A restaurant or cafe runs on split shifts, a busy kitchen and a floor that must smile through a rush. Here is how to hire, roster, train and keep the team that makes each outlet work.
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Share your requirementsA restaurant or cafe serves meals and drinks from a kitchen and a floor, often through long opening hours, split shifts and a rush at set times. The kitchen has its own order of chefs, cooks and helpers, while the floor has captains, waiters, baristas and cashiers. Behind them are stewards, cleaners, storekeepers and an outlet manager who holds the day together. Weekends, festivals and local events change demand sharply, and a missing cook on a busy evening shows at once. Chains add several outlets, a central kitchen and staff who move between sites. See also HR for food and beverage. What makes HR different here is that the product is made and served live, so absence, mood and training show up on the plate. A fair roster, clear station standards, a way to grow from helper to cook and an outlet manager who can lead make the difference between a team that lasts and one that churns.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
Helpers and waiters move for small gains, and each leaver takes recipes, regulars and station knowledge with them.
Long gaps in the afternoon and closing after the last table make for hard days and poor rest.
Absence and last-minute swaps are sorted by phone calls, so favourites get the better shifts and complaints build.
Cleaning, storage and handling routines are strong under one chef and slack under another, and records are thin.
Service charge, tips and sales targets are shared in ways staff do not understand, and trust suffers.
A good waiter becomes manager with no training in leading, rostering or handling a complaint.
Delays and mistakes become arguments between the pass and the tables, which a rush turns into a shouting match.
Festival weekends and events bring in extra hands by the day, without a list of who they are or what they did.
Start with the topics that matter most here: HR Strategy and Workforce Planning; Employee Administration; Retention and Attrition Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for food and beverage, not in general.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a restaurants and cafes business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A weekly rota with fair rules for swaps, closing and weekend duty, shared before the week starts.
What this coversHideA weekly rota with fair rules for swaps, closing and weekend duty, shared before the week starts. The attendance, shift and leave process covers it.
How each station is set up, cleaned and handed over, with a check at each opening and closing.
What this coversHideHow each station is set up, cleaned and handed over, with a check at each opening and closing. The health, safety and wellbeing work holds the hygiene routine.
Clear steps from helper to commis to cook, and from runner to waiter to captain, with skills signed off.
What this coversHideClear steps from helper to commis to cook, and from runner to waiter to captain, with skills signed off. The learning and development process holds the plan.
How service charge, tips and targets are pooled and shared, in writing and in plain words.
What this coversHideHow service charge, tips and targets are pooled and shared, in writing and in plain words. The compensation strategy sets the principles.
Rostering, handling a complaint, running a briefing and managing stock and people, in a short, practical course.
What this coversHideRostering, handling a complaint, running a briefing and managing stock and people, in a short, practical course. Leadership and people management supports it.
Name, identity, contact, dates and pay for every extra hand, so good ones are called back.
What this coversHideName, identity, contact, dates and pay for every extra hand, so good ones are called back.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
A published roster and fair swap rules so shifts are planned, not begged for.
A look at why kitchen and floor staff leave and which steps would keep the best.
A signed-off ladder for kitchen and floor roles, and training for outlet managers.
Clear, written rules for tips, service charge and incentives that staff understand.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in food and beverage, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Kitchen, service and outlet staff leave quickly in food and beverage. How to ask what lies behind the first answer, compare outlets and act on what you learn.
7 min readRead article
Hiring decisions made one request at a time, in the month the pain is worst. What a workforce plan contains and why a twelve-month view changes what you hire.
7 min readRead article
Payroll says one joining date, the personal file says another and the manager remembers a third. How to establish a single trustworthy employee record and keep it that way.
7 min readRead article
How to spot an unmanageable workload before it becomes an exit or an error, what to look at, how to talk about it and what to change, without guessing.
5 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Find out where people go and why, publish rosters early, pay fairly and show a visible step up. Most leavers go for hours and treatment as much as money.
With a written pattern, advance notice, a fair share of closing and weekends, and clear swap rules. Confirm the working-hours rules that apply to you with a qualified professional.
Write station standards, check them at set times and record the checks. Standards that live in one chef's head leave with him.
Choose a clear method, write it down, explain it to everyone and apply it the same way each time. Confirm the treatment of service charge with a qualified professional.
Rostering, running a briefing, handling complaints, managing stock and giving feedback. Promotion from the floor works better when the new manager is taught to lead.
Brief both together, agree who calls the pass and review mistakes afterwards without blame. Arguments in a rush are usually about unclear roles.
Keep a register, brief them on standards and supervise them. Good casual staff can be called back when the next rush arrives.
Expect questions on how the weekly roster is made and when staff see it, who left the kitchen in the last year and why, and how tips or service charge are explained. Your newest outlet manager's preparation would be discussed. A good first piece of work is a published roster with station standards. Once the conversation is done, scope is agreed in writing.
All 7 business types in food and beverage · Find another business type
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