‘You free up a lot of time’: B.C. restaurant labour shortage has more eateries turning to tech

A hopeful summer of rebound for B.C.’s restaurant industry is being hampered by a major labour shortage, which has many people in the sector looking to make things more efficient.

Many restaurants now have tablets at the table, through which you can order and pay for food.

Ian Tostenson with the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association says technology like this is helpful during this staffing shortage for restaurants across the province.

“You free up a lot of time for that server to do other things with other tables, so they can expand their section. So … if you were serving five tables, you might be able to serve seven tables now, which just helps efficiency,” he said.

“It still gives the server the chance to develop that emotional relationship. ‘How is your meal? Can I get you anything else?’ — just talking a little bit about the restaurant, where people are from, and that sort of things.”

He says between 30,000 and 40,000 restaurant jobs need to be filled in B.C.

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Squirrel Systems is a Vancouver software company that provides restaurants with point of sale technology. Scott Waldrum with the company says eateries incorporated more tech when the pandemic hit.

“Every time you ordered with DoorDash or SkipTheDishes, or you ordered online using the restaurant’s online ordering system, that all came through the point of sale and was delivered through the point of sale,” he explained.

Waldrum says since January, demand for point-of-sale services has shot up significantly.

“Questions to us about how can we get a system that’s easy for new servers that don’t have a lot of experience to pick up and don’t need training and things like that. We do a lot of work with restaurants right now on ease of use and getting a system in that’s easy.”

He sees such technology being part of the industry indefinitely. Tostenson agrees.

“We’re not going to see our labour shortage anytime soon lessen, so technology will be very important to us,” Tostenson said.