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!
Skilled bartending has become an intriguing, flashy trend, inspiring a plethora of competitions all over the world. From dazzling bar flare to unique cocktail recipes and speed bartending, these events are catching people’s eye and developing a strong following. But in this world of colorful drinks and innovative mixology, the art of basic service technique and bar knowledge falls by the wayside.
Together, Monkey Shoulder and the United States Bartender’s Guild (USBG) have created an innovative international competition that refocuses the art of bartending by challenging competitors to demonstrate their knowledge and service rather than just their flare. Labeled a “no b.s.” competition by the members of the Monkey Shoulder team, the event aimed to focus on “skills that pay the bills,” a no-nonsense, practical take on being a good bartender.
Lead by Dean Callan, Brand Ambassador at Monkey Shoulder, the event has traveled to four other U.S. cities including Milwaukee, Charleston (SC), Chicago and Philadelphia and internationally, in Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Poland, France, Germany, and Singapore. Bartenders from each city took part in the same 7-round competition and the overall point leader at the end of this year’s competition will be crowned the Ultimate Bartending Champion.
On Monday, November 18th, 2015, the Ultimate Bartender Championship came to Denver. Hosted by Punch Bowl, the competition featured 12 local bartenders, competing in 7 different rounds that tested their technique, insight, speed and skill behind the bar.
The Rounds
1. Quiz:
In the quiz round, contenders were read 100 multiple choice questions ranging from an array of bartending topics. From identifying recipe ingredients to naming various countries’ national beverage, Callan rapidly quizzed the opponents to test both their knowledge of beverages and their ability to think quickly on their feet.
2. Mixiodic Table:
For the competition, Callan and the Monkey Shoulder team created an ingenious bartender version of the periodic table. The table consists of various components to cocktail recipes, featuring ‘elements’ like sugars, juices, mixers, bitters, ices, liquors, glassware and garnishes. The goal for this round was to solve ‘equations’ by naming the cocktail. For instance, if Vm=vermouth and V=vodka, Ol=olive juice, Sh=shaken, Up=martini glass then V+Vm+Ol+Sh+Up = A vodka martini. Competitors had 10 minutes to solve 20 equations.
V+Vm+Ol+Sh+Up = A vodka martini
3. Nosing:
In this round, opponents had two minutes to identify ten different spirits in a blind nosing test correctly. 1/2 a point was awarded for knowing the spirit (i.e., vodka, bourbon, scotch, Irish whiskey) and a full point for naming the brand (42 Below vodka, Glenmorangie scotch, etc.).
4. Pouring:
This task included glasses listing specific pour quantities (1/3 oz, 1 oz) and the bartenders needed to measure out the exact pour for each. The goal here was to pour the right amount into each glass and be exact on as many as possible while being as quick and efficient as possible.
5. Tray Service:
This round required competitors to take drink orders for ten people, get the drinks from the bar and, in the correct order, serve the right drinks to each corresponding person. To do this, Callan printed off ten pictures of celebrities and recognizable people to serve as the ten places at the table. By doing this, it required the bartenders to remember who ordered which drink and place each drink down in the correct order (women first, than men). Each opponent had a different arrangement of pictures and needed to adapt to the right order. Again, this pushes the importance of service technique, efficiency and drink knowledge.
6. Stock Take:
A crucial part of being a bartender is inventory. This round featured the skills of taking stock of various liquors as if they were doing inventory. Competitors needed to eyeball measure the amount of liquor in 10 different bottles and output an accurate inventory sheet.
7. Building Challenge:
The final round required the competitors to produce eight cocktails in 5 minutes. These cocktails were taste-tested by the audience. If the audience decided that a cocktail was not adequate, they could send the drink back, therefore, docking points from the bartender. This last round was in place to showcase the skills and mixing techniques of the competitors and tested how they managed their time while optimizing taste and technique.
The competition was a captivating, enjoyable experience that drew a great deal of interest due to its uncommon, practical nature. While the notion of a service knowledge and recipe knowledge-based event may seem pedestrian, Callan and Monkey Shoulder did a phenomenal job with their innovative challenges, unique creations (like the Mixiodic Table) and focused on bartending functionalism and skill. Both competitors and spectators enjoyed this new format, and all benefited from the showcasing of no-nonsense bar knowledge and service technique.
As a member of the food and beverage community, I believe that this innovative, practical-knowledge-based event is exactly what the industry needs. Yes, bar flare is fun and captivating, but the importance of service is what keeps the industry alive. Callan did an extraordinary job of incorporating functional, pragmatic bartending skills into a competitive, unique event. His focus on “skills that pay the bills,” I believe, will inspire more bartenders to pay closer attention to the importance of the basics; knowledge, efficiency, preciseness and good service. I admire Callan’s ingenuity and creativeness in bringing service into the forefront through useful yet fun skill challenges.
While this is the first year of this competition, Callan and Monkey Shoulder look to expand the event throughout the globe, creating new innovative challenges along the way and spreading the focus of service and technique. We can’t wait to see what they have in store for next year and the years to come.
The relationship between alcohol and consumers is not straightforward. In fact, it’s highly complex, dependent on variables upon variables many of which can’t be controlled. But what is straightforward is that the relationship is changing.
‘The Drinking Code’
The recently published report produced by media agency Maxus, investigates why, how and when people drink and what these changing patterns of behavior mean for the alcohol industry. It analyzed attitudes from 6,500 adults across Australia, China, Germany, India, the UK and the US, and the conclusions are pretty cool!
The Rules of Consumption are breaking
Although Maxus found that only 39% of consumers enjoy experimenting with different drinks compared to the 62% that stick to what they know, the alcohol industry as a whole is breaking away from its categorized nature.
Thanks to the rise of craft vendors, the inventiveness of mixologists, and the “new rituals and occasions” of consumers, the industry is diversifying on all fronts.
And Technology is giving a helping hand
As Maxus explains, “consumers are social,” often making drink choices based on social media experiences and what’s “trending” instead of the brand or alcohol type.
It’s easier than ever to share drinking experiences, access recipes and discover ingredients that bring alcohol consumption to a whole new level. Today, “drinks can truly act local and speak global.”
So what?
According to Maxus, it’s the start of something big:
“This is a new golden and cultural age for drink, a new world for liquor not seen since that pioneering time 150-200 years ago when all our now established brands formed, when Johnnie started walking, Dewar started rambling and Jack began filtering.”
It’s official: Women Who Launch was a success! Michael Kilcoyne, the panel’s MC, did a spectacular job, asking a variety of relevant questions. The panelists, Stephanie Maxwell (@gosirvo), Jenna Walker (@artifactuprising), and Amy Baglan (@meetmindful), were in kind, sharing insight and experiences from their unique perspectives.
The highlights included discussing work-life balance, or “congruence” as Jenna calls it. Each of these women have had to conquer their own challenges to achieve zen: for Stephanie, it’s the small but no less important things, like eating and exercising, that she had to learn how to put first; Jenna didn’t want to sacrifice being a mom, so even though it meant less sleep, she woke up early to get work done so she could fit in school drop-offs and pick-ups; Amy has discovered that the key to maintaining her balance is mindfulness and meditation.
When it came to handling the strong emotions that go along with the stress of founding a tech company, each woman had a different take. Stephanie sets her emotions aside with her team because that’s how she’s most effective as a manager, while Jenna does the opposite, sharing that she “threw a fit” the week before as an example, because she’s found that she’s at her best when there’s no pretense. Amy falls somewhere in the middle, but highlighted the importance of having a second opinion when emotions run high by telling the audience about an email mishap that involved a dick pic. We all got a good laugh out of that!
All in all, it was great discussion about what it means to be a female founder in the tech industry.
Sirvo is taking part in Denver Startup Week’s panel, Women Who Launch, alongside MeetMindful and Artifact Uprising on Monday, September 21st at 4:00 pm at Galvanize.
The panel of female founders will be discussing the finer details of their entrepreneurial ventures within the male-dominated tech industry. Step into the shoes of these three women, each at the helm of startups in different markets and stages of the business lifecycle (pre-rev, rev, and exit), as they share their unique business perspectives, journeys, and experiences.
Check out the bios of the panelists below:
Stephanie Maxwell, CEO & Founder of Sirvo (@gosirvo), has successfully brought her business vision to life, going from concept to product launch in under a year. As a sole founder, she has proven to be an effective leader and operator by managing a growing team of six and spearheading the product launch with even more planned in the near future. Prior to founding the company, Ms. Maxwell was the Marketing Director for Lotus Concepts, Inc., a nightlife and entertainment company, a successful model and later launched her own event staffing business.
Amy Baglan, CEO and Co-Founder of MeetMindful (@meetmindful), the #1 dating site for healthy, conscious singles. Five years ago, she left a mobile marketing startup she helped launch in New York City (acquired in 2012) and bought a one-way ticket to India to explore the world. A year later, she moved to Denver and started her first business, YogaDates—an events company for like-minded singles—which was the catalyst for MeetMindful. She’s now on a mission to evolve and re-inspire the dating industry by marrying the power of content with a niche social experience.
Jenna Walker, CEO and Co-Founder of Artifact Uprising (@artifactuprsng), founded the company 3 years ago – just 6 months after her second daughter was born. The team took the company from concept to scale without additional outside investment – successfully bootstrapping their way to acquisition by Visual Supply Company (@vsco) at the end of 2014. Today, the team remains based in Denver, Colorado where Jenna, along with Co-Founder and sister Katie, continue to work to quickly to scale their e-commerce company and mission in both the USA and Europe. Prior to founding the company – the founders were professional photographers and had no experience running a technology driven business.
