The staffing quiz takes about four minutes. It asks how you cover absence, how quickly you can fill a gap, what you spend on agency cover, and how long your team tends to stay. There are no right answers, and nothing you enter is shared with anyone outside our team.
Answer for a normal week, not your worst one
Most managers instinctively answer with the disaster in mind, the Saturday two people called in sick and the shift ran short. That is worth knowing, but it skews the result. Answer for a typical week and the score will be far more useful.
Get the rota in front of you
Two questions ask for rough numbers: hours covered by agency staff last month, and how many people left in the last six months. Ballpark figures are fine, but having the rota open makes the output sharper.
What happens to your answers
You get your score on screen as soon as you finish. If you leave an email address we send a copy along with the workings, so you can see how each answer moved the number. We do not pass your details to third parties, and you can ask us to delete them at any time. See our Privacy Policy for the detail.
Something not working?
If the quiz will not load or a question does not fit how your venue runs, email info@resolveuk.co and tell us what you were doing when it happened. It genuinely helps us fix it.
How the scorecard works
The scorecard turns your answers into a single number out of 100, across four areas. It is a starting point for a conversation, not a verdict on your venue.
Speed of cover
How long it takes you to fill an unexpected gap. A venue that can cover a shift the same morning scores well here. If a call-in means a duty manager working a double, that is where the pain usually shows up first.
Cost of cover
What you pay above your baseline wage bill to keep shifts staffed, including agency premiums and overtime. We compare this against typical hospitality and retail ranges rather than a fixed target, because a late-night bar and a garden centre do not carry the same cost shape.
Reliability
No-shows and late arrivals, weighted by how often they land on your busiest shifts. A missed Tuesday lunch is not a missed Friday night, and the score reflects that.
Retention
How long people stay, and whether the leavers are the ones you wanted to keep. This is usually the area with the slowest fix and the biggest payoff.
Reading your score
80 and above. Your cover is working. The opportunity is trimming cost, not fixing holes.
55 to 79. The common range. Usually one area is dragging the rest down, and it is worth attacking that one first.
Below 55. Gaps are costing you real money and probably burning out your permanent team. Worth a conversation.
The number is only as honest as the answers. If you want us to walk through your result with you, get in touch.
Why good staff leave, and what actually keeps them
Retention in hospitality and retail gets blamed on pay more than it deserves. Pay matters, but when we ask people why they left their last venue, money is rarely the first answer.
Rotas published too late
Someone who finds out on Thursday what they are working next week cannot plan childcare, study, or a second job. Publishing the rota two weeks out costs nothing and removes one of the most common reasons people walk.
The reliable ones carry the gaps
When a shift runs short, the load falls on whoever showed up. Do that often enough and your best people learn that reliability is punished with more work. Covering gaps properly is a retention measure, not just an operational one.
No visible next step
People stay where they can see a path. That does not have to mean a promotion; being trained on a new station or trusted to open counts. Without it, the job is interchangeable with the one down the road.
Being treated as a number
The venues with the best retention tend to do unglamorous things consistently: managers who know everyone's name, breaks that actually happen, and being paid correctly and on time. That last one matters more than people expect, which is why we pay talent within 24 hours.
Where flexible staff fit
Bringing in vetted flexible staff for peaks is not the opposite of retention, it protects it. Your permanent team stops absorbing every gap, and the people you want to keep stop being the ones who pay for the shortfall.
The quiz gives you a rough read on where you stand. If retention is your weak area, that is usually the one worth fixing first.
Want the full picture?
Take the four-minute staffing quiz and see where your cover is costing you.