How to menu engineer your team...and i guess you are doing it already

Most managers build rosters the same way people pack for a family holiday. No real strategy, slight panic, and a dangerous amount of optimism.

Then somebody calls in sick on a Friday night and suddenly you’re standing there trying to figure out who can survive the shift without either collapsing emotionally or killing the guest experience.

Welcome to menu engineering with humans.

the hidden categories inside every team

If you’ve ever done F&B menu engineering, you know the classic categories: stars, cash cows, puzzles, and dogs.

Usually we apply that to dishes. But honestly, most departments should apply it to people too. Not in a cruel way. In a reality way.

Because every staff member sits somewhere between three variables:

• performance

• customer interaction

• energy output

And that combination changes everything about how you should build your shifts.

the stars

Your stars are obvious ones. High performers, good with guests, operationally strong, emotionally stable under pressure.

These are the people who somehow keep smiling while the restaurant is on fire, the PMS is down, two staff called in sick, and table 14 wants gluten-free vegan carbonara for some reason.

The danger with stars is that managers abuse them.

They become the emergency solution for everything. Somebody sick? Call the star. VIP arrival? Put the star there. Difficult shift? Let the star handle it.

Over time, stars stop being high performers and start becoming emotional support systems for badly designed operations.

And eventually, they burn out. That's the real danger.

the cash cows

Cash cows are underrated. They may not upsell massively. They may not create “wow” moments every five minutes. But they are stable, reliable, and operationally consistent.

They show up. They do the work properly. They know the systems. They don’t create chaos. These people are the reason your operation still functions on difficult days.

The funny part is that many managers don’t notice them because consistency is quiet. Drama always gets more attention than reliability.

the puzzles

Puzzles are the dangerous ones because they create hope. Maybe they are amazing with guests. Guests love them, reviews mention them, tables laugh with them all night long. But operationally?

Chaos. Late. Forgetful. Low urgency. Low consistency. Or the opposite: Extremely hard-working. Fast. Efficient. Great at prep, setup, cleaning, organization.

But put them in front of a guest and suddenly it feels like someone is being interrogated at airport security. No warmth. No emotional connection. Just efficiency with mild fear.

Every manager has these people. And every manager thinks, “if I can just unlock them…” … that’s why they’re puzzles.

energy changes everything

This is the part most managers completely ignore. Not all performance costs the same amount of energy and deliver the same amount of .

Some staff look productive because they move constantly but emotionally drain the entire team. Others are calmer, slower, less “intense,” but create a stable atmosphere that improves service overall.

Then you have the charismatic low-energy sellers. They might not run around like maniacs, but guests spend more time around them because people feel comfortable.

And on the other side, you have the operational machines. They work incredibly hard but create tension around them because they don’t understand guest interaction or emotional flow.

the sick call problem

This is where things get brutally practical. When somebody calls in sick, most managers react emotionally. They call the person who always says yes. Or the person they trust most. Or the hardest worker. But that’s often the wrong decision - its a knee jerk to get rid of the problem.

If the restaurant is operationally weak tonight, you need structure and stability. If the operation is fine but the atmosphere is dead, you need emotional energy and guest interaction.

dating explains this perfectly

This is basically relationships. Some people are exciting, charismatic, fun to be around… but completely unreliable. Others are stable, dependable, loyal, but not exactly setting fireworks off emotionally.

Some relationships survive because of emotional connection. Others because of operational stability. The strongest ones usually have both.

That’s exactly how good teams work too.

the takeaway

Managers don’t really understand the emotional, operational, and energetic makeup of their teams. So they build shifts based on availability instead of balance.

The moment you start looking at your department like menu engineering, patterns become obvious very quickly.

Start asking new questions and you will see how morale, revenue and team bonding will increase.

Love, Fabi