5 Tips for Managing Your Restaurant Staff

5 Tips for managing your restaurant staff

Your success as a restaurant manager has a lot to do with how well you can keep your staff happy. However, it’s easier said than done being on top of people management.

Managing so many different types of people such as chefs, waiters, cleaners, busboys and customers demands a lot of time and effort on your part. So, to encourage you to set some standards for your way of managing your employees, we suggest that you should:

1) Organize around your staff

A good idea is to take note of your employees’ personal schedules when creating your work schedule. Try to work as closely as you can with them to ensure they are not having to constantly make sacrifices or that they are feeling uncomfortable with the role they have been given. It sounds like an obvious thing to remember, but in a potentially stressful work environment, this is one of the areas that might not be seen as a priority. However, the more flexible you are, the more they want to stay on your team – and that saves you so much time and money in the end, as you don’t have to recruit and reschedule from time to time.

We have the solution as to how you can become more flexible in this specific area, but we won’t reveal what it is just yet.

2) Get to know your staff

This might sound like a matter of course, but it takes time to build relationships, and busy restaurant managers don’t always have time to chit-chat. However, talking to your employees you will find out a great deal about what kind of work they will be good at. Also, if they feel a strong connection to you, they will have a strong affiliation with the restaurant – and perhaps even look forward to going to work. So, spending a few minutes once in a while asking how they are is time well spent.

3) Remember to count to five… or ten

Patience is the key to managing many different types of people, and restaurants are among the most hectic workplaces to manage. Delivering quality food to customers with efficiency and good service requires excellent and customer-friendly staff, and it is your job to motivate them to make sure that your guests are feeling comfortable. But sometimes things go wrong, and when they do, it’s important that you take a step back, quickly evaluate the situation and decide what the next step should be. And it’s not only your employees you need to be patient with – sometimes you will get an earful from complaining customers. However…

4) Keep in mind that the customer is not always right

Traditionally, the first rule in customer service is that “the customer is always right”, though it doesn’t hold much truth to it. At least not when not considering the circumstances. Sometimes, your staff will have to handle unpleasant, controlling and downright rude customers – and if it really isn’t due to bad customer service, it shouldn’t be blamed on your staff. If the situation gets out of hand, you should step in and show whose side you’re on. If you’re loyal to your staff, they will be loyal to you too.

5) Use an online and mobile employee scheduling tool – this is the way to go!

If you are not already using an online and mobile employee scheduling system, we suggest that you should consider getting one. Enabling your staff to access their work schedule, swap or give away shifts mutually, request for time off and book still available shifts anytime, anywhere, from any mobile and online device, you will make their work and personal life much more flexible. They will be able to keep their work schedule in their pocket all day long, and make changes to it if necessary. All in all, you leave a lot of the administrative work to your employees which will make them feel empowered and appreciated.

Learn more about online and mobile employee scheduling systems here.