@Anonymous, I am both happy and sad that you can relate - because it means no one has solved this for the industry!
I think every store I've worked in, without exception, has had payroll problems. There are just so many variables and details that are way too easy to overlook. I love #3, #4 and #5. I tried to double-check the numbers every other day so I could catch mistakes early and rectify them as they occurred (sort of). I also employed checklists to help my mushy "day of brain," which helped immensely. Then there are always those one offs - a few minutes missing on a paystub, a signature missed because someone called out, and then an oven explodes...
For #4 and #5, I ran into a conundrum which had more to do with our management team than the employees themselves (well, it was both). The head chef was semi-lax about lateness, he just wanted his people in the door and food on plates. Our GM was a stickler for the rules.
There was a constant push and pull - if we came down too hard on new employees about rules, they had a tendency to abandon the job. We lived in a competitive high-cost area, so quickly finding employees in our pay range was a huge challenge. Having fewer employees meant more strain on the existing team. If we weren't strict, we'd make our boss mad. It was a challenge to be firm one way or the other knowing the outcomes - I just wanted our team to do good work... and do what they were supposed to do.
#7, I ended up taking over payroll for another manager and created a clear set of protocols that anyone could just pick up and follow through with. Do you ever talk to your clients about doing that with their teams? How do you go about having that conversation without "stepping on toes"?
