Manpower Planning For Your Restaurant

Ravi Wazir

The first thing you need to do is to outline the functions that your organisation needs to perform. Then determine the number of people (and their backgrounds) that are necessary to achieve this aim. This allows you to decide the possible sources of recruitment and the HR policies to be followed.

Employees are the ones who actualise your goals - whether in finance, marketing or operations. Without them your vision would remain only a dream. In the hospitality industry, the interaction between customer and restaurant employee takes on a special meaning and importance, and customer satisfaction depends almost entirely on a smooth performance from the staff. A single inattentive steward could severely damage the reputation of your restaurant. It is therefore most important to attract the right kind of employees and then induct, support, motivate and retain them.

Make a good beginning by recognising the elements of job satisfaction from the employee's viewpoint:

a) Good work conditions
b) Opportunities for promotions
c) Fair pay
d) Opportunities for training
e) Interesting work
f) Reasonable level of responsibility
g) Basic security
h) Work appreciation
i) Pleasant colleagues
j) Empathetic superiors

Becoming A Preferred Employer

Employees, like guests, have an option to go elsewhere. Finding the right employee for the position the first time around is your most prudent choice. To attract and retain the best in the market you need to create the right work climate in your establishment.

To create a good work climate you need to:

1. Give clear directives
2. Offer adequate materials and equipment to support the tasks to be achieved
3. Recognise and reward good work
4. Offer fair wages - low wages dissatisfy employees though high wages do not necessarily satisfy them
5. Develop a spirit of participation so an employee can see himself as a person whose opinions matter
6. Create meaningful jobs so an employee can see how his work contributes to the 'end product' of the establishment
7. Talk to staff about their progress
8. Extend opportunities to learn and grow
9. Create a team whose commitment to excellence is visible to new employees
10. Treat your staff well since that is the way they will generally treat your guests
11. Support good local causes

Innovative reward and recognition programmes generally boost morale and sustain interest over longer periods. You may provide perks such as overtime, medical allowance, staff transport, incentives on increased volumes of business, flexible schedules, an annual picnic, a prize for employee of the month, educational assistance, Diwali bonus etc. A high staff turnover is common in this business. This can disastrously affect your reputation, service, and of course your bottom line. It also results in additional costs in terms of new recruitment and training. We must understand that turnover in itself isn't the problem; it is only a symptom of poor human resource management! Good management entails good recruitment practices backed by a detailed induction programme to reduce the learning curve. Ensuring continuous personal and professional growth through training opportunities improves employee commitment to your establishment.

Some policies and practices:

• When you disagree with an employee at your workplace, remind each other why you are there in the first place and consider what is in the best interests of the business.
• In the event of a mistake, fix the system rather than the employee. Pointing a finger at the employee will discourage him from showing you the loopholes in the system.
• Considering and actually acting upon employee suggestions encourages the spirit of contribution.
• Make sure your employees have their meals before the beginning of each service. This will reduce the likelihood of guest meal pilferage and support the focus of staff effort towards their work.
• Get the staff to align their behaviour with restaurant objectives using examples they can relate to. For e.g. why should they work towards achieving greater sales when they get paid anyway? Because more sales mean more tips.
• Organise programmes which may be improvement-based - linked to breakages and losses or attendance. For e.g. organise a monthly raffle for the staff. Eliminate participants who do not meet your requirements every day. Of those left in the end, draw lots for the winners.
• Offer your staff some degree of insight into the workings of your restaurant. They are more likely to empathise with your needs when they can see for example previously invisible bills or the macro challenges you encounter during the course of the day.
• Promote internally whenever possible - this gives your team a tangible measure of growth prospects within the organisation. External recruitment, unless absolutely necessary, may affect staff morale.
• Regularly update your candidate databank through networking with colleagues and consultants with a keen eye for people who could add value to your enterprise.
• Develop a good stress management programme for your employees. Remember the compounded effect of long work hours, improper meals / rest and irate guests definitely takes its toll.
• Overtime pay: Being part of an industry that works tirelessly to serve a customer, a 12-hour shift and sometimes even more is considered normal. Employees often work without even so much as proper weekly offs. Overtime is offered as an incentive over and above 'normal' work hours. It may be for working during a scheduled leave period, for more than one shift, or even as a reward for a job well done. Different establishments offer different rates ranging from 1.5 to two times of the hourly wages. Some believe that paying overtime is a sign of either bad rostering or poor planning. On the other hand the absence of overtime payments could well mean that you are overstaffed. Both possibilities should be evaluated before coming to any conclusions.
• Dissent or dissatisfaction: If an employee displays anger or dissatisfaction, take a moment to assess the situation rather than reacting immediately. Understand his intentions - if they are good, he may not be the problem. In fact, such behaviour in itself is not a setback. Rather, it is the symptom of a crisis at hand. You need to diagnose it, get to the root cause and eliminate it. This leads to a more permanent solution.

A consistent effort over time will develop your reputation as a serious restaurateur committed to high standards of food service management. Now you can have your choice of the best employees in the business.

(This article is an excerpt from a free book 'Restaurant Startup Guide' available online at http://ravi.freeshell.org)
(The author is a hospitality and food service professional with over sixteen years of experience in the industry. He can contacted at ravi@freeshell.org)