When & How Often You Should Be Holding Staff Meetings

QUESTION FROM: Kara in SC

“How often do you have meetings with your staff? Whether it’s just FOH, BOH or all staff?

We are open 7 days a week with limited "off" time where we can get everyone together. But we also don't have a history of having regular meetings.

We usually only call staff meetings when my partner or I am going on vacation and we need to touch base with everyone or if there's a bigger problem or announcement.

In a few weeks we're bringing in someone to do server training and we hung up a sign stating when it will be and the immediate reaction is "what's this meeting about? do I have to be there? How long is it going to take?"

I feel like we should do more meetings more often and if we did, we'd have fewer frustrations with things, but when the overall mood for them is "do I have to be here?" and we have a meeting NO ONE takes accountability for anything, it gets frustrating.”


HH ANSWER:

I’m a firm believer that, in order to keep your fingers on the pulse and provide consistent quality, direction and feedback; the frequency is more important than the duration (i.e., when it comes to pre-shift and you have staggered INs, take at least 2mins with them before they hit the floor). That being said, I prefer the following:

DAILY (After Pre-Meal. Not during)

Pre-Shift Meetings

(Local Events, Holidays, Target/Goal Review, Contests if app, Covers, Stations, Ressie Notes, Praise/Performance notes, Opportunities, Steps of Service, 86’d items / Counts, Taste 1 dish or specials, Food-Bev-Farm/Source or Culture Edu Fact and Q&A)


MONTHLY:

Manager Meetings*


QUARTERLY:

Management / P&L meetings
Hourly Staff meetings by center/dept
(i.e, Dish, Prep, Line, Service, Bus, Bar/ General


BI-ANNUAL OR ANNUAL:

Entire Staff / State Of The Restaurant
One-On-One / Evaluations & Personal Goal Assessment (quarterly would be ideal but often inconvenient or impossible)
Management / Facility and M&R*
Management / Capital Improvements*

MISC:

Whenever large event/BEO, educational opportunity, procedural change, new menu rollout prep or other similar/significant need arises.

* 6 TIPS FOR A PRODUCTIVE AND LESS BORING STAFF MEETINGS:

  1. Be sure to keep it short (1-2hr max).

  2. Have an itinerary with specific topics and specific time allotted for each, make copies for everyone to have/follow along and stick to it.

  3. Use the praise sandwich technique throughout your meetings:

    (PRAISE - Constructive Criticism / Improvement Opportunity - PRAISE)

  4. Have everyone sign check-in sheet as well as a copy of any new: policy, procedure, expectation, etc...

  5. Don’t be afraid to table any runaway/off-topic yet constructive conversation and “stick to the itinerary out of respect for everyone’s time”. Offer to follow-up 1on1 or to revisit next staff meeting and allot more time for discussion if warranted.

  6. Don’t offer to buy anyone a drink during a meeting or as compensation for their attendance. Its business development time - not a social hour.


    For more info on development and counseling see the following articles: 14 Steps To Improving Culture & Quality Of WOrk Life”, “Cross-Training Your Restaurant Staff”, “Essential COmponents of A Constructive Employee Write-Up” & “The BEst Tool For Finding Great Employees” in the HH Library under the LABOR section.

    Hope that’s helpful,

    Josh


Josh SapienzaComment