Recent hikes in the National Minimum Wage have exacerbated an already elevated salary bill. On top of unprecedented energy costs rises and double digit food inflation – pre-pandemic business models are being up-ended. Prices have proved more elastic than anyone expected - but with consumers at peak spending capacity, visit frequency and average order values are already creaking under the strain. 

So, if price rises are off the table (no pun intended) - how can hospitality leaders protect their P&L? 

Full disclosure: there is no silver bullet. 

However, savvy operators are taking a multi-pronged approach to mitigate labour costs – and even seeing a profitability boost. 

Employee experience and labour management expert Luke Fryer from Harri walked the Atlantic Club through the ‘Survive and Thrive the NMW Rise’ playbook:

1. Precise demand forecasting - using AI + human insight 

2. Optimise labour deployment with intelligent scheduling

3. Minimise exceptions such as overtime, missed breaks

4. Eliminate time ‘theft’ / biometric check in 

5. Improve retention (17% of labour costs are ‘unproductive’, based on percentage leaving in first 90 days of employment)

The impact on the bottom line? Operators are seeing 300bps + improvement in EBITDA performance. That’s not a typo – check out the slide deck here, with data from both UK and US. 

For more details on how you can apply the Playbook to your business get in touch with the team  at harri.com.