes, menu pricing and operational practices to identify opportunities to improve GP. This may be achieved without compromising quality. Often, relatively small operational changes can have a significant cumulative financial effect.
Staffing problems
Recruitment is one of the biggest challenges facing hospitality businesses. Create's approach recognises that simply recruiting more people is not always the answer. If an operation requires too many staff to function effectively, the underlying systems may need to change.
We can assess:
Staffing structures
Roles and responsibilities
Kitchen and front of house organisation
Preparation requirements
Service procedures
Training requirements
Productivity
Scheduling
Recruitment needs
The objective is to help create a stable, structured and efficient operation.
Inconsistent standards
Inconsistency damages hospitality businesses. Customers expect the same quality every time they visit. If standards depend on which chef is working, which manager is on duty or how busy the business is, there is an underlying operational problem. Create can introduce practical procedures, systems and standards designed to make good performance repeatable.
Stock management
Poor stock management can directly affect profitability. Over-ordering ties up cash, increases waste and creates storage problems.Under-ordering creates availability problems and can affect customer satisfaction. Create can review purchasing and stock management procedures to help establish a more controlled approach to ordering, receiving, storing and using products.Particular attention should be given to high-value products such as meat, fish and other perishable ingredients.
Creating structure
Good hospitality businesses require structure. Clear procedures give employees a framework within which they can work effectively.
Create can help develop:
Standard operating procedures
Opening and closing procedures
Kitchen systems
Ordering procedures
Stock control systems
Food preparation systems
Cleaning schedules
Handover procedures
Training processes
Management controls
Practical recommendations, not paperwork for paperwork's sake
The purpose of an operational assessment is not to produce a lengthy report that sits in a drawer. It is to identify problems and implement practical solutions.
Create works alongside businesses to help turn recommendations into improvements that can be seen in the operation and reflected in the financial performance.
Is your business working harder than it needs to?
If you are working long hours, constantly dealing with the same problems or struggling to understand why profitability isn't where it should be, an operational assessment could identify the underlying issues.