Restaurant Job Board Blog

The Saratoga Institute in the US conducted a survey and it revealed that 89% of managers believe employees leave for more money. But, in fact, the survey found that 88% of employees leave for reasons other than money. What a disconnect!

In reality, most employees are leaving because of poor induction, poor training, lack of development opportunities and bad management.

Experts have estimated the cost of replacing an employee to be between 29 and 45% of an employees annual salary when lost productivity, training and advertising costs are taken into account.

When your employees start working for you, how thorough is your training process?

The first impression your employee gets will either set them up for failure or success and you want to ensure it’s the latter.

Orientation shouldn’t end with details about where to hang your coat and how to sign in and out. In order to give your staff a proper start, you should provide them with a comprehensive training package.

A good orientation and training package contains:

• New employee form
• Company information
• Job description
• Employee Handbook
• Manuals & Menus

New Employee Form

The new employee form should contain their contact info, position, availability, payroll and tax information, workers compensation information. If you do direct deposit for payroll, you will need their banking information or a void check. It is important to get all of this information before they start their first shift, and to keep it all together in their personnel file. Nothing will annoy an employee more than not getting their hard earned wages on time so use this form to get it right.

Company Information

You should provide the company name, address, phone number, email address, and website contact information. Other items to include are business hours, a description of the bar or restaurant concept, and anything else that is important for a new employee to know. If it’s a large establishment, it might be a good idea to provide a management chart (who is the boss, who are the supervisors, who reports to whom, etc.) so that the employee knows who to go to when they have a question.

Job Description

This is something that sometimes doesn’t get passed along to a new employee, especially if they are an experienced bartender, and they are going to be bartending for you. However, it’s important to list the details of their job, so that they are aware of your expectations. Keep the job description to a single page if possible, but list their regular duties and immediate supervisor on it.

Policies and Procedures

If you don’t have a policy manual, you should put one in place. Basic policies about employee conduct on and off shift, details about scheduling, on-calls, shift covering, illness and so on can differ from bar to bar, so it’s important to put your rules down on paper so everyone knows them. Writing things down also ensures that all employees get measured with the same stick. An Employee Handbook is the ideal way to document this information in one easy place and allows an employee to refer to it at anytime.

Manuals & Menus

Be sure your employees have copies of each menu you use – lunch, dinner, happy hour, cocktail, wine, specials, etc. Ensure that they have had adequate training on the items that you sell, and that they are comfortable with the menu options and pricing. This will ensure that their POS or order training goes smoothly.

Now that your new employee has their new training package, don’t leave them on their own just yet. Proper training should contain shadow shifts in the various areas of the restaurant or bar so that the employee learns your way of doing things. Staff turnover can be decreased by ensuring that your training process is solid.

Taking the extra time from the start to train your new employees thoroughly is an invaluable step in the success of your employees and the success of your bar or restaurant.

If anyone wants these forms and templates they can visit ManageYourBar.com

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Barry Chandler is Managing Director of ManageYourBarOnline.com, the complete online resource for independent bar and club owners and operators, designed to assist bar owners manage their business more effectively and provide all the tools/downloads/templates/articles for prospective bar owners to research and plan their new bar.

I recently had an interview with Matthew W. Ray from WorkAlertz.com who happens to have a really interesting service that can help businesses involved in the hospitality industry manage their employees better through the communication of SMS (aka cell phone texting).  Let’s face it, your younger employees text, why not communicate on a level they want to be communicated with.

Here is how the interview went:

Matt, tell us a bit about your background in or how it relates to the hospitality industry?

In the summer of 2000, just like any normal teenager, it was time to get a part-time summer job. I spent the better part 6 years in a pizzeria, with nearly 50 employees, called Pontillo’s Pizzeria in Bushnell’s Basin, NY while juggling school and a business internship on the side. I worked my way up from dishwasher to manager in a short few years, learning as much of the business as I could and realizing the scheduling hassles first hand. From there, I was able to feel the pains of missed shifts, finding shift covers, and wasting time on the phone and not enough time with the customer. When I joined the MyMinderz, with bootstrap founders Dan Agnew and Steve Palo, we had many long discussions about a next-generation notification company. I was sold and wanted to spend my spare time coming up with something really great. We have started with WorkAlertz, to become the leader in work schedule notification, and will soon launch a whole suite of applications that fit under the MyMinderz patent-pending privacy platform.

What do you think are the main challenges managers and supervisors have with scheduling?

The main challenges management has with scheduling is making sure they have shifts covered properly. Keeping a properly staffed facility with call-ins and no shows takes time away from your customer. Managing employee time-off requests is a nightmare when juggling through 20+ pieces of oddly shaped, illegibly written employee notes.

What do you think are the main challenges that managers have with their staff in regards to schedules?

Many hospitality jobs are flexible part-time positions. It’s a challenge to manage employees fluctuating availability and conflicts to schedules based on school, sports, and second jobs. It’s always time consuming and there’s plenty of room for error. Many younger employees also forget when they are working, especially when their shifts are changing from week to week. One of the last challenges managers have is employees disrupting operations by calling in or stopping by to get their schedule and request time-off. All the unnecessary time spent with scheduling hassles should be spent on the customer experience.

What do you think are the things that can help hospitality staff with their schedules?

Having 24/7 access to their work schedule would be a huge benefit to any hospitality staff member. Getting their individual work schedule on their cell phone as a text is really getting embraced for obvious reasons – they love it! Being able to view the department’s entire schedule online helps employees find coverage if they need time-off. Saving personal time by not needing to call in or drive in to view their schedule and take time off.

Tell us a bit about your product and how it addresses these challenges?

WorkAlertz is an online work schedule notification system that is a easy-to-use solution for scheduling and communicating with employees. Employees aren’t calling and stopping in to see when they’re working or having the excuse that they forgot when they were scheduled. Employees can opt-in to receive notifications before every shift and are now on-time. Being a software application, no one needs to download any software ever!

How does it help if a staff doesn’t have a cellphone?

WorkAlertz can also send employees’ schedules to their e-mail and Facebook accounts. The manager can still print the schedule in a clean, pre-formatted printout if desired to post on the wall in the back room. Time-off can still be taken off online at home, at work, and at school.

How does it help when a staff member is running late?

WorkAlertz can send shift reminders before every shift if desired by the employee. Many places have varying weekly shifts for their employees. From the management’s perspective, it takes the old excuse “I forgot when I was working” out of the equation. It really makes the employees more accountable.

How does it help the staff in switching shifts?

The employees can view the entire staff’s schedule so they can see who’s not working and make the initial call before getting the manager’s approval. Just like before, but without stopping by or calling in to disrupt business operations.

Does it help with on call type staff such as in night clubs, busy holidays, catering, etc?

WorkAlertz’ StaffAlertz module is a truly great time-saver. You can send messages to employees filtered by schedule and those who are working or not working. You can even type in who can’t come in and it will automatically generate a message based on their shift assignment and send it to employees not scheduled. It increases communication with your staff 100%!

Are the staff’s cellphone numbers private when using this system?

WorkAlertz runs on the MyMinderz patent-pending privacy platform which protects users’ cell phone numbers just like many online financial institutions. It’s also optional for employees to share your number with your coworkers once inside the system.

What are the abuses that can possibly happen or that you’ve seen happen using this system?

Just like any other communication medium, managers can abuse the service by sending out announcements too frequently and at inappropriate times. But, only those deemed management have access to send out messages to staff members that have opted in to the WorkAlertz work notification system. If abused, management will surely hear from their staff and it would most likely be quickly resolved.

Is there anything else that this system can do to help hospitality workers?

WorkAlertz helps your company’s green initiatives. Less paper schedules and notes, no more wasted trips to the restaurant or facility to see the schedule. Also, no more time spent on the phone with co-workers chatting over when they are working next. The StaffAlertz module allows instant communication of company promotions and event reminders like staff meetings. Employees can forward their schedule to their friends and family as desired.

What are some of the new features that your team is coming up with in 2009?

There’s a whole suite of notification applications planned on the MyMinderz platform, but as far as WorkAlertz goes, we will be working on labor law compliance, filtered schedule views, ability to set constraints on when one receives an alert on their phone, and tagging of employees to name just a few. All new features, of course, are added in with no additional charge once an account has be processed.