Tool 07 · Chapter 3 — Hidden Costs of Labor

Sales-per-Labor-Hour.

SPLH is the single number sophisticated operators schedule against. Plug in a shift, a day, or a week and see where you land on the band — under-scheduled (lost sales) or over-scheduled (lost margin).

The numbers

For a shift, a day, or a week — just keep the units consistent.

Used to set the benchmark band on the right.
$
Pre-tax sales for the period.
hrs
All clocked hours for the period (BOH + FOH + management).
$
Wages only. Used to calc Labor % and Cost-per-Labor-Hour.
Sales per labor hour
—
every clocked hour produced this much in sales
—

Where you land for your concept

Bands shift by industry. The marker is your SPLH on the typical range.

Under-scheduled Healthy Over-staffed
Labor %
—
Cost / Labor Hour
—
Productivity Gap
—
From the book — chapter 3 "Labor % is a lagging indicator. SPLH is a leading one. The operator who schedules by SPLH targets — and adjusts the schedule when the daypart misses — finds 4 to 8 points of margin nobody else even sees."

Want the SPLH-by-daypart spreadsheet?

Pre-built tabs for breakfast / lunch / dinner / weekend. Ships in the launch kit.