How Farmer J maximised revenue over key trading periods with flexible staff.
Farmer J restaurants serve honest food, that rolls with the seasons. All their food is mindfully sourced (from as many high-welfare British farms as possible), bursting with flavour and most importantly, cooked from scratch on-site. Learn more about Farmer J.
Challenge
The pandemic affected city footfall and made restaurant trade unpredictable. The new hybrid working model and an increase in office attendance, saw Farmer J’s restaurants busier than ever. Farmer J faced a conflict. Should they put pressure on their internal teams to meet high lunchtime demand, or should they hire more internal staff? Hiring more staff would result in fewer hours for long-term workers. They needed to figure out how to be more cost effective, work more efficiently, and manage their team’s workload during peak periods.
Their main challenges were:
- Erratic trade days due to the change in city footfall. Having the ability to fluctuate their staffing rotas daily in line with demand.
- Maximising efficiency and costs over key trading periods. Maintaining a fully staffed rota for the lunchtime rush, whilst not over hiring and diluting the hours of long-term workers.
- Finding flexible runners, bussers, restocking staff, dishwashers, kitchen porters, and retail staff available for four-hour lunch shifts.
How did Coople help?
By accessing Coople’s pool of over 400,000 workers, Farmer J fulfilled high demand on days where footfall in the city was elevated, without overcommitting to internal hires. They avoided additional strain on their HR team and their long-term workers maintained their preferred schedule of hours. Farmer J hired flexible staff for four-hour shifts to improve their efficiency during busy lunch time peaks.
As a result of the support received from Coople’s temporary staff, Farmer J were able to open two new sites, increasing to 10 restaurants in London. As they grew, they didn’t have to worry about sourcing staff or overstretching their core team. They relied on Coople to consistently source suitably skilled hospitality and retail workers to alleviate the pressure from erratic trade days. Farmer J maximised their revenue with the ability to fluctuate their staffing rotas in line with demand. They reduced labour costs during quieter times, but they had the control to quickly ramp up again for the busier Spring/Summer season when city footfall was higher.
Flexible staff solved erratic trading days.
Improved efficiency during peak demand.
Farmer J sourced flexible hospitality and retails workers through CoopleFlex. This gave them control to fluctuate their staffing rotas daily to meet demand on key trading days. As a result, Farmer J were always fully staffed for busy times to maximise efficiency for their lunchtime shifts but avoided excess labour costs during quieter times. If you have similar staffing challenges and want to learn more about how Coople can help you, get in touch today.
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