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Category: Training
Seasons vary in different markets and staffing for the busy season is very important in order to properly execute the increased business.
Improper staffing in the dining room caused false waits and empty seats in the dining room. At least if you are going to give proper service to the guests. Improper staffing in the kitchen creates long ticket times, or improperly executed recipes and of course, in the end they can both kill your business in the future.
It is imperative that you do some research if you don’t know your market very well. If your timing is off when you start to increase your staff, it could cost you a lot of unnecessary dollars if you hire to early. This can also hurt employee morale as there won’t be enough hours to go around.
I have had the opportunity of working in several different markets and from my experience it usually pickups around November and gains momentum through December, and January is usually pretty strong as well. in areas that are populated with a lot of “snowbirds” February and March are typically the two busiest months of the year. Then restaurant sales seem to steadily decline April through September with August and September being the two slowest months of the year.
Entering the slow season has yet another staffing challenge as you try and balance available hours to the staff. Obviously, your best employees are the one you want to keep, but it is still difficult cutting peoples hours that need to work. However, they usually find a way of getting rid of themselves.
Having a good training program in place is a critical part of the business. This is where we ensure new employees know exactly what our steps of service are and the point at which they learn our menu. Menu knowledge is very important to both the new employee as well as the restaurant. If we fail to teach them proper menu knowledge two things happen. First, they make a lot of unnecessary mistakes that cost the restaurant money and second, they are very uncomfortable answering guest questions regarding the menu and their delivery is not smooth. The guests pick up on this and believe it or not, it affects their tips. It also affects the overall impression the guests get of our establishment. There are many steps to a good training program, but I will save them for another day.
