There's a reason why your staff are deemed as your business' "workforce". They are the engine and oil to the machine, which is your enterprise as a whole. Because they play such a huge role in keeping operations afloat, employee management needs to be just as reigned-in and efficient.
Through the use of Point-Of-Sale systems and Epos Now, not only will workflow be made productive, so will employee management be, too.
Employee Management Through Your POS System
1. Scheduling And Time Clocks
When running a restaurant, the FOH and BOH need to run on a strict schedule. That's the only way for members of said operational categories to function whilst meeting both business AND customer demands (although most restaurant frameworks today have Front-Of-House and Back-Of-House staff working simultaneously per category, thus, thinning the divide between the two).
Having said that, use your POS systems competently by plotting clear schedules with clear timeframes and/or durations that every member of your staff needs to fill. By "clear", we mean that it should be immediately understandable at a glance. Something that a POS can do, similar to, say, a basic excel sheet. But with pizzazz and high-performing adeptness.
The major difference is that a point-of-sale system has more features where types of tasks, tasks within the same timeframe, tasks to be accomplished by the same key people, think of any restaurant staffing scenario--- they can all be organized and labelled accordingly, in a matter of a few clicks.
The easier it is for your team to have a clue of what their workday or workweek will be like, the higher the chances of them attaining success in fulfilling their assignments. It's also an indirect way of clarifying communications already previously discussed--- by having visuals to reiterate them.
2. Accountability
This closely ties in with proper schedule and task-defining and dissemination. Accountability. Only when duties are plainly and explicitly assigned will there be an increase in accountability in your crew.
Point-of-sale devices have the capacity to be updated in real-time. Each person will have unique security logins in order to access specific functions of said device. This means that every employee will be wholly responsible for his and her duties, and logs on the PPS machine.
A superb outcome linked to productivity and inventory is that errors that are carelessly made (or perhaps, not so negligently made) can be effortlessly tracked and reviewed. Theft and/or mishandling of resources will be better monitored.
In addition to this, understanding that a very stringent monitoring network is in place will help your employees take on their own mantle of responsibility. This will allow them to grow in their work positions and be more dependable as members of your crew.
3. Conduct POS Training
Just as in any industry, the introduction of a new apparatus, whether electronic in nature or not, will need easing into. This is especially true when working with a "team". It is unwise to push your staff into using a POS machine right on the job. It won't work that way.
Instead, have a professional (preferably as referred by your retail POS system supplier) handle the training sessions. Granted, you'll need to arrange a program that's outside of working hours, which implies extra paid days for the duration of the training. But think of it as investing in your restaurant as well as in the development of your amazing staff.
Your business will see an improvement in productivity soon after, and your workforce will be all the grateful for supporting their efforts through apparatuses that can add to their work efficiency.
4. Mobile POS Plus Floor Experience
POS systems that have mobile extensions are great for further enhancing your FOH staff's skills in dealing with customers face to face. A mobile extension has most (if not all) of the functions of the "home" system. So, your employees can walk across the floor and from table to table while being able to keep tabs on cash flow, inventory, and sales.
5. Top Performers: Compensation And/Or Rewards
Due to systematic, detailed, and astonishingly methodical employee performance-monitoring of your POS system, compensating and/or rewarding top performers will be simple and straightforward. Disputes can be handled hassle-free because the numbers in the POS device will do the talking for you.
Moreover, another positive outcome is that this management of your team's rewards program may encourage the rest of your employees' in aiming for the same levels of excellence and quality of work.
6. Double-Checking Tips
Whether tips are pooled together and divided equally or are given entirely to employees in the exact amounts each one receives them, there is an option in POS systems wherein tips can be recorded.
This is to avoid disputes from one employee to the next over how much tips they receive in comparison to the rest. The device's tip tracker can settle such occurrences.
7. Financial Information For Key Persons Only
Though your Front-Of-House staff will have access to the POS instrument, be sure to keep financial data and related information to yourself, and to key personnel (i.e. account manager, general manager, etc.).
There's no doubt that a point-of-sale system has advanced security features. This step has more to do with your accountability (as the restaurant owner and/or manager) in safeguarding pieces of data that are vulnerable to theft and exploitation.
Simultaneously, ascertain that you as the business owner, have access to all restaurant information in the POS system's archives (along with other devices and/or records). And this all-access authority should be solely limited to you.
Conclusion
A point-of-sale system is a must for restaurants that want to stand out against the competition by increasing work efficiency and productivity. It's also the proper response of the management in terms of supporting your employees by aiding them in making daily workflow and responsibilities be streamlined and effectively monitored.
Apart from this, a POS apparatus will assist you in tracking your restaurant's resources, from deliverables, food inventory, payroll, earnings and expenditures, sales (plus comparisons against previous sales, and tailoring future operations frameworks for improvements), etc. Let your new POS system boost your restaurant's numbers by having it boost your staff's work performances.
