That’s right, you decide. You are the boss. Whether you are the owner, chef, or the manager, you are in charge and you need to make decisions and set policies, so there can be no confusion by the staff.

What is our tip-out policy?

This is just one of a million things that your employees need to know to be successful. What is the opening side work? Who is supposed to do it? What is the closing side work? Who is supposed to do that? How soon do you greet people at the door? Answer the phone? When do you bring bread to the table? When should you clear a table? When one person is finished? Or all are finished?

Systems and Standards

Put systems in place. Have standards for every part of the operation. Have standard recipes for your food and for your cocktails. You want to make sure things are consistent, no matter who is cooking, or who is bartending.  We have all gone back to a restaurant, only to be disappointed because it wasn’t as good as ‘last time’.

With standard recipes you will have a foundation to help train your newer employees. You will have the ability to make sure you are hitting the numbers you need to hit to be successful and profitable.

Don’t make them figure it out

If you are not perfectly clear on these things it will lead to trouble. Trouble with the staff getting along, trouble controlling costs. If you don’t assign an opening server, and make it clear what they need to be doing to get the restaurant set up for success (we call that mise en place), utter chaos will surely follow.

Ever worked at a place where every time you reached for something it wasn’t there? What? No one stocked the half and half? What? There are no wine glasses? What? I can’t reset a table because we are out of spoons?

Yikes

Yeah, right, no fun at all. My definition of restaurant hell.

Be clear

So, when you hire a new employee, it will be easy to train them, because you will have a specific way of doing things. All things. Every time. Also, your restaurant will run like a well-oiled machine.

A well-oiled machine runs smoothly, making all folks happy. Employees, customers, and therefore, you.