When you own a small business, you don’t have time to be hands-on all the time. Restaurant owners, especially those with multiple venues, rely on their managerial staff to bring success in their absence or while they’re otherwise occupied with bigger-picture concerns. They’re the first ones that employees turn to in a crisis, they’ll handle customer complaints, and will need to make hard decisions on the fly every day while they’re on duty.
Because they play such a crucial role in the business, all of your managers need to know the ins and outs of the restaurant as well as you do. They should understand exactly what you want done as well as how to do it; since they’ll be overseeing more junior staff, management should understand their jobs just as well, so they can guarantee the business’s needs are met.
Training Done Right, Every Time
Implementing a new training system can be time-consuming, but it’s ultimately worthwhile to detail out all of the expectations for the job so orientation is streamlined every subsequent time you do it. All managers, for as long as you’re in business, get the same training so no matter who’s on shift, you know your standards are being met. Start with some of the qualities you put in the initial job posting and build from there.
What other ways can you set your managers up for success?
Checklists keep everyone on the right track and guarantee they don’t forget to do any important daily tasks, especially since unexpected occurrences happen all the time on the service floor. Create detailed lists for every position, not just managers, to clearly set your expectations so nobody’s left floundering when it counts. Checklists also give managers a clear idea of each role so they can make sure employees are meeting their goals.
Budgets give managers a metric to measure up against so they can loosely track their success from day to day. Empowering them to monitor their own effectiveness takes some of that responsibility off your shoulders. With restaurant technologies like the Point of Sale powered by eatOS, you get sales reports automatically generated for better analysis. Compare your budget to the real monthly numbers and know if the systems you have in place actually work. If not, it might be time to readjust.
eatOS technology has workforce management (WFM) features that let you isolate your breakout stars from managers who could maybe use a little more training. You can give your managers special permissions different from other employees in our interface as well, setting them up with all the tools necessary for success.
The best training is a two-way street of open communication and mutual understanding. Often, people flourish with encouragement and clear instruction. Acting like a mentor as well as their boss is part of leading by example: Show them their own potential and many will impress.
Carve out time, either during training or early in their first shifts, to go through their tasks together so you can coach through any trouble. Without judgment, explaining how to improve their performance to your standards can drive the lesson home much more effectively than fear. Giving them time, space and understanding to get a hang of the job will set them up for success in their long-term career as well as strengthen your professional relationship, which does serve a material benefit: They’re getting something special at your restaurant that they can’t get elsewhere, which strengthens their commitment to the brand. Not only will this push them to work harder, but they’re more likely to stay rather than succumbing to the high employee turnover rates in the industry.
Management Training: Are You Leaving Your Restaurant in the Right Hands?
Management training is an opportunity for everyone to create a more productive work environment with a secure, well-oiled supervisory squad, so nobody forgets to refill the ice machine after a kid’s birthday party overlaps with the middle school soccer team celebrating their game. Invest in developing your staff; you’ll appreciate what effect the rise in level-headed productivity has on your restaurant’s reputation, workforce morale, and net profit.
Welcome to restaurant management made simple, with eatOS.
