Burger King streamlines team management, enhances reporting and improves productivity with MAPAL Workforce

Burger King has experienced exponential growth and opened hundreds of establishments in France, since returning to the market in 2013. Jerôme Perrin, Benoit Rondet and Cédric Langeron are three of Burger King's franchisees in France, totalling over a dozen restaurants with over 700 employees. 

The company's franchises stand out for their well-defined processes and compliance with company guidelines and labour laws, as well as high-quality standards. 

France has highly regulated labour legislation, and companies must rigorously apply all the variables that affect employee hours and wages.  

Franchises did not have a common policy towards management software. Some branches had not implemented any technology; others were using solutions that didn’t meet all their needs. However, managers had realised that they needed to improve their operational processes to optimise their human resources. 

"Our main objective was to obtain faster, more efficient and simpler workforce planning," says Jerôme Perrin, a franchisee of Burger King in France. "We were spending too much time planning, and we had no analysis or indicators of productivity, labour costs, etc", adds fellow franchisee Benoit Rondet. Cédric Langeron added that "the tool that we were using then was not adapted to the reality of the fast-food sector, and planning was very time-consuming." 

Benoit Rondet affirmed, "we were looking for a tool that could optimise payroll productivity and enable us to control all indicators through reports and analysis.” Fast implementation and user-friendliness were paramount for Jerôme Perrin, while Cedric Langeron prioritised a speedy and reliable job rotation process, one of the most problematic in a fast-food restaurant. 

MAPAL Workforce at Burger King 
 

The flexibility and power of MAPAL Worforce were decisive factors in its selection for the digitalisation project. The software was created for the reality of quick-service restaurants. Its ability to adapt to each restaurant’s needs and the French market’s particularities positioned Workforce as a benchmark in the sector, and it is already in operation in various regions, including Paris, Auvergne or Marseille. 

Workforce enables managers to control the restaurant's entire back-office cycle (HR management, planning, time and attendance, variable salary management, etc.). Centralising these diverse processes in a single tool provides a 360-degree view of the business, speeds up processes and saves managers and HR staff much of the time spent on administrative tasks. 

But what really made Workforce stand out was its optimisation algorithm. Developed and maintained by MAPAL’s own mathematicians, it calculates the optimal staff schedule according to each restaurant’s needs and each employee’s contractual limitations. 

The tool’s schedule optimisation, analysis, and metrics functionalities for measuring productivity were crucial in the franchisees’ decision-making process. “Workforce can automatically forecast sales and optimise schedules and job rotation in line with changing staffing needs" underlines Benoit Rondet. As for the analysis features, Jerôme Perrin adds, "it’s invaluable in helping us organise the restaurant, control costs and respond well to demand". For Cédric Langeron, it was the power of the algorithm that finally convinced him to use Workforce "once the software is properly configured with our needs, the planning tool does almost everything on its own". 

MAPAL's software enabled the franchisees to centralise all management processes with a single tool. Managers can now carry out day-to-day operational tasks much faster, leaving them more time to focus on customer service and other business areas.   

For Benoit Rondet, this translated into significant time savings: "We used to spend a week planning a monthly schedule before Workforce. Now it only takes us a day." The analysis feature provides us with in-depth information about the restaurant's entire management cycle and the productivity of our rotations,” says Jerôme Perrin. Finally, Cédric Langeron affirms that "the software adapts very well to the reality of Burger King. It has clearly been developed by people from our own sector."   

The gains are also economical. Optimised rotation planning has enabled the franchisees to increase their establishments’ profit margins. Labour costs at Jerôme Perrin's establishments are among the most optimised of all French Burger King franchises. "Thanks to MAPAL, I can now easily manage labour costs and control the balance and distribution of staffing levels". Benoit Rondet has had a similar experience. With improved planning, "we reduced labour costs to 21% in one of our restaurants." Lastly, Cédric Langeron also reports a reduction in management costs. "The tool fits in very well across the board: it’s an excellent tool for planning, calculating salaries and the employees like it. So, my entire team is happy."