6 New Staff Positions to Blitz Costs and Increase Sales

Hey, we want you to give 6 of your staff some extra hours – and please hear us out! They will start doing extra work that will make a serious impact on your costs and increase your sales. We’re talking about 6 new restaurant positions, maybe only 3 hours per week for each, and they can be added onto the work of some of the bright sparks you have working for you now.

The six jobs are all about cutting costs, growing sales, and becoming much more efficient—what’s not to love about that? They also give the staff who take them on an opportunity to expand their skills and knowledge, which will definitely lead to greater engagement and job satisfaction.

And most of these jobs are a burden to the chef or manager, who has to add them to an already very busy week. But they will be a bonus in pay and motivation for the employees who take them on. These tasks are on your wish list, but on the IMPORTANT but not URGENT part of that priority quadrant.

Let’s unpack these new restaurant positions one by one, starting with a big one that’s long overdue. Yes your chef could do it, but do they have the time and computer skills? If not, it’s neglected.

1. Recipe Controller

• Maintaining standardised recipes for all menu items. Plus keeping the photos and working recipe up to date – this should be done with a modern digital recipe management system. It could also include instruction cards on the wall and even in another language – Google Translate is your friend here!
• Ensuring all new recipes are tested for cost, quality and suitability before they go on the menu.
• They are watching ingredient costs and portion sizes, and alerting management if there are any problems or red flags.
• Ensuring that all kitchen staff follow standard recipes and portion sizes to maintain consistency and minimise waste.

2. Ordering & Delivery Supervisor – they are a detail person

• Ensuring proper and secure receiving of supplies, and storage in the right places. And they are obsessed with security.
• Monitoring food costs on your recipe and menu management system, and flagging any significant changes.
• Watching inventory levels and ordering supplies as needed, keeping stock to the minimum.
• Ensuring compliance with food safety regulations and maintaining accurate records.

Here’s another position that can cover so many areas and make a very positive impact on staff efficiency, retention and the speed at which they become fully productive:

3. Staff Training & Onboarding Champion

• Running the training programs you’ve been wanting to do for existing staff – quizzes and coaching on menu knowledge, handling service problems, safety and liquor-control. Tools such as ChatGPT can now make creating these so much faster.
• Creating and updating other training materials, such as training manuals and short videos – it’s amazing what can be done with an iPhone.
• Coordinating the onboarding activities for new hires, including orientation, essential training and paperwork.
• Keeping records of who’s done what training, and what they need to do next.

4. Food Safety Supervisor

• Writing up and sharing food safety policies, procedures and posters – not just in the big white folder on the shelf. And to make the posters look great, don’t forget Canva is your friend with this!
• Training and supervising staff on food safety practices – kitchen, front of house and bar.
• Making sure all staff have done short external food safety training courses and passed them – those certificates are so loved by health inspectors!
• Monitoring and responding to food safety incidents.
• Keeping accurate and up-to-date records of all food safety-related activities in the restaurant such as delivery and temperature records, maybe through your digital monitoring system.

This is often given to a junior staff member, but sometimes without a proper briefing…

5. Social Media Content Creator – it’s much more than just living on your phone!

• Developing a photo & video library of menu items, specials, restaurant interiors and exteriors, events and activities.
• Use this to create engaging content for daily social media posts on at least three different channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
• Schedule social media posts in advance to ensure consistent posting – that means using a management system like Later or Buffer.
• Same-day responses to comments and messages on social media and reviews. and sharing with management and team.
• Stay up-to-date with social media trends and skills, incorporating latest methods into the restaurant’s social media strategy.

6. Sustainability & Recycling Champion

• Educate staff about waste management practices so everyone understands the problem, the costs, and the solutions.
• Monitor and report – measure the problem and costs, and highlight improvements over time.
• Work with suppliers – finding ways to reduce packaging, explore take-back schemes and source more local produce.
• Community outreach – build relationships with local recycling centres, composting facilities, food banks, and community gardens.
• Educate customers – promote the value of bringing their own coffee cups or takeaway containers and the range of sustainable activities the business runs. Work with the Social Media Content Creator to highlight issues and success.

Time for Action on the New Restaurant Positions…

There’s a potentially huge Return on Investment for each of those new restaurant positions, even if they’re just for 3 hours per week. You may be adding them to an existing roster, or filling in the down-time for someone who needs more work. Can you start with one back-of-house position plus the social media creator?

BUT just one last point, it’s best if the people who do these jobs are volunteers – people for whom this is a big deal, who want to learn new skills, and work in those particular areas. Who do you have on staff for the first one?

See the full range of Staff Management Guides and Checklists on this blog.

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