Labor Standards
What is a Labor Standard?
A labor standard is at its simplest definition, the amount of time required to complete a task or set of tasks to an agreed upon outcome. This could be the number of rooms or credits a housekeeper should complete in a shift to meet the expectations set by the property, or the number of covers a server should typically handle in a meal period while still giving the level of service agreed to for that restaurant.
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- None – Straight 8 hours (or whatever the work rule calls for) per day. This standard is commonly used for support positions such as accounting and human resources where shifts are not dependent on guest demand. Standards are based on total hours needed for the day.
- Minutes per Unit – Used in restaurants to designate how many minutes a server actually devotes to a cover (guest). Also used for kitchen work.
- Hours per Unit – A different way to look at the same information as above.
- Units per Hour – Could also be used for housekeeping rooms or even restaurant covers.
- Units per Shift – Used frequently in Housekeeping to allot room attendant work. For instance, 16 credits per shift or 15 rooms per shift.
Volume Ranges – Ranges can also be used, especially in banquet situations, to allocate a fixed number of hours for ranges of volumes. For instance: 1-25 covers would take 8 hours of cook time while 26 - 50 covers might take an additional 4 hours or 12 hours total. This is a good method when increases in volume do not necessarily need identical increases in labor.
Info Important Info icon Important Infofalse Note: As a manager or supervisor, it is very important for you to communicate immediately with the system administrator if any operating changes take place in your department. This might be simply different operating hours for a restaurant, or it might be much more complex, such as a remodel of guest rooms which in turn necessitates revised cleaning procedures resulting in a totally new time standard. If changes are not communicated and discussed, the operations will have less than desirable information on the daily and weekly reports.