Good Terminating Practices For Restaurants

Good Terminating Practices For Restaurants

by | Apr 17, 2017 | Management

The sad truth is that sometimes employees don’t work out. Maybe restaurant work just isn’t for them. Maybe you can’t afford them. Whatever the reason, at some point, you will have to fire an employee, and doing so opens you up to all sorts of complications. Not only is it always hard on a personal level, but there are laws regarding the firing process. So, how do you do this in the most tactful, lawful and useful way?

1. Remember the Law

In most states, employees are considered ‘at will’ unless otherwise stated. This means that, unless you told the employee that they will be employed for a certain amount of time or that you would only fire them for a ‘good’ reason, you can fire them whenever for pretty much any reason. There are exceptions that are considered illegal, and they are:

  • joining a union
  • age, race, national origin, religion, gender, physical disability, or sexual orientation
  • pregnancy
  • protected political activity
  • whistleblowing or generally refusing to comply with illegal situations, such as unsafe working conditions or wages that are below the minimum.
  • refusing to take a lie detector test

There are other reasons that you can’t use, but they change by state. The important thing to remember is that you need to tell everyone from the start, and have written on all relevant paperwork, that employment at your restaurant is ‘at will.’

2. Administering The Pink Slip

It is a good idea to have a written process for disciplining and firing employees in your employee handbook. It should be flexible enough so that you can respond to an emergency, but clear so that it can be administered evenly. Basically, if you want to give one employee a warning before firing, you should have it written that the employees always get one warning before firing. Be as even-handed as possible, and follow the written protocol as closely as you can. A person should read the handbook and sign it when hired so that they have ample warning.

It is important to document the process and your reasoning for firing people. You want to have something to show outsiders that you are terminating someone for legal reasons and that no one has any grounds to complain. Give them a termination letter outlining what will happen. It never hurts to have the employee you are terminating sign an employment release form, either. It serves to give everybody a clear idea of what their rights are and what they agreed to. It is also yet another way to keep employees from suing later: they signed an agreement saying they were fine with what happened.

You don’t need to make a scene about firing someone, and it is, in fact, best to keep it short and simple. Tell the employee the bad news upfront in a professional and empathetic matter. Give a short explanation, but avoid going into detail or trying to justify your decision. It only invites arguments and gives an employee something to work with if they want to explore legal actions. Try to be as discreet possible and make sure you have their supervisor and manager present when the person is being informed so that the employee sees that it was a group decision. There really isn’t a good time to fire somebody, but if you can, do it as quickly as possible and in a way that doesn’t allow the fired employee to interact with other employees right after termination. This can go a long way toward making a smooth transition. Many recommend the beginning of the shift.

Pay your former employee what they are due within the time frame allowed by your state. Are they due vacation time? Did they work three days into the new pay period? Give them what you owe and tell them if they are eligible for unemployment insurance. They may be eligible for continued health insurance, too, if you have more than 20 employees and provide health insurance. You must give them the chance to keep their coverage, provided they keep paying their premiums. Remember to get any company property that you might have given them, reimburse them for any expenses they went to for the company, and give them a contact number for questions about benefits.

3. Afterwards

Afterward, if they want letters of recommendation, it is best to remember: “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” If someone left the company on bad terms or got fired for serious reasons and a future employer asks about that person, only reveal the dates of employment, salary and job title. Otherwise, you are open to defamation charges.

You can offer to help someone find new employment, and it is a good idea to provide some relief in the transition. You are not obliged to provide any type of severance package unless you promised one to the employee or it is in their contract, but if you normally provide some benefits after firing, you will find it easier to keep the former employee’s good will.

Last but not least, make sure you have someone ready to take over the fired employee’s position and arrange to ease the transition for the remaining employees. You don’t want a stoppage in work.

Even the gentlest of firings are unpleasant. Follow these tips to make it ‘merely’ unpleasant.

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Creative Beer Marketing Ideas

Creative Beer Marketing Ideas

by | Apr 12, 2017 | Sirvo Stories

Beer is now more popular than ever. Whether you’re selling the latest craft beer or traditional leading brands, people are consuming beer in bars, restaurants, breweries, festivals, and off the shelf at supermarkets and specialty stores. This also means, however, that there’s more competition than ever. How do you stand apart and sell more of your own products? Here are some innovative beer marketing strategies you can use to outsell the competition.

Tell a unique story.

As you learn in Marketing 101, most people make buying decisions emotionally rather than rationally. This is more true of beer than many other products. People drink beer to relax, unwind, and have fun. Think of the most popular beer commercials run by industry giants such as Budweiser. They don’t give you a list of ingredients or describe the brewing process. They tell stories that show how much fun everyone is having while drinking their beer. Each beer has a slightly different ideal narrative that varies according to your target audience. Do you want to cultivate an image that’s hip and youthful, salt-of-the-earth, or upscale and sophisticated? In all of your marketing efforts, focus on telling stories that will appeal to your demographic.

Partner with influencers.

Influencer marketing involves getting well-known people, especially those with large social media followings, to recommend your products. This is more subtle than hiring a celebrity for a TV or radio commercial. You want to find people who genuinely like the kind of beer you’re selling and who are highly regarded in the world in which your customers live. You don’t need A-list celebrities to do this effectively. Focus on people who are locally known in realms such as food, entertainment and, naturally, beer. Connect with influencers at tastings or festivals whenever possible. Reach out to them by offering them samples of your products. Once you’ve connected, think of ways to partner with them.

Connect with influencers at tastings or festivals whenever possible. Reach out to them by offering them samples of your products. Once you’ve connected, think of ways to partner with them. For example, you could help promote them on your own website. To be able to arrange mutually beneficial partnerships, it helps to build up your own website traffic and social media following, which we’ll discuss shortly. Even without this, however, it’s possible to get an influencer to recommend your beer if he or she really likes it.

Connect with your audience online.

Because beer is so hip now, it’s relatively easy to connect with internet savvy customers who like your products. There are many ways to do this, including SEO for your website, social media, and email marketing. Here are a few basic ideas to keep in mind.

  • Make sure you have a compelling website. Add content, such as blog posts, images and videos regularly. While this sounds time-consuming, if you devote a few minutes every day to posting at least one piece of content, your site will soon have plenty of content for the search engines and your audience to discover.
  • Be active on social media. Choose a couple of sites to focus on. A Facebook page is an important tool for building your brand. If you’re targeting youthful customers, Snapchat is a great way to reach them. Post fun and interactive content, such as coupons for your beer, contests, and information about upcoming promotions.
  • Build a mailing list. An email list, which you can promote on your website and social media pages, is a powerful way to engage with your audience. When you have people’s email addresses, it’s easy to blast out messages whenever you want to promote a sale, new product, or event.

These are just some of the ways to stay in touch with your customers and prospects. With increasing interest in beer, people are eager to learn about the latest products, news, and trends in this industry. Reach out to your audience using a variety of methods, from live events to social media. Find out where your customers get their information and make sure you’re active on these platforms. 

 

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Do These 4 Things to Ensure Your Employees Won’t Be Worried About Health Care

Do These 4 Things to Ensure Your Employees Won’t Be Worried About Health Care

by | Apr 3, 2017 | Business Toolkit, Management

With the increase of the service industry becoming a destination career, employees are going to be increasingly concerned with providing healthcare for their family, so they’ll be paying close attention to events in our nation’s capitol.

Business owners, especially in the service industry, tend to develop close relationships with their employees. For this reason, it’s hard to watch them struggle or worry about their home life. And as we all know, if an employee is having problems outside of work, chances are their problems come to work with them.

Here are 4 major ways you can help keep your employee’s minds on service and worry free.

1. Be the shoulder they can lean on. Be their rock.

You’re now the big brother, big sister, mom, and dad. Take the time to reassure your staff that, despite what’s going on, you still feel providing health care is important and you’ll be there to take care of them.

Without diving into the politics, let your employees know you’ll be following the situation as closely as possible and will provide them with as much information as you can as things progress. Remember, things are very up in the air right now. Let them know the lines of communication are, and always will be, open on this subject.

Let them know the lines of communication are, and always will be, open on this subject.

2. Don’t bullsh** with them.

Don’t make things sound better than they may be. Healthcare is a scary, confusing, adult thing most people simply have no desire to think about unless they have to. Working for an employer who provides that sense of security is a big deal. Losing that sense of security can be a major cause for concern.

Take the time to answer any questions truthfully and to the best of your knowledge. Remind them of the fact that no matter what, things are going to change but you’ll be constantly monitoring the situation and working with your insurance providers to provide the best coverage you can.

Working for an employer who provides that sense of security is a big deal.

3. Be a mentor and educator.

As we touched on earlier, healthcare is confusing and intimidating. The worst part is, the media exacerbates the situation, causing hysteria and Washington seems to be at an impasse which does nothing to relieve the tension.

One of the best things you can do is help to educate your employees on their health benefits, how to enact them, how to use them, what they can and can’t do, where their benefits can be used, and any other details you feel necessary. Knowing exactly how their coverage works will go a long way towards alleviating the fear of not knowing.

One of the best things you can do is help to educate your employees on their health benefits.

4. Use this as an opportunity.

Obviously, this is important to everyone. Take this time to make sure you’re communicating closely with your plan provider, your HR team, and your company leaders. This is the perfect reason to reassess your benefits package and to make sure you have a solid strategy in place for any situation.

The last thing you want is to lose employees to another business with a better plan.

Remember, it’s inevitable that healthcare is going to change. The best operators understand this and are ready to adapt. Make sure you’re one of those able to keep your business running smoothly no matter what Washington decides to do.

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Got A Last Minute Call In? How To Manage Being Short-Staffed

Got A Last Minute Call In? How To Manage Being Short-Staffed

by | Mar 29, 2017 | Business Toolkit, Management

One thing that differentiates the restaurant industry from others is that employee absence can have a detrimental impact on your business, particularly when you have to deal with unexpected absences due to illness. You don’t want sick employees around, but their absence can feel like a betrayal, particularly on a busy day. So how do you deal with being short staffed? Here are some ideas.

Make the call – but strategically.

The first thing you want to do is start calling your employees who aren’t working and find someone to come in last minute. But don’t just go down the list. Hopefully by now you have identified which employees like getting extra shifts so you can prioritize them. If that isn’t the case, then by all means, grab your phone list and start calling. In the future, pay attention to which employees like getting extra shifts to make it simpler for you to get somebody in on short notice.

Step in where needed.

As the manager or owner, you’ll likely need to fill in for a sick employee every now and then, which makes it absolutely critical that you know how to do everyone’s job. When you’re under pressure, step in where you can to make things run as smoothly as possible. When you have more time (and a full staff), take a few minutes (or even a day if you need to) to reflect on areas where you are lacking in either skill set or knowledge so you are ready to step in to any position at any time. This might mean you spend some extra time in the kitchen one week to catch up on their process in case you ever find yourself filling in for a back of house employee last minute.

Don’t stress out your staff.

We’ve all been on the receiving end of a wait staff that’s clearly understaffed. When they’re stressed out because of a no-show or last minute call-in, their ability to serve suffers. It’s like they have suddenly forgotten how to do their job, from being polite to customers to getting orders written down correctly.

It’s your job as manager and/or owner to ensure staff does not get stressed to the point that they can no longer provide good service. Make sure everyone is still taking breaks, and step in as needed to refill waters, greet customers, bus tables or do anything else to keep the place running smoothly and customers happy.

Re-think your call-in process.

Call-ins are going to happen, so it’s unrealistic to try to eliminate sick days from your business. People wake up unexpectedly sick and legitimately can’t do their job. (And, to be clear, your customers do not want sick employees anywhere near their food). But you can minimize the scramble by instilling a 3-hour policy, in which employees must call in no less than 3 hours before their shift to eliminate the need to frantically call around and find a replacement. You can adjust the policy based on your restaurant’s hours, but having some sort of maximum time frame in which employees must call in can help eliminate much of the stress associated with unexpected absences.

Invest in scheduling software.

Many restaurants have turned to scheduling software to help with this type of situation. Employees can even find their own replacements using the software, which makes your life as a manager and/or owner simpler. All you need to know is that the shift is covered, which gives you back all that time you would have otherwise spent frantically trying to find another employee to fill in last minute.

Unexpected illnesses and absences are going to happen. It’s just a part of life. Take some time when you have it (i.e. when it’s a slow day and you have a full staff) to think through what you can do to simplify the process of call-ins to make it easier on your staff and your customers.

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How To Get Your Team To Show Up On Time

How To Get Your Team To Show Up On Time

by | Mar 8, 2017 | Business Toolkit, Management

Everyone has those days when they’re running a few minutes late, but tardiness becomes a serious hazard to your business when your staff starts coming in habitually late. Late employees equal decreased profits and revenue for your restaurant, not to mention unhappy customers who might be left waiting for service during a shift change.

Here are some ways to motivate your team to show up on time:

1. Tell them the why.

Employees (and people in general) are more likely to respond to requests when they understand the purpose behind the request. When you’re talking to your team about being on time, give them a better reason than “because it’s your job.”

The real reasons you need your team to show up on time have to do with how you run your business. Team members who show up late can cost an individual restaurant thousands of dollars annually in lost business and overtime for those employees who wind up staying late to cover part of their co-worker’s shift.

In addition to lost revenue, habitually late team members lower the overall morale of the team. Tardiness disrupts the usual flow of each shift and breeds mistrust and hard feelings among the team. These bad feelings can get in the way of the service you’re providing, which can reduce the overall experience for your diners.

2. Set the standard.

Now that team members know the why behind your tardiness policy, it’s time to set the standard. If your policy isn’t already clearly stated in your employee handbook, add a section that details it. Make it clear when you will take action, whether that’s after the first tardy, after 3 tardies in 3 month period, or whatever makes the most sense to you. Have new employees sign an agreement that they will follow the policy and they understand there will be disciplinary action if they don’t.

Have current employees sign the same agreement, even if you discussed tardiness during their training. Talk to each employee individually about the policy, have them sign the agreement, and notify them when you will take disciplinary action.

3. Follow through.

This is the part that can be the most difficult for managers: following through with the policy. The key to enforcing a tardiness policy is making sure you follow through on your end, even if it means terminating an otherwise good employee when they fail to adhere to their end of the tardiness agreement.

4. Come up with intermediate steps.

Termination doesn’t need to be the first, or even second, recourse. You can have intermediate disciplinary actions that give employees a wake-up call, but also give them a chance to figure out what they need to do on their end to show up on time. Here are some ideas of how to take disciplinary action:

  • The late employee needs to buy the team coffee (or donuts, bagels, etc.) the next day
  • The late employee is responsible for taking out the trash (or some other task nobody wants to do) for a week

5. Reward promptness.

Take the time to reward employees. You can do this individually, but to get the whole team to show up on time, put them to work on a goal. Make a team-wide goal for the month or quarter, and add an incentive. For example, if the entire team can go a whole month without being late, you’ll take them out to the movies or for ice cream. Talk to your employees during your next team meeting to come up with an incentive together that will encourage them without breaking the bank.

Late employees can hinder restaurant operations and cause friction among your staff. Use these ideas to get employees to show up on time and build some trust among your team.

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