Manager+Survey

Manager Survey: There a wide range of complaints/problems that are brought to my attention being a manager at Boston Pizza. At the moment we are experiencing a staff shortage because of the amount of students that are working here and their limited work schedules. This location has been extremely busy throughout January and we find that on Friday and Saturday nights we are often understaffed, causing stress and tension on some workers. The customer complaint that I seem to be hearing and dealing with is the timing and temperature of the food. Apparently the food is arriving at the tables at different times and half of the food is cold. A lot of employees are getting frustrated with the kitchen and causing stress for everyone. We need to hire more people who can work full-time hours so that way we will not expect as much from the people who are going to school as well as working. A lot of the servers aren’t helping out other servers by running the food to the tables when it is ready. Also servers aren’t using proper time-management skills to make things easier on themselves when it is busy. Also, by looking at the amount of food waste we are experiencing I think that servers aren’t punching in the food so that it will all come out at the same time. When servers start they go through a lengthy training session. They have to complete at least 2 to 3 hostess shifts so that they are familiar with the layout of the restaurant and the table numbers. Once the managers think that they are comfortable with the layout they are then moved to expo. They expo so that they know what sides and garnishes are supposed to go with what meal and also so that they recognize the dishes and what the ingredients are. There is no set time for expo. It is all based on whether or not management thinks that they know enough about the menu. Then they move onto shadowing shifts. We pair them up with our experienced servers and they teach them the computer system, how to greet a table and how to answer questions that customers may ask. The server that they are shadowing usually switches places with the person being trained and observes how well they have picked up on the techniques and ways to serve tables. Management talks to the server who is training the new person and asks how they are doing. Based on the comments made by the experienced server and observations by the managers on duty determines how long the person will be shadowing for. Once they demonstrate a general understanding of how the system at Boston Pizza works they are set off on their own and are given their own section. I think that the training is adequate for the general principles of serving and learning all of the different jobs that make up a restaurant. I think that the layout and product knowledge is very important in order to being a good server. I do think that we may need to emphasize the timing of food so that servers will punch things in correctly. I also think that it is important for the servers we are using to train new employees to understand the timing of food especially if they are going to teach them the system and what not. If we did this it would make things easier on the kitchen as well and people would not get as stressed out on busy nights. 
 * 1) Have you noticed any reoccurring problems at your restaurant?
 * 1) Do you have any idea as to why these problems are occurring?
 * 1) What is the training process for new employees starting at Boston Pizza?
 * 1) Based on the problems occurring, do you think that the training is adequate?