Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

The Implications Of Worker Behavior For Staffing Decisions: Empirical Evidence And Best Practices, Tom Tan, Serguei Netessine

IT & Operations Management Research

Employees in service organizations such as restaurants are humans, and their productivity is often heterogeneous due to innate abilities, motivation, and environmental factors. However, none of these considerations are taken into account by typical workforce planning models and software packages. In this paper we describe the results of a study on how workers respond to workload, an integral work environment factor, and we provide operational insights to improve efficiency and strengthen restaurant financials. We study a comprehensive data set from a family-style restaurant chain to clarify how workload, which is defined as the number of tables or diners that a …