Food-Service-Manual-for-Health-Care-Institutions

Food Service Manual for Health Care Institutions
162
percent of productive hours paid to be excessive and in need of attention. Most organizations
establish an overtime percentage based on historical data and environmental information
before completing the annual operating budget. In an effort to lower the amount of overtime,
the number of part-time or occasional (on-call) employees can be increased. To determine the
number of FTEs required to cover overtime, the following formula is used:
For example,
Total FTEs × overtime percentage = number of FTEs for overtime
10.5 FTEs × 1 percent overtime = 0.11 FTE
Preparation for Outside Consultants
Effective control of labor costs requires a productivity measurement system to facilitate decision
making. Many health care organizations are using outside consultants who attempt to generate
productivity standards for the food service department. To prepare for outside consultants, it is
incumbent on food service directors to identify and establish productivity measurements for their
departments. Having departmental statistics available for outside consultants allows the food
service manager to be in control of productivity demands. Exhibit 6.3 shows a productivity form
that can be used to track internal productivity. This type of internal monitoring provides the food
service manager with information for consultants or support documentation for staff or service
changes.
Scheduling Work in a Food Service Department
Because health care institutions require round-the-clock staffing, the food service director must
make sure that the jobs in his or her department are filled at the appropriate times in each 24hour
period. Scheduling is having an adequate number of workers on duty to perform work
that needs to be accomplished. Therefore, scheduling the workweek and specific hours each
employee must be on duty is a key step in achieving efficiency in the use of labor dollars while
meeting the institution’s service objectives.
The 40-hour workweek is common for full-time employees in most of the nation’s businesses.
Actually, this period includes only 35 working hours because each hourly employee has
a 15-minute paid rest period every 4 hours and a 30-minute unpaid meal period each day.
Although the workweek has commonly been divided into five equal workdays, some innovative
food service directors have developed schedules in which employees work 10 1 ⁄2 hours per
day and 4 days per week. Such schedules have produced notable improvements in employee
productivity and job satisfaction. Another type of schedule calls for employees to work 4 days,
take 3 days off, work 5 days, take 2 days off, and then begin the cycle again without working
more than 8 days in any two-week pay period.
Flexible Schedules
Overlapping schedules among employees can be avoided by retraining them to perform a broader
range of duties as part of their job enlargement plan. For example, tray line workers could learn
to perform production tasks and some sanitation duties, and sanitation workers could learn to
perform some food production and tray line duties. This flexibility in scheduling significantly