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10 Effective Tips to Improve Employee Productivity

10 Effective Tips to Improve Employee Productivity

```html 10 Effective Tips to Improve Employee Productivity
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10 Effective Tips to Improve Employee Productivity

Improve your team's efficiency and help them get more done during the workday by focusing on enhancing employee productivity. Small changes now can have significant benefits for your business.

How to Improve Employee Productivity

1) Address the Work Environment

Managers often overlook the influence of the work environment on employee productivity. Make the workspace more efficient with these suggestions:

  • Provide easy access to all parts of the space
  • Break up open spaces
  • Keep the workspace neat and tidy
  • Establish areas for socialization
  • Give employees a variety of work surfaces and seating options
  • Set aside quiet areas for focus
  • Create collaboration spaces
  • Change the paint color
  • Provide plenty of light
  • Include natural elements in the decor

2) Establish Quiet Hours

If you don't have space for a dedicated quiet area, consider establishing quiet hours for focused work without interruptions. Set these hours based on your team's peak productivity times.

3) Set Daily Goals

Encourage your team to set daily goals and strive to complete them before the day's end. This helps teammates focus and jump right into work each morning.

4) Avoid Multitasking

Multitasking can significantly reduce employee productivity. Dedicate full attention to one task at a time to improve efficiency and work quality.

5) Emphasize Organization

Some employees may struggle with organization. Emphasizing the importance of keeping a tidy work environment can lead to improved productivity.

6) Allow Your Employees to Wear Headphones

Headphones can help employees block out distractions in a conducive work environment for improved focus and productivity.

7) Hire a Diverse Team

Hiring a diverse team can lead to enhanced problem-solving, a broader customer base, and improved employee productivity.

8) Use the Right Tools

Provide essential tools such as scheduling software, task management software, and appropriate equipment to boost productivity.

9) Work on Challenging Tasks in the Morning

Encourage your team to tackle the most challenging tasks when they are most alert and energetic, usually in the morning.

10) Perfect the Way You Run Meetings

Keep meetings short and focused with a clear agenda and objectives to minimize disruptions and maintain productivity.

Build Employee Productivity Gradually

To improve and maintain productivity, make gradual changes, adopting one or two tips at a time until they become habits.

Take Employee Productivity to the Next Level

Streamline your business's scheduling, time tracking, and task management with the Sling app. It helps organize and optimize your workforce for enhanced productivity.

Download the Sling app for free and take the first step toward true employee productivity.

© 2023 Sling, Inc. All rights reserved. Designed in Iceland. Made around the world.

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  • Jordan Van Maanen
Maximizing Business Efficiency with Sling by Toast and the Importance of Organizational Charts

Maximizing Business Efficiency with Sling by Toast and the Importance of Organizational Charts

[ Discover Sling by Toast and the Importance of Organizational Charts

Welcome to Sling by Toast!

Discover the powerful benefits of Sling, now rebranded as Sling by Toast, to optimize your business operations.

About Sling by Toast

Sling offers an integrated suite of tools with features that include powerful and intuitive scheduling, comprehensive time-tracking, dynamic reporting, time-saving payroll processing, and much more. Whether you're managing multiple work locations or simply looking to streamline communication within your team, Sling has you covered.

Sling by Toast Logo

Key Features of Sling

  • Optimize Labor Costs: Efficient scheduling to keep labor costs in check.
  • Task Management: Assign and delegate tasks per shift or employee.
  • Time Clock: Accurately track employee work time from anywhere.
  • Multi-location Scheduling: Seamless scheduling and communication across locations.
  • Effective Communication: Stay connected with messaging, newsfeeds, and more.
  • Integrations: Manage all your work from a single, easy-to-use platform.

The Importance of Organizational Charts

An organizational chart is a crucial tool for any business. It visually represents the hierarchy within an organization, showcasing the reporting structure and relationship dynamics among team members. This helps both new and long-time employees understand their place within the company and how their role fits into the bigger picture.

Creating an organizational chart comes with several benefits:

  • Provides insight into the structure of ownership and upper management.
  • Clarifies work responsibilities and reporting relationships.
  • Assists in strategic planning and managing growth or change.
  • Improves communication across the organization.
  • Acts as an employee directory and offers a visual track for career advancement.

Tips for Creating an Effective Organizational Chart

  • Format the chart to fit on one page whenever possible.
  • Group employees with the same title in one box to save space.
  • Maintain consistency in box size and spacing for clarity.
  • List titles before names to make role transitions easier.
  • Represent assistants as side bars to distinguish their roles.
  • Show managers with multiple titles in separate boxes for clarity.

Simplify Management with Sling

Besides offering easy-to-create organizational charts, Sling takes workforce management to the next level. The platform's comprehensive tools help streamline scheduling, track labor costs, enhance team communication, and much more.

Experience the benefits of Sling's advanced features designed to optimize your business operations efficiently.

Get Started with Sling Today

© 2023 Sling, Inc. All rights reserved. Designed in Iceland. Made around the world.

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  • Jordan Van Maanen
Reduce Idle Time in Your Business with Sling by Toast

Reduce Idle Time in Your Business with Sling by Toast

[ ```html Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Website for SEO

Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Website for SEO

Introduction

SEO is a critical component of digital marketing, helping websites improve their visibility on search engines like Google. By implementing effective SEO strategies, you can enhance your website's online presence and attract more organic traffic.

Understanding SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It involves various techniques and practices aimed at improving your website's ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). Higher rankings lead to increased visibility and, consequently, more visitors to your site.

Effective SEO Strategies

Keyword Research

Conducting thorough keyword research is the foundation of any successful SEO campaign. Identify relevant keywords that your target audience is searching for and incorporate them into your content strategically.

On-Page Optimization

On-page optimization involves optimizing individual webpages to rank higher on SERPs. This includes optimizing meta tags, headings, content, and images. Ensure your pages are well-structured and provide valuable information to your visitors.

Quality Content

Creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content is crucial for SEO. Search engines reward websites that offer valuable content by ranking them higher. Focus on producing content that answers your audience's questions and provides solutions to their problems.

Link Building

Link building is the process of acquiring backlinks from other websites. Backlinks act as endorsements, signaling to search engines that your website is credible and trustworthy. Develop a robust link-building strategy to improve your site's authority.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO focuses on enhancing your website's technical aspects, such as site speed, mobile-friendliness, and crawlability. Ensure your website is easy to navigate and provides a seamless user experience across all devices.

Conclusion

Optimizing your website for search engines is an ongoing process. By consistently applying effective SEO strategies, you can improve your site's ranking, attract more organic traffic, and achieve your digital marketing goals. Start implementing these techniques today to boost your online presence and drive success.

© 2023 Ultimate SEO Guide. All rights reserved.

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  • Jordan Van Maanen
Predictive Scheduling Laws: What Every Business Needs to Know

Predictive Scheduling Laws: What Every Business Needs to Know

[
Sling by Toast

Sling is now Sling by Toast! Learn more

Predictive Scheduling Laws: What Every Business Needs to Know

Cities and states across the country are gradually implementing predictive scheduling laws. While it may sound futuristic, these regulations significantly impact businesses nationwide, regardless of size or industry.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explain what predictive scheduling entails, its necessity, and the pros and cons it brings to your business. Learn how to comply with predictive scheduling laws in your area effectively.

What is Predictive Scheduling?

Predictive scheduling, also known as predictable scheduling, consists of laws and regulations designed to protect employees from unpredictable and inconvenient labor practices.

San Francisco pioneered predictive scheduling to assist employees in the foodservice, retail, and hospitality sectors. Since then, its adoption has spread to various other business types, cities, and states.

Historically, employees like baristas, servers, and food runners experienced unpredictable “just-in-time” and “on-call” scheduling practices, making life planning challenging. Predictive scheduling laws aim to eliminate such practices, thereby improving employees' work-life balance.

Why is Predictive Scheduling Necessary?

Laws governing predictive scheduling help protect employees from several unfair labor practices, including:

  • Failing to reasonably accommodate an employee’s request for time off or a flexible schedule
  • Scheduling employees to close late and open early the next day (a.k.a. “clopening”)
  • Transferring employees from other locations to fill shifts rather than scheduling existing employees
  • Sending employees home before they complete their full shift
  • Amending finalized and posted schedules at short notice
  • Requiring employees to call in on the day they work to confirm if they’re needed
  • Last-minute shift cancellations
  • Not providing new hires with an estimated hours they will work
  • Hiring new employees instead of giving more hours to willing part-time workers
  • Penalizing employees who request schedule changes, decline to cover shifts, or refuse last-minute shifts

Which Cities and States Have Predictive Scheduling Laws?

Several cities and states have already enacted predictive scheduling laws, including:

  • Ohio (Senate Bill 331)
  • Oregon (Fair Workweek Act)
  • Washington D.C. (Hours and Scheduling Stability Act of 2015)
  • Seattle (Secure Scheduling Ordinance)
  • New York (Fair Workweek)
  • New Hampshire (Senate Bill 416)
  • San Jose, California (Opportunity to Work Ordinance)
  • Emeryville, California (Fair Workweek Ordinance)
  • San Francisco, California (Retail Employee Rights Ordinance)

Besides these, twelve other states are considering similar predictive scheduling laws: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Rhode Island.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Predictive Scheduling for Your Business

Currently, predictive scheduling laws primarily affect the foodservice, hospitality, and retail industries but may expand to other sectors. Let’s explore the potential disadvantages and advantages of these laws for your business.

Disadvantages

  • May necessitate converting part-time employees to full-time positions
  • Requires businesses to forecast staffing needs well in advance
  • Potential for "predictability pay" as a penalty for unexpected staffing changes
  • Scheduling changes could impact Obamacare status

Advantages

  • Enhances employee satisfaction and engagement, improving customer service and job performance
  • Promotes the physical and mental well-being of staff
  • Provides a competitive edge in hiring due to better scheduling practices
  • Reduces absenteeism and improves attendance
  • Facilitates easier gap coverage when employees are absent
  • Boosts employee retention through flexible scheduling

Scheduling Software Simplifies Predictive Scheduling

If predictive scheduling impacts your business, you need robust scheduling software like Sling. Sling's suite of tools makes compliance with predictive scheduling regulations straightforward.

Sling scheduling feature

With Sling, you can create complex team schedules, including rotating, overlapping, and night shifts, in just minutes. Scheduling is a breeze, and employees are promptly notified of their schedules.

Sling also forecasts staffing needs, giving employees ample notice. Its AI capabilities alert you to potential scheduling conflicts, helping you finalize schedules efficiently and effectively.

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  • Jordan Van Maanen
10 Common Employee Scheduling Issues and How to Easily Solve Them

10 Common Employee Scheduling Issues and How to Easily Solve Them

[ ```html Solving Common Employee Scheduling Issues with Sling by Toast

Sling is now Sling by Toast!

10 Common Employee Scheduling Issues and How to Easily Solve Them

One of the biggest causes of job dissatisfaction — for managers and team members alike — is employee scheduling issues. In fact, this variable is consistently near the top of the list of reasons why employees quit their jobs.

In this article, the management experts at Sling identify the 10 most common employee scheduling problems and show you how to solve them easily with the right tools.

1. Shift Swapping

Allowing your team members to manage their own schedules (to a certain degree) can take a huge weight off your shoulders, but it can also lead to chaos and confusion.

The best workforce management apps, like Sling, make it easy for your employees to swap shifts on a shared, cloud-based schedule that everyone can see. Sling will even send reminders about upcoming shifts so your team knows who works when.

2. Shortage of Employees

When your business is understaffed, productivity declines. Ultimately, your customers suffer the most when there aren’t enough employees to go around.

The most obvious solution is to interview and hire new team members. That, however, is not always conducive to staying within your labor budget.

A better way to solve this scheduling issue is to close the staffing gaps by organizing your employees more effectively. Workforce optimization software, like Sling, can make this dream a reality.

3. Overscheduling

Overscheduling — such as the “clopen” shift (i.e., close and open) — can take a real toll on your employees.

The ideal is to give your team members at least 12 hours off between shifts, but that restriction can make creating an effective schedule much more difficult.

Instead of trying to keep track of when every employee has worked and how much time off they need, use scheduling software like Sling to manage all the numbers. Sling will notify you if you overschedule an employee so you can make changes before finalizing and publishing the timetable.

4. Disorganization

Staying organized is a challenge for everyone, but especially for busy managers.

What’s the solution? Employee management software. These apps make it much easier to keep your work life organized so you don’t find yourself in a state of disarray.

Sling, for example, has built-in task management tools so you can assign jobs, set deadlines, and monitor progress from the comfort of your computer, tablet, or smartphone.

5. No Call, No Show Employees

When an employee doesn’t report for a scheduled shift and doesn’t give you advanced warning (i.e., no call, no show), it can throw your entire workday — and the workday of your team — into disorder.

You can prevent no call, no shows from occurring and mitigate other scheduling problems by incorporating the right business software into your management routine.

Apps like Sling can even make it easier to contact your backup employees so you don’t waste hours trying to find someone to work for a team member who didn’t show.

6. Employee Turnover

It’s nearly impossible to eliminate employee turnover. You can work to keep your team engaged and prevent employees from becoming disgruntled, but you can never really stop someone from leaving.

Maintaining a consistent schedule that caters to everyone’s needs (as much as possible) goes a long way toward reducing employee turnover and improving work performance in your team.

7. Vacations and Time Off

Requested vacations and time off are a necessary part of preserving a healthy work/life balance. They can, however, make scheduling more difficult on you.

The best solution to this age-old scheduling issue is to let a computer do the work of monitoring vacation and time-off requests.

Apps like Sling will even notify you if you schedule an employee during their desired time away so you don’t create an emergency situation.

8. Lack of Availability

Employee availability forms can help you see the big picture, but sometimes there’s no obvious solution to preventing conflicts within your schedule.

That’s where employee management software like Sling really shines. Sling can help you find just the right team member for any shift.

9. Illness

Illness is inevitable, and there’s no way to plan for it. But you can create a schedule to help prevent sick employees from having a negative impact on your business.

The ease of apps like Sling means that you can incorporate an emergency, or backup list into your regular schedule so that finding a replacement is quick and easy.

10. Overtime

Overtime may be necessary now and then, but too much of it can affect employee morale and cut into your profits.

Keep overtime at a bare minimum by monitoring when and how much your employees work with a suite of scheduling tools such as Sling. Set limits on maximum work hours so no employee strays into overtime territory without your knowledge and permission.

This will keep your labor costs under control and your bottom line in the black.

Software is the Key to Solving Scheduling Issues

Whether you’re struggling with excessive shift swapping, disorganization, or something else entirely, software like Sling is the key to solving these scheduling issues.

No matter the size of your business, Sling helps you build your team’s work schedules in minutes rather than hours.

With Sling’s powerful suite of tools, you can:

  • Manage time off
  • Coordinate availability
  • Organize shift trade requests
  • Stay on (or under) budget
  • Reduce absenteeism
  • Minimize late arrivals
  • Allow your employees to sign up for available shifts
  • Consolidate and streamline internal communication
  • Control labor costs
  • Simplify time tracking and payroll
  • And much more...

The built-in artificial intelligence will even notify you of overlapping shifts, double bookings, and other mistakes in your schedule.

Sling truly is an all-in-one, turnkey solution for your employee scheduling issues. Right now, you can get everything you need to schedule employees and handle internal communication for an unlimited number of users and locations for free by creating an account on our website.

And for more resources to help you manage your business better, organize and schedule your team, and track and calculate labor costs, visit GetSling.com today.

This content is for informational purposes and is not intended as legal, tax, HR, or any other professional advice. Please contact an attorney or other professional for specific advice.

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  • Jordan Van Maanen
Maximize Your Restaurant's Profits: Key Ratios and How to Use Them

Maximize Your Restaurant's Profits: Key Ratios and How to Use Them

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Sling by Toast

Restaurant Ratios and How to Use Them to Increase Profitability

Curious about what’s going on “under the hood” of your restaurant and want to make your business more profitable? Learn how to use restaurant ratios.

In this article, we discuss some of the key performance indicators that all restaurant managers should know, how to calculate these important restaurant ratios, and what to do with the numbers when you’re done.

Table of Contents

What are Restaurant Ratios?

Checking Restaurant Ratios

Restaurant ratios are key performance indicators (KPIs) that provide insight into everything from profit and loss to average customer spending and menu item profitability.

For instance, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) can help you see how much it costs to get a new customer in the door. But CAC may be less important than fundamental restaurant ratios such as prime cost, labor cost, and cost of goods sold.

Important Restaurant Ratios to Know

1) Cost of Goods Sold Percentage

Server Serving Food at a Restaurant

To calculate the cost of goods sold (CoGS) percentage, first tally the value of your inventory, new inventory purchased, and ending inventory.

Use the formula:
CoGS = (Beginning Inventory + Purchased Inventory) - Ending Inventory
For example,
CoGS = ($2,000 + $9,000) - $1,000
CoGS = $10,000

Divide CoGS by total sales for a snapshot of financial health.

2) Labor Cost Percentage

Calculate labor cost percentage using:
Labor Cost Percentage = (Total Labor Cost / Total Income) x 100
For example,
Labor Cost Percentage = ($12,500 / $42,000) x 100
Labor Cost Percentage = 29.7%

3) Food Cost Percentage

Burgers at a Restaurant

Calculate food cost percentage using:
Food Cost Percentage = (CoGS / Total Income) x 100
For example,
Food Cost Percentage = ($10,000 / $42,000) x 100
Food Cost Percentage = 24%

4) Prime Cost Percentage

Prime cost percentage gives insight into food and labor costs. Use the formula:
Prime Cost Percentage = ((CoGS + Total Labor Cost) / Total Income) x 100
For example,
Prime Cost Percentage = (($10,000 + $12,500) / $42,000) x 100
Prime Cost Percentage = 54%

5) Overhead Restaurant Ratios

To calculate overhead percentage and rate:
Overhead Percentage = (Overhead Costs / Total Income) x 100
For example,
Overhead Percentage = ($9,000 / $42,000) x 100
Overhead Percentage = 21%
Overhead Rate = Overhead Costs / Total Number Of Hours Open
For example,
Overhead Rate = $9,000 / 340
Overhead Rate = $26.47

Control Labor Cost Restaurant Ratios with Sling

Control Labor Cost Restaurant Ratios

Labor costs can be one of the largest expenses. Sling helps manage this with its labor costs feature, allowing you to set wages and see shift costs while scheduling.

Visit GetSling.com for more resources and to start managing your labor costs efficiently.

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  • Jordan Van Maanen