Being a manager in a restaurant, or in any hospitality business, is a constant juggling act. From supervising staff to heading business operations, it can be a struggle to keep up. So that ‘s why January’s Hacks Series is all about management tips and tricks. To kick it off, we’re sharing our list of the best apps, online tools, and digital solutions to help streamline your management processes.
Number of reservations by party size and seating arrangement by table size
Cost: Free
The tool from the Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) allows restaurant operators and managers to optimize their reservations and seating by inputting key parameters into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, then using the Solver add-in to view the outputs. The tool’s creator, Gary Thompson, explains that it does so by determining the “best mix of tables in a restaurant, while simultaneously determining which reservations should be accepted from forecasted demand.” The inputs include party size, table size and number, average dining time, and average revenue by party size as well as the degree to which to inflate the amount of time guests will be seated at a table, termed the ‘Round-Up’.
The full description and instructions document depicts the components of the tool and explains how to use the tool by presenting a practical example of table mix optimization for two nights. The tool is provided by CHR free of charge and can be downloaded here.
Maintain an online guestbook to track diner contact info, food preferences, allergies, and more
Available for iPad
Cost: Free trial; $99/month
It should be no surprise that Yelp, an industry leader, has developed a restaurant management tool. SeatMe is an advance management system for your front-of-house needs, allowing you to take online reservations, manage seating, keep track of available tables, and even text waiting patrons when their tables are ready.
Enable ordering on your restaurant website, from you Facebook page, or from within the ChowNow app
Available online or for iOS and Android
Cost: Free Basic Account; Pro Account from $8.99/month
Online ordering goes fancy with ChowNow, a handy app that gives foodies access to your menu via your own website, Facebook page, or the ChowNow mobile app. Allow diners to customize their orders, so your kitchen knows just what to make, and check out online – orders are beamed straight to your restaurant’s main tablet, where employees can check and complete the order, and finally notify patrons when their orders will be ready.
Hundreds of questions cover requirements from the ServSafe Food Protection Manager Certification Examination, the American Food Safety Institute (AFSI) Food Manager Certification (FMC) exam, and the National Registry of Food Safety Professionals (NRFSP) Certified Food Safety Professional examination
Choose study mode or test mode
Available online or for iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Palm
Cost: $3.99
The Food Safety Exam Prep app from Upward Mobility offers the most comprehensive food prep information, health requirements, and U.S. safety standards of any mobile app. The test module is perfect for keeping your kitchen current on safety standards, and will help anyone prepare for certification or re-certification.
Built-in extras include a barcode scanner, multiple currency support, database backup and restore, password protection, and auto-default values
Filter by item, category, company, location, supplier/client, payment and shipment
Available for Android
Cost: $5.99
For simple inventory tracking – and streamlined bookkeeping and tax reporting – Inventory Tracker delivers with an easy-to-use solution. The handy app makes it easy to track your restaurant inventory, sales, revenues and balance sheet – daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. Create reports and transfer data to spreadsheet format.
Wine pairing, not to mention keeping track of an extensive wine cellar, is one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of the restaurant business, especially without a Sommelier. Enter Uncorkd, an iPad-based wine menu that also keeps track of your wine inventory. Customers can get a comprehensive view of your restaurant’s wine menu including a bottle’s origin, vintage and recommended pairings, while you can easily track inventory.
Publicly accessible business pages that display open jobs
Multi-admin business accounts
Re-usable job listings
Applicant tracking system
Messaging hub
Cost: Free for the moment
Sirvo helps businesses in the hospitality industry hire by connecting employers and job seekers on a platform that simplifies the hiring process, from posting jobs to reviewing applications. With Sirvo, you don’t have to worry about your job listings getting buried under more recent postings because your business page acts as your own hosted careers site. This makes advertising positions easier on you and finding jobs easier on professionals. Plus, you can invite admins to help manage your business page, search and message candidates, and organize applicants using the applicant tracking system.
WorkBright provides businesses that need to onboard new employees rapidly with paperless HR. By reducing the time it takes to collect and process new hire forms and automating the tedious workflows and data entry involved in onboarding new employees, WorkBright virtually eliminates the hiring costs associated with dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. Plus, WorkBright ensures that your HR files are compliant, organized, and easily-accessible.
Digital access to staff schedule, from anywhere at anytime
Forecast labor costs with an as-you-schedule dollar tally
Available online from any computer or mobile device
Cost: Free trial; Accounts from $19/month
The purpose of ScheduleFly is to make restaurant staff scheduling easier by simplifying communications between you and your employees. The app turns any mobile device or computer into your communications central: post time schedules, your employees can request shift changes, and you can all coordinate on time off. Best of all, the app makes it easy to avoid costly overtime and forecast labor costs.
Manage your social presence across sites, from one platform
Log on once to schedule posts throughout the day, week or month
Available online or for iOS and Android
Cost: Free Basic Account; Pro Account from $8.99/month
Chances are, your restaurant has gone social and chances are, all that required networking is overwhelming. HootSuite steps in with a simple tool that makes it easy to manage all your social networks, scheduling posts and cross-publishing photos, status updates, and more to multiple social sites. Integrated social profiles include Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, LinkedIn, Google+ Pages, and others.
Magic resize to automatically create images for all social media platforms (instagram, twitter, google+, etc.)
Cost: Free Basic Account; Canva for Work $119.40/year, $12.95/month
Canva makes designing graphics for social media, presentations, posters, and more exceptionally easy. Included are tons of different layouts to get your design started that are available in pre-set dimensions (for social media) as well as in custom dimensions. Build your designs with Canva’s integrated images, icons and shapes, backgrounds, fonts, and photo filters, many of which are free. Plus, you can upload your own images!
To help businesses produce on-brand marketing materials, Canva recently introduced Canva for Work, which allows teams to collaborate, save brand colors, logos, and fonts, and build their own templates. Also included is automated resizing for various social media images sizes.
Fishbowl is not new and is an industry standard, but we wanted to include it anyway because it should definitely be in you business tool repertoire. With several analytics-based solutions available, Fishbowl focusses on helping restaurants optimize their marketing, strategy, and revenue management. From measuring dining behavior and defining target segments to analyzing and optimizing digital marketing efforts, Fishbowl will help maximize your marketing returns.
Integrating digital solutions and apps in your management practices will not only increase efficiency but also improve your processes and save your business money, so take a few minutes to check out your options! Coming up next are tips on business operations, so be sure to check back in.
Did you know more than 40% of restaurant employees fall between the ages of 16 and 24? This means a large number of restaurant staff are millennials, who are just entering the workforce and are re-shaping the world of work.
What does this mean? That you need to develop a recruiting and hiring strategy to attract these workers. To do this, first take a look at some of the perks and benefits millennials want, and expect:
Clear growth opportunities and career paths: Career progression is a top priority for this generation — even above competitive salaries. Millennials are committed to their personal learning and development.
Flexible and lenient work conditions: Millennials believe strongly in work-life balance, and many are enrolled in school. They want flexible working hours to fit those needs. Luckily, the industry is one of the few that offers flexible work schedules.
A fun and open environment: This generation wants to work in an enjoyable environment where they can have fun and build friendships.
Brand is everything: Millennials want to be proud of where they work, which means your brand is key. They want to do something that feels worthwhile, and need to believe in the values and vision of the company.
How do you attract millennials?
It’s apparent from their “wish list” above that millennials are motivated by more than just money. Attract millennials by offering more of what they want!
Put them on rotational assignments more frequently to gain a variety of experiences and give them a sense that they are moving toward something. Offer flexible work conditions so they can balance school and other social activities.
Offer fun incentives like work outings and friendly workplace competitions.
And remember, your brand and what it stands for matters. This means sharing your brand voice and workplace culture everywhere: in your establishment, on your website and social media, and in job listings.
How do you recruit millennials?
First and foremost, know that mobile is the device of choice for younger job seekers. So, make your jobs accessible via phones and tablets. Posting your jobs to social and mobile-enabled job sites allows applicants to react quickly to new postings and apply quickly with less barriers. At Sirvo, we’ve found that posting to social media increases the number of job applications and overall engagement.
Every unnecessary step or click in the application process is a barrier and reduces engagement.
This generation is tech-savvy and will spread their love for their workplace through word-of-mouth and social media platforms, which can help recruit local talent. Social recruiting has some benefits that the traditional, print classifieds lack, such as targeting your jobs to those that are likely to be interested in that position/industry/location. To cash in, be as specific as possible in your job listings.
This will enable you to reach a higher number of candidates that are qualified for the position you’re advertising, with the skill set and experience required, making it easier for you to hire in the long run.
Read more about why Sirvo is right for your restaurant here →
If you were to poll your neighborhood foodservice managers or restaurant owners and ask them what their biggest challenges are, you’ll likely find that hiring and keeping the best staff members is at the top of their list.
Turnover is high in the Food and Beverage industry, particularly for restaurants – averaging 66.3% annually, according to the National Restaurant Association – and all that turnover is expensive.The payroll cost standard is 30-35% of your restaurant’s total sales, according to Baker Tilly’s Restaurant Benchmarks. On top of that, training falls into the hands of not only your managers, but your strongest staff members as well, taking valuable time away from their own tasks.
While it may sound daunting, you’ll find that your money and time will be well spent when you can suss out the candidates who will reflect the culture of your establishment and who are dedicated to giving your guests a fantastic experience that keeps them coming back again and again.
So, how do you find someone that is worth the investment?
Get to the heart of your potential new hires by asking these questions during your restaurant hiring interviews:
1. Why do you want to work in the food and beverage industry?
The best restaurant employees take pride in their ability to provide guests with a wonderful experience. Whether you’re hiring a server to handle a white-tablecloth dinner service or a line cook to make pizzas during a busy lunch rush, the desire to make people happy is a must!
Are your candidates having trouble coming up with an answer? Or are they excited to tell you why they want to be a part of this challenging industry? Hopefully, it’s the latter!
2. What does “hospitality” mean to you?
The dictionary defines hospitality as “the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.” A great candidate will sum this up in their own words, giving you a warm and fuzzy feeling.
3. Tell me about your most memorable hospitality experience.
Tack this on to question #2, and see how it connects. Do you feel the candidate is being genuine in their answer? Does the person go into great detail? This should give you insight into what type of service they feel they should provide to your guests. A thoughtful, detailed answer, be it a positive or negative experience, shows that you’re interviewing someone who will put a lot of thought into their job.
4. If a customer presents you with a coupon that clearly states “not valid with other offers,” and they try to use it with another offer, how would you handle that?
It’s a given that the candidates probably don’t know the policy when it comes to special offers at your restaurant, and you may not even have offers in the first place! The “correct” answer lies in their reaction. Do they clam up, get nervous? Or do they stay calm and keep a smile on their face?
How they react to this question is a great indicator of how they’d react under pressure; if a candidate can’t keep their cool here, how are they going to do so in the middle of a busy service, when the level of pressure is much higher?
5. What do you do when you’re not working? What are your hobbies?
This is a great question, especially when hiring a server or bartender! The ability to build a relationship with guests throughout their experience can make the difference between a one-and-done guest or a loyal advocate for your establishment. Having interests outside of work is essential for making small talk, as well as maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Any of us who have worked in F&B can attest to how easy it is to burn out when your job is to make others happy!
6. Tell me about a conflict you’ve had to deal with involving your co-workers, and how you handled it.
Much of the focus on hiring is on guest satisfaction, but being a team player, behind the scenes, is just as important. With this question, you can judge someone’s maturity level, and the ability to overcome difficult situations and hold themselves accountable for their relationships in a team setting. Patrons absolutely love to be taken care of by a staff that is clearly having fun and enjoying the time spent with their coworkers.
While the best answers to these questions will depend on your food business’s specific needs, they will certainly help you gain much better insight into a candidate that you won’t be able to get from a resume.
For restaurant and hospitality businesses, the winter season means ramping up staff to handle the holiday rush. Hiring is hard in general, but when it’s the seasonal sort, things can go bad fast. So, we put together an easy guide that will help lighten the load.
Use prior year sales and current volume to plan ahead
To ensure a successful holiday season, carefully consider what your company’s needs will be in the weeks and months ahead.
Do this by comparing last year’s numbers to current data while taking into account growth and upcoming specials.
Start by reviewing your previous year’s traction prior to and throughout the winter months to give you a sort of baseline. Then compare it to the current year’s highlights that could impact your anticipated volume such as reservations, sales, events, social media presence, press, etc. Another aspect to take into account are any holiday promotions, events, and campaigns that may drive volume in the coming months.
Marry the data you gathered to plan ahead for potential gaps in coverage, departments, jobs, and days of week/times of day. This will then give you the information you need to successfully hire additional staff for the season.
Be diligent and detailed while hiring for the season
When managers, operators, and owners approach seasonal hiring as just a temporary adjustment, there is often little consideration given to the long-term effects this will have on the company, permanent employees, and customers. Although the positions and those filling them may indeed be temporary, making hiring decisions on the fly rarely works out well.
With coverage needs thoroughly identified, job descriptions and postings can be very specific and detailed in terms of the experience, qualifications, and skills required for each role you need to fill.
This helps to ensure that applicants are aware of your needs and if they are a match. This will inevitably lead to higher quality applicants thereby making it significantly easier on you and your hiring staff when making the final decisions.
When it comes time to actually hire, don’t be hasty in the decision. To be confident that your seasonal employees will only help your cause, not hurt it, get all the facts before making the call. As you would with permanent employees, check that their experience, skill-set, and personality are appropriate for the position and your company. It can be hard to do all this in the limited time you have to hire, so use all of the resources available to you.
Ensure fair treatment of seasonal talent
As the holidays approach and volume starts ramping up, it can be easy for both managers and long-term employees to get caught in the storm and lose sight of the fact that quality customer experiences are an outcome of employee experience, including those of seasonal employees. If seasonal hires are treated like machines and given little respect by superiors and coworkers, performance and profitability will suffer.
When employees are treated fairly, they can better focus on performing well on the job.
Avoid this by treating seasonal employees with the same care as their non-seasonal counterparts. To do so, cultivate a positive culture and implement the appropriate systems and solutions that acknowledge the importance respect in the workplace. This includes ensuring that permanent staff of all levels give the same support to seasonal employees as they would to each other, properly scheduling all staff as to allow for maintained work-life balance through the busy season, and being consistent in regard to managing the changes that come with the seasonal nature of the industry.
Think of the seasonal employee as a long-term investment
You’ve done all this great work in sourcing additional talent for the season, so don’t let it go to waste. Be deliberate about keeping in touch with your seasonal hires so that you can recruit them in following years, or, if the situation arises, you can hire them permanently in the future.
A great way to establish continued communication is by having an exit interview of sorts.
It doesn’t have to be formal, just a way to initiate a dialogue. Provide feedback on performance and ask for it in return. Inquire about their interests and potential availability in the future. If nothing else, it will reinforce the positive experience they had while working for you, which is the impression they’ll share with their communities and networks. It’s great press!
It may be easier at the time to post one listing for ‘All Positions’ in need of filling instead of listings for specific positions, but will it pay off in the end? Probably not, and here’s why.
Let’s start from the top of the hiring game: attracting talent.
This begins with discovering your open job(s), which Sirvo strives to make as easy as possible; with our Search feature, candidates can simply type in a keyword and see all relevant results.
In most cases, the keyword will be a job title, which means that “All Positions” with no mention of actual positions won’t be shown as a result. This drastically decreases your chance to reach potential employees right off the bat.
Beyond the title, the description and requirements are even more important!
To make a smart hire in less time, attracting the candidates you’re looking for, from personality to skill-set, is a necessity.
The specifics you require for each position are must-haves in the job listing because it tells candidates exactly what you need in an employee, so they know whether or not they fit the bill. Without them, you’re more likely to receive applications from those who don’t possess the necessary credentials required to fill the position instead of those that do.
Plus, in the future, Sirvo will offer job-candidate matching based on how qualified candidates are according to the details in the job listing, but you won’t be able to take advantage without including specifics about experience, skills, and requirements.
When it’s time to review applications, let Sirvo help.
To make it easier for employers to hone in on qualified candidates, Sirvo provides an applicant tracking system, which assists in organizing and managing candidates.
Every job listing has its own ATS Inbox where, upon receipt, applications are stored by default. From that point, after reviewing applications, candidates can be moved to Qualified or Declined based on whether or not they are still in the running for the position.
This way, applications are automatically sorted by position, making it easy to review and compare candidates. This is also helpful if hiring is conducted by several people. All applications to ‘Position A’ are separate from applications to ‘Position B’.
However, job listings for “All Positions” will negate this first level of organization built into the ATS, making it more difficult to review and manage candidates for each position.
The bottom line: hiring for ‘all positions’ is harder than the alternative.
Although it may take some additional time up front to create job listings for individual positions rather than lumping them together, you’ll definitely make up for it when it comes time to review applications and hire.
Not only are you increasing the odds of engaging professionals that have the specific qualifications that you’re seeking, you’re also making it easier for you and your staff to manage the entire process.
It all boils down to making your hiring process as efficient as possible, meaning the resources you spend attracting candidates, reviewing applications, and ultimately hiring are just what’s necessary to find the right person for the right position.
Experience Sirvo for yourself
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With more than 250 food allergens identified, and 15 million Americans diagnosed with food allergies, it’s no small task ensuring your restaurant’s food safety protocols are up to par, a must if the hope is to continue serving this large market.
To help those dealing with food allergies feel confident about their safety while dining in your restaurant, here are the key takeaways from an educational session at the 2015 National Restaurant Association Hotel-Motel show during which a panel of food safety experts shared their food allergen acumen :
Train your staff how to handle food allergens. “Incorporate your employees into your process. They start buying into it and feel more confident in what they’re doing,”says William Weichelt, ServSafe director.
A certified manager should be present during everyshift and directly involved in all instances in which food allergies are a known concern. He or she acts as a knowledge center for customers as well as a resource for employees.
Never guess. Speaking of certified managers, if employees are asked a food allergy question that they can’t answer, ensure that they reach out to a manager who can. If your restaurant cannot confidently satisfy a guest’s request, expressly communicate this. This outcome, although not ideal, is much safer for all involved rather than the risky alternative.
Make ingredient lists available to guests. They know their allergy better than you do, and thus will likely know the names of ingredients or sub-ingredients that may be red flags for them.
Sub-out widely used allergens. If possible, isolate ingredients or recipes that could trigger a common allergy. For example, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro now uses wheat-free soy in lieu of regular soy in all of its marinades.
Create a back-of-house system for allergen-specific equipment. Consider using color-coded, allergen-specific plateware, prepware and other equipment.
Invest in allergy-specific technology. Natalie Krusemeier, director of training for the 7-unit, Chicago-based Colonial Café, says the company’s POS system has an allergen key. When pressed by a front-of-house staffer, the back of the house knows of the allergy, and a manager then becomes involved.
For additional information regarding food allergens, reference FARE, Food Allergy and Research and Education group, and CHART, the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers.
This article originally appeared on www.restaurant.org and can be found here.
