When all departments—kitchen staff, hosts, servers, and management—aren’t aligned on a common outcome, there can be severe disconnects that can negatively impact your business and customer experience. Poor communication is often the root cause of a team that’s not functioning cohesively. This can manifest as employees arguing, the staff having a general lack of consideration for their coworkers, and the front-of-house and back-of-house teams not communicating.

Fortunately, we’ve assembled some tips that can improve teamwork in a restaurant while helping employees work together to produce successful results.

1. Hire wisely

Ultimately, your hiring process should predict how well a candidate will work long term with your staff and customers. Key qualities to look for in a potential hire include:

• Motivated
• Committed
• Team player
• Confident
• Good people skills
• Organized
• Enthusiastic
• Reliable
• Leader

Someone who possesses these characteristics and aligns with your restaurant’s culture is more likely to stick around for the long haul. Involving team members in the hiring process that the new employee will be working alongside is a smart way to determine whether a potential hire will seamlessly integrate into your current staff structure. For instance, a manager may be looking for very different criteria than the new recruit’s team members. If a person checks all the boxes in terms of skills and culture, but there are potential personality clashes, this will do more harm than good.

Employee retention is crucial to a well-functioning and sustainable restaurant. Less employee turnover leads to a stable work environment, which in turn boosts the spirit of your entire team. Plus, investing in staff longevity cuts down on the time and resources you’ll need to allocate to training new hires.

2. Establish effective communication

Creating effective lines of communication across all departments and team members is vital to the success of a restaurant. Like with any business, when employees are happy and working well together, they’re more likely to provide better service to customers. Establishing and modeling communication expectations starts at the top with the management team and flows down to the other employees. Managers should be adept listeners and encourage their staff to always share honest feedback.

Communication can be improved by clarifying roles, setting expectations, specifying goals, and having clear processes in place. For example, it’s important to have your daily procedures written down and conveyed during regularly scheduled staff meetings. Such tasks may include prepping food in the morning, cleaning kitchen/bar stations throughout the day, and rolling silverware at night. When all employees are communicating effectively, your restaurant’s productivity, employee satisfaction, and staff retention can all thrive.

3. Clarify roles

Ambiguity regarding roles and responsibilities can lead to unbalanced amounts of work and resentment between employees. To combat this, it’s important for roles and responsibilities to be clearly documented. This documentation should be available in an employee handbook or posted in the back-of-house, so people can refer to it.

To define roles, look at the different positions within your restaurant, including management, and decipher the job description, tasks, and responsibilities for each. It’s equally important for your staff to understand their own personal role as well as the roles of their coworkers. By crystallizing each role’s expected contribution to the restaurant, the entire staff can work together more efficiently. This can reduce conflict and ignite productivity.

4. Outline expectations

It’s the management team’s duty to outline staff expectations to ensure everyone understands what they need to accomplish each shift. This can include:

• Dress code—define what attire the front-of-house and back-of-house staff should wear during shifts
• Cleanliness—kitchen, bussers, servers, and cleaning crew should properly clean their stations each day
• Guest relations—train your staff on how to appropriately treat customers to ensure they have an ideal dining experience
• Reliability—team members should arrive on time for their shift, so they don’t inconvenience their coworkers
• Attitude—maintaining a positive and team-oriented attitude is paramount since unforeseen circumstances can arise during a restaurant shift

5. Don’t micromanage

Micromanagement is a management style where a manager closely observes or controls the work of employees. This approach typically has a negative connotation because it can imply that the manager distrusts the employee to manage their time and complete their assigned responsibilities. Major pitfalls of micromanagement can include a loss of trust between managers and team members as well as high turnover rates when unhappy employees inevitably resign. This overbearing style of management can also lead employees to be dependent on “handholding” from management rather than tapping into their own confidence and drive. It’s often said, “innovation is the key to progress.” Micromanaging does not cultivate an environment where employees feel empowered to contribute unique ideas and perspectives. Your restaurant could be missing out on revenue-generating initiatives.

If you hire employees that are a good fit and train them properly, there should be a mutual trust that tasks and responsibilities will be effectively completed. Be sure to encourage innovation from your staff, show each employee that you genuinely care about their wellbeing, and listen to all feedback you receive from team members.

6. Encourage feedback

Oftentimes, great ideas can come from unexpected places. To achieve your restaurant’s long-term goals, it’s wise to request ideas and feedback from all roles within the restaurant. Brainstorming sessions can be an efficient tool for generating ideas. This will also get team members that may not work together much to share insights and experiences that could fuel positive changes in the restaurant.

It’s also valuable to open as many feedback channels as possible. Some employees will deliver excellent insights during one-on-one meetings with their managers, whereas others may prefer to voice their opinions using an anonymous feedback box. It’s management’s job to take employee feedback seriously and make appropriate changes. This in turn can create a workplace culture where everyone feels valued, allowing the entire team and your business to flourish.

7. Reward excellent teamwork

One of the best ways to build camaraderie in a restaurant workplace is to give formal recognition for employee achievements such as excellent teamwork. If an individual goes above and beyond their role to help your business, ensure that they feel appreciated for their efforts. Also, remember to acknowledge employees who go out of their way to help other team members in need, even if this doesn’t correlate with their daily responsibilities. Showing gratitude for altruistic behavior is a surefire way to create a positive and friendly culture. Recognition can come in the form of kind words from a direct manager, or perhaps a reward like a gift card or a weekend off with a description of the achievement.

When you have a workplace where people are rewarded for helping one another, teamwork and business goals can naturally improve. In fact, organizations with formal employee recognition programs have 31% less voluntary turnover than organizations that don’t have any programs at all. And they’re 12 times more likely to have strong business outcomes. This illustrates how connected recognizing employee achievements is to your restaurant’s overall success and longevity.

8. Encourage social events

Social connections in the workplace can dramatically impact an employee’s mood, performance, and stress levels. Fostering positive workplace connections can have numerous positive outcomes for your staff such as reducing stress and increasing engagement, loyalty, and happiness—prompting an overall healthier life for your team. Curating planned social events and outings can give employees who don’t typically work together a chance to meet and bond.

Ideas that can spur socialization between departments and all team members include:

• Celebrations for birthdays, holidays, general employee appreciation, etc.
• Team building exercises
• Volunteering for a local nonprofit organization
• Team wellness challenges
• Hosting a potluck or team breakfast
• Creating a social spot in the back-of-house area
• Outings to local shows, events, and other restaurants

Be sure to regularly visit our free resource section dedicated to navigating the constantly changing foodservice industry. There, you’ll find blog articles, free downloads, and restaurant guides.

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Having a clear vision is only one piece of the puzzle, you’ll also need to have the structure and a plan to make your idea a place guests will want to visit again and again. Performing market research and crafting a comprehensive business plan is key. When building your business’ roadmap, be sure to consider all the variables that could affect your restaurant’s success. Then, once you have your plan solidified and your financing secured, it’s time to get to work making your dream a reality.

To help you get started, we developed an easy-to-use free checklist that outlines what to do and when to do it to get your restaurant up and running for a successful opening night.

The essential checklist to opening a restaurant

First

• Establish a restaurant concept
• Determine your restaurant’s name

5-6 months out

• Finalize a budget
• Find a building to rent or buy that fits in your budget for your restaurant location
• Curate and design a menu
• Find local distributors and food vendors
• Order equipment
  • Kitchen—Ovens, freezers, slicers, etc.
  • Dining Room—Tables, chairs, dishes, etc.
  • Safety equipment—Wet floor signs, fire extinguishers, floor padding, etc.
  • Office equipment—Pens, computer, paper, etc.
• Once you have a business address:
  • Apply for a business license with your city or county
  • Acquire signage permits with your local municipality
• Install outdoor signage and window lettering on location

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Communicate directly with your staff

It is vital to show your support and concern for all of your staff’s safety and health during this unpredictable time. Whether it’s mandated by your local government, or just the right thing to do, we encourage you and your teams to adopt a series of cleaning and safety measures to keep your staff and guests as safe as possible.

If one of your employees is diagnosed with coronavirus, we encourage you to make sure they’re taking the right steps to quarantine until a negative diagnosis is reached. It’s also pertinent to confirm that the infected employee has access to necessary healthcare. Also, communicate to your entire staff who came into contact with the employee so they can monitor their health and quarantine if they don’t feel comfortable coming back to work.

Deciding to close your doors

The decision to close down or to remain open is in the hands of the restaurant owner/manager. As of now, there are no government-mandated actions that force restaurants to close if an employee is diagnosed with COVID-19.

If you choose to close down your restaurant for a period of time, we suggest using that time to do a deep cleaning and increase your safety measures and protocols. Make sure all employees understand the steps you are taking to ensure top safety and health standards upon reopening.

If you choose to stay open, we suggest taking each employee’s temperature at the start of their shift and to not allow any employee in the restaurant with a fever or any sickness symptoms. Look to supplement your staff who are sick with new hires or those you may have put on furlough.

Communicate with customers

As always, it’s a good idea to keep an open line of communication and transparency with your customers. Assure your patrons that you’re taking all the necessary precautions to create a safe restaurant environment. Reiterate on your website, emails, and social media pages that this issue was uncovered because you are regularly and diligently monitoring your staff. If you do decide to close your doors for a certain period of time, upon reopening, use your social media channels, email lists, and website to communicate when you will be open. It’s also a smart idea to list out what specific safety measures you have in place (temperature checks, social distancing, employee testing, etc.) to ease customers’ trepidation for when you open your doors. Also, you can update all of your restaurant’s delivery, takeout, and marketing collateral/platforms too.

Enforce new safety procedures

During the coronavirus era it’s crucial to determine new ways to protect the safety and health of all the people who enter your restaurant’s doors. Examples of new restaurant protocols can include:

• Taking all employees’ temperatures when they arrive for their shift and again before the restaurant opens for service, logging the results daily.
• Requiring employees to wear a protective shield or face mask at all times when they are at your establishment.
• Allowing anyone who is feeling ill to stay home, no exceptions.
• If employees are sick with symptoms of COVID-19 or a fever, they must self-quarantine for 14 days or provide a negative test result before returning to work.
• Constant coaching on handwashing and sanitizing.
• Providing disposable single-use menus at each table.
• Showcasing welcome signs that reference table cleanliness and safety precautions.
• Placing personal sanitizers on each table and at each service station.
• Clearly display social distancing markers on floor.

Be sure to regularly visit our free resource section dedicated to advising restaurants on how to navigate the changing rules and regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Review your employee policies.

Believe it or not, a hidden contributor to high labor costs could be employees cutting corners. Do some of your employees take extra-long breaks? Do those employees conveniently avoid side work?
You might need to look at your employee policies.
See what can be made more specific in your employee handbook and nail down real consequences for those who break the rules. Having a POS system that records employee hours will also help you keep up on monitoring lost time and address key duties being overlooked.
While stricter policies can seem like a morale killer at first glance, ultimately employees thrive on structure, not vagueness. You’re also making sure all employees are on equal footing and doing their fair share. If your more diligent staff members keep seeing peers taking extra breaks and skimping on side work, that’s what’s really going to bring morale down — and may even ultimately cost you an employee or two.

Revise your server section chart.

Think about how many (or how few) tables you’re splitting between each server in any given shift. You could be creating pockets of underused seating, overstaffing for the sections that don’t get used often during slower shifts.
Overstaffing balloons your labor costs, but it also means the server who isn’t being assigned to the busy tables won’t be able to get strong tips that shift.
Also, adding a station at the dining room where you can organize extra silverware, napkins, small plates, etc., allows your front of house staff to easily access extra supplies without having to run all the way to the kitchen. This will improve overall service for your guests, as well as improve labor costs through efficiency.
Consider your kitchen’s layout as well. If you can put corresponding stations next to each other (and cross-train your cooks for those stations), you can let one person handle both stations for the slower shifts. Just make sure said shift is slow enough to allow that cook to do both tasks at once.

Optimize your space.

Is your dining room and bar the most efficient it could be? Inefficient seating charts can make your servers’ lives much harder as they try to navigate awkward paths to and from the kitchen. Slowing down servers and bussers with awkward dining room flow could make you think you need to staff more employees per shift, but a simple reevaluation on your seating placement can do wonders for efficiency.
The same thing applies to the kitchen. While many parts of your kitchen can’t be moved without major renovations, look to see if there are any movable stations that make more sense switched with each other.

Invest in effective equipment.

If your staff doesn’t have the right tools, they won’t be able to do their jobs efficiently.
Whether it’s getting a mandoline for your produce prep-work, upgrading your POS system to run smoother transactions, or replacing your constantly failing older oven, you’re giving your employees what they need to be efficient. This will help not only get dishes right the first time and give the guests better experiences, but will also relieve a lot of headaches for your staff, and keeps their effort optimized for you.
Similarly, make sure you’ve organized your walk-in in a way that makes sense for everyone. Your back-of-the-house staff shouldn’t have to spend five minutes in the walk-in trying to figure out where someone put the eggs. Group ingredients together (while still avoiding cross-contamination) and keep that organization consistent so your employees can quickly grab what they need every time they walk into the walk-in.
If a particular item is used very frequently in a particular location, consider smaller refrigeration units on or near the line to store those must-grab items.

Evaluate your menu.

For many restaurateurs, there’s this instinct to build up a huge menu, pulling in a wide variety of items for their guests. After all, you want to provide your customers with as many options as possible so they’ll be completely happy with their choice, right?
Unfortunately, that tactic can actually hurt your business more than it helps. Giant restaurant menus slow down the ordering process, adding more touchpoints for your servers, and reduce the amount of tableturns you can get through in a shift. All of that costs you hard money at the end of a shift.
A huge menu is also a strain on your back-of-house staff. If your menu features many many different items, it takes extra training for your kitchen staff to learn each and every recipe. It also creates a situation where you have to have more kitchen staff on duty just to execute the large menu well.
As a matter of efficiency for both servers and cooks alike, trim down your menu to a reasonable size with items that make sense on the same menu. It’s a great first start to improve your labor costs by making your staff more efficient.
Want more ideas for how to improve labor costs in your hiring process? Download our free eBook “How to Hire the Perfect Restaurant Employees” today:

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How much of my total costs should be labor?

In the restaurant industry, ideal labor costs are determined by comparison to your total sales in a given period of time. A common recommendation for restaurateurs is to allocate around 60 percent of their total sales to food and labor, otherwise known as your “prime costs.” The more you spend on labor, the less you have to spend on food, and vice versa, so the general recommendation is not to exceed 30 percent of your total sales on either.
Management salaries should not exceed 10 percent of sales for either full service or quick serve. This amount is included in the 30 percent recommendation, leaving 20 percent of your total sales in a given period for non-managerial staff.
So, for instance, if your restaurant makes $10,000 in a given week in total sales, your labor costs (hourly, salaried, and management combined) should not be more than $3,000 (with another $3,000 allocated to food costs). Of the remaining $4,000 in sales, keep in mind how much goes to rent, utilities, equipment maintenance, upkeep of small wares, and — most critical of all — federal, state, and local taxes.
It’s small wonder why the average restaurateur only manages a profit margin somewhere between two and six percent.

What are the key drivers of my restaurant labor costs?

Central to your restaurant labor costs are hourly wages and salaries for your staff.
You likely pay different employees at different rates, depending on their role and length of service. Most servers will make below minimum wage (The federal government requires a wage of at least $2.13 per hour be paid to employees that receive at least $30 per month in tips. This may be higher in some states and local municipalities, however.).
But your cooks, dishwasher, bussers, hosts, and any other staff not receiving tips will be making at least minimum wage for your local area. To determine the cost of their labor on a weekly basis, multiply the number of hours worked by each individual’s hourly rate, and then add them all together.

     Hourly wage
x   Number of hours worked in a week
=  Weekly cost

If any of your hourly employees worked overtime — or you see a certain amount of overtime repeating on a weekly basis — be sure to add that up (at the higher hourly rate) as well.
Your managers are likely salaried, including the head chef or kitchen manager, so the weekly cost of their labor is determined by dividing their annual salary by 52 (the number of weeks in a year).

     Annual salary
÷  52 (weeks)
=  Weekly cost

You can then add that total to the total of your hourly paid labor to get your base labor costs. Don’t forget to add in your own salary as an owner, too!
Unfortunately, that’s not all you have to consider when figuring out your total labor costs. The costs associated with any benefits you provide, such as health insurance, employer 401(k) contributions, or paid time off, have to be factored in as well. The base cost (not menu price) of meals you comp your employees is also a significant labor cost, as is laundering and replacing staff uniforms, if applicable.

How can I forecast restaurant labor costs?

Confidently forecasting your restaurant labor costs requires knowing two big things: the individual (per person) costs above, and a reasonable estimation of how your sales fluctuate on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
In other words, in order to forecast your front AND back of house labor costs, you need to be able to forecast your restaurant sales, too. There’s a really simple formula to forecasting baseline sales on a per shift or day basis for full service restaurants:

     Number of tables
x   Average seating per table
x   Average ticket size (per person)
x   Number of table turns
=  Sales estimate

For instance, if your restaurant has 10 tables, with an average of 4 guests per table, who spend $20 per guest on average — and your staff can usually turn each table one time per shift (for a total of 2 seatings) — your calculation will be: 10 x 4 x 25 x 2 = $2,000.
Repeat this calculation for each shift, being really cognizant of how different a Friday night dinner shift may be from a Monday night shift, or how the breakfast crowd orders differently from the lunch crowd. Get as specific as your restaurant traffic demands. It will help you more accurately forecast your needs, saving you money in the long run.
Limited service restaurants without table turns need to rely on patterns of sales they see over a period of time in order to make accurate estimates. A good point-of-sale system should be able to provide this information in digestible fashion, but if you’re starting from scratch (or have not updated your POS), the formula gets simpler:

     Number of transactions per shift
x   Average ticket size (per transaction)
=  Sales estimate

Once you have an accurate understanding of sales per shift, per day, and per week, you can start assessing your labor need. If a shift will make $2,000, and you want to assign 30% of your sales to labor, that’s $600 worth of labor to assign to that shift.
No more than one-third of that should be for managers ($200) and the other two-thirds applied to hourly or other salaried workers ($400).

What if my costs are too high?

If you find that your labor costs are too high compared to your weekly sales (i.e. over 30 percent on a regular basis), it’s probably time to take a hard look at your staffing. You may be scheduling too many employees per shift, or missing opportunities to control costs in three key areas: hiring, training, and career development opportunities.
In the meantime, ask your hourly staff to be sure they aren’t clocking in earlier than 15 minutes before their shift, and that they clock out when their shift is truly over, not 15 minutes later when they have all their stuff ready to leave. Paying a single employee for an extra 15 minutes probably doesn’t seem like much, but paying every one of your employees each for an extra 15 minutes every day can add up to hundreds of dollars very quickly.
Just be aware: some states require employers to pay hourly staff for time to “set up,” particularly when uniforms or other shift change procedures are required, as well as prohibit making employees clock out for breaks and meal time. Please consult your local laws and/or your attorney to get more detailed information.
Want to investigate other ways to keep your labor costs down? Download our free eBook on “How to Reduce Your Restaurant Labor Costs and Save Money” today:

Rewards Network® does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal, or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

The post How to Forecast Your Restaurant Labor Costs appeared first on Rewards Network.

Breaking into “The Boys’ Club”

Women represent half of both management and staff in restaurants nationwide, but barriers still exist when it comes to the perception of the quality of their work — and sometimes their actual presence. Navigating the working environment for women is complicated, awkward, and complex. Managing past the cliquey behavior among male employees (including higher-level staff) — and other elements of the atmosphere that leave women feeling excluded — can be quite difficult.

This is especially true at independently or family-owned restaurants that have built (or been built from) longstanding friendships and associations. While this behavior can be quite innocent and unintended, cliquey behavior in male employees can have repercussions for the health and well being of your staff over time.

One solution to alleviate this phenomenon is developing an open culture for employees and managers at your restaurant. Open book management often focuses squarely on the financial aspects of a business, providing transparency to the success and challenges of the establishment as a whole to every worker — from dishwasher to head chef and everyone in between.

One of this practice’s prominent side effects is enabling every employee to have their voice heard in maintaining the health of every aspect of the business. This gives both women and men employees opportunities to be heard — not just by you, but by each other — in a forum that won’t favor long-time employees or any kind of “boy’s club.” The key to success of an open culture is leadership’s management of staff interactions in the spirit of openness the process encourages.  This is not an easy path to follow, but as the diversity of the workforce continues to grow, it is a necessity for your business to thrive. An open work environment, is just good business.

Gendered Pre-Conceptions

Restaurants may have policies committed to gender diversity, but it is a struggle to put that commitment into successful practice. Restaurant owners and managers should treat gender diversity like the business imperative that it is, and that starts with better communication, more training, and clearer focus on the results.

Gender bias can be as innocent as only asking men to lift and move heavy boxes, or as insidious as presuming women employees won’t be as good at math as the men. Pre-conceived notions about staff that arise from gender bias can have a real debilitating effect on staff as a whole. At its worst, these types of assumptions would appear to contribute significantly to the gender imbalance we see in workplace roles today.

Even though there are nearly equal numbers of men and women working in the industry, we still see pockets of the industry today where 7 out of 10 servers, but only 2 out of 10 chefs, are women. Some of that distillation may start showing at the hiring level, but in truth, pre-conceived notions of gender value — and who feels welcome in what position — goes all the way back to early training and culinary school applications for many women in the industry.

Restaurant managers and owners must make an effort to cater their reactions and instructions to the actual skill set each employee brings to the table, regardless of gender. This needs to be true in daily interactions with existing staff and in the entire hiring process, from resume read to final decision.

It’s not just about fairness, even though as an ethical business owner that is important. It’s also simply good business sense to be able to recognize talent and valuable resources on an individual basis. Your restaurant benefits from every skill your team can bring to the table. There is no value in ignoring any of it, especially given the growing challenge of filling positions.

Work-Life Balance

Two-thirds of women today are shouldering the burden of breadwinning — either alongside an also-working spouse or partner or making it alone as a single parent. This opens up a challenge for work-life balance that most families over half a century ago didn’t have to face. In addition to supporting children and functioning as their primary caregivers, more women than men are becoming primary caregivers for elderly parents, who are now living longer than in decades past.

This extra responsibility outside the workplace can leave women at a statistical disadvantage, both in terms of advancement and perceived diligence among supervisors (male or female) who may not experience the same additional burdens in their home lives.

Making reasonable accommodations (and planning schedules based on employees’ real needs) as a manager or owner is only half the battle. Employees need to plan for as many contingencies and variables as possible so as to disrupt their workplace as little as necessary. And above all, leave guilt at the curb. There’s an enormous pressure in our country to be the “perfect mother,” “perfect daughter,” or “perfect employee.” Do your best, lean on those willing to support you, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Challenging Customer Service

When so much of your job is dealing with customers directly, it’s practically unavoidable that most women in the front of house will experience additional challenges from guests. No amount of in-house training can stop a customer walking in off the street from being condescending or suggestive, but smart training can suggest ways for servers and hosts to handle and diffuse the situation.

Staff needs to know it’s ok to stand up for themselves when necessary, and that includes talking to a manager about incidents that make them uncomfortable. Don’t wave off customers being inappropriate, especially since some men can choose to see a polite smile as an excuse to push even more.

If a customer continues to make an employee uncomfortable and won’t take the hint, see if a co-worker of the opposite gender can take over the table while the server goes “on break.”; if things get really serious, especially in a bar setting, do not be afraid to ask security staff for assistance. And be certain your managers are ready to back their employees up, as well. The best policies are those enacted all the way from the top to the bottom and back again.

Ultimately, don’t let tips decide your behavior. It can be frustrating, but physical safety and self-worth are more important than those dollars. If you’re afraid for your or your server’s safety, it’s always better to have a manager intervene, even if it means a customer leaves without tipping.

Sexual Harassment from Management or Co-Workers

The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) defines sexual harassment as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature … [and] offensive remarks about a person’s sex.”

The EEOC goes on to say that “Both victim and the harasser can be either a woman or a man, and the victim and harasser can be the same sex. Although the law doesn’t prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in … the victim being fired or demoted.”

While 90 percent of women working in restaurants have experienced sexual harassment on the job, it’s not always from a boss. To wit, according to the 2014 report on Sexual Harassment funded by the advocacy organization Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United, women in the restaurant field identified being targeted at these percentages overall:

• 67 percent experienced harassment from managers
• 69 percent from co-workers
• 78 percent from customers

In short, harassers can be anyone from a restaurant owner present on a daily basis to a visiting vendor who shows up once a month for a delivery.

And the lowest paid employees (those making the tipped sub-minimum wage set at $2.13 per hour — plus tips — since 1991) are traditionally the ones most at risk of experiencing sexual harassment.

It’s important for restaurant owners and managers to consult their corporate attorney in establishing a thorough sexual harassment policy, as well as a set of ongoing training for all employees that supports openness and prevents repercussions for those who report incidents of harassment. With two-thirds of women restaurant workers surveyed by ROC United feeling they would face negative repercussions if they reported sexual harassment by their manager, it’s important for managers to put that fear to rest if female employees are truly going to feel safe and respected in the workplace.

Your restaurant has an important role to play in reaching gender equality, and everyone benefits when you succeed. A fairer, more inclusive work environment will lead to more engaged employees, which we know results in a successful business that attracts more engaged customers. Gender equality is good for your restaurant, your employees, and for all of us.

Want an overview on other workplace challenges in regard to pay and benefits for women in the restaurant industry?

Rewards Network® does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

The National Restaurant Association also provides educational opportunities on a variety of these topics, including through training DVDs focused on harassment, social media use, and customer service. These can be found here.

The post Balancing Act: Navigating the Restaurant Workplace for Women appeared first on Rewards Network.

1. Encourage real honesty.

It’s a common misconception in the workplace that conflict is always bad. Yes, animosity and anger can have detrimental effects on your business, but not all conflict is negative. Sometimes, conflict between employees, including between managers and staff, can be productive, especially if it’s understood as welcomed and handled by all parties with respect for each other.
Accept that conflict can help along positive change, and ask your staff for respectful pushback and dissent when they disagree. Handle business disagreements out in the open (out of sight of the customer, of course), and leave anonymity to more private personnel issues.
Suggestion boxes are great for customers who don’t have the opportunity to interact with you on a daily basis, but restricting employee feedback to be read at a later date, often anonymously, can breed contempt and suspicion. Without the moderation of tone that happens with an open conversation, or the freedom to speak up when an issue is actually pertinent, your employees may feel their feedback isn’t valued, even with an outlet to provide it.

2. Pay attention.

Non-verbal cues can be as loud as words. The facial expressions and body language of your employees can be useful feedback all on their own, if you learn how to read it. Pay special attention when body language feels like it doesn’t match up with the words you’re hearing. You could be misinterpreting tone, or you could have a staff person that doesn’t feel comfortable being honest (but can’t hide their true feelings well). This is your opportunity to subtly remind your employees that you truly value their honest feedback, even if it involves something they consider harsh truths.

3. Question your inner narration.

Are you constantly telling yourself things are fine? Do you brush off worries your staff shares as inconsequential? You could be seeing what you want to see, not what actually is — and discouraging employee feedback in the process. If you find yourself making snap judgments in your head, try to challenge your own perceptions privately, in order to be open to the perspectives of your employees publicly.
But also be sure not to imagine problems where there aren’t any. That could discourage openness among your staff just as easily, as they may be resistant to bringing up small impact items for fear they could becomes “mountains made out of molehills.” It’s a critical balance to manage, but one that’s incredibly easier to maintain if you keep honest and open communication a priority.

4. Be honest about your own blindspots.

If you know you have particular buttons that are easily pushed, or certain issues that make you defensive, take ownership of that and let other people call you on it. Encourage it, even. If you have a manager or co-manager, this might be the right person to ask directly for that kind of help. It’s a lot to ask of someone that reports directly to you, especially if the lines of communication are still a work in progress. But another employee in a senior position should be able to call out your reactions one-on-one, and vice versa.

5. Apologize when you’re wrong.

It seems like a really simple thing, but a genuine apology when you do something wrong, even something small, can go a long way toward indicating your openness to feedback. Just be sure what you give is a genuine apology. “I’m sorry you feel that way.” is not an apology. It doesn’t need to be dramatic or drawn out, just sincere.

6. Don’t limit employee feedback.

A lot of written feedback mechanisms that managers and employers use (like online surveys or review questionnaires) can ask pointed questions or not allow for open-ended comments. This sends a subtle, but clear, message that your business is only interested in hearing what it wants to hear, good or bad. It’s also much easier to skew the answers you receive if you provide leading questions, which may end up produced biased results when looked at later on.
Ultimately, it is absolutely important to be direct and specific in the types of questions you may ask your employees, but don’t forget to balance that specificity with an opportunity for open comments. You may be surprised (pleasantly, even) with what you discover when you do.

7. Don’t only rely on once-a-year reviews.

It’s great to have a formal review process, but unless you are incorporating 360 feedback reviews (i.e. reviews of every employee — including yourself — by those above, lateral, and below them on the org chart), your staff’s review time is not the place to discuss YOU. It’s their time to discuss their performance, areas of improvement, and growth opportunities.
Even if you are employing 360 feedback, it’s important not to relegate communication between you and your staff to one time of year. It should be an evolving, ever-present process. Getting honest feedback from staff is critical to employee satisfaction over time, but it’s also critical to the success of your business. It opens doors you may not have even realized were there. And when that feedback can translate into positive change, everyone benefits in your restaurant — employees, customers, and you.
Want to dig deeper into how to manage employee conflict? Download our free eBook on “Building a Better Restaurant Staff” today!

The post 7 Steps to Getting Real Employee Feedback in Your Restaurant appeared first on Rewards Network.

Restaurant Manager Salary in Your Segment

Beyond the obvious differences in compensation between a general manager, kitchen manager (which may very well be your chef), and assistant manager, your restaurant manager salary is going to depend a significant amount on the segment of the industry your restaurant occupies.
In the 2016 Restaurant Management Salary Survey conducted by Gecko Hospitality, a recruiting firm in Fort Myers, TX, that specifically targets the hospitality industry, starting salaries for general manager positions are broken up into six distinct categories, with the following average results in 2016:

(These averages are not classified by geography, but taken as a true average of 125 female and 412 male survey respondents nationwide.)

While quick serve and fast casual (both limited service) are pretty close in line with family style (defined as full service without alcoholic beverages), we see a fairly large jump to full service in both casual and upscale casual, and yet another, predictably, in general manager positions for upscale/fine dining. Not only do we see salaries go up with average check size, but as the expectation and requirement of service rises, so does the corresponding compensation.
Makes sense, right?

Experience vs. Salary

What’s less easy to nail down is how restaurant manager salary fluctuates with experience — and with the corresponding training your restaurant is willing or able to offer a new hire.
Many corporate-owned restaurants will recruit managers with relatively little experience (but college degrees) and fast track their education through a set training program. These management trainees will learn restaurant operations, both in formal classroom setting and on the job working with more experienced managers, until they pass a formalized set of guidelines that determine readiness to take on a unit of their own. These specific skills include opening and closing procedures, employee training, financial reports, and general human resources leadership tactics.
Restaurants without the structure or luxury to train new managers alongside existing ones will likely look to candidates with one to five years of experience in management. This could mean promoting someone internally or recruiting from outside, but these restaurant managers may only have a high school diploma. What they don’t have in formal education, they make up for in practical, on-the-job learning that may be more difficult to get in a fast-tracked educational environment.
While these two larger scenarios may not have significant salary differences in aggregate, it seems reasonable that a candidate with ten years of restaurant manager experience is going to have a salary expectation higher than an applicant with one year. A manager with formalized training may be more understanding about how their end goal salary will look the same whether they started with a bachelor’s degree or a high school diploma.
Set your own expectations for experience and level up from average range if the restaurant manager you want to bring in has more years under their belt than the minimum.

Gender Discrepancy in Restaurant Manager Salary

Something applicants distinctly recognize in the overall job market — and specifically the restaurant industry — in 2018 is the perceived gender gap in pay. And, as we saw in the Gecko Hospitality survey results, there is a reported 5-15% gap in pay between men and women for the same general manager roles. While this discrepancy in restaurant manager salary may be difficult to discern as an independent operator with only one restaurant manager salary to compare at a time, even seasoned vets are surprised by the results.
In reviewing the survey results, Robert Krzak, President of Geck Hospitality, observed, “We ran the numbers four times to make sure. [Women] are widely sought after for these positions, but when you look at how they are compensated you ask ‘what’s going on here? Are you kidding me?’ It’s really jaw dropping.”
Across almost every geographic location and segment of the restaurant industry, female managers report making less than their male colleagues. And your applicants know it. It’s more important than ever to take extra care to deliberately establish your restaurant manager salary agnostic of the gender of your candidates.

Federal Wage Regulations

While there aren’t specific federal wage regulations for management positions in the restaurant industry or any other, there are a few considerations to keep top of mind when setting your restaurant manager salary to save you hassle and money in the long run.
The restaurant manager’s job is tough, no bones about it. It often requires long hours, and most certainly more than a 40 hour work week. It’s important to establish your manager as exempt from federal requirement for overtime pay from the very start so that your actual restaurant manager salary doesn’t end up ballooning right before your eyes.
Currently, federal law sets the annual salary level for exemption from overtime pay at $23,660. Rules set in place in 2016 by President Obama’s administration, and since prevented from taking effect, raised that minimum annual salary for exemption to $47,476. It is expected now that when the Department of Labor issues its new recommendations for regulation, that number will fall somewhere in-between, likely in the low $30,000 range.
In terms of the salary averages presented above, its very unlikely any new federal regulations will be a problem in 2018, but it’s worth considering, particularly if hiring for assistant manager positions at your establishment.

Benefits Beyond the Restaurant Manager Salary

Ultimately, the biggest factor beyond local competition that may determine if your restaurant manager salary is indeed attractive is all the things that come with it that aren’t actually the salary itself. The benefits and considerations your restaurant offers its employees — manager included — could tip the scales for an applicant who is looking at the full picture in terms of compensation.
Health insurance is obviously a critical matter for restaurant employees going into 2018, but so is paid sick and personal time. Both of these benefits may seem like huge expenses, but their careful application can end up benefitting your bottom line just as much as your individual employee’s. Having to pay overtime for hourly employees covering shifts is unavoidable no matter what benefits you provide, but the number of days a sick employee is out — not to mention the number of people they can spread their illness to when resistant to calling in for unpaid time — is a huge factor in driving up unnecessary overtime and emergency call-outs.
Work-life balance generally is a big consideration for many managers, particularly for Millennials having worked in the industry now for upwards of 10 to 15 years. Making sure your candidates understand the full package of compensation — and not just the one number attached to a restaurant manager salary — could make the difference between an enthusiastic yes on offer and a reluctant no.
Want a leg up when you start to interview managers? Download our free list of “10 Interview Questions to Ask When Hiring Restaurant Staff” today!

Rewards Network does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

The post What You Need to Know Before Setting a Restaurant Manager Salary appeared first on Rewards Network.

Sure, amazing food should always be a top priority. But dining at a really good restaurant is also like a mini-holiday — and it’s the sum of a million little things that make that holiday a truly stress-free, relaxing getaway.

And so, it’s the same when you eat at a brilliant restaurant. Just like a great holiday destination can be ruined by a terrible holiday experience, there’s more to a good restaurant than just great food and drink.

As a customer, it’s all about the service you receive. As a cafe, restaurant, or any other food establishment owner or manager, delivering great customer service must simply be the top priority after having an excellent product.

Of course, getting there is a little trickier. If you think your customer service might be slightly lagging, here are few sure ways to give your offering a definite boost:

1. Efficiency

A great food establishment runs like clockwork. If customers are complaining that food takes too long to arrive, and staff seem stressed and disorganised, chances are your basic processes need to go under the microscope.

It sounds obvious, but how much do you actually know about what your staff are doing? Are you sure their processes are working? Are they following through with how you trained them? Are you sure their training was right in the first place?

Remember, good service starts from the moment a customer enters that front door and doesn’t finish until they leave satisfied, so watch and quiz your staff about what precisely they ‘do’ at each step of the way, and whether it’s really working.

2. Equipment

Good restaurant management is one thing, but it’s not possible without all the right gear. It could be that sticking with your ‘old faithful’ catering equipment saves you money today, but a wise investment could make it easier and faster for your staff to deliver good food to your eager customers.

It doesn’t end behind the scenes either. A ‘bad fork’ or a mismatched water glass could be the one negative thing that tainted an otherwise perfect night at your restaurant, and prove ultimately just as important as your state-of-the-art e and comfortable chairs.

3. The Menu

Well trained, friendly, efficient — these are all necessary qualities, but basic training for restaurant staff should also stress the importance of knowing the menu inside and out. Asking a server if there’s something they recommend is a common query — and a blank stare rather than a confident answer is not only off-putting, but a clear sign that even the staff aren’t proud or invested in your establishment.

Knowledge around your product is also vital if, as often happens, a customer needs to know if any menu items contain specific ingredients. Food intolerances and allergies are becoming increasingly more common, so training your wait staff in what dietary requirements are will help them help the customer. Even if the wait staff are the friendliest a customer has ever met, not getting a good answer is as sure a signal as any that your customer service is not worth writing a good review about.

4. The Staff

Unfortunately, turnover of staff in service industries is notoriously high, which makes hiring and retaining hospitality staff a particular challenge for food establishment managers.

Restaurant management that listens as well as they train is a great first step when it comes to staff retention. Once staff know exactly what is expected of them, keeping those lines of communication open means every person will feel engaged and involved with how processes can be constantly improved, fostering genuine pride within a cohesive ‘team’.

But another common reason staff leave is because there is little incentive to stay. Many managers will therefore implement reward schemes, which go beyond offering top pay and a few perks. Turning hospitality work into a career choice with flexible hours, social or sports programs, and even bonuses for reaching targets are all extra ways to engage staff and keep them working for you. If the staff are happy, chances are they will be more willing to go the extra mile for your customers.

5. The Complaints

While it’s all too easy to tell an angry customer not to slam the door on the way out, a great restaurant manager will regard a complaint as a pot of gold. Over 90% of unsatisfied customers will not actually complain — so you’ll never actually find out what their problem was!

That doesn’t mean every complaint is right, but it does mean that every complaint should be seen as an opportunity. It’s one of the easiest ways to identify faulty processes and isolate substandard catering supplies, and highlight staff members who need better training.

In summary, every complaint is a challenge to the status quo — and for the open and evolving food establishment, that can mean getting things done better in the future.

6. Your Restaurant (It’s all about the customer.)

While it’s tempting to say a great restaurant is all about the food, that’s actually not right. A great restaurant is all about the customer, and whether their experience from walking in the door to walking out left them feeling great.

Happy customers will spend more, come back again and again, and tell all their friends that the care and respect shown by the staff was just as good as the delicious food on their plates. And that’s why constantly and honestly monitoring, analysing, and improving customer service should be an absolute priority for every cafe, restaurant, and food establishment.

Want more insight into how overall experience drives more return visits? Download our free eBook “The Key to Successful Restaurant Marketing” today!

The post 6 Ways to Improve Customer Service in Your Restaurant appeared first on Rewards Network.

The interview process when hiring chefs is a tight rope stretched between digging deep into their professional cooking experience and getting to know what they’re like as a leader. Excellence in only one of those two categories is simply not enough. And having to bounce between these two very different — but necessary — skillsets can be overwhelming when organizing the questions you plan to ask.

Here are some specific things to keep in mind when hiring chefs for your restaurant:

It’s not just about cooking …

Yes, being a good cook is a big part of being any kind of chef. But when you get up to the head of the kitchen, it can’t just be about making good food. There are plenty of non-cooking related responsibilities for a head chef.

It comes down to your bottom line, and if your head chef can’t handle food costs or get sloppy managing staff, there goes your bottom line. You want to make sure any applicants in the running know their stuff.

When hiring chefs, be sure to ask: Do you have experience expediting and performing line checks? Were you part of the menu and recipe building process in your previous positions? Do you know how to properly review supplier deliveries?

This also applies to leadership. Make sure to ask them about their past leadership positions. Have they run a back-of-house set up before?

What’s their leadership style? Give them shift scenarios where they have to delegate responsibilities or moderate a problem. Many chefs lean hard into a tough, drill sergeant style of leadership and you should know up front if that’s what you’re looking for in your kitchen. Are they going to mesh well with your front-of-house managers’ leadership styles? Are they going to mesh well with your leadership style?

… but cooking is still important.

Depending on the kitchen and how many staff members you have, your head chef might not be cooking every shift in your establishment. Their other priorities as the head of your kitchen will take up a lot of his time on a day-to-day level.

That being said, things happen. If your back-of-the-house is ever short staffed (or there’s a much busier shift than normal and the team feels overwhelmed), you should expect your head chef to be able to jump into any one of the roles in his kitchen and help out as needed. Keeping their cooking skills up to snuff should be a priority for your chef and finding out where an applicant is at on that front is a priority when hiring chefs.

Chefs need to align with your brand …

There are so many amazing chefs working today, but not all of them are going to be a good fit for your brand and restaurant concept. When hiring chefs — going through resumes and conducting interviews — keep your restaurant concept in the back of your mind and ask questions specific to your brand.

Do they like your menu’s direction? Does their culinary background fit within your cuisine? Have they worked with the type of cooking equipment you use in your kitchen now? Do you and the applicant have the same viewpoints when it comes to community building and professional philanthropic endeavors? If you offer catering, do they have experience cooking off-site and managing a catering staff?

… but they need their own voice, too.

While you and your chef should be on the same page with your brand, you still want your executive chef to have a distinct point of view. If an applicant looks at your menu and has no suggestions for how to build on what you’ve done, that’s a red flag.

Ultimately, a great chef should be ready to brainstorm with you to come up with ideas for the food. A balance between ambition for growth and respecting the brand already built up is key.

You have to sell them on your restaurant.

While you hold a lot of the power as the interviewer when hiring chefs, you’re also introducing the interviewee to their potential new workplace. As you’re asking questions and explaining the different facets of the restaurant, don’t be afraid to express why you’re proud of your business.

Let them know the kind of dynamic you’ve created for the kitchen, the quality dishes you’re serving customers, and the impact you want to bring to the community. Ultimately, you want the strongest applicants to walk away hoping they get the job so when you call them back, they don’t even hesitate in accepting your offer.

Lastly, be thorough when hiring chefs.

Don’t just contact their references — also contact previous employers on their resume. Ask them about how the applicant worked in a team setting, and how they contributed to the strength of the business. Ask if there’s anything they wish the applicant would have done better. If they’ve bounced around several restaurants over the past few years, make a point to ask their former employers why they left.

Even before the interview, it could be a good idea to ask around to your professional acquaintances in the area to see what they’ve heard about this chef. And while not a complete deal breaker, if many of the previous restaurants the chef has worked for aren’t in business anymore, that might be a red flag something is up.

Want an easy template for what to ask when hiring chefs — or any other restaurant employee? Download our free eTool “10 Interview Questions to Ask When Hiring Restaurant Staff”:

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