The Nowsta Blog

Every employee needs something a little different to do their best work. That was our thesis when we broke part-time employees down into five categories and provided management tips for each, based on Federal Reserve survey data on why people say they work part-time as opposed to full-time. Over a series of posts, we’re going to take a deeper dive into each category and explore how managers can better manage, motivate, and accommodate each type of part-time employee.

In this post, we’re going to cover staff who work part-time due to medical issues.

Managers have to strike a difficult balance when building the work schedule. You need to make sure you have enough staff on duty to meet customer demand, but not so many that you overshoot your labor budget or eat into margins. But generally speaking, most would assume that the more employees you have scheduled for a shift, the better the team will perform, since the workload can be spread out across a larger group.

But the research suggests that isn’t always true.

Every employee needs something a little different to do their best work. That was our thesis when we broke part-time employees down into five categories and provided management tips for each, based on Federal Reserve survey data on why people say they work part-time as opposed to full-time. Over a series of posts, we’re going to take a deeper dive into each category and explore how managers can better manage, motivate, and accommodate each type of part-time employee.

In this post, we’re going to cover staff who continue to work part-time in retirement.

If you’re new to catering, you might think that all you need to succeed is a delicious menu, beautiful event design, and strong planning skills. If you’ve got those, the rest will take care of itself, right?

Not quite.

The reality is that catering is a business like any other. No matter how good your food tastes, your success or failure is going to come down to numbers. And not just revenue and profit either. By the time you’re calculating those, it’s too late -- the events are over, the money is in the bank, and there is nothing you can do to make up for executing an unprofitable event.

But there are other numbers you can track in real time that show you the health of your business and reveal the improvements you can make to increase your bottom line. In this post, I’m going to outline twelve metrics every caterer needs to track across three distinct business categories, with some advice sprinkled in on how to get them trending in the right direction.

Running a small business is stressful enough without worrying that someone will try to take advantage of you in a time of need. Unfortunately, predatory business loans are exactly that: A lender taking advantage of a borrower through unfair or unclear terms and practices.

While small business lending isn’t predatory by nature, there are lenders who structure loans in a way that can cost business owners thousands of extra dollars, if not their entire business.

If you’ve decided that applying for a small business loan is the right decision for your company, it’s crucial that you do your homework and take note of what makes for a good versus bad loan to avoid putting you and your business at risk.

Running payroll accurately is table stakes for any business, but it’s also more difficult than new managers and business owners may realize. Between employees’ gross pay, net pay, and the various deductions that make up the difference, there’s a lot of information to keep track of. That’s where your payroll register comes in.

Every employee needs something a little different to do their best work. That was our thesis when we broke part-time employees down into five categories and provided management tips for each, based on Federal Reserve survey data on why people say they work part-time as opposed to full-time. Over a series of posts, we’re going to take a deeper dive into each category and explore how managers can better manage, motivate, and accommodate each type of part-time employee.

In this post, we’re going to cover staff who work part-time while also going to school.

This is Part Five of a five-part series for caterers on hiring and managing part-time event staff. You can the previous parts here:

• Part One: How to attract more event staff candidates
• Part Two: How to interview event staff candidates
• Part Three: How to onboard new event staff
• Part Four: How to promote event staff to Event Captain

In a perfect world, every part-time event worker you hire ends up being a superstar you want to schedule over and over. As I’ve tried to show throughout this series, your hiring, training, and promotion processes can increase your chances of developing great staff. But obviously, not every new hire is going to work out. That’s why you need a process for terminating employees who aren’t a good fit for your business.

This is Part Four of a five-part series for caterers on hiring and managing part-time event staff. You can read the other parts here: 

• Part One: How to attract more event staff candidates
• Part Two: How to interview event staff candidates
• Part Three: How to onboard new event staff 
• Part Five: How to let underperforming event staff go

Caterers need part-time staff in positions like server, bartender, and event chef to ensure their events run smoothly. In my last three articles, I’ve given you my strategies to always be recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding people in these positions.

But there’s another crucial piece of the puzzle: The Event Captains who manage everyone in these roles. Where do they come from? Ideally, they work their way up from the event staff roles we’ve been discussing. The best caterers I’ve worked with tend to promote these folks from within for a few key reasons:

Every employee needs something a little different to do their best work. That was our thesis when we broke part-time employees down into five categories and provided management tips for each, based on Federal Reserve survey data on why people say they work part-time as opposed to full-time. Over a series of posts, we’re going to take a deeper dive into each category and explore how managers can better manage, motivate, and accommodate each type of part-time employee. You can see our previous entry on managing underemployed part-time staff who want more hours here.

In this post, we’re going to cover staff who work part-time due to child care and other family obligations.