Some roles in the restaurant world require you to focus on one skill. Cooking up a great menu, or being a good host. It may include steering dishes to tables faster or ensuring that there’s no waiting line.
When all these come together, it forms the hallmark of a successful restaurant. But there’s one jack of all trades behind orchestrating a restaurant to run smoothly.
A restaurant manager.
The manager’s roles don’t stop at one or include a list of roles. It encompasses everything from the front to the back of the house, customers, the quality of the food and the dining area, and the overall performance of the restaurant to name a few.
When the head of the team works well, so does the rest. That is why, for any new restaurant or any owner looking for a new manager, ensuring that the person for the role is skilled enough is necessary.
In this blog, we’re going to go through the skills you should be looking for when hiring, the responsibilities of a restaurant manager and how they can help run the restaurant smoother towards the profits you aim for.
9 Essential Restaurant Manager Responsibilities
Here are the 9 most important responsibilities and duties of a restaurant manager. Take a look:
- Team management
- Being a team leader and resolution of conflicts
- Involving in human resources and acquisition of employees
- Marketing and presentation of the restaurant
- Vendor, equipment and inventory management
- Health and safety standards
- Managing the finances of the restaurant
- Ensuring quality customer service
- Providing your team the right tools
1. Team management
The restaurant manager is someone that the entire team looks up to, in case of fulfilling a day’s goal, serving the day’s audience or at times of conflict. The restaurant manager must be skilled enough to manage the people in the team, assign their respective duties and take over the overall responsibility of running the restaurant with no hassles.
2. Being a team leader and resolution of conflicts
Conflicts are a normative issue in the workplace and often occur due to miscommunication or frustration among members. It automatically becomes the manager’s responsibility to resolve issues, listen to both parties and provide any help or solution if necessary. Understanding that staff is genuine people who contribute to the overall work is important. Treating them with respect, in a confident and motivational manner can boost their morale and help develop an attitude of open-mindedness and quicker resolution of issues.
Further, be it on a busy day or on a day of comparatively low footfall, a restaurant manager is someone who ensures his team completes their duties effectively and productivity within the team. Maintaining standard operating protocols, hygiene, and offering help whenever needed for any issue can help boost the employee retention rate due to the welcoming workspace and are some crucial restaurant manager duties.
3. Involving in human resources and acquisition of employees
Apart from a human resource manager, a restaurant manager’s job includes playing a role in recruiting the right members for the team. In the interview process, it is crucial for the manager to assess an employee and ensure they have the right skill set to contribute to the team. It is always better to include oneself and hire the right candidates rather than skip the process and be presented with employee compatibility or other issues later.
Further, it is the restaurant manager’s job to make the new employee feel welcome, and convey the rules and regulations as well as the standard operating protocol to the employees. Conducting employee assessments based on work, promoting a holistic growth environment, bonuses and raises as well as training them in cases of emergency are some tasks to be considered for the restaurant manager from the human resource end.
4. Marketing and presentation of the restaurant
A key role that comes with a restaurant manager’s job is the marketing of the restaurant as well as its presentation to the public. Interacting with the customers, enquiring regarding their experience, and communication with other competitor restaurants are responsibilities of a restaurant manager. Further, assessing the performance of the restaurant, competitor analysis, and understanding the type of audience the restaurant caters to is a strategy to ensure the proper functioning of the restaurant.
3. Vendor, equipment and inventory management
The restaurant manager oversees the first line of operations at any restaurant. From procuring the ingredients to raising the prices of the menu, the list continues. Here are some things to keep in mind in terms of equipment and inventory,
- While deciding on the vendor for the consistent supply of ingredients, it is important to consider multiple vendors, their prices, supply, and the quality of the materials delivered
- The rates and timely delivery are also crucial for the day to day operations of the restaurant
- One of the tasks of a restaurant manager job is to keep a check on inventory and stock. Ensure to write down the lot number, quantity, and next date of ordering. One can keep a digital or a manual logbook for the same
- Assigning a storage area is another task that is done post the division of items into dry, frozen, and food that requires refrigeration
- In terms of equipment, the manager must ensure proper usage and cleaning of the restaurant and kitchen equipment. Be it digital equipment for kitchen order management or the stoves, the pans and the everyday pots, making sure that they are well kept, clean and organized is another responsibility of the restaurant manager
6. Health and safety standards
Rather than wait around for the scare of a health inspection, the restaurant must be equipped to handle one at any time. One of the restaurant manager responsibilities is primarily getting the certificates issued that indicate a healthy, sanitized restaurant and following the rules to maintain the same. The manager must make sure to ensure cleanliness and hygiene in all aspects of the restaurant, from kitchen to the dining area and ensure zero violation of safety standards.
7. Managing the finances of the restaurant
A restaurant is a bustling business where there is cash inflow and outflow across different sectors. One of the restaurant manager’s responsibilities is to keep track of these expenses, budget accordingly ensures proper payroll for the employees, and document the cash inflow and outflow at all times. Having digital tools that automate the input and allow syncing of information across different sectors can make updating requirements easier.
Further, maintaining a rapport with the restaurant owner regarding these issues is of utmost importance. The exchange of information in this manner can help reflect on growth opportunities, marketing, cash repositories and the need for expanding the restaurant.
8. Ensuring quality customer service
In this era, the spotlight is mostly on the customer. It’s about what the customer may want, the customer’s comfort, the ambiance that suits them, personalized offers and so on. One of the restaurant operations manager’s job responsibilities includes ensuring customer satisfaction and maintaining a friendly, respectful ambiance. With a restaurant business, there are several types of customers that one can encounter within a day or throughout the duration of the restaurant’s work. Regardless of the type of customer, fostering a positive interaction and relation while ensuring that the employees are respected is one of the most important tasks of a restaurant manager.
9. Providing your team the right tools
The right team, when put together, still lacks the benefits that technology or the right tools can provide. Some of the restaurant manager duties include sourcing for better applications for management of restaurant services, sourcing, inventory management and so on.
Imagine you’re a restaurant that has newly opened up to receive online orders. Receiving orders from multiple online platforms can be a hassle for any kitchen that already has a list of in-house orders to complete. In such cases, having the right software can help manage orders and make it easier for the staff to automate as well as manually manage and ensure order production, packing and deployment from the restaurant.
This way, using the right software or technology for the restaurant can be useful in more than one manner. There are tools that can help with customer feedback, restaurant order management, staff upkeep as well as lessen the burden on the restaurant manager by automating simple tasks. The right tools can boost efficiency and productivity throughout the team.
As a restaurant owner, what should you be looking for?
A restaurant owner needs to have a list of requirements and responsibilities that the ideal restaurant manager would have, before proceeding to search for one. Beyond these mentioned responsibilities, negotiation, communication skills, good rapport with the owner, transparent and honest exchange of ideas and the ability to lead a team are some inherent qualities of an efficient restaurant manager. With the right tools and guidance, a restaurant manager can be the best addition to make your restaurant business successful and excel across all situations.