But You’ve Been Underpaying for Years. The research firm TDn2K found that in 2017, quick service saw a 132% increase in hourly employee turnover and a 50% increase for managers. Restaurant managers typically work 50 to 60 hours a week -- which can contribute to a high burnout rate. Plenty of people would have a problem with being forced to participate in weird team-building exercises, but most people are okay with a glass of wine and a nice meal. Time and time again, franchisees and other restaurant owners have found that understaffing can be deadly if it is not addressed immediately. Everything about the latter phrase implies a willingness to help and puts guests at ease for further inquiries. Managing restaurant staff has its own set of challenges. Be prepared to manage your team in any situation with our top tips. Common Problem #5: Hiring and Training Staff Most successful restaurant owners know the importance of hiring and training the right employees. “These interactions are brief and can be performed with minimal interaction via food delivery payment apps,” Rankin says. Whether dining inside or outside, diners should consider the risk they pose to restaurant staff. It goes from person to person, booth to booth, menu to menu,” he says. HR is also one of those big challenges, causing restaurant owners to deal with problems such as high turnover, wage/tip requirements, and complicated scheduling. Your email address will not be published. Outdoor seating also eliminates ventilation systems as a means of transmission. One of the most common mistakes any hospitality business makes is with the way they position their menu. There will always be problems. A Manager's Plan to Overcome Staffing Challenges in a Restaurant. Whether dining inside or outside, diners should consider the risk they pose to restaurant staff. An Example of an Ethical Situation in a Restaurant Restaurant owners face ethical quandaries on a regular basis. None of them are risk-free, but some of them are lower risk.”. Don’t Fear! the ethics around supporting restaurants and keeping people safe, virus cannot travel as far or remain viable in outdoor environments, This New Regulation Will Take Money Out of Servers’ Pockets, Asia’s Street Food Scene Is Changing Amid Pandemic, Report Details, Food, Agriculture Essential Workers Should Be Among Next in Line for Vaccine, CDC Panel Votes. But for an employee on the receiving end of that rage, the book fails to truly reckon with the pain he left behind. If diners sit outside, on the other hand, they slightly reduce the risk of person-to-person exposure for servers, since experts agree the virus cannot travel as far or remain viable in outdoor environments. We asked veteran operators how they tackle some everyday challenges. Chang’s memoir "Eat a Peach" grapples with the white-hot fury that defined most of his career at Momofuku. In order to run your business smoothly, you need to make sure you address any staffing problems head-on. The trick is to address those problems sooner rather than later. Even operators who have thrived through the pandemic were forced to assess and adjust to a dramatically different operating environment. COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the restaurant industry overall. Get rid of worn or torn menus. Remember, your restaurant is only as good as the people who are working there. “Having somebody drop food off on my doorstep is better than curbside pickup, which is better than me running into the store in a closed ventilation system, which is still better than me sitting in that closed indoor environment while I eat. If they refuse to wear a mask whenever they’re not actually eating, or if they dine out despite feeling ill, risk goes up for everyone in the restaurant. Is your menu … A survey found out that 82% of Generation Z workers said restaurants provided their first job. Yet a person sitting at a restaurant can’t see all the ways they threaten restaurant employees, making it hard for many to weigh the ethics around supporting restaurants and keeping people safe. Yet, a common problem exists as many restaurants hire the wrong people and have a high turnover rate. Consider hiring a copywriter to craft a compelling menu. Having employees leave is bound to happen at some point. Customer problems in a restaurant can escalate quickly. Group your most profitable items together. Flooded administration. It’s not just the food that matters. How much do you spend on labor compared to your restaurant sales? What are your most profitable menu items? However, there are still plenty of human issues you need to address in your restaurant scheduling. Restaurant PROBLEM #2: EMPLOYEE TURNOVER Historically low unemployment, the rise of the gig economy, and an overall scarcity of talent combine to create yet another headache for the restaurant industry. Public health officials urge everyone to consider not only their own safety, but also the risks they impose on others by going about their daily lives. Yet, the employee turnover rate in the restaurant industry is really high. Menu Prices Will Go Up With a Higher Minimum Wage. In the digital age, when a bad experience goes live in the time it takes to slurp an oyster, restaurateurs have to stay sharp.From the smallest displeasure to downright fury, what one customer thinks is outrageous another will deem perfectly reasonable. While picking up food to-go is still safer than an extended dining interaction at a restaurant, it may still require customers to touch various surfaces — such as door knobs and payment devices — and will expose them to other people. Are you meeting them? Maybe it’s time to take it off the menu. Like many other industries, Artificial Intelligence will play an important role in the restaurant industry to solve many of the existing staffing problems. Kitchen staff has a restaurant turnover rate of 18% and are less likely to leave, while folks in management roles have a restaurant turnover rate of … A restaurant employee may be more or less likely to catch the novel coronavirus from a customer depending on their position. Let your menu be a tour guide. If the customer is perfectly pleasant, treat every step of the dining experience with the same care. Restaurants need to always be prepared for a wide variety of safety issues that could adversely affect staff and customers, including kitchen injuries such as burns and cuts, food-borne illnesses due to mishandling, slips and falls, and sanitation issues. That said, the problem lies in the number of Gen Z job seekers—the younger workforce is declining, with … Problems between staff are going to happen. Even if a diner understands how COVID-19 spreads and believes they can mitigate transmission, no one can be entirely confident they aren’t unintentionally exposing food workers by dining in or ordering out. Hosts, bartenders, servers, and any other front-of-house workers take the greatest risk by sharing indoor space with customers, who may or may not show symptoms even if they’re infected with COVID-19. Keep track of ordered menu items. Get a responsive website that looks great on desktop, tablet and mobile phone. Focused on all aspects of Restaurant Business from Interior Design to Menu Design, you can get helpful content on different problems you face while running your Restaurant such as Food Wastage, Internal Thefts & Pilferage, Customer Attrition, Hiring Staff and overall Restaurant Business Management issues. That said, here are 10 suggestions to make your life easier: Make amazingly consistent food. An incompetent staff can also irreparably damage your current and future customer base. What is your profit and loss for each week you are open? But work, especially in a restaurant, is a social atmosphere, and staff members are more sensitive to how they are treated than what they are paid (within reason). Update your menu and prices at least once a year. Restaurant trends and issues Creative strategies in today’s evolving restaurant marketplace. But all restaurant workers are in some danger when diners carelessly eat out. Keep your menus clean – no grease and no food or water stains. “We’re in a fast-moving environment in terms of information.” And as diners decide how to responsibly patronize a restaurant, Martin and Guernsey agree they should pay particular attention to respecting the preferences and safety of restaurant workers. Opening a restaurant requires a great deal of capital and poses a very high risk. While he makes clear he hasn’t quite seen COVID-19 spread in the same way in restaurant settings, the novel coronavirus has been shown to quickly explode from one infection given the right conditions. More than accounting. It’s another one of those inevitables in the restaurant business. 3 Restaurant Menu Pricing Tips to Increase Sales, 10 Things You Should Know About Restaurant Finance, Innovative Restaurants Begin Selling Groceries, Meal Kits. Issue: Communication and organization “What [customers] do will impact the entire restaurant,” Martin says. No one ordering the fish fillet? Restaurant managers often ask me how to deal with employees who are “not good at problem solving.” These employees are usually servers, hosts or other front-end staff who deal a lot with customers as part of their work. Here are 3 common staffing issues, and solutions on how to fix them. & More... See first-hand how Restaurant Engine can help your restaurant attract more customers. What does it cost to make each menu item? The only way to stop the downward understaffing spiral is to stop it in its path. When we asked restaurant owners about their biggest pain points, 30% of them said staffing is what keeps them up at night. Motivating a restaurant staff is not all about contests to see who can upsell the most pink lemonades and chocolate mousse pies. Problem employees inevitably surface in most workplaces and small companies aren't immune. Good restaurant communication is is a measure of how your staff works with each other, but also how you work with your staff. Saying “No problem” implies that the guests’ requests are inconvenient. The statistics regarding restaurant failure are staggering. newsletter, David Chang’s Memoir Fails to Account for the Trauma He Caused Me. Restaurant staff is there to provide a pleasant experience for visitors, and responses like “My pleasure!” are much more appropriate. Hiring the right people, and then making your expectations clear right from the beginning, will help your new restaurant staff come together as a team. More than inventory. More than marketing. What’s the profit margin? Common Problem #1: Your Menu A great menu is a real balancing act. “I’m always thinking about how we have norovirus outbreaks, and it spreads so easily throughout the restaurant. Ask guests to dish on the things that most annoy them in restaurant dining and get ready for a long list. Dealing with these problems is overwhelming, frustrating, and puts the business at a much higher risk of failure. To combat the potential of burnout and to … “It’s important to remember that ventilation and airflow are really important in the spread of COVID-19,” Kowalcyk adds. Placing greater emphasis on finding and training staff will help you reduce costs over time and will allow you to provide better customer service and a better customer experience overall. This can be accomplished through photos and/or creative text. Formalize your brand standards. Restaurants are a common first job for young employees. A great restaurant manager will take the time to address the problems … “The less physical contact we have, the better,” Kowalcyk says. There’s just not enough information to eliminate all risk. Problem #1: Turnover. The days of scribbling employee names on a whiteboard in the backroom are at an end. Depending on the placement of the kitchen and the setup of the restaurant’s ventilation system, airflow could carry pathogens from the dining room back to the kitchen, endangering kitchen staff and other back-of-house workers. Sometimes, the problems are obvious, such as attendance issues … Beyond turnover, restaurant operators face a number of staff issues every day, ranging from struggles with internal communication to recruitment. “This situation is quickly evolving and we’re literally learning something new each day about COVID-19, how the virus behaves,” says Jessica Guernsey, public health deputy director of Multnomah County. How many customers are you feeding each day? Having a plan in place can prepare you for these problems, if and when they occur. Do you have sales goals? Train your staff to be accommodating but firm. But compared to servers and cooks, delivery workers can provide food with less risk to themselves and customers (though delivery workers, like back-of-house workers, may still have some exposure to the virus if they interact with restaurant employees who directly face customers). During the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a lot of talk about risk. It is imperative to make it a priority to fully staff your restaurant at all times. From inventory to ordering to monitoring, there is a significant amount of administrative work that must be completed to effectively run a restaurant and get accurate numbers. Even as Philadelphia allows outdoor dining, the city encourages restaurants to promote their delivery and takeout businesses to reduce crowds. Before deciding how to visit a restaurant (or whether to do so at all), a diner should first understand how they might endanger the people around them, just to enjoy a meal in public. Being proactive to prevent problems, such as theft, will also help stave off potential difficulties. Photo by Rock’n Roll Monkey on Unsplash. For many restaurant owners, knowing how to deal with cash flow problems starts by simply getting a handle on the employee payroll process. Now thanks to advanced employee scheduling software, you can plan restaurant scheduling in a more clear and convenient way. Do you have a budget for labor? Start small and work up to a six month or yearlong plan. Common Restaurant Problems and the Solution Running a successful restaurant can be extremely challenging especially when the choices that diners have are beyond overwhelming. Daunting? The number one problem, however, is a poor relationship between a staff member and their superior. A chef assists in training new staff , oversees cooking processes, develops menus, and provides input in marketing decisions that affect the restaurant. SingleThread has been hailed as the pinnacle of farm-to-table dining. If you let a problem between two staff members slide, it could fester and spread to other employees. “Protecting people as much as possible, supporting businesses as much as possible, and finding new ways to do that.”, The freshest news from the food world every day, Fairness has the potential to be a fundamental part of a restaurant’s business plan, Sign up for the How much loss is involved in your inventory? The following are habits to avoid at all costs when communicating with your staff: Yelling at underperforming staff (especially in front of customers). Avoid the Hassle - Hire The Best And Train The Rest According to Rankin, A server interacting with customers could become infected and then unknowingly pass on the virus to other employees, like cooks and dishwashers, if they can’t maintain six feet of distance. Still, seating diners outside doesn’t entirely extinguish risk for employees. Knowing who is the right fit and for which position can be difficult, not to mention letting staff members go. Having trustworthy, proactive and reliable staff member brings peace of mind. About     Terms of Service     Privacy Policy     Partnerships     Contact Us     Customer Login     © 2020 Restaurant Engine. If customers are choosing between delivery and picking up food to-go, Kowalcyk recommends contactless delivery with payment online as the least risky option. In Philadelphia, restaurants are only allowed to serve guests outside, but even with that stipulation, Matthew Rankin, a spokesperson for the city’s public health department, says kitchen workers are still in danger due to transmission among staff. As noted above, paying your staff should always be a priority, but cash flow issues can sometimes result from a mishandled payroll process. But what happens when the farm is under assault by climate change? Are you sticking to it? The three things that usually determine the success of a restaurant are the food, the service, and the location/atmosphere. Make a marketing plan. Engage in social media and digital marketing. Does Great Customer Service Really Get You Customer Loyalty? Make sure your staff is thoroughly trained and has memorized the menu. Jeff Martin, environmental health supervisor of Multnomah County, Oregon, compares COVID-19’s potential to spread to other outbreaks at restaurants. This includes mission statement, logo, graphics, guidelines, etc. Schedule the beginning of the working day at least 15-20 minutes earlier than the time the restaurant … Below, we’ll give sample chef interview questions, explain how to find a chef for your restaurant, and suggest some qualities that could be beneficial for your chef to possess. Approximately 60% of restaurants fail within the first year of operation, 80% fail within the first five years. Break it down by mealtime. “Servers who have high person-to-person contact — because that’s where there’s a significant concern — would likely be at higher risk than those that are at the back of the restaurant in the kitchen,” says Barbara Kowalcyk, assistant professor of food safety and public health at the Ohio State University. by Nick Mancall-Bitel Jul 24, 2020, 1:12pm EDT Share this story. Sometimes, however, learning the pitfalls before you develop a restaurant business plan is the best way to avoid them. If you’re opening your restaurant with a background in restaurant management or managing teams, congratulations: you probably know how to curate your restaurant staff. According to the restaurant kitchen rules for staff, it means that by this time they should already be in the kitchen and starting to cook, not just crossing the threshold of the cloakroom. “We’re in a new social compact with one another right now,” says Guernsey. 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