16.1 Introduction
Dealing with employees is one of the most difficult, but most rewarding, parts of running a restaurant. Your employees are the people on the ground who do more than just make sure the restaurant runs. They have a direct impact on the profits that your restaurant makes. As a result, it is imperative that you have a great team of employees at your disposal. The best employees are those who have the goals and mission of the restaurant at heart and are able to work together as a team to achieve these goals. In this module, you will learn about dealing with new employees. The way that you train an employee to become a valuable asset for your restaurant begins with the hiring process; however, this process never ends. Investing heavily in employee development will have a huge impact on your business.
16.2 Hiring Staff and Management
The staff at your restaurant are at the heart of your business. Without them, your restaurant simply could not run. As a result, you need to make sure you hire not just the best staff possible, but the right amount of staff.
Determining the Staff You Need
The number of staff required will depend on several things. First, it will depend on the type of restaurant that you intend to run. Your staff needs will be different if you are fine dining restaurant compared to a casual dining restaurant or a fast-food restaurant. The number of staff you need also depends on the kind of service that you intend to offer. The more components that there are in your service and presentation, the more staff you will need. For example, if you have a buffet-style restaurant, you will need fewer service staff when compared to a fine dining restaurant. The type of food that you serve will also play a factor in determining the restaurant staff that you require. This will have a direct impact on your kitchen staff. When you have a complicated food service, you will need more kitchen staff to make it possible. Finally, the size of your restaurant will impact the number of staff you need. The more seats or tables that you have, the more people you will need on hand to make sure that service runs smoothly. Ultimately, you will use these considerations to determine the most important positions for your operations.
The positions will be made up of the most critical positions that your restaurant needs to operate every day. A fine dining restaurant will need a minimum of a chef and a sous chef in order to make food. Do not worry if you do not hire the right number of staff right away. The needs of a restaurant can be particularly fickle when it first opens because you will not yet be aware of regular patterns. After you have been at the restaurant for a while, you will begin to see customer patterns. These customer patterns will help inform you on a more precise number of staff that you need.
Hiring the Right Chef
Not every restaurant requires the use of a chef. In a casual or fast service restaurant, the chef might be given the title of kitchen manager. You also may or may not require a culinary degree of extensive training for a chef. However, if you do need a chef, hiring the right chef is essential. The role of the chef is one of the most important roles in the restaurant because the chef ensures that the food is of a high quality. Customers like a consistent dining experience and the chef is at the centre of this experience. In the restaurant, a chef is not a man wandering around in a hat. The chef is the person who is in charge of the whole kitchen. Rather than operating as a temperamental artist, they are the person who trains kitchen staff and then oversees all of the cooking as it happens.
The chef will also often help develop and test the menu. They might even participate in marketing for the restaurant, too. When you are looking for a chef, there are a few important qualities to look for. One of the most important things to look for in your chef is to find someone who shares your philosophy for the restaurant. They should have similar insights into food and service. This philosophy will help drive the restaurant forward and contribute to its success. You may also be looking for the chef to have certain credentials. Whether this is a diploma or a lot of experience, you will want to double check what the applicant presents you with. You also want to find someone who can balance leadership skills with their cooking ability. Both of these qualities are equally important in a good chef since the role is mostly made up of oversight butstill requires talent in the kitchen.
You also want to find a chef who can run a tight yet consistent kitchen. They should be able to produce and oversee the production of a large amount of food in a short space of time. However, the food needs to come out the same way every time and there should be little variation between dishes of the same type. Finally, you want to find a chef with a head for business. You need to have someone running the kitchen that can create dynamic dishes without running up the restaurant's cost. An experienced chef will be able to create an exciting menu without drying up your profit margins.
Keeping Your Chef
When you find a chef that your staff and your customers love, you need to do whatever you can to keep them. Finding and retaining a great chef is worth all of the time and effort that you put into it because they are an integral part of driving profits in your restaurant. There are a few things that you can do to help keep your chef happy and fulfilled at your restaurant. First, you can let them help develop a menu. A chef will know their strengths and weaknesses and the more the menu plays to their strengths, the better the outcome will be. It also allows them to add a personal touch to the food that sets the restaurant apart.
If you find an amazing chef, chances are, they will have a team that they want to bring in with them. Allowing them to do this when it is reasonable is a good idea because it provides a good dynamic in the kitchen. The more smoothly the kitchen runs, the more success your restaurant will see. Finally, pay your chef what they are worth. This does not just include a salary that fits their experience. You want to offer an incentive plan that helps your chef know that they are appreciated. It also helps tell them that you recognise that they do a huge amount to contribute to the success of the business. Chefs who are appreciated will stay at restaurants longer than those who feel undervalued.
FACT
In restaurants, 38% of staff are under the age of 25
Source: People1st
16.3 Employee Compensation: Wages, Benefits and Tips
Restaurant employees will all fulfil different roles in the restaurant. Thus, employee compensation is often affected by the roles and responsibilities attributed to each employee. However, it is also affected by the size of the business that you run and who you hire to be employees. You need to ensure that you pay the staff at least the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage, as appropriate. You can find out the current National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates on the Government website here.
Front of House Staff
When you are considering the base salary of the front of house staff, you will need to factor in the way that tips are collected and spread out across the restaurant. In many places, small and mid-size restaurants will pay front of house staff minimum wage as long as tips are divided across the staff. Keeping staff salaries at minimum wage is a commonly accepted practice. However, this is an option for the minimum wage practice. Paying only the minimum wage is part of what contributes to the high turnover of staff in the restaurant business. It is not an amount of money that motivates staff to turn up and work to the best of their abilities. To help combat turnover and encourage better service, some restaurants have started to put their wait staff on salaries.
Some research has shown that servers on salaries are more likely to provide better service to customers because they are not trying to hurry the customer along to increase their tips. Instead of thinking about the next table, servers are freer to focus on customer experience. When customers experience top-notch service and a great atmosphere, they are more likely to turn into repeatcustomers who are willing to come back again and again.
Back of House Staff
The back of house staff work as hard as the front of house staff. The difference is that the back of house staff are not in a customer-facing role. Positions like kitchen porter and cook are often paid at minimum wage. In some cases, they will take a share of the tips that are distributed at the end of the shift. Chefs, sous chefs and other high ranking positions are often put on salaries that are commensurate with experience. The rate that they are paid will often depend on their previous experience, the level of education they have and their status in the restaurant community. Chefs that stand out in their field will command higher salaries than those who are just starting out.
Tips
The tip strategy that you use will depend on the size of your business and your own preferences. Many restaurants usually choose one of two strategies. The first strategy is to allow servers to keep the tips they earn from their tables. The second strategy is to split all tips equally across the entire restaurant staff. Both of these strategies have merits and disadvantages. The merits for allowing servers to keep the tips they earn is primarily in that they are rewarded for working hard on a busy night. The disadvantage is that back of house staff do not see any reward, even though they worked just as
hard serving customers. The merits for spreading tips across the restaurant is primarily in that employees are compensated whether they are in a customer-facing role or not. However, the downside is that this can seriously reduce the amount of money that individuals earn. As a result, you might notice that tables are turned over more quickly so that they can get new diners in and therefore add more to the tip jar. This can be a problem from a customer service point of view and because it does not give the kitchen staff a lull in which to recharge or get back on top of their tasks in the event that they fall behind.
Benefits
Providing benefits to restaurant staff is important, though it is often overlooked. Although you do not need to offer things like healthcare, it is important to offer benefits to your staff to ensure they feel valued and to attract good employees. Extra paid holiday is a good benefit to offer employees. Most workers are legally entitled to 28 days' paid annual leave a year. This is the equivalent of 5.6 weeks of holiday and is based on a 5-day week. If you offer more than this, it is going to attract more people to the role. You could also offer flexible hours. Not only does this appeal to more people, but it can also be
beneficial to the company by having increased employee morale and commitment to the organisation.
Another potential benefit that can be offered to staff is a share in the profits of the business. This is a benefit that the John Lewis Partnership offers its employees and it has helped lower employee turnover. Partners at John Lewis and Waitrose earn a percentage of the company's profits every year which is presented to them as a bonus. This is designed to encourage employees to take ownership in the company and thus work harder to make John Lewis a successful company.
The same tactic can be applied to small businesses. It can be employed for the back of house employees who do not benefit from tips, specifically. This is a useful benefit to provide because it will inspire them to work hard and more efficiently. Many restaurants notice that waste is reduced and expenses wane, as the back of house employees realise that this waste eats into their bonuses. Other benefits that you offer employees can be discounted or free meals and achievement bonuses.
16.4 Staff Training
An effective training is essential for turning new staff into great staff. Staff training should happen early and often and should always follow a set process or guide to make sure that everyone gets the same type of training.
Setting Goals
When you are planning your staff training method, the first thing to do is to write down some clearly defined goals. These goals are often neglected but are actually an essential part of a training plan. These goals should state what you plan to accomplish with the training plan. The goals that you write down need to be concrete because the goals determine how well a candidate is doing in the training process. It will identify the candidate's strengths and weaknesses as well as the areas in which the candidate is proficient or needs improvement. If you do not have goals, it is impossible to tell if the staff is well trained or if they have just had a lot of information thrown at them.
Designing Tasks
When you are creating a training plan for a restaurant, it is best to break the training down into groups of relevant tasks and then assign the goals and strategies to them. For example, if you are training staff who work in a front of house position, you might create the following training tasks for them:
Take orders from guests for food and beverages
Entering orders into the software system
Answer questions about the menu or the service
Deliver the orders from the kitchen to the customers
Delivering the bill using the POS system
Some tasks will take less time to train than others. A lot of tasks will be a refresher for anyone who has previous experience in a restaurant. However, retraining is worth the time and effort because it gives the staff time to reconsider things that they may have started neglecting over time.
Train Realistically
The training that you give employees should be realistic. It should be as practical as possible, but it should not expect employees to get everything right the first time. It is not worth the time to plan a training session that requires an employee to operate flawlessly before they get to the floor. Training realistically will help make sure that employees get the skills they need to work in the real world. If you notice that your new hires all fail training, you should look back at your training session to see what needs improving.
Training Early and Often
New employees are not the only ones who need training. In fact, the training that you create for the restaurant should not be designed solely for those who are new to the restaurant business. Training and refresher courses should be given periodically in any restaurant. To make sure that training is an ongoing process in your restaurant, you should create a training schedule. A training schedule will help you track training goals, make sure the knowledge is spread evenly across staff and it will better prepare staff for changes in the system.
16.5 Different Training Methods
The knowledge you give employees when you train them is as important as the methods that you use to train them. You will want to use different methods for different skills.
Teaching
Teaching by giving oral and written instructions is a great way to begin training. Using written directions or instructions that come in video format are useful ways to make sure that everyone is getting the same instructions when they are being trained. However, these methods are only the first step in employee training. Avoid giving oral instructions and sending new employees straight onto the floor. You can help them better prepare for the job by easing them into the job with a low- pressure situation.
Job Shadowing
Job shadowing is a great way to quickly train new employees. This method allows them to see what should happen on the job from experienced employees. It works well because while it is useful to read about what is expected of them, it is more useful to see how this knowledge is employed in real- world scenarios. It can be difficult for the experienced employee to take on a mentee. Thus, this method is best used over a slower shift so that no one gets underfoot.
Hands-on Training
The final phase of training should be allowing the trainee to perform the tasks themselves under supervision. This allows the supervisor to provide instructions when necessary. They can also make corrections as they work rather than waiting for feedback at the end. If the employee can successfully complete the skills after hands-on training, they are often ready to begin performing these tasks by themselves.
Documenting the Training Process
Like anything in your business, you will want to keep a record of the training you provide. This used to be done with paper records; however, this documentation has now moved primarily online. You should make sure that the whole training process is recorded. You will want to record when the training happened, what skills the employee was trained on and how they performed. This documentation will help you manage the business in several ways. Not only does it give you an employee record to look back on, but it also helps you evaluate your training plans. It can even help protect you from lawsuits.
Revise and Repeat
Developing a training process for employees is not something that you do once. An outdated training system only hurts both new and experienced employees. You should be sure to use all of the documentation that you have created to evaluate your own training plan and make the appropriate changes.
16.6 Creating an Employee Handbook
Every restaurant should have an employee handbook for all of the staff to refer to. An employee handbook is designed to let the staff know exactly what is expected of them when they are on the job. It should also let staff know what to expect from you, as their employer. The handbook should be an easy reference guide for staff to look at when they have questions about the protocol of specific situations. An added benefit of a comprehensive employee handbook is that it protects the business from being sued.
Starting Out
When you create an employee handbook, you should start with a template. You can find a good template online, or you can ask for one from restaurant consultants, HR consultants or even the solicitor that represents the business. A good template will be specific to the restaurant business because there will be issues directly related to cash handling that might not apply to generic businesses. So, if you do decide to use a more generic template, be sure to add any missing pieces that apply specifically to your restaurant. When you are creating an employee handbook, you can leave out items like best practices or best practices in service or the kitchen; these are best covered in the training courses. If you are concerned about protecting yourself legally, be sure to keep records of all training.
Telling a Story
You want your new employees to be interested in your brand. To sell your business to your employees, you can include your company's story in your handbook. This story includes not just how you were founded but the mission statement and values that the restaurant holds. It can also include quotes or trivia provided by or related to the restaurant. Including this in the handbook is not just for your benefit. When an employee gets on board with the restaurant's vision, they can help create it. When the whole restaurant staff is working together to create this vision, you will find that this vision will be easily translated over to your customers.
Add a Disclaimer
To protect yourself legally, be sure to add important details of the employment contract. If you hire 'at-will' employees, be sure to include a statement that says that employment is not guaranteed and can be terminated at any time.
Add a Sign-Off Sheet
To make sure that the employees read the handbook and to protect yourself legally, you should include a sign-off form. This sign-off form should state that the employee agrees that they have read and understood the employee handbook. It should include spaces for the employee's name, signature, date and a supervisor's signature. This should be kept safe in the employee files.
Keep It Casual
Avoid using jargon, to make sure that the handbook is easy to read and understand. Use simple sentences and strategic formatting so that the employee can understand the content of the handbook. Avoid writing large blocks of text and use numbers, bullet points and headings to divide up the information and keep the reader's attention. Add graphics and artwork as desired. Remember, you can put the information together any way that you please, as long as it is clear, informative and covers you legally.
Review and Revise
After you have completed your employee handbook, it is a good idea to send it to your solicitor to make sure that all the necessary information is included and everything is correct. The employee handbook should protect you against any misunderstandings between the restaurant and the employee. Make sure that you do not write your employee handbook once and then forget about it. You will need to review it at least once a year and make any necessary revisions. This way you can make sure that the handbook meets any changes in code, rules or laws.
16.7 Dealing with Absence: Illness and Injury
One of the main reasons that employees will repeatedly turn to your handbook is to review your policies on illness and injury. As a rule, the handbook should contain clear and concise procedures for trading shifts and cancelling shifts due to illness or injury. One of the biggest causes of employee absence is illness. Regulating illness is a difficult thing to do as an employer because while you want to make sure that you are not taken advantage of, you cannot ask people who are ill to work in your restaurant. Not only is it bad form to have someone sniffling over a plate of food, but it is also dangerous.
Dealing with illness requires a fine balance between being gracious and being cautious. Most of the time, you should handle illness on a case-by-case basis. This is the best way to judge illness without suggesting that you do not trust or respect employees. If an employee routinely calls in sick to work, it is important to have a conversation with them. While you cannot hire or fire based on an employee's health history, you should find a way to have an honest discussion with them where you can begin to determine if the employee has a serious health problem or if they are abusing their privilege.
This privilege is important in any working environment. The last thing that any restaurant manager wants is to create an environment in which employees are too afraid to call in sick and then come to work with a serious injury or illness. This is bad for everyone involved. Employees should feel that you trust them to make their own decisions.
As a result, you should deal with injury and illness fairly and quietly. If someone comes to you about a specific problem, you should deal with it on an individual basis. However, it is unfair to deny some employees the right to sick days if you do not grant them to other employees. This injustice will be picked up by the staff, which will cause problems.
16.8 Employee Uniforms
How you use employee uniforms is an individual decision that will vary depending on every individual restaurant. For restaurants who want a completely uniform look, a mandatory uniform is usually the best practice. If the uniform is specific and it must be ordered, you have the option between giving a uniform to new employees or forcing the employee to purchase it from you. Giving uniforms away or selling them to employees depends on your goals as a business. A good compromise might be to subsidise the cost of the uniform where the restaurant pays for half and the second half comes from the new employee's first salary. For restaurants aiming for a more casual look, there are a few options. The first option is to let employees wear whatever they want as long as it is covered by an apron. The second option is to set out a basic uniform from clothes that many people already have, such as black jeans and white t- shirts.
The choice of uniforms will depend on the kind of atmosphere that you are trying to create in the restaurant. If you want a formal dining experience, formal uniforms will usually be preferable. However, if you are trying to create an individual atmosphere, it is completely acceptable to let employees wear more casual clothes. It all depends on the audience that you are catering to.
16.9 Keeping Staff Turnovers Low
The staff turnover rate in hospitality, including the restaurant sector was 30% in the UK in 2018, which is double that of the UK average.
A high turnover rate is hard on a restaurant because the costs of hiring staff can eat into your bottom line. The cost of hiring includes both recruiting and training new staff and you will need to pay other staff to do that rather than the work that would contribute to overall profit. Employee turnover is a natural part of doing business, especially in hospitality. The stress levels combined with lower pay rates often leads to employees feeling burnt out. However, you should not accept 62.6% turnover as the norm for your restaurant. There are a lot of things that you can do to create a strategy that helps reduce long-term employee turnover and help you retain good employees.
Hire the Right People
It all begins with the hiring process itself. It is not okay to look for people who are simply 'good enough' to add to your business. Like any industry, you want to find an employee who is not only good at their job but also enjoys it. You also want to be sure to proceed cautiously through the hiring process. Look at their CV to see how often they change jobs. If they change jobs every few months or every year, be careful about hiring them.
You also need to check their references. You should call the references they list but it is also good to call old employers. This is because nobody lists negative references on their CV willingly. The supervisor that is listed on the paper might actually be one of their closest friends. Finally, if you bring the candidate in for an interview, do not just ask about experience. Ask them about what they want both now and in the future. If you are interviewing a student who is working to pay their way through the next three years of university, you are more likely to have a safe candidate than someone who is just waiting to move on to the next thing.
Encourage Your Staff to Talk
Communication is one of the most important parts of dealing with the staff in any business. Staff want to know that they are heard and that they can talk to someone. Be wary of big divisions between the management and the rest of the staff. By nature, these two teams should be working together.
However, this can get lost and result in alarge gap that often leads to a gap in communication. Do not just encourage your staff to talk. Give them a platform to do so. Use regular surveys and hold regular staff meetings to give everyone an opportunity to make suggestions. You should also use this time to keep the team up to date with what is happening in the business. Communication should always go two ways.
Reward Your Staff
Your staff go to work every day and take the good with the bad. Every job has its ups and downs but working in a customer-facing role can be very stressful no matter how good the employee is at their job.
The reason that many restaurant staff leave after such a short period of time is because their pay is low and it is not going to be raised anytime soon. Dealing with this kind of stress for only a small guaranteed pay cheque means that employees often have one eye on the next best thing somewhere else.
You should be sure to reward your staff and give them both financial and personal opportunities. People want something to work for. Feeling as though they are in a dead-end job is going to drive your best employees out the door. You can reward them with small promotions or financial compensation. However, you should avoid 'rewarding' them with more responsibilities if you do not intend to increase their pay. The bonus or raise does not need to be big. It can happen in small increments. However, just the fact that staff can achieve these bonuses can help drive up your retention rates.
Monitor Your Scheduling
You will never create a schedule that every employee is happy with. The system is far too complex and there are too many variables at play. However, you should be working to keep as many people happy as possible with the schedule. Firstly, you should consider how many staff you have and what their needs are. Ensuring that they get enough hours will help you keep staff because they will not need to find another job to supplement their income.
Secondly, you must consider the division of labour. Giving your best staff all of the most valuable shifts sounds like a good idea; however, it can result in them being overworked. Burnout from being overworked is just as bad as not having enough hours. Taking time to ensure that the schedule is arranged with the needs of the restaurant and the employees in mind is a good way to keep employees.
Say Thank You
Without your kitchen team, service team and management team, you would not have a business. Be
sure to regularly let them know that they are appreciated, not just when there are changes coming up.
Staff who are appreciated and valued will stand by the business in good times and bad. They will also help usher in new changes and paths for the restaurant.
Module Summary
Your staff are one of the biggest assets in your restaurant. You should be sure to do what is right for both your restaurant and your employees when you are deciding on training plans, compensation
and rewarding your employees.
Remember that employees need to feel appreciated and valued if you want to keep them. As a result, they are a worthwhile investment for your business. If you invest wisely, your employees will help
you grow the restaurant and its profits.
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