Many people have differing opinions about swing shifts, while most tend to hate the idea, others find it to be perfect for them, their business, and their daily life — but they need to be handled with care. Today, we’re going to break down a few common questions surrounding swing shifts; what is swing shift, how do they work, and how can we make them as efficient as possible?
What is a Swing Shift?
Swing shifts are designed to fill the gap between your general late night or overnight crew and the mid shift. Often, restaurants will run in shifts of open, mid, and close — but not always. A swing shift schedule is quite common in bars and restaurants that stay open past midnight, as it fills in a gap that tends to have quite a bit of business.
Generally, a swing shift restaurant will schedule these shifts from late afternoon (3-4 pm) until midnight or so. This allows employees to not have to truly work overnight while ensuring that the business’ needs are handled.
How Swing Shift Schedules Work in Restaurants
As mentioned above, swing shifts tend to work in a rather straightforward way. Whereas your closers will likely come in around 6-8 pm, right around when your mid shift will be leaving, the swing shift will arrive during what are likely your restaurant’s slowest hours. Arriving around 4 pm allows your swing shift to handle any organizational or administrative tasks while it’s slow and move onto running the kitchen.
In turn, this allows your swing shift to set the closers up for success. They’re there to support, more often than not, which is why we schedule them when we do. Most late night spots will see their largest rushes between 11 pm and 1 am, generally slowing once bars close around 2 am By keeping your swing shift until midnight to 1am, you allow them to support your closers and then scoot on home.
Common Swing Shift Hours
Swing shift schedules vary depending on the needs of the restaurant. Generally, you’ll find that swing shifts begin in the mid to late afternoon, often right around 2-4 pm. This allows them to get in while your mid shift is handling the aftermath of lunch and begin to prepare for dinner service. Importantly, the swing shift is often not focused entirely on dinner service, rather, they are scheduled to ensure the late night operations go smoothly.
Because of this, you’ll find that most swing shifts end no earlier than midnight, often ending around 1-1:30 am. This enables your swing shift to support the closers during their most hectic hours and ensure they’re in a good place to begin closing.
Examples of Swing Shift Schedules
A “standard” swing shift schedule is pretty straightforward. As mentioned above, they tend to have pretty clearly-set hours, making scheduling rather simple. You’ll often schedule your swing shift less during slower days (usually weekdays), opting instead to schedule them more heavily on your busiest days (generally Friday and Saturday). Here’s an example of a pretty standard restaurant swing shift:
- Monday: Off
- Tuesday: 6pm - 12pm, early off at 11pm if slow.
- Wednesday: 5pm - 12pm, early off at 11pm if slow.
- Thursday: 5pm - 12pm
- Friday: 3pm - 1am, early off at 12pm if slow
- Saturday: 3pm - 1am, early off at 12pm if slow
- Sunday: Off
As you can see, swing shift schedules have a bit of flex in them, but they tend to schedule pretty lightly in the beginning of the week, opting to make up those hours on busier days. This brings us to the next point of order — why schedule swing shifts?
Benefits of Swing Shifts in Restaurants
Swing shifts are a great option for a specific model of restaurant or bar. Any space that’s open during “bar hours” will likely benefit from a swing shift, but it’s not just about the needs of the restaurant — swing shifts can be great for (some) employees, too!
Increased Flexibility for Employees
Many people in the restaurant industry tend to prefer later hours. While that’s not a hard-and-fast rule by any means, it’s not uncommon to find bartenders, chefs, and servers that would prefer a later schedule. Whether it’s due to prior obligations like school during the day, their preferred sleep schedule, or the fact that the later shifts make better tips, the simple truth is that many people would prefer a swing shift.
They allow staff a bit of flexibility in how they live, as they’re able to use the daytime to work, play, or handle other responsibilities and come in without having to stay until the wee hours of the morning. And that’s important, as it’s not a closing shift at the bar, meaning unlike the closers who leave at 4-5 am, the swing shift is generally out before bars close and the city goes to bed.
Improved Staff Coverage During Peak Hours
What makes swing shifts so great for restaurants is the improved coverage that you get from them. They allow you to schedule support for the dinner and late night rush, meaning (at least, in theory) that your busiest hours should go more smoothly. While that’s not to say that things can’t still go wrong, having extra hands on deck to handle things will make it far simpler to recover.
And that’s the whole point of swing shifts! They make life easier for your closers, your mid, and (if scheduled early enough), even your openers. But swing shifts aren’t always popular — they can lead to problems if mismanaged.
Challenges of Managing Swing Shifts in Restaurants
Swing shifts tend to come with their own unique set of problems. While they’re not exclusive to swing shift, the timing of the shift tends to lead to a couple of pretty notable problems.
Potential for Employee Fatigue
The first and most obvious potential issue with swing shifts is fatigue. Late shifts tend to burn out people a bit faster than those during the day (with some exceptions, of course). Whether it’s because of the impact that late nights can have on one’s social life, outside responsibilities (like children), or just not being a fan of being at work until midnight, it shouldn’t be surprising that some swing shift employees may burn out.
Because of this, it’s best to give a bit of extra leeway to your swing shift. Schedule them in a rotation (more on that below) and give them the option to leave early when possible — as you saw above in the example schedule.
Difficulty in Coordinating Shift Transitions
On the note of scheduling, let’s talk about shift changeover. With most shifts, it’s pretty clear when one ends and one begins — your openers will wrap up prep while your mid shift begins to prepare the line for dinner service, and that’s that. But with the swing shift, they need to have a clearly defined role for each stage of service.
This is because their schedule will overlap with at least two thirds of your other shifts, if not all of them. To avoid competition over tasks, it’s best to establish who does what, and when. For example, instruct that your swing shift should be handling any final prep, organizational tasks, and administrative work during their slow hours. Once dinner service starts, they’re on support (or on the line, if needed), and then that continues until their shift ends. In other words, clearly define tasks for the best chance of success with swing shifts.
Best Practices for Implementing Swing Shifts in Your Restaurant
Set Clear Expectations for Shift Coverage
Swing shifts can be a bit confusing, especially when assigned “early off” status. Be sure to set clear expectations about when “early off” is, what is required of each swing shift, and to keep those standards. It’s easy for openers and closers to know that they’re done; but your swing shift will likely need a bit more concrete definition of what exactly is expected of them.
Create a Rotating Shift System
Swing shifts can take it out of you, so be sure to schedule in a rotation. Rather than having every swing shift run by the same person, it’s best to alternate by weeks, allowing all of your swing shift employees a bit of a break. Generally, I’ve found that alternating between full-time hours (35-40+ hours) and part-time (32-36 hours) is a small enough difference to make an impact on burnout while not screwing people on their hours.
Use Technology to Manage Shift Scheduling
Technology is here to help you, so use it! There are countless systems out there that are built specifically to help you easily build schedules, and swing shifts are certainly not any different. In short, take advantage of tools that help with scheduling — they’re here for a reason.
Is a Swing Shift Right for Your Restaurant?
Determining If Swing Shifts Align with Your Operating Hours
The most practical aspect of assigning swing shifts boils down to your operating hours. If you’re not open past midnight, chances are that swing shifts aren’t really necessary for you. If, however, you’re staying open with “bar hours” (until 2-2:30 am), then you’re likely to benefit quite heavily from a swing shift.
Evaluating the Impact on Employee Satisfaction and Retention
This next bit is, arguably, the most important aspect of assigning swing shifts — you need employees that want them. Swing shifts are not something that you just assign without speaking to someone first, especially if they don’t normally work late. In other words, communicate with your staff. You may find that some are excited for a swing shift, while others are absolutely unwilling to take them on — and both are okay, we just need to know.
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