Two of the biggest challenges in the hospitality industry are the management of people and ensuring employees are doing the tasks they have been assigned with high-quality results. Bar and nightclub operations require a large amount of people, each with different personalities, backgrounds and work habits. It can be incredibly difficult to manage a large amount of people, particularly as a business is growing rapidly and recruiting new people.
However, even with a large staff there are ways to hold employees accountable and ensure they complete the tasks they are assigned consistently and at a high level. Here are 3 ways to get your staff performing at their absolute best.
Use Checklists for Everything
The tasks involved in hospitality are not complex. Rather, they are numerous and repetitive. If a process has been identified for doing a task in a way that is consistent with the expectations of the operator, then that process must be outlined on paper and used every time that task is performed. This becomes important because most mistakes happen when people rely solely on their memory.
To prevent forgetfulness from becoming a factor in the performance of tasks, use checklists while you’re training your employees, teach them to use checklists, and enforce the use of checklists while they remain in your employ. The less they deviate from your processes, the more certain you can be that they are performing at the quality you expect.
Use Quantifiable Measures to Evaluate Staff Performance
As a company grows in size so too does its need to evaluate and compensate the performance their staff by the results they produce. For example, some bars pay their managers based on their ability to minimize costs and stay within a certain shrinkage threshold. Others pay their general managers bonuses tied to the overall profitability of the bar or nightclub. Not only are Gms encouraged to generate more sales, they are also concerned themselves with the direct costs of the business, which then trickles down to all the employees under their management.
Ultimately, knowing and sharing the numbers helps you evaluate employee performance objectively. That information also ensures that the people you employ are interested in performing to the peak of their abilities.
Communicate Urgency for Every Assigned Task
Companies that embrace the idea of speed in everything they do are those that grow the fastest. It is normal for larger staff meetings to be comprised of delegation by the GM or owner, assigning tasks to the team, and assigning deadlines to each task. With deadlines, the leader can periodically check in on employees to ascertain their progress and better evaluate the efficiency at which the staff is operating. Once tasks are completed within the allotted timeframe on a consistent basis, the leader can then look to streamline procedures. Teams that are assigned their tasks as quickly as possible are those that get ahead.
*Originally posted on nightclub.com by Sculpture Hospitality expert Kevin Tam.