Learning how to successfully manage restaurant staff takes time and effort. In this article, we’ll show you which managerial skills and best practices to focus on to create happy, productive food service teams. Table of contents
This will help you know how to lead a restaurant team effectively, so you can improve customer service and grow your established or new restaurant business.
Managing restaurant staff presents unique challenges not found in many other industries. The high-pressure, fast-paced environment tests even the most seasoned leaders. With turnover rates notoriously high, retaining and motivating your staff requires special skills and understanding.
Follow these tips to master restaurant staff management and create a positive, productive culture
Develop Strong Management Skills
Managing a restaurant isn’t easy. Take initiative to keep developing your leadership abilities through courses, mentorships, books, conferences, and more. Strive to improve in key areas like conflict resolution, performance management, delegation, coaching, and communication. Becoming an inspiring and decisive leader takes continuous effort.
Ask for Help When Needed
Don’t let pride prevent you from seeking assistance, especially when just starting out. Turn to your own manager, restaurant owners, or outside mentors to better navigate challenges. Learn from other successful restaurant managers. Stay humble and recognize that growth takes time.
Be Proactive, Not Reactive
The best managers act instead of react. Address issues early before they escalate and require fire drills. Nip problems in the bud through attentiveness and quick intervention. Be vigilant for conflict, lagging morale, or slipping performance. Letting problems fester leads to toxic culture.
Set Your Staff Up for Success
Take steps to enable your staff’s performance. This includes proper training tools/resources schedules that maximize strengths, and opportunities to develop skills. Structure the environment to bring out their best. Don’t just blame underperformers—look in the mirror first.
Foster a Sense of Community
Cultivate connection and team spirit among staff. This builds trust and encourages them to invest in the restaurant’s success. Learn about their lives and interests. Facilitate friendships through bonding activities. Celebrate group and individual wins frequently. A strong community enhances retention.
Set Goals and Track Progress
Define clear objectives for each employee and the team overall. These could relate to metrics like revenue, customer satisfaction, waste reduction, upselling percentage, etc. Establish realistic, measurable targets and check in regularly on progress. Goal-setting boosts motivation and performance.
Establish Boundaries Regarding Availability
Respect work-life balance for both staff and yourself. Discourage off-hour calls/texts unless urgent. Reward, don’t punish, prudent use of sick/personal days. Model healthy boundaries by being fully present when on and off duty. Burnout hurts productivity and morale.
Ensure Appropriate Staffing Levels
Maintain adequate staffing for projected sales and guests. Understaffing overworks employees and creates resentment. Overstaffing drags down labor cost percentage. Use historical data, forecasts, and intuition to optimize schedules. Have a bench of crosstrained staff who can fill gaps.
Delegate and Distribute Responsibilities
Don’t micromanage by controlling every detail yourself. Empower staff through delegation and distributed authority. Oversee from a higher level and let employees own processes. Reduce bottlenecks by cross-training team members. Trust your hires. Delegation develops talent.
Provide Ongoing Feedback and Recognition
Hold brief, informal feedback chats often to recognize good work or address problems immediately. Formal evaluations should happen at least annually. 360 reviews can illuminate blindspots. Tie top performers to rewards like raises and promotions. Feedback is a gift.
Listen First, Speak Second
Welcome input and concerns from employees. Don’t immediately dismiss complaints as baseless griping. There may be legitimate issues at the root. Lend an empathetic ear before reacting. Follow Stephen Covey’s ethic to “seek first to understand.”
Coach Patiently
Adopt a coaching mindset when developing and correcting staff. Help them meet standards through questions, scenarios, modeling desired behaviors, and breaking tasks into micro-skills. Stay calm, consistent and focused on growth. A good coach uplifts.
Make Values Clear
Share the restaurant’s values and demonstrate them consistently through your own actions. Values provide decision-making guardrails for the team. While profits matter, reinforcing values reminds staff why their work has meaning. Lead by example.
Learn Employees’ Motivational Drivers
People have diverse motivations – money, stability, growth opportunities, recognition, etc. Get to know what truly drives each employee. Appeal to those motivators when providing encouragement and incentives. It’s more nuanced than one-size-fits-all.
Be Fair Yet Firm
The most respected managers embody this pair of traits. They act impartially and avoid favoritism. But they also hold people accountable. Poor performers don’t get endless chances without real consequences. Great managers blend compassion with high standards.
Key Takeaways for Managing Restaurant Staff:
- Continuous improvement of your leadership skills
- Seek help from other experienced managers
- Be attentive and proactive, not reactive
- Set the team up for success
- Build community and connection amongst staff
- Establish clear objectives and track progress
- Maintain reasonable availability expectations
- Keep staffing levels optimized
- Delegate responsibilities rather than micromanage
- Provide ongoing feedback and recognition
- Listen to input first before reacting
- Coach with patience focused on growth
- Reinforce values by demonstrating them
- Learn what motivates each employee
- Blend compassion with firm accountability
By implementing these management practices, you can boost restaurant performance, retain top talent, and create an environment where staff feel fulfilled in their work.
50% less time spent on scheduling.
Restaurants like the Siboire won’t ever go back to their old scheduling methods.
Use clear communication to set expectations
Clear communication is the unsung hero of any successful restaurant. Your staff need to understand exactly what’s expected of them in daily operations; anything less is a recipe for underperformance or employee burnout.
The team should also feel comfortable communicating with management so that issues and concerns can be identified and resolved as quickly as possible.
Create a professional communication space for you and your team.
How To Manage a Restaurant: Develop Your Team
How do you manage a team of restaurant staff?
One of the best things you can do when managing a team of restaurant staff is to create a sense of community and team spirit. When people feel like they’re part of a family or group, they’re more likely to go above and beyond to meet collective goals. You can create a sense of community by establishing trusting and respectful environments.
How do restaurant managers manage employees?
Adopt reliable employee management tools. User-friendly software like Agendrix is used by bar and restaurant managers across North America to effortlessly manage employee scheduling, time tracking, and more. It also makes handling last-minute schedule changes a breeze. Restaurant staff are more than simply workers.
Why do you need restaurant staff management?
Your staff are the also ones who are also dealing with your customers, thus, it is essential to have a strong team that can achieve your business goals. Thus, comes the need for proper restaurant staff management, that would help you create, assign, and optimize the operations required for the smooth functioning of your restaurant.
How do you manage a restaurant?
Inventory management: Monitor and maintain food and beverage stock levels. Scheduling and payroll: Balance staff and business scheduling needs, create optimal shift schedules, and pay wages and salaries. Marketing and advertising: Market your restaurant to help achieve optimal restaurant capacity (social media and review management included).
