Restaurant Forms and Checklists

Forms and checklists

Restaurant Forms and Checklists

forms and checklists


Why do we need restaurant forms and checklists.

Restaurant forms and checklist help us to get organized and prepared prior to any peak period. Some managers do not believe in using restaurant forms and checklist, these managers are old school.

The old school method may have worked in restaurants years ago because employees back then did what they were instructed to do and they were well behaved.

Back then restaurant forms and checklist were not used like they are used in today’s society.

In today’s society, people think and do things differently. These employees need guidance and follow up pertaining to completing their assigned task. Restaurant forms and checklist help prepare the employees to do the right thing for the right reasons.

Checks and balances and restaurant forms and checklist:

The manager periodically throughout the day conducts his or her walk through and figure eights throughout the restaurant.

While the manager conducts their walk through of the restaurant they are using forms and checklist to tighten up the gap between a chaotic shift and a well-run shift.

How do they tighten up the gap?

Checks and Balances: consistently using restaurant forms and checklist.

Corporate restaurants use restaurant forms and checklist. These restaurant are highly successful in maintaining a health bottom line.

The use of restaurant forms and checklist are vital in restaurant operations and play a great role maintaining repeat business.

There are two very important checklists: 1) Front of the house Shift Readiness Checklist 2) Back of the House Shift Readiness Checklist.

Both front and back of the house shift readiness checklist prepares the shift on WOW customer service. These form’s focus on getting through the entire meal period without any complaints.

Front and back of the house shift readiness checklists focuses on:

  • Manager’s walk-through – jumping into the customer’s shoes and seeing through the guest’s eyes, areas that need attention. This is referred as the customer’s eye. See what they see and eliminate all eye sores.
  • No cigarette butts or trash in the parking lot and surrounding.
  • The front door of the restaurant print free.
  • Greeter area clean and organized.
  • Clean menus at the greeter station.
  • Bathrooms are spotless: clean mirrors, basins, urinals, toilets, ceiling vents and ceiling, partition walls, floors and baby changing stations. No overflowing trash cans. Stocking on paper towels, toilet paper, hand soap, hand sanitizer, female sanitation napkins, and baby wipes.
  • Dining room: clean tables or booths and chairs, condiments and the condiment holders, napkin dispensers, table bases, floors and decor. The customer will be looking and listening to everything that occurs with-in their surroundings. They will also look for cleanliness, is the ceiling and the vents clean?
  • Employees are in proper / clean uniforms in view of all customers.
  • Employee behavior is another factor that the customer will be seeing and listening to. Is the staff professional and polite to their customers? Are the customers receiving Wow customer service?
  • Scheduled staff: Are there enough staff scheduled to accommodate the customers in your restaurant. Under staffing will create an inferior customer service. Over staffing will create a very high labor percent and will affect the bottom line.

How do we schedule the right amount of employees?

  • Sales projections
  • Labor projections: Schedule all the employees and assign a rate of pay to each staff member. Add up the total hours for the week and do the math. Multiply the employees’ hours by the rate of pay for each employee. Divide the total labor cost by the total projected sales.
  • Example: The weekly total projected labor dollar’s is $1120. The projected sales for that particular week are $5000. Divide the projected labor dollars $1120 by the projected sales $5000 ($1120 / $5000 X 100 = 22.4%.

The national average labor percent is between 25 to 35%. And that depending upon the style of the restaurant and the mix of sales.

Management average labor percent should be around 10%. Some restaurants separate hourly and the management, labor percentages. Other restaurants combine the labor percentages.

Use the projected labor percent as a guide in scheduling your employee’s. If you overload the schedule because of events or because you are not quite sure on how many employees you need to schedule, then management needs to be proactive per shift. Managers need to manage labor by knowing when to send employees home after the end of a meal period. Cut the employee early enough so that employee can complete the end of the shift break down or clean up. It is all about timing. In order to make a profit you need to control labor and food cost and not to mention great customer service.

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Management also needs to be on the floor where the money is. Touching the customers’ tables is a great way to know if the customer is receiving great customer service. If the guest is not satisfied for whatever reason than it is an opportunity to fix the problem before they leave your restaurant.

Have you ever heard of WORD OF MOUTH?

Word of mouth is the number one source of advertisement. Word of mouth will either make or break your restaurant’s reputation. Focus on one customer at a time. Adopt the following slogan: “Yes is the answer, what is the question” do what you have to do to fix the problem.

What is guest recovery?

GLAD 1) Go to the guest 2) Listen to the guest 3) Apologize to the guest 4) Do what you have to do to fix the problem.

Food temperatures and Plate presentation:

All foods that are hot needs to be heated to 165°F for 15 seconds. Then store the food in a steam table and maintain the temperature of 140°F or higher. Once the temperature drops below 140°F you must reheat the food until it reaches the internal temperature of 165°F for 15 seconds. If you do not see steam coming off the customers’ food do not serve it to the guest, kick the entree back to the cooks and get the temperature back to 165°F. Proper plate presentation and proper garnishes are very important, it adds flare to the dishes.

Restaurant forms and checklist play a huge role in maintaining high standards. Successful restaurants use forms and checklist.

Today’s Summery

Using restaurant forms and checklist are important in maintaining:

  • High standards
  • WOW customer service
  • Positive word of mouth
  • Great tasting food and service
  • Hot food hot, Cold food cold

 

Hiring Quality Employees

 

Hiring Quality Employees

 

The hiring process starts when the candidate comes into your hiring quality employeesrestaurant and wants to fill out an employment application.

It is best to have on hand a candidate interview scheduling form to be used to schedule interviews. Schedule interviews only when applicants come into your establishment during peak times.

It is ideal that interviews are performed during the off peak times.

Use a telephone reference form to ask certain questions about the previous employer.

If you have time to interview a person than do it instantly. Have your greeter seat the applicant in an area away from customers.

Give the applicant a cold drink or a cup of coffee while they wait for the manager to interview them.

Give the applicant an application to fill out ahead of time before they are interviewed.

If you are scheduling applicant interviews it is best to screen the applicants by conducting past work experience and personal reference checks prior to the interview.

This process will allow you to weed out individuals that have bad reference checks, this saves time and money.

Ask open ended questions. The interviewer talks 20% and the applicant takes 80% of the time.

To get a second opinion have another manager conduct a second interview, two eyes are better than one.

Make the applicant as comfortable as possible.

After you decide if you are going to hire the applicant, you should schedule an orientation to explain the restaurant policies and procedures (Hand Book).

Have the applicant sign a form indicating that they understand the policies and procedures. By signing the form it will act as a paper trail in case it is needed in an unemployment hearing or a civil suit.

Always use employee warning notices, document employee related issues will create a paper trail if needed.

How to write up employees will help you in the long run especially in unemployment hearing and civil suits.

Before hiring an individual, make sure you are clear that following your rules, policies and procedures is a requirement of employment.

Hiring Quality Employees

You can not ask:

  • Ancestry, national origin, descent, or national
  • Private organizations
  • Religious affiliations
  • Date of birth
  • Ancestry, national origin, parentage, or nationality
  • Names and addresses of relatives other than a spouse and dependent children
  • Marital status or Sex
  • Height or weight, unless you can show that information is justified by business necessity

When conducting interviews it is very important that you ask legal questions:

Hiring Quality Employees

Questions that you can ask:

  1. Addresses – past and current.
  2. How long have you lived in your specific city.
  3. The applicant’s home or cell phone number or how can we reach you.
  4. If the applicant looks under aged than you can say can you furnish a minor permit to show proof of age. Never ask an applicant their age.
  5. After the applicant is hired than you may have the applicant fill out a I-9 Employment Verification form to verify their identity and age.
  6. You may ask language skills only if it pertains to the position.
  7. You can ask if they are a US Citizen. If the applicant is not a US Citizen than they must have US Visa status.
  8. You can ask about convictions and misdemeanors. You cannot ask about the specific conviction.
  9. It is illegal to ask the applicant about disabilities. However, you can ask if they are fit to perform the specific position.
  10. You can ask the applicant about office skills and professional schools that they may attend.
  11. You can ask about their writing and reading skills, only if they pertain to the position.
  12. You may ask about his or her employment history, names and addresses,  dates, salary and why they left the job.
  13. After you hire you can ask about their marriage status for I-9 and W-4 purposes.
  14. They applicant may need to prove that they can perform the job position, heavy lifting, standing for long periods of time.  A physical examination may be required.
  15. You can ask an applicant about normal hours and days of work required by the job to avoid possible conflict with religions or other personal convictions.
  16.  You can an indicate that your restaurant is an equal opportunity employer.

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