Helping Carl's Jr. Drive Success With Harri
We recently spoke to the VP of Operations and Training Manager / HR Rep of SDC Restaurants – a franchise running 51 Carl’s Jr restaurants throughout Southern California and expanding into Nevada. By using Harri for their hiring and scheduling solution, they have seen a marked improvement in their operations as a result of streamlining their systems, improving accuracy, and helping stay ahead of compliance concerns.
Forecasting and Scheduling Revolutionized
Harri has significantly impacted forecasting and scheduling for SDC Restaurants. Carmen explains, “It has helped us tremendously with our scheduling and forecasting, just making sure we are forecasting correctly according to the prior year and the last four weeks.”
With 51 units, the ability to log in and check any one unit is incredibly valuable. In a challenging industry with fluctuating sales, accurate forecasting and scheduling are crucial for managing labor costs.
Carmen can now easily spot overstaffed or understaffed shifts and guide district managers accordingly, “I see they’re overscheduled, or I see they have too many people on a certain day or on a certain shift.”
Some of the results SDC Restaurants has achieved using Harri:
GM overtime has been cut down by 50% (from 15 hrs per week to 7.5 hrs)
Wasted labor due to time manipulation has been completely eliminated – savings close to 0.25% – 0.5% of labor
Ghost employees eliminated by using facial ID for clock in, leading to cost savings around $20k-$25k.
For Carmen Estrada, VP of Operations at SDC Restaurants, overseeing 51 locations in San Diego and expansion into Reno, efficiency is key.
“Having everything in one system, one platform where I can follow up on anything and everything about labor is just great,” she says. In the past, navigating multiple apps and reports was time-consuming, but Harri brought it all together…
If I need to go and figure out why a unit is struggling with something, most likely I can just log in and pinpoint it really fast.”
Real-Time Oversight and Alerts
“Anytime something happens at the restaurant, whether it’s a punch edit, whether they didn’t clock in, whether it’s a violation, anything that happens, it gives you an alert.”
The real-time alerts that Harri provides means that managers and those above store level can instantly be aware of issues before they become issues – the feature ensures compliance with labor laws and allows for immediate follow-up on issues. “If we see tons of alerts, it’s a red flag…our goal is for general managers to review the alerts on a daily basis,” she adds.
By looking at a couple of stores per district each week, she can identify trends and areas needing attention. “It’s just easy for the manager and supervisors at the store level to manage and plan breaks accordingly,” ensuring compliance and efficiency.
Simplifying District Management and Training
Deysi Salazar, the Training Manager / HR Rep at SDC who has been with the company for 16 years, also sees significant benefits. As a former district manager, she utilized Harri to help her DMs with forecasting. “Helping them understand the easiest way to do their forecast, how it learns and it knows its trend and then from there, if we know something is going on like a holiday or something special we can update and it’s very easy.”
Now in training, Deysi highlights how Harri helps monitor labor costs and compliance. “I like how when you enter a matrix, you cannot schedule over that matrix, so then I can see are we scheduling to make labor because again with the sales that we have, we cannot be overspending.” The facial ID clock-in ensures accuracy, eliminating the guesswork and streamlining operations. “Nobody can randomly clock you in, clock you out, so it just takes the guesswork out of a lot of items and makes it simpler for everybody.”
Employee and Employer Accountability
The team uses the employee app – TeamLive – to see their schedules and time sheets, making it convenient and transparent. Carmen also uses the tablet – which uses the TeamHub app for clock in and clock out – at stores to quickly verify if all employees are clocked in, “It’s very easy to kind of verify that all the employees are on the clock.”
By using facial ID, there are a multitude of benefits. Not only does it mean people cannot clock in for each other, so hours worked timing is accurate, it also is used to verify changes and edits to time punches. If a manager were to change an employee’s time punch, the employee themself then can sign it off by clocking in with their facial ID. When it comes to audits, this ensures all the data is accounted for and it is clear that the employee has approved any changes.
Biggest Benefits Summed Up
For Carmen, the most important takeaway is having everything in one platform. “In the past…I would have to click on, go to many different apps or many different reports to get the information…and the one thing that I like the most is having everything in one place.” This unified approach allows her and her team to manage labor efficiently and effectively, leading to better outcomes for Carl’s Jr.
Having oversight of all the stores means that, as an above store manager, Carmen can assist district managers by noticing patterns and trends and help them improve.
“If I see the same store struggling, and I notice that something is not working or the district manager is not able to help or coach, then I can go in and say “Hey, I see the same store struggling. This is what I see: they’re overscheduled. I see they have too many people on a certain day or on a certain shift. So, it’s not balanced.” and so the district manager realizes the issue, and then can go back and help that general manager.”
Want to learn more about how Harri can help you cut costs and revolutionise your operations?
