Beat the crunch: tips to ride the recession
This month Restaurant magazine launches its Beat the Crunch campaign to help businesses cut costs, make money and, importantly, survive the downturn.
In support of the campaign, over the next two weeks here on BigHospitality, we`ll be revealing Restaurant magazine`s Thrifty 50 - top money-saving tips from industry experts.
Today we kick off with five tips on how to get the most from your Staff.
- Tighten up front of house training. With fewer people seeking restaurant bookings it is paramount you do everything to make your restaurant the first choice. Indifferent staff and poor service will take their toll.
- Incentivise your staff. Don’t be blinkered by trying only to please your customers in these tough times. Looking after your chef and waiting staff will ensure that quality is kept high and they don’t leave you in the lurch.
- Cross train. Training everyone to be able to work across all departments will mitigate
problems when staff go sick. - Reassess your staff requirements. It may be brutal but the pruning of staff in line with
sales will protect the restaurant and those working there. It is a time to pay particular attention to wage ratios and to question if you really need a wine waiter or doorman. Look hard at rotas and how they can be cut back. Fewer tables need fewer staff and a well-thought out redundancy programme may simply mean survival. - `Share’ staff with other nearby restaurants.
Check out the site on Wednesday for tips on Finance.
Contributors: Sara Stewart, partner at Jeffreys Henry, Chris Galvin, Ashley de Safrin, client services manager for tourism and hospitality at Business Link in London, Ken Hogg of Davis Coffer Lyons, Peter Backman, managing director at Horizons, Richard Corrigan, Daren Bale, head chef, The Elms Hotel, Worcestershire, Rob Lucy, restaurant negotiator at Christie & Co, Mitch Tonks, David Gibson, chief executive Gibson Business Infrastructures, Martin Austin, director at Tenon Recovery, Iqbal Wahhab, Roast founder, Ben Hood, managing director Fourth Hospitality.
