HS: What is Ideal Labor?

Note: This article refers to data that is displayed for customers using the HotSchedules add-on feature called Labor Optimization (formerly Activity Based Forecasting). 

HotSchedules managers using Labor Optimization generate labor based on their forecast projections and labor rules, which are configured by their company administrators in the Above Store Console. Depending on the settings used by the company, house shifts or a recommendation of hours can be generated from the forecast each week to schedule. Essentially it follows the following process:

1. Store level managers generate their forecast projections on the Forecasting tab in their HotSchedules site. They choose multiple weeks based on their trends, and the sales and labor drivers (guest counts, table counts, etc) that we received for those weeks are averaged to generate the projections. See this article for more details.
2. Forecasting labor rules are generated and managed in the Above Store Console. Generally, administrators on the account will have this access. They configure these rules to apply to the projections generated by the store level managers in Step 1. For example, a labor rule may say that for every 4 tables projected, you need 1 server scheduled.
3. Labor Rules are applied to the forecast projections to generate Ideal Labor. Ideal labor reflects the amount of labor that would be scheduled if the labor rules were followed exactly. It does not take shift restriction settings into consideration (like the maximum/minimum length of scheduled shifts).

For example, let's say your store follows a labor rule that states that for every 4 tables projected, you need 1 server scheduled. You are projecting to have 8 tables, so the ideal labor calculation would be 2 servers scheduled.

Ideal Labor is visible on the Forecasting tab in HotSchedules. The numbers generated for each job code that is forecasted for will reflect the ideal labor calculations. You can double click each number to see how it was calculated.

Ideal Labor can also be viewed by generating the Labor Card report. This information will match what you see on the Forecasting page for the day and job code(s) selected.