10 Restaurant Management Tips for Your Business

Running a successful restaurant requires juggling staff, food quality, customer service, finances…the list goes on (and on). Whether you’re a seasoned restaurateur or a management newbie, implementing effective restaurant management strategies is crucial to the success of your restaurant, team and bottom line.

Chances are, you’re already doing a lot of these things — but it’s never a bad idea to revisit your restaurant management approach and make sure you’re covering all your bases.

Here are 10 restaurant management tips to help you navigate the restaurant industry, boost efficiency, and take your business to the next level.

1. Invest in restaurant technology

Your tech stack impacts every aspect of your approach to restaurant management.

The standard restaurant tech stack has changed in recent years — and it continues to evolve as new innovations roll out. Here are some essential tech tools every restaurant owner should consider leveraging:

  • Point of sale (POS) system: We know, we know…a POS is table stakes. But there are a ton of options out there — and if you haven’t done so lately, it could be worth revisiting your current POS to make sure it’s checking all your boxes. An advanced POS system goes beyond processing transactions. It can track sales, organize menu items, manage staff, and offer detailed reports to aid in business planning.
  • Inventory management software: Our motto: Automate what you can — and that includes inventory management. Accurate inventory tracking reduces waste and helps boost profits. Inventory management software helps you keep track of what’s in stock in real-time, predicting what you need to reorder and when.
  • Payroll software: A good payroll system simplifies the complicated task of managing staff wages, benefits, and tax deductions. It automates calculations, reducing the chance of errors and ensuring your staff is paid correctly and on time.
  • Tip management software: If you’re still paying out credit card tips in cash, it’s time to hit the “easy” button. Tip pooling and distribution software can be run as a standalone system or integrated with your POS to calculate and distribute (cashless!) tips instantly to your employees’ bank of choice. That means no more bank runs, a lot more visibility into tip payments for easier reporting — oh, and happier employees. (Sign up for a demo to hear more from one of our experts about what we do and how it can help you.)
  • Reservation and online ordering system: In today’s digital age, an online reservation and ordering system is non-negotiable. It allows customers to make reservations or order food online, improving their dining experience and boosting your bottom line.
  • Customer relationship management (CRM) system: Sometimes, leaning into automation and digitization can also mean less personalization. But for most restaurants, it’s still important to maintain that human touch and build meaningful customer relationships. A CRM system can help you do just that. It stores customer data, tracks their preferences, and ultimately allows you to better understand their preferences — creating a more customized experience and ultimately customer loyalty. 

2. Formalize your staff training program

Investing in regular staff training is another key restaurant management strategy that gives your people what they need to succeed.

A well-trained staff will not only possess the necessary skills to perform their roles efficiently, but they also reflect your restaurant’s standards and values. Whether it’s the kitchen staff preparing meals or the front-desk staff interacting with the customers, every individual contributes to the overall customer experience. 

Staff should be trained on how to handle various situations, from managing customer complaints to upselling menu items. Training also ensures that hygiene and safety standards are consistently met. 

3. Consider the employee experience

The hospitality industry is known for high employee turnover. Part of that is due to the nature of the job — many employees join the workforce during transitional seasons of life (think: college kids); there’s seasonality to consider, etc.

But turnover is also due to the fact that hospitality is a grind — and if you’re not meeting you’re staff’s expectations when it comes to things like culture, flexibility, and even benefits, then they’ll look elsewhere. (And they’ll likely find something, given the tough labor market.)

In addition to simply keeping your restaurant running, having a high staff retention rate makes every aspect of your operations easier. When your staff stays with you for a long period, they become more familiar with your standards, operations, and expectations, and are better able to deliver consistent, high-quality service. 

Frequent turnover, on the other hand, can lead to inconsistencies in service delivery and creates more headaches when it comes to scheduling and management. Plus, the cost of recruiting, interviewing, and training new hires adds up over time – especially if new staff only stays for a few months. Turnover also ups your admin burden when it comes to tasks like payroll and user management for your tech systems. 

A few retention-oriented tactics you can incorporate into your restaurant management plan:

  • Competitive wages
  • Employee benefits (which may be more financially feasible than you think!)
  • Career growth opportunities, with a clear path to achieve them
  • A fun, respectful workplace culture

One key factor contributing to employee satisfaction and retention in the restaurant industry is the fair and prompt disbursement of pay and tips. That’s where Kickfin can help. Kickfin is a digital tip distribution platform that enables restaurant owners to send tips directly to their employees’ bank accounts, instantly after their shift.

By eliminating the need for cash handling, Kickfin not only increases efficiency but also ensures transparency and fairness in tip distribution. Employees can expect to receive their tips promptly, fostering a sense of financial security. Moreover, the immediacy and reliability of Kickfin’s system can boost employees’ morale, leading to increased job satisfaction.

4. Focus on Customer Experience 

As a restaurant manager, prioritizing service is crucial to ensuring your customers feel welcome and receive a high-quality experience. That includes:

  • Greeting guests: Invest time in training your staff on how to interact with customers — which starts the moment someone walks in the door. A genuine, prompt greeting sets the tone for the overall dining experience.
  • Communication: Employees should be able to communicate clearly, listen to customer needs, handle complaints with professionalism, and provide quick solutions. Not only does it demonstrate your restaurant’s commitment to satisfaction; it’s also a great way to help your employees boost their tips.
  • Efficiency: Quality service means efficient service. Make sure orders are taken accurately and delivered to tables promptly. Regular staff meetings can be useful to highlight areas of improvement for both front-of-house and back-of-house — and it’s an opportunity to recognize efforts of staff who consistently go above and beyond.
  • Feedback: Feedback, whether positive or negative, is a powerful tool for improvement. Consider using comment cards, online surveys, or simply asking customers about their experience. This not only shows your customers that their opinion matters, but it offers insights into how your service and food are perceived and where there might be room for improvement.

5. Be aware of online reviews

In today’s digital world, online reviews significantly influence a restaurant’s reputation and customer decisions. Continuously monitor and respond to reviews on platforms like Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor, and social media.

Negative reviews, in particular, should be addressed promptly and professionally. Avoid getting into online battles: Simply apologize for any shortcomings, acknowledge the customer’s dissatisfaction, and suggest a resolution. This approach shows potential customers that you’re dedicated to providing exceptional service and willing to make things right when they don’t go as planned.

Positive reviews deserve your attention as well. Thank each customer for their feedback and express your delight in serving them. It will encourage repeat business and inspire others to visit your restaurant. You might even consider incentivizing those who have had positive experiences to share them more widely. 

6. Always be marketing 

Continuous marketing is essential to keep your restaurant at the forefront of customers’ minds. Actively promoting your restaurant on various platforms, like social media, flyers, and local newspapers helps you reach a broad audience and increase visibility. Social media platforms, in particular, offer cost-effective and highly engaging ways to connect with customers, showcase your food, and build a community.

Regular updates about new menu items, special discounts, and events can entice customers and increase sales. It’s also beneficial to leverage local publications, as they can help you attract a local crowd and build a loyal customer base. Distributing flyers and circulars in nearby areas can be effective, too, especially for promoting new offers or events. Keep in mind that marketing is a continuous process – not a one-time, check-the-box restaurant management task.

7. Experiment and innovate

The best restaurant management plans leverage outside-the-box thinking. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different aspects of your business — for example:

  • A dynamic menu can keep your patrons excited and curious about your offerings. Trying out new recipes or introducing seasonal dishes can provide a unique dining experience, attracting new customers and encouraging regulars to keep coming back.
  • Creative pricing strategies can drive profitability. Offering discounts during slow hours, or bundling certain items together at a lower price, can boost sales and enhance customer satisfaction. 
  • If you have the space, hosting private events can also increase sales while making your restaurant feel like an entertainment destination — and can be an opportunity for new guests to visit your business.
  • Live music nights, themed dinners, or cookery workshops can generate buzz around your establishment and foster a sense of community amongst your customers.
  • Rethinking the decor — whether it’s a true overhaul, a spruce-up, or simply decorating for seasonal trends — can make your space feel fresh and inviting, which in turn elevates the dining experience. 

8. Be aware of your cash flow and accounting 

Keeping a close eye on cash flow and accounting is essential for maintaining sustainable restaurant operations. Inconsistent or inadequate cash flow can lead to various challenges, potentially affecting your ability to pay employees, suppliers, and other expenses.

Remember, as a manager, your continuous focus on cash flow and accounting is critical to the financial health and success of your restaurant. Using technology like bookkeeping software can significantly aid in this endeavor, allowing you to focus more on delivering exceptional food and service to your customers.

This is another area where digital tipping can make restaurant management more efficient. With more credit card tips than ever before, many restaurant managers know the pain of not having enough cash in the safe to pay out tips at the end of a shift.  Kickfin makes it easy to distribute tips instantly (no cash required) by instantly transferring funds to your employees’ bank accounts. Not only do real-time, digital payouts make for happier customers — it also makes reconciliation and reporting a breeze, and gives everyone greater visibility into cash flow. 

9. Connect with a mentor or other restaurant owners

Establishing connections with a mentor or other restaurant owners can provide invaluable insights and guidance for your business. A mentor with industry experience can offer advice based on their own triumphs and mistakes, helping you to navigate the challenges of the restaurant business and stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices. They can provide a fresh perspective when you’re faced with difficult decisions, and their wisdom can prevent you from making common mistakes.

Similarly, joining a community of restaurant owners or managers can offer a platform for mutual support and information exchange. Communities often host forums or meetings where members discuss industry changes, innovations, and common hurdles, providing practical solutions based on their experiences. Amidst the ups and downs of the restaurant business, these connections can serve as a lifeline, providing emotional support and reassurance.

Having a mentor and being part of a community enables you to continuously learn, grow, and adapt, enhancing your ability to manage your restaurant effectively and successfully.

10. Be the manager you’d like to work for

Being a successful restaurant manager takes more than just business acumen; it requires embodying the qualities of a leader. As a manager, you need to be an excellent multitasker, capable of overseeing several operations simultaneously. 

You also need to be transparent. Being open and honest with your staff fosters a sense of trust, respect, and loyalty. Share relevant information, provide clear instructions, and involve employees in decision-making processes where appropriate. 

If you own or manage a restaurant, you set the tone for the entire establishment. A positive attitude is contagious, inspiring employees to put their best foot forward and delivering an exceptional dining experience to customers. Through your enthusiasm, commitment, and resilience, you can create a motivating work environment that translates into the overall success of your business.

6 Tasks Restaurant Teams Can Automate with AI

AI is kind of having a moment right now. 

It’s basically impossible to scroll through a newsfeed without stumbling across an article (or 10…) about the rapid developments we’re seeing in AI technology — and all of its benefits, risks, and mind-blowing potential to change life as we know it.

While AI is getting quite a bit of PR here in 2023, many industries have been embracing AI for years, including hospitality. From automated customer insights to voice assistants, AI is becoming increasingly entrenched in restaurant operations. 

What even is AI?

AI (short for artificial intelligence) is an exciting new technology that’s changing nearly every industry — including the service and hospitality industries. AI is intended to take in information and respond in a way that mimics human responses. This means it can respond to queries with valuable information. If you use Alexa at home, you’re interacting with AI every day.

Machine learning is what makes AI really valuable, especially in restaurants. Machine learning takes in information from a data source (for example, your POS) and analyzes it. Once the tech “learns” from historical data, it can predict trends and behaviors in the future. For example, TikTok uses machine learning to determine which videos you’re more likely to engage with and shows you new content based on those predictions in hopes of keeping you on the app for longer.

Why use AI in your restaurant? 

Running and managing a restaurant is stressful. Operators and managers wear a lot of hats, and it can be hard to streamline operations when you’re pulled in so many different directions. Restaurants can use AI to make life just a little bit easier — and cut costs while you’re at it.

Does that mean the service industry should start preparing for the inevitable robot takeover? Not just yet. The human element is still vital to many segments. But there’s never been a better time for restaurant operators to innovate: new AI advances can streamline and simplify everyday restaurant management processes, helping operators to uncover new efficiencies, increase staff and customer satisfaction, and ultimately boost your bottom line.

Here are a few ways AI can lighten your workload and optimize your restaurant operations.

1. Menu Development 

Your chef and kitchen staff have been hard at work putting together delicious dishes that will turn your new customers into regulars, but how are you supposed to put all the flavors and components into a short, enticing description? With AI, you can skip the writer’s block and simply generate well-worded descriptions in seconds. 

2. Hiring

Restaurants are still experiencing staffing shortages and struggling to fill positions — but what if AI could streamline your hiring efforts? There are a few ways to relieve the burden that staff issues have put on restaurant management. 

  • Writing job descriptions: Remember how we said it was tedious to write menu descriptions? Same goes for job descriptions. Of course, you want to provide all the details about the role, but sometimes it can be hard to creatively describe a serving job and show off your restaurant’s culture. Instead, turn to AI for quick job descriptions that only need to be slightly edited to show off more personality. 
  • Reviewing applications: Once you’ve posted your job online, you have a few different ways to leverage AI in the hiring process. For one, you can use AI to filter out candidates that don’t meet your requirements about experience, age, or availability. Then, you have fewer applications to wade through and can focus on serious candidates only. 
  • Chatbot: To really lean into the AI trend, you can also use an AI chatbot that has a text conversation with applicants to learn about their skills, job experience, pay expectations, and availability. Choose a chatbot that can integrate with your existing technology, so you don’t have to create your own software (unless you want to). Rather than filling out the traditional application form, your candidates will share about themselves in a more casual, conversational manner, almost like a pre-interview. These chatbots can still filter out candidates who aren’t going to be a good fit — and it might impress your more tech-savvy candidate pool.  

Of course, you can also tackle staffing issues by automating some of your positions. QSRs can especially take advantage of AI voice assistants to man drive-thrus and take orders, while your human staff focuses on fulfilling them.

3. Scheduling

You’re not limited to AI writing tools. New technology can automate and optimize almost every aspect of your business, from front of house to back. 

Now that AI’s streamlined your hiring practices, give it a chance to improve your schedule, too. Restaurant budgets can be tight, so you don’t want to have too many employees during a slow weekday lunch — but you also don’t want to be understaffed during a huge rush. Machine learning can analyze your sales data to determine peak times and the optimal amount of staff to schedule for a shift. You can put in parameters that will keep the schedule within budget, and then use the AI-generated roadmap to create your weekly schedule.

4. Forecasting

AI can do even more with your POS data to optimize your entire restaurant and predict trends, empowering you to make data-backed business decisions. 

For example: inventory management. No one wants to over-order and let food spoil, nor do you want to 86 a popular dish because you ran out of one ingredient. With AI, you can utilize POS data to determine your best-sellers, which items you frequently run out of, and where you could be over-purchasing. With your inventory optimized, you’ll prevent food waste and serve your customers their first-choice dish.

>> Find out more about Revenue Forecasting for restaurants

5. Marketing & Customer Insights

Once you get people in the door, you want to keep your loyal customers coming back. Many small restaurants don’t have the luxury of a full-time employee to run their marketing efforts. Good news: You can employ AI instead. 

Auto-generate marketing emails to let your customers know about specials, events, and coupons. If you have a loyalty program, you can even take it a step further. AI can figure out each customer’s most frequent orders and when they’re most likely to come in, and offer individualized deals based on their ordering habits. Your customers will feel like you really know them, and you can relieve pressure off the FOH manager who does marketing on the side. 

6. Customer Engagement 

While you don’t want to lose the human touch that really makes your customer experience, there are a few tasks you can pass off to AI that will free up managers’ and employees’ time for more pressing tasks (especially when they’re in the weeds on a busy Friday night). 

If your phone is ringing off the hook with people asking about wait times, making a reservation, or wondering if you have outdoor seating, AI can help field calls and answer their questions. You can program the AI to pick up on certain terms (like “reservation”) to generate the answer your guests are looking for. If you can integrate AI with your waitlist and reservation software, the AI can add callers to your waitlist, estimate wait times, and create reservations. 

Adding an AI chatbot to your website can also quickly engage customers, allowing them to get answers to specific questions that they’d normally call in to ask. 

Of course, there are limitations to tech, especially in the communication and hospitality departments. When choosing to add any new technology to your restaurant operations, make sure that it gives you more tools to engage with customers — and doesn’t create a cold, mechanical dining experience. It’s there to make your life easier, but AI can’t replace good service and personal connections with your customers.

Looking to simplify your tip out process? Kickfin can help. Check out a demo of our instant digital tipping software.

How to Recruit Summer Staff for Your Restaurant

Summer Restaurant

School’s out — which means a lot of students are about to hop into the hospitality workforce. If summer is your busy season, you’re probably used to pulling in folks who are looking for a gig so you can meet high-volume needs.

But the labor market is still tough, and you won’t be the only restaurant looking to staff up. If you want to win over the in-demand seasonal workers, you’ll need to stand out from the crowd. 

Why hire summer employees for your restaurant? 

It’s been hard to find good help at your restaurant thanks to the labor shortage, so it might seem counterintuitive to hire someone just for a season.

But now more than ever, flexibility is your greatest recruiting tool. By hiring people just for the summer, you can beef up your team to handle the busiest season of the year without requiring long-term commitments that could turn off potential hires. 

Plus: If you’re in need of year-round help, it can also buy you some time to run a real recruiting process and hire for the long haul.

How to bring in summer hires: 

You’re not going to be the only restaurant looking to add to their staff, and your applicants will have their pick of places to work. It’s time to get proactive — and creative — with your recruiting strategy to win them over. 

1. Get the word out (and leverage every channel)

The obvious first step to finding new employees? Let them know you’re hiring. 

  • Go social: We’re talking about Gen Z here, so if you want to meet them where they are, it’s time to go digital. At a minimum, post your job description wherever you’ve got a following (no matter how big or small) — Facebook, Instagram, etc. 
  • Boost it: It doesn’t cost a lot to boost a post, so if you want to expand your audience, put a small spend behind your listing. Be sure to identify geographic targets as you’re setting up your mini-campaign. (If your restaurant is in Milwaukee, you don’t want to spend money on impressions in Santa Fe!)  And of course: sell it. Include pictures and #workperks (more on that below), and show off your team culture.
  • Leverage email: Got a customer email list? Take advantage of that, too. Even if your target staff demographic doesn’t overlap with your customer base, word of mouth can be a great way to pull in talent. 
  • Update your site: These days, everyone checks out the menu before they hit up your restaurant. Use a homepage banner or pop-up tool to get your 
  • Old school still works, too: And then, of course, don’t neglect the tried-and-true recruiting methods. “Now Hiring” signs and fliers are still effective. Have applications ready at the guest stand. And think outside the four walls of your restaurant. Check with local high schools, colleges, and shops to see if you can display a flier in the bathroom or near a register.

2. Promote your perks 

What makes your restaurant a great place to work? Identify your restaurant’s unique selling points and mention them often in your job descriptions and when you meet with candidates. And while offering healthcare and PTO for your long-serving employees is great, you need to have perks that apply to new hires who will only be around for a few months. 

Having trouble thinking of your perks that would benefit a short-term employee? Here are a few ideas you can pull from: 

3. Offer referral bonuses

Turn your top talent into your ambassadors by encouraging them to refer potential employees. You’ll cast a wide net with less effort (and you’re more likely to get intro’d to team members you trust), while your staff will have the opportunity to work with their friends — it’s a true win-win.

Encourage and incentivize your employees to bring qualified candidates in for interviews. To ensure you’re working with a high quality pool, consider structuring the referral program so that employees get a referral bonus if their candidate actually gets offered the job. 

4. Lean on technology 

Most of your summer hires are going to be Gen Z students out of school for the summer — and they’re going to expect tech in any workplace. They probably won’t even look twice if you don’t offer a mobile-friendly job application online. 

On top of an easy application process, you’ll need to differentiate yourself from other restaurants by showing applicants the tech you use and how it can benefit them during their tenure. For example, do you have a scheduling system or are you still printing off and posting schedules the old-fashioned way? Do you use tech to easily trade or pick up shifts? 

Finances are also top-of-mind for your summer applicants, so let them know how tech can benefit their wallets, too. If you have a digital tip out solution in place, you can show them how easy it is to get direct, instant access to their tips — meaning no more waiting around for cash after their shifts. Instead, servers will be able to head out as soon as they finish their side work and spend the rest of the day by the pool. 

For restaurant owners, summer is an exciting – and hectic – time of year, but with the help of summer employees, you can make it your most lucrative season. 

Ready to leverage tech in your recruiting strategy? Check out a demo of Kickfin today.

Beat the Labor Shortage: How to Increase Tips and Keep Your Best Servers

In the midst of a (neverending?) labor shortage, restaurant operators are doing everything they can to encourage their best servers to stick around. 

A sure-fire way to keep your current employees happy? Help them earn more money. Of course, when margins are tight, that can be tricky —  which is where tips come in. Tipping allows employees to earn significantly more than what your revenue constraints might allow.

In fact, for many restaurant teams, particularly in the full-service segment, tips make up the majority of a server’s income. And if you practice any sort of tip pooling, then tips can increase take-home pay for other front-of-house and back-of-house employees, too.

While tip amounts are generally determined by the total bill and the quality of service a customer receives, there are things you can do to help your employees earn more tips. Here are a few ideas to try out at your restaurant.

1. Give them bigger sections

Your veteran servers can handle a lot more than you give them credit for. They probably want everything you throw at them, because more tables can generally mean more tip-making opportunities for them.

We get it: you don’t want customer service to slip. But you can trust your best servers to be honest about how much they can handle. If their answers vary, you can create different-sized sections where you reward top performers with more tables, while newbies get their feet wet with smaller sections.

2. Server training sessions

In the restaurant industry, you’re bound to get a lot of green serving staff. Give them the knowledge and tools they need to exceed customer expectations and operate with efficiency, so they can start earning more tips, faster.

If you don’t already have some kind of formalized training program in place, now’s the time to start. (For tips on onboarding new employees, check out our webinar here.) 

Of course, there are some basics they’ll need to learn — policies, standard operating procedures procedures, how to use your tech stack, etc. If they’re new to the industry, don’t make any assumptions: introduce them to every part of the restaurant. It’s important that they understand operations from front to back and how their success is tied to the success of the whole team.

Soft skills are equally important. Being able to engage with guests in a warm, professional manner can take the dining experience to the next level — and it compensates for slip-ups here and there while employees are still learning the ropes.

3. Teach the art of the upsell

In addition to the training they receive during onboarding, it’s never a bad idea to offer ongoing sessions for newer staff and seasoned pros alike. One focus area to consider: coaching your team on the art of the upsell. 

No, you don’t want your servers to turn into full-blown salespeople; but when it’s done in a way that’s focused on improving the guest experience, it has the added benefits of boosting tip amounts and increasing your restaurant sales, too. 

For example, hold a drink pairing class where your team learns what drinks to suggest for each order. Help them practice presenting daily specials in a way that’s appealing and easy-to-follow. Remind them not to miss an opportunity to suggest a starter and be smart about how they position the option for a dessert. (E.g.: They’re full from dinner? Offer that pie to-go!)

Not every server will have time for extra classes (school, family, and life can get pretty hectic), so make these classes optional. Your servers who can make it will thank you for providing them with flexibility and tools to increase tips, and your customers will notice and appreciate how knowledgeable your staff is. 

4. Run your kitchen efficiently

We all know that servers bear the brunt of frustrated, hangry customers. If guests are waiting and waiting for their food, they often blame the server (even if they’re not at fault) and deduct from their tips. Also, the longer a party sits waiting for their food to come out, the longer the server will have to wait to get their next table. 

Want your servers to earn more money? Address any back-of-house issues that might be impacting the customer experience. Hungry guests will be much happier when their food arrives quickly, and it’ll help your servers turn and turn more tables throughout the night. 

And keep in mind: For restaurants that include back-of-house employees in their tip pool, kitchen employees benefit from better tips, too — so help them understand how a rising tide lifts all boats.

5. Manage expectations at the host stand

Just like the kitchen, the host stand is completely out of the servers’ control — but it can seriously affect their tips. While you can’t really help going on a wait during a busy Saturday night dinner rush, you can train your hosts to tactfully manage guests’ expectations, so they aren’t fuming by the time their server comes to greet them. 

For one, hosts need to accurately predict wait times. There’s nothing worse than telling a customer that it’ll only be a 20-minute wait and then watching them sit squirming in your waiting area for 45 minutes. Consider taking advantage of restaurant tech that can help hosts manage the floor and the waitlist. 

It can also be confusing to guests if they’re on the waitlist, but they see empty tables. What they may not know is that you don’t have enough servers to cover all of the tables in the restaurant — so if that’s the case, consider asking your hosts to be proactive about explaining the situation.

Of course, when a party leaves and the table is ready to be cleaned, encourage your hosts to jump in and support busy bussers so that the next guests can be seated quickly.

6. Put your managers back on the floor 

When things go wrong, managers often swoop in to save the server’s tip. Managers are there to smooth over customer complaints and ensure a high-quality dining experience for every guest in your restaurant. But if they’re in the back office working for the entire shift, servers don’t get the support they need. 

Free up your managers’ shifts so they can spend more time touching tables, refilling drinks, and supporting the FOH staff. When managers can spend more time interacting with guests and helping servers who are in the weeds, guests enjoy their dining experiences more and are happier to leave a generous tip. 

(One idea to give your managers hours back in their day: Try out Kickfin’s instant cashless tipping software so your managers can spend less time counting out cash tips and crunching numbers, and more time connecting with customers and supporting your servers. Check out a demo today.)

How to Hire & Retain Gen Z Restaurant Workers

Everyone is still feeling the effects of the labor shortage — and it could be that outdated hiring practices are to blame. 

Toss out all the articles you’ve read about hiring Millennials, because Gen Z is joining the workforce in droves. Born between 1997 and 2012, Gen Z (or Zoomers) can be defined by their level of comfort with tech — none of them can remember life without the internet and they probably had an iPhone before they had a car. 

Now, they’re all grown up: Gen Z will make up 27% of the workforce by 2025. And unlike your older employees, they’re much more independent, tech-minded, and financially driven. They’re your best bet at solving your labor woes, if you can meet their needs too. 

Here’s how you entice Gen Z workers to join your team (and keep them happy). 

Competitive Pay 

No huge shock here: people want to work where they can make the most money. But unlike their Millennial forebears, Gen Z employees are taking finances much more seriously. 

Gen Z is giving major side-eye to the pizza parties and free t-shirts that may have excited employees of years past. If you’ve offered these types of job “perks” in the past, you’re better off spending that money on improving wages. And who can blame them? With increasing inflation, your youngest employees need money in the bank, not another branded hat. 

Times are tough, though. If you can’t afford higher wages, get smart with how you present your pay structure — like offering more frequent (or even daily) payment. 

Offer Benefits

Now when we say Gen Z doesn’t like job perks, we aren’t talking about the serious stuff like healthcare.

Members of Gen Z are aging out of their parents’ healthcare, and they’ll look for jobs that offer healthcare and other benefits for employees. 

On top of healthcare, Gen Z employees are also looking for time off, mental health initiatives and support, and sick leave. If you can’t offer higher wages, showing your support for your staff may help you edge out the competition in the hiring game. 

Hire Their Friends

Who doesn’t want to work with their friends? In close, team-oriented environments like restaurants, people naturally hope to find camaraderie and friendship at work. So when you’re looking for new employees, look no further than your current employees’ besties. 

Pro tip: Sweeten the deal even more by offering small referral bonuses to employees who bring their friends onto the team. You’ll make your current employees feel appreciated and solve your labor shortage issues in one fell swoop. 

Work with Their Schedules 

While some young Gen Z professionals are entering the job market looking for full-time positions, most of them are still students. To get them on board with your restaurant, you might have to be flexible with their hours. 

For college students, allow them to go home during school breaks, and be conscientious of their class schedules. They’re naturally prioritizing their (expensive) education over a restaurant job, so if you can’t be understanding about finals or Christmas break, they’ll look for a job elsewhere. 

Utilize Tech 

Gen Z was the first generation to grow up with technology — and they could probably teach you a thing or two about how to use it. Since they’re accustomed to tech making their lives easier, Gen Z workers won’t be happy to see analog processes in your restaurant.

For one, ditch the printout of the weekly schedule. No one wants to come in on their day off just to see when they work next. Instead, take advantage of the many scheduling apps that are available, or bare minimum, send out the schedule in an email.  

To really impress Gen Z, offer them digital payment options — especially digital tip outs. Like we said, Zoomers don’t want to wait two weeks for their pay, and they’re more than happy to receive digital payments over cash. In the eyes of Gen Z, the only “real money” is what you have in the bank — cash is so 1996 — so when their daily tips go straight to their bank account, they feel more financially secure. 

Looking to impress Gen Z restaurant employees? Check out a demo of Kickfin to see our technology in action.