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There’s not much that doesn’t fall on the shoulders of restaurant management. Yes, management is there to ensure the customer experience is unparalleled, but they’re also responsible for all other aspects of the restaurant business; from hiring, training, and scheduling staff, to optimising menus and maximising profitability.
With so much to do, just how do you nail it all? In this restaurant management 101, we deep dive into exactly what it takes to deliver great restaurant management.
The success of any restaurant business hinges on the effectiveness of its leadership team. The restaurant industry is competitive, and restaurant management plays a pivotal role, leading decision-making in areas such as finance, customer service, inventory, marketing and promotions.
These decisions have a significant impact on the guest experience and can make or break a restaurant.
It is the job of the restaurant manager to ensure operations run efficiently and profitably. Boasting a wide range of responsibilities, these roles oversee everything from general problem solving to workforce management and quality control.
People management is perhaps the most critical responsibility for managers. They are not only responsible for leading and motivating their teams but also for building and maintaining a positive culture. The best managers build cohesive teams, ensuring that everyone is well informed, fully trained and supported, and has the tools they need to perform at their best.
Financial management can also fall within the remit of restaurant managers, particularly in smaller venues. Managers control budgets, manage expenses, optimise pricing strategies, push for higher profit margins, and seek opportunities for revenue growth.
In many businesses, they also act as a repository for organisational knowledge. Responsible for staffing and inventory, managers typically understand patterns of demand and the trends that impact business success and the dining experience.
This is vital insight that underpins much of the tasks that typically fall to them, and effective managers are able to deliver efficiencies and productivity gains as a result. Less experienced managers – those with little understanding of the factors driving demand – can sacrifice margin by overstaffing or overestimating inventory requirements.
The industry provides flexible working hours, and a career in hospitality management is appealing to a wide range of workers. As such, the sector benefits from access to a diverse workforce and managers with broad skill sets and experience.
While attributes like organisation and empathy often help individuals to excel in these roles, success is very much dependent on the needs of specific businesses and operators should be careful not to prioritise a narrow set of skills over broader capabilities. With so many responsibilities, versatile and creative managers can be a competitive advantage.
Organisation is a key management skill for restaurant managers and ensures that operations are smooth, workforce management is efficient and there are effective processes in place to guarantee consistent service.
For front-of-house teams, good organisation is critical for managing reservations and customer interactions. Back-of-house, good organisation focuses on inventory management, food service, processes and quality control.
Staffing is obviously a key consideration for restaurant management, and an organised manager maximises the experience of staff, ensuring schedules are available in a timely manner, and are consistent and realistic. This helps to prevent issues like under and over staffing, which can have a huge impact on both guest experience and labour costs.
In such a multifaceted environment, effective planning mitigates stress and ensures operations run smoothly. Menus, inventory management, and staff schedules all require strong planning capabilities from restaurant management teams. Skillful menu planning can enhance a restaurant’s appeal and profitability. Similarly, inventory planning ensures menu items are always available while minimising waste and food costs and controlling overheads.
Outside of the day-to-day running of the restaurant, restaurant management still has many balls to juggle. Marketing strategy and promotion planning, for instance, are just as important as operational planning. Management needs to be aware of upcoming trends, and plan and manage campaigns that attract and retain customers, alongside all their other responsibilities.
The ability to think longer-term and align strategy to overarching business objectives is an important skill for restaurant management. Big picture thinking allows managers to consider the broader implications of their decisions and to strategise for the future. The ability to think beyond daily needs means managers can identify and prioritise key initiatives, this might be as big as investing in new equipment or something as seemingly trivial as expanding menu options.
The ability to zoom out and consider the bigger picture can also be helpful when identifying new industry trends or competitive dynamics. This broader viewpoint gives restaurant management the perspective to adapt, make informed choices and – ultimately – compete.
Communication is critical when building a positive working environment, and ensures restaurant staff understand their roles and responsibilities. Clear communication and feedback is necessary for upskilling staff members at every level and means service is efficient and staff are engaged and confident in their roles.
Good communication also plays a key role in the customer experience. Good communication skills enable managers to handle feedback, customer complaints, and special requests professionally, which has a knock on impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Communication skills are all about a manager’s ability to convey information and ideas, whereas leadership is focused on guiding and inspiring the team. The restaurant management team should lead by example, setting the tone for organisational culture, creating a positive environment and motivating employees to do their best.
Leadership skills are also helpful in challenging situations, and can ensure that incidents like equipment failure or staffing issues don’t have an outsized impact on operations or the wider team morale. Effective leaders ensure these situations are navigated calmly and decisively, with minimal disruptions.
While job satisfaction and engagement is important across the board, it is more critical for managers than any other role within the business, since a manager’s enjoyment of their role influences the rest of the team. Yet, the majority (64%) of general managers admit to being disengaged, and only 11% say they have a sufficient work-life balance.
Restaurant management and operators need to be conscious of the pressure on managers, and put processes and support systems in place where they can. Technology investments in solutions like auto scheduling can help to streamline some of the more manual tasks, freeing up managers to spend more time on rewarding, valuable jobs and ensuring they have sufficient work-life balance.
Training and development for restaurant management is also critical. This not only ensures that the restaurant experience for both customers and staff is high-quality, but also gives managers confidence in their role and demonstrates that their employer is committed to their growth.
Recognition and rewards can be beneficial for engaging restaurant management teams. Acknowledging their effort and success with incentives, bonuses and simple expressions of appreciation can boost morale and engagement, providing similar schemes are also available to junior staff.
What’s the best way to manage a restaurant? We’ve got you covered with 20 top management tips to ensure the very best restaurant management.
In a restaurant environment, anything can happen – equipment can break down, the POS (point of sale) system can fail, electricity can cut out, staff can neglect to show up… It’s a challenging environment and proactive planning can help to minimise the impact when or if these situations occur.
Regularly assessing areas such as food quality, customer service and staff performance means restaurant management can proactively tackle any potential problems before they escalate, preventing complaints, negative reviews and operational disruption.
A proactive approach to cost control – predicting inventory needs to reduce waste, for example – can help to prevent unnecessary expenses. Similarly, understanding likely demand patterns and the impact third party events and seasonal fluctuations will have on consumer behaviour allows for a proactive approach to staffing that prevents over or understaffing, reducing labour costs and improving customer experience.
Being clear about your expectations of staff at all levels is vital to successful restaurant management. It ensures consistency in service and operations, and enables staff to work more efficiently since roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and understood. This is also an essential part of motivating and engaging employees, since it provides them with a sense of purpose and an obvious route to success within the organisation.
Clear expectations also provide a foundation for accountability, and mean managers can be held responsible for meeting goals and objectives. They also provide a reference point for conflict resolution, since managers can refer back to these expectations when resolving disputes or addressing performance issues.
Establishing clear standards within a restaurant is foundational and forms the bedrock of the brand since it determines the kind of experience guests can expect in your venues. Clear standards provide a framework for consistency, quality control, and accountability. They also help to maintain a positive customer experience and facilitate staff training and development.
Operators should document all standards and ensure they are widely available to staff. This documentation ought to include standard operating procedures (SOPs) for every aspect of the business. SOPs form the basis of staff training programmes, and can be a helpful reference point for performance and promotion conversations. Establishing feedback loops is also helpful for this.
Encouraging staff to provide feedback on standards and suggest improvements promotes a culture of continuous improvement and gives high performers a chance to demonstrate their commitment to progression.
Customer experience sits at the heart of any restaurant business; bad experiences lead to poor reviews, reduced footfall and a lack of returning customers. Good experiences, on the other hand, ensure your venue becomes a destination; loved and frequented by locals and visitors alike.
While nearly every facet of restaurant operations ultimately impacts customers, there are particular areas restaurant management teams can focus on to optimise the customer experience:
The aim of maximising the guest experience is to create satisfied customers. Satisfied customers return again and again, recommend your restaurant to their friends, and are often willing to pay a little more for their experience.
While a focus on improving guest experience will have a knock on effect on satisfaction, restaurant management teams specifically targeting improvements in customer satisfaction should also consider factors such as food quality, staff training and development, the ambiance and cleanliness of venues, and service times. Programmes that gather feedback from customers are also helpful for identifying specific areas for improvement.
In our recent Masters of Workforce webinar, both Park Plaza and Four Seasons noted that they’d had success with retention and engagement strategies focused on increasing flexibility within the workforce.
Four Seasons in particular has sought to foster loyalty among staff with programmes that allow employees to transfer to other teams and build fulfilling, well-rounded careers within the group. Park Plaza has opted for a ‘hire for potential’ strategy that also means employees have the opportunity to move to teams and roles that best suit their skills, experience and career goals.
It’s an approach that can be just as effective in restaurants as well. Staffing shortages are an ongoing issue, and employers need to be able to attract and retain workers. While a proportion of restaurant employees will always seek flexible, short term employment, others will be attracted to the potential to build a lasting and meaningful career in the sector. Restaurant management teams that can provide development opportunities and a clear career path will be sought after employers by this group.
Online reviews are an important – if occasionally demoralising – feedback loop that provides insight into the very best and very worst experiences your customers are having. By regularly monitoring and analysing online reviews from platforms such as Google and TripAdvisor, restaurant management teams can gain important information about how their restaurants are performing, and areas for improvement.
By actively managing these pages and responding to customer reviews, both positive and negative, restaurant management demonstrates a brand commitment to ongoing improvement and maximising the customer experience. Regular comments can help to negate some of the negative effects of a poor review, and ensure that customers feel heard and valued.
Online review platforms are also an interesting place to spot recurring themes and trends. If a specific menu item or server is routinely praised, for example, restaurant management can use this insight to optimise menus and reward high performers.
Keeping an eye on competitor pages provides information into what other local businesses are dealing with, and can help to inform competitive strategies and promotions. Similarly, restaurant management teams can use positive reviews in their marketing, leveraging glowing feedback to promote their business, and using testimonials to build trust and attract new customers.
How customers discover your venue provides a wealth of information on how effective restaurant management is. Word-of-mouth, for example, suggests a number of highly satisfied customers that are happy to recommend your restaurant, while a high proportion of one-off guests is indicative of a prime location.
Positive word-of-mouth recommendations often stem from satisfied customers who have had an excellent experience. This reflects effective management in terms of service quality, staff training, and operational efficiency. This type of reputation can also come from community building campaigns, such as participating in local events, supporting charities, and building a strong presence in the neighbourhood.
Customers who visit as the result of a promotion or a voucher code are a positive sign for digital marketing efforts. If these customers come in in high numbers, it could be an indication to re-evaluate marketing spend and boost the focus on channels that are performing well.
With operational expenses soaring and margins under pressure from cost of living restrictions, labour shortages and increased food prices, managing costs has never been more important. Effective cost management in restaurant operations involves several strategies, among them pricing, inventory, labour and supply chain management.
Pricing strategies are a balancing act that require restaurant management to price competitively while maximising profitability. Heavily promoting favourites or discounting childrens’ meals are common pricing strategies that can help to attract both new and returning customers.
Of course, the cost of securing supplies will always be the key determiner in the pricing strategies restaurant management teams can employ. Negotiating with suppliers to secure the best possible prices enables restaurants to remain competitive, as does negotiating favourable terms such as volume discounts and extended payment periods, which can further reduce costs.
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Menu engineering is critical for cost control, and restaurant management should prioritise regular analysis to identify low margin and underperforming items, optimising the menu to focus on new dishes and those with high profitability. Managing inventory to minimise food waste is also critical for cost control. Strategies like FIFO (first in, first out) inventory rotation and repurposing ingredients reduces waste and cuts expenses.
For most restaurants, labour is one of the biggest expenses and managing that labour cost is essential for maintaining profitability. If you schedule too few staff on shift you miss sales, while too many needlessly inflates the labour spend. Better scheduling, then, relies on restaurant management’s ability to anticipate and meet demand.
Artificial intelligence (AI) forecasting solutions are one of the best ways to achieve this. Capable of analysing both historical and third-party data, AI can accurately forecast demand in even the most changeable environments. Not only can it help to remove much of the administrative burden associated with scheduling from managers, but it can ensure schedules are aligned to demand peaks, helping to control labour spend.
The impact of scheduling goes far beyond managing labour costs. Good scheduling is critical to creating a positive work environment and retaining staff. It ensures individuals have sufficient down time, aren’t routinely expected to cover under-resourced and busy shifts, have flexibility in their roles and can adequately plan their personal lives around work.
Creating the rota is a time consuming process for restaurant management. Managers need to match individuals’ availability with compliance requirements and anticipated demand, it requires a huge amount of analysis and consideration. Many are turning to workforce management systems to do much of the heavy lifting.
The forecasting capabilities of these systems are perhaps the most important when it comes to optimising scheduling but, when combined with additional capabilities like shift pooling and auto scheduling, these technologies become even more valuable.
Restaurant management can ensure schedule accuracy, dramatically reduce the amount of time required to create rotas, and provide staff members who want to the opportunity to pick up additional shifts.
With workforce management technologies, restaurant operators can optimise staff scheduling, reduce labour costs, improve employee satisfaction, and ultimately enhance overall restaurant management.
The ability to anticipate and leverage trends can be extremely helpful to restaurant management, enabling you to broaden the appeal of your venue and promote it to a new, engaged audience. Proactively putting plans in place to capitalise on new trends means identifying them as they emerge – there a host of places you can look for a heads up:
Creating a positive working environment for your staff will have a knock on effect on the experience of your customers. Happy, engaged staff are motivated to perform well and deliver the best possible customer experience.
It is up to restaurant management to establish a positive culture and lead by example. Clear and open communication is essential, and regular team meetings and one-to-one check-ins should be prioritised to ensure employees are supported, have an opportunity to voice any concerns and share their ideas.
The restaurant sector appeals to diverse talent, and ensuring that everyone is respected and included is critical for team culture and ultimate success. Restaurant management should provide a diversity, equity and inclusion strategy that includes easily understood anti-discrimination and harassment policies, there should be no hesitation from managers in enforcing these if necessary – all staff must feel safe and valued.
Work-life balance is another key consideration for management teams seeking to build and maintain a positive work environment. While burn out looks a little different for everyone, burned out staff tend to be cynical and lack motivation, which has a negative impact on the rest of the team. Avoiding excessive overtime and refraining from contacting employees outside of work hours can ensure they have a proper break from work, are rested and avoid becoming burned out.
Whether you are still building a positive culture or seeking to maintain one, there is always space for a morale boost. Team days away from the restaurant focused on something fun – a challenge or activity – can be a great bonding experience, and help to foster a supportive, friendly workforce. Similarly, recognising hard work through incentives, bonuses and promotions can motivate employees, helping them to feel valued.
Research from Fourth, conducted in September 2023, demonstrated the importance of technology to leaders within the hospitality sector. At the time, 49% of hospitality leaders said they intended to increase their technology spend over the next year, ranking technology as their third biggest priority after staff training and site expansion.
The survey also found that most (56%) leaders are bullish on AI, believing that it will have a medium or high impact on their day-to-day operations.
Investments in technology have the potential to improve efficiencies and maximise profits. Restaurant inventory management platforms, for example, are incredibly effective at minimising restaurant food waste. AI forecasts can provide granular insights into expected revenue for any location at any given time or date, enabling more accuracy in everything from inventory orders to staff scheduling.
It is staff retention that the majority of hospitality leaders are hoping to improve with their technology investments, 42% currently have a digital solution to help retain staff and a further 31% expect to get one in the next year. With staff shortages ongoing, it is perhaps unsurprising that retention is on a par with waste reduction when it comes to technology budgets, although cost inflation, employee legislation compliance and stock availability are all top priorities for those expecting to increase their technology spend.
Any new technology investment can be daunting – these are rarely small lines on the budget – and restaurant management should embark on digital projects with a clear understanding of the outcome they need technology solutions to deliver, establishing measurable objectives and key performance indicators.
Pilots to test the technology in a controlled environment before rolling it out widely are also helpful for identifying and rectifying any teething issues. Staff confidence in new technology is paramount – if they don’t believe in it, they won’t use it – so ensuring that new solutions are optimised and refined, and everyone is trained in their use, before a mass roll out is critical to the success of any digital transformation project.
Learn how restaurant automation can help you achieve big success in your restaurant.
With everyone and their mum on social media these days, there is a vast array of opportunities for restaurants to stand out and attract new customers through creative digital marketing campaigns.
Interactive activations, such as a ‘caption this dish’ competitions, play out well on social media, as does customer generated content. Encouraging customers to post photos of their meals on social media with a dedicated hashtag provides a wealth of content your channels can then re-share; offering rewards and discounts for these types of posts incentivises customers and helps to cultivate a sense of brand loyalty.
Offline activations can be just as effective. Events such as themed pop-ups, collaborations with celebrity chefs or even cooking classes help to create a buzz around your restaurant, increasing awareness and differentiating your business in a competitive market.
Another theme that came out of the second episode in our Masters of Workforce webinar series was the need to increase flexibility by cross-training employees. Our speakers noted that this not only helped to motivate employees, who appreciated the commitment to their development, but also gave them the confidence to help out in other areas when short staffed.
Cross-training employees helps to increase productivity, particularly with the ongoing staff shortages plaguing the industry. Talent that can work in multiple areas of the business provides additional flexibility when scheduling and increases the chances of restaurant management being able to cover last minute vacancies in the schedule.
Effective delegation is a must for the smooth running of any restaurant business, there’s simply too much for anyone to do without help. Delegation improves efficiency, ensuring workloads are distributed evenly and no one individual becomes overburdened or burned out. It also allows restaurant managers to focus on high-priority activities, such as strategic planning and decision-making, while capable members of their team handle daily tasks.
Delegation enhances team morale, demonstrating trust in staff members and giving them a sense of responsibility, as well as the opportunity to expand their knowledge of tasks that might fall outside of their normal remit.
Similarly, delegating tasks ensures that there are multiple team members that know how to perform them, disseminating organisational knowledge and limiting the impact if those in critical roles leave the business.
Accountability is integral to any workplace, and ensures that staff perform at their best and that standards remain consistent. To establish accountability, restaurant management must set clear expectations, provide training, and offer feedback and recognition.
Acknowledging the effort and success of team members helps to cultivate a positive work environment and motivates employees. Recognising collective successes can also be a useful team building activity, encouraging collaboration as the team comes together to achieve organisational goals. Staff that are encouraged to celebrate their successes may be more inclined to share new ideas and innovative solutions, which in turn lead to operational improvements.
For restaurant management, celebrating wins demonstrates effective leadership and shows that management teams value the contributions of staff. A brand known to consistently celebrate its team, whether through social media or internal recognition is also more likely to attract and retain top talent.
Restaurants are complex, multifaceted businesses, building a successful career in restaurant management takes decades and there’s always more to learn. Mentors can be incredibly helpful at every stage of your career, providing guidance on navigating operational challenges as well as advice on how to develop professionally.
There are a number of formal mentoring programs that restaurant managers and aspiring managers can apply to. Your own personal network – past or present colleagues – is also a great place to seek mentoring support.
Restaurant management teams making an effort to promote wellbeing can help staff to switch off and seek a healthy work-life balance, mitigating stress and creating a positive culture that benefits the entire workforce.
However, strategies like increased schedule flexibility and providing sufficient down time between shifts aren’t enough for everyone. A benefits package that includes a suite of health-related benefits, such as access to meditation or therapy apps or gym memberships, make it clear that your business prioritises the health of its employees, and can help restaurants to stand out in a competitive talent market.
There are many factors that contribute to great restaurant management, from effective leadership, clear communication, and expectation setting, to creating a positive workplace and fostering a culture of safety and inclusion.
Management strategies that consider the bigger picture enable operators to navigate industry challenges with confidence, motivating their teams, streamlining operations and increasing profitability.
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