Happy bartenders equal happy customers and happy customers like to spend money. It makes a lot of sense to ensure that these very important staff are taken care of, but it’s easy to overlook one guaranteed thing that will annoy your customers.

I was asked a very good question by a bar owner during the week. He wanted to know what the best way was to handle the fact that customers were arriving at his bar, having a drink or two at the bar before moving to table for dinner. The drinks consumed at the bar were being added to the restaurant check with the wait staff benefiting from the full tip for food & beverages.

He wanted to know if bartenders should get a percentage of each check, or whether tips should be pooled, or if it all balanced out in the end anyway?

He said that his bartenders were fuming at the money they were losing on busy nights in the restaurant.

My initial thoughts are that it depends on the establishment and how much of a problem this is perceived to be. This bar owner maintained that customers would not be interested in cashing out at the bar and the table as it is too much work for them.

I personally don’t think it is too much to ask of customers, but if your service level is such that you don’t want to inconvenience customers in any way, then you may need to address this issue by enforcing some kind of tip share policy to ensure that all staff get their fair, earned share of the tips.

One method would be to pool all tips and split them according to the food & beverage split percentage in the establishment and divide between bar and restaurant staff.

Whatever the solution, it looks like there is no solution that pleases everyone. what would you do?

Ignoring the issue doesn’t seem to be the answer so all suggestions are welcome!

As I’m writing today’s post I’m sitting in a bar where the bar staff and the management have clearly decided that there is no hope for the survival of the human race, let alone the possibility that the business could actually be a success.

What greeted me in this bar were restrooms that were so dirty a number of cockroaches were protesting outside the door with banners that said: “You can’t expect us to live in these conditions”.

Despite the fact that the bar is in an upscale area of the city, in the middle of a business district, the limping, uni-toothed bartender has his hood up and is wearing gloves as he puts my drink napkin in front of me? Is he in agreement with the cockroaches and refusing to touch anything too?

Another bartender is asking his group of customers if they’ll watch the bar while he goes outside for a cigarette. Puzzled customer faces abound as they struggle to take in this litany of abuses against the bar industry.

“would you like a menu?” the bartender mumbles in desperate hope that somebody will buy something and potentially tip…but unfortunately the damage has already been done and nothing in that bar will be touching my lips.

“I’m waiting for someone else” I sheepishly say as i finish this blog post and pack up to leave. A bullet avoided.

Have you ever entered your bar as a customer and seen what they see? If not, it’s time to step outside the bar counter and make sure this isn’t your bar!

Let’s face it, staff are one of the most important aspects of running a successful hospitality business. While recruiting the right staff is essential (and sometimes difficult), retaining staff can be even harder. This is particularly true in the hospitality industry where staff turnover can tend to be high.

Keeping your staff happy will not only make them likely to stick around for longer, but you will find that happy staff are more productive which has a positive effect on your profits.

Don’t panic! Keeping your staff happy isn’t necessarily about being the most lenient employer with the highest wages.

Communicating with your staff

Communicating with your staff is important for many reasons. It is your opportunity to gain insight into how they feel their work is progressing as well as to ensure staff are kept up-to-date with policies, issues and day-to-day events in the business. This in turn has the effect of making your staff feel involved and provides them with an opportunity to have an input.

As well as regular one-on-one talks when you can with your staff, there are also methods of communication you can establish to make sure that communicating with your staff is regular and effective.

Team meetings are a great way to ensure that your staff are kept informed and involved with what’s happening with the business. Staff can use this opportunity to provide you with their feedback.

You can also use team meetings as an opportunity to provide with training such as new legislation or new policies for the business.

Organising team meetings can be a difficult process. It is best to organise them at the beginning or end of a shift and if attending staff are no rostered on it can be a good idea to provide incentives such as food and drink to reimburse them for their time.

As well as staff meetings, staff notice boards can be a good way of providing staff with information about upcoming events, industry newsletters and so on. The trick with notice boards is to keep them updated and eye catching to help ensure you can capture the attention of your staff.

If your hospitality business is large, you may want to consider developing your own internal staff newsletter featuring achievements from staff (both inside and out of work), upcoming events, policy updates and so on. Staff could be incentivised to contribute to the newsletter and photos etc could also be included. This is a fun way to keep communicating with your staff.

Whichever method you employ to communicate with your staff, the most important thing is that staff are also given the opportunity to have input and involvement. Keeping your staff feeling like they are involved in your business is a key step in helping to keep your staff happy.

Incentives

Incentive is a great way to encourage staff to keep motivated and working hard. Incentives don’t always have to be monetary and sometimes the best incentives are more about recognition.

If you are looking to include incentives to help keep your staff motivated you need to be clear about what it is you are trying to achieve. Are you trying to improve sales of a particular item? Less sick days? Better time management? Whatever it is decide first what the measures of success will be and choose a reward that reflects the values of your staff. You also need to be clear about whether you want the whole team to be rewarded or one person in particular.

Incentives such as sports events, nights or days out as a team etc can be great way to reward your staff as well as provide a great team building experience at the same time. Whatever incentive you choose, recognising your staff achievements is a great way to help keep your staff happy.

Turnover

No matter what you do to keep your staff happy and motivated, staff turnover is an inescapable part of the business. Clearly the higher the turnover, the higher the cost to you as an employer.

In most cases, where staff morale is high the turnover tends to be lower so staff communication and incentives can go a long way in helping you keep your staff turnover down.

Providing reasonable wages and working hours and providing your staff with career advancing opportunities can also help to keep the turnover down. But remember it all starts at the beginning so make sure you employ a stringent recruitment process so you can find the right staff with the best fit for your business and they’ll be likely to stay with your business for longer.

Good luck!