Pizza Today -April2023 - 49

Take a close look at the specific
tasks the staff perform before service
begins and after the last pie goes out.
" The most important thing is understanding
how much time it really takes
to open and close, " says Juan Pablo
Lopez, consulting director for Profitality.
When the Miami, Florida-based
industrial engineering consulting service
performs operational studies with
its clients, the experts collect data on
how many hours and how many crew
members it takes to do every activity
in the restaurant, from making pizza
to cleaning to opening and closing.
The equipment plays a role in the
time it takes to perform tasks. The
morning crew typically turns on the
oven, Lopez says, and some deck
ovens can take up to two hours to
reach the proper temperature. For
safety, at least two people work together,
so use that time to do as much prep
work as possible. The rest of the work
can be done later, after the lunch rush.
One task that can be postponed is
ingredient prep. " If you need to slice
and pan tomatoes, all those things
happen before the guests show up, but
it doesn't have to happen that morning, "
Lopez says. " You can do it at two
p.m., and the tomatoes could be used
the next morning. "
At Mattenga's Pizza, with six
locations in the San Antonio,
Texas area, the evening crew had
a long list of closing tasks. That
changed when workers started calling
in sick, and a checklist designed for
multiple people had to be completed
by one person. So the closing procedures
were reduced to five or six
important tasks, and everything else
scheduled for various times the next
day. " I am more pro keeping the team
productive the whole shift and not
dumping it all on the evening shift, "
says co-founder Hengam Stanfield.
" We always want to even out the
load. "
Otherwise, Stanfield says, workers
try to avoid being scheduled for busy
night shifts. By limiting the closing
tasks to sweeping, restocking the line
and other important tasks, workers
can be out in an hour. If there are five
workers, the manager will release one
or two early. " We'll say, 'Why don't
you help out the closing team and put
two loads of dishes in the dishwasher
and then I'm sending you home,' " she
says. " Everybody wants to help out. "
Mattenga's has standards and expectations
for each task, and team members
are trained on these. Stanfield
keeps track of labor costs through the
restaurants' scheduling software, and
messages managers if they are running
up high labor costs and suggests they
send someone home. During Monday
meetings, managers review all the
clock in/clock out times and discuss
what to do when a location takes an
hour and half instead of an hour to
close.
Technology can help streamline
the opening and closing procedures.
At Nina + Rafi in Atlanta, workers
download an app, Jolt Checklist, onto
their phones, and management puts
the opening and closing checklist on
the app. " Employees will take pictures,
check off or give typed responses to
checklists that are programmed to
only be live during certain times of
the day, " says Jeremy Gatto, director
of operations at Nina + Rafi. " This not
only keeps them on task but allows us
to run restaurants remotely as e-mails
of completed checklists get sent to my
phone. "
Also, Gatto says, the schedule staggers
employees' in and out times, and
kitchen employees are cross trained on
all tasks so everyone can help when
needed.
Some restaurants have shortened
their workday, and that helps alleviate
the labor shortages. Bird Pizzeria in
Charlotte, N.C. is open from 4 p.m. to
8 p.m., and stops serving pizza when
the kitchen runs out of dough. " We
started that way because we didn't
have any employees, " says Nkem
Thompson, who opened the eatery
with her husband Kerrel in December
2021. " We can't be here all day. We
just sort of did what we could do. "
The short days work well for the
five-member crew, which includes
the owners. " We are being mindful
of what is going to work to create
the best work environment for staff, "
Thompson says. " We make pizza, but
we are in the business of managing
people. We can't do anything if the
staff doesn't feel well or their knees
hurt. "
The first thing they do in the morning
is make boxes, and only a few of those
because the small kitchen has limited
space. The last thing they do at closing is
mop the floor. Tuesdays and Thursdays
are dough making days. " Every week is
the same, " Thompson says.
In pizzerias where the owners
are not working alongside the
crew, management must communicate
the opening and closing
procedures. Videos and other online
tools can help, especially since workers
have varying schedules. " People
have one or two jobs, they're going to
school, and they're driving for Uber
at the same time, " says William H.
Bender, whose W.H. Bender & Associates
consultancy is based in San Jose,
California. " Have something cloud
based or digital based so they can
watch at one o'clock in the morning. "
In-person meetings are also helpful.
" Have a pre-shift briefing five to
10 minutes before the shift to psyche
up the team, " Bender says. " Talk about
what's going on that day, whether you
have some big orders, and give one on
one time. " The goal is for the whole
restaurant to be ready 10 minutes
before the place opens.
At the end of the day, do a final
walkthrough to verify everything is
clean and food is safely stored. " You
want to leave a restaurant the way you
want to find it when you come in the
morning, " Bender says, " not a jumbled
mess. "
NORA CALEY is a freelance writer who
covers small business, finance and lifestyle
topics.
Pizza Today -April2023

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