Real-time Collaboration is a feature of the OpsAnalitica Platform, it allows multiple team members to work on a checklist at the same time as well as allowing you to start a checklist on one device and finish it on another. It is probably the most important feature for driving checklist compliance that we have released since we began the company and we are the only checklist platform that has this functionality.
Why is real-time collaboration so important for getting checklists done on time and why does anyone care? It splits up the work and reduces checklist completion time. Instead of a manager or chef being solely responsible to complete a very extensive and time-consuming checklist by themselves, the same checklist can be completed by a couple of team members simultaneously in 1/3 to half the time.
Checklist completion time is one of the biggest factors driving pencil whipping and non-completion of checklists. Who has an hour of uninterrupted time when running a restaurant? No one! If you are pressed for time, dealing the with the daily fires that all restaurant managers face, with the next shift rapidly approaching, it is easy to convince yourself that you don’t have time to do your checklists correctly. So most managers don’t.
94% of restaurant operators we surveyed stated that they didn’t think their teams were doing their checklists accurately.
Guest satisfaction, sales, and profits suffer when restaurants aren’t ready for the meal period. Checklists were developed to help managers ensure that they were ready for their guests every shift. When your checklists don’t get done the whole system breaks down and you run a worse restaurant.
Lack of follow-up is the other factor that drives checklists not being completed. Peter Drucker’s famous quote applies here, “What gets measured gets improved.”
If management at the store and area levels aren’t holding their employees accountable for doing their checklists, then they aren’t going to get done. That is what we see in the industry today. Most companies have no system in place to manage daily operations at the above store level, area managers and directors don’t get notified when people aren’t doing what they are supposed to. Therefore they can’t intervene and drive the desired behavior at the store level.
Most companies have added questions on their audits about checklists compliance, but often times it is not worth enough points to significantly affect the audit score to cause a real consequence for not following procedure. This is one of the largest fundamental flaws in how restaurant companies have organized themselves. Restaurant companies spend millions of dollars creating procedures, training materials, and on training employees but have no follow-up mechanism that ensures that the restaurants are complying and doing what they are supposed to.
Real-time visibility into restaurant operations, critical violation notifications, and checklist compliance are all things you get with the OpsAnalitica Platform, these features allow managers in all levels of the organization to see what is happening and hold their teams accountable. It is a game changer for running more consistent operations. In addition, if you use the platform to track your food safety process, the OpsAnalitica platform will be your digital recordkeeping platform helping you comply with the expected digital record-keeping mandates.
Using the OpsAnalitica platform with its real-time collaboration features will help you drive checklist compliance and run better, safer and more profitable restaurants. Our visibility and notification features will help your teams hold your managers accountable for following your procedures. This one-two punch is what is needed to run better restaurants and helps you control what you can control. If you are interested in learning more, check out Opsanalitica.com.