In recent years businesses across many different industries have felt the pressure as prices rise, this has led to businesses seeking ways to reduce operating costs to survive as a business. Luckily there are many ways to reduce business operating costs, and hospitality is no exception.
Use Energy Efficient Appliances And Lighting
If it has been a while since you renovated your hospitality business premises you may have appliances and lighting that use unnecessary amounts of electricity to function. You should start by figuring out the appliances that use the most energy, these are normally larger appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, driers and cooking equipment. You can buy an energy usage monitor so you can plug your appliances in one by one to find out how much energy they use. You can then look online and find out how much electricity newer environmentally friendly versions of the same appliance use, from this you can determine how much energy you will be saving from investing in appliances that use less energy to do the same job. Most technology retailer websites will have energy usage information which will help you pick out technology that will save you money in the long run. If you are planning extensive changes to your premises you should consider hiring a fit-out company to help ensure the job gets done right.
Making changes to the lighting within your hospitality business can also help you cut down costs, you should consider:
- Switching Your Light Bulbs To Low-Energy Bulbs: If you have not switched your lightbulbs over to low-energy bulbs you could be using more electricity than you need to. You must consider switching your lighting over to LED light bulbs. They use a small fraction of the electricity needed to power a fluorescent light bulb, not to mention the fact that LED bulbs can last up to 50 times longer than conventional light bulbs, reducing your maintenance costs.
- Natural Light: Another way you can cut down on your electricity bills is to maximise the amount of natural light that enters your premises instead of turning on the artificial lights. If your windows are currently blocked or there is some other reason why sufficient natural light is not available within your premises you should consider taking action.
- Install Lighting Motion Sensors: Installing sensors that automatically turn off the lights when they stop detecting motion can help reduce the amount of time lights are left on unnecessarily, which can reduce the amount of electricity you use which should lower your energy bill.
Optimise Labour Scheduling And Staff Training
Labour cost is often one of the largest costs businesses have to shell out. You should look into ensuring that your staff rota is as effective as possible, you want to ensure that your staffing levels are not too high or too low. If you have more staff than needed at times you could be spending more money than you need to by paying the staff members to be there at that time. On the other hand, having too few staff can lead to slower service and a worse experience for your customers; this can lead to potential customers choosing to give their business to your rivals.
Managing employees can be difficult, particularly when employees are unable to go to work due to illness or another reason. As a result, other employees who are working that day are likely to be negatively affected as they may have a higher workload. To maximise efficiency and keep costs down you could consider cross-training your employees in the various roles within your business, this way if staff members are off for any reason, other staff members can ensure that tasks are completed.
Improve The Employee Onboarding Experience
Employee turnover within the hospitality industry is higher than in most other industries, meaning hospitality businesses usually have higher recruitment and onboarding costs. You can reduce these costs by creating a standardised onboarding process. This can help you welcome new employees and ensure that they understand what is expected of them. Checklists are a great tool to use to achieve this, in the days leading up to an employee’s first day you can send them a checklist detailing things such as the dress code and information about where the employee should arrive and when they should arrive on their first day.
During your employee’s first day, you can also use checklists to ensure that you have gone over important information such as safety information or any other policies your business has. You can also use checklists to track what training you have given to each employee, this can help you cross-train employees.
Conclusion
Reducing business costs has become a necessity for many businesses. Luckily there are plenty of ways to reduce business costs.