I.H.M.

KOLKATA

MANAGING FOOD AND BEVERAGE OUTLET

Supervisory function is an essential activity performed by the supervisory staff to check if all the tasks
of F & B service are carried out according to the standards set, so as to satisfy the customer and make
them feel that they have received the money’s worth.

Supervisory Skills
Supervision is critical and vital to enterprises, companies, and institutes. Some core supervisory skills
are required to become a better supervisor. Supervisors lead teams, manage tasks, solve problems, report
up and down the hierarchy, and much more. One of the pillars of growth in business is to have good
leadership and supervision skills over employees and team members. Therefore, improving your
supervisory skills for better leading is important to be able to interact with others and make the right
decision.
Here are the five Core Supervisory Skills that are essential to acquire:

Leadership Skills

Being a good leader is critical for a supervisor, it is the first step towards managing a team. Your team
members or employees would rely on their leader for guidance and mentor which is vital for success.

Motivation

To be a leader you should motivate. Motivation is a necessary factor that humans cherish. If an
employee fails to do a job or lacks motivation, be a leader, help them with their work or guide them. A
manager tells an employee to do a task; a leader will do the task with the employees and supervise it.

Time-Management Skills

Time Management is the seed to thriving in any task; it is implemented in every workplace and for any
position. As a supervisor, you should learn how to manage your time as well as scheduling tasks for
your employees. Therefore, time planning is critical to the success of any job or project.

Technical Skills

When an employee asks for your technical help and knowledge, you should be able to deliver as their
supervisor. Mentoring, and passing on your technical skills are of great importance as a supervisor.

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Communication Skills

Your communicative skills should be perfected as they happen to help you to deliver the message or
task to an employee properly, as well as setting an example to the team members; it also maintains your
prestige as a supervisor.

Problem Solving

Good problem solving skills are fundamentally important within the workplace. A valuable supervisor is
someone who not only knows how to take an issue and find the root of the real problem but also has a
process for solving the problem in a structured manner.

Compassion

Being compassionate with your employees or team members is a humanitarian act that every leader
should practice. Employees are only humans and are prone to work-related or personal issues as well as
the daily hassles that face them. Be the source of comfort to your employees and make them feel safe,
but be tough when needed. Supervisory skills are easy to acquire and apply, yet it is still important to
improve them. So, improve your core skills and become a better supervisor with excellent leadership
and time management skills.

Developing Efficiency

When operating a food and beverage service outlet, it is critical to make sure that all the operating
parameters, processes, and procedures are optimally design and in alignment because efficiency is
crucial to the success of a restaurant. If you don’t maximize efficiency, several functions of a restaurant
may run below optimum, meaning your business falls short of its full potential.

Poor efficiency in a restaurant could be caused by:

• Poor stock management and rotation.

• Staff missing items off orders and bills.
• Poorly managed rotas, especially for peak times.
• Lack of table management.

These inefficiencies can result in wasted money and stock, poor customer satisfaction, lost sales, and
low staff performance. They can even cause stress and health and safety risks due to people being
overworked or apathetic, which further damages restaurant efficiency. So, it’s good business sense
to implement changes that make your establishment more efficient. You should ensure all staff – from
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head chefs to front of house staff – receive clear instructions and training that facilitate smooth
operations across every team.

Here are some tips on how to drive a higher level of efficiency in full service restaurants that can help
drive better unit economics and profitable hospitality, even at low sales levels.

1. Upsell dishes and drinks

When upselling, staff should suggest dishes and desserts with enthusiasm and make recommendations.
Doing so makes guests more likely to place that extra order and boost your sales.

Follow these tips to effectively upsell your products:

• Promote food and drinks with the highest gross profit. That’s not to say your menu should only
consist of the most profitable products; customers should have a selection to choose from. Make
sure everyone knows which products gain the biggest profit margins – the most expensive dishes
and drinks don’t always gain the highest profit.

• Identify which side orders go well with dishes. For example, garlic bread with salads, onion
rings with steaks or burgers, and extra fries with almost anything. When staffs take a main order,
make sure they ask guests if they’d like a side to go with it, and provide recommendations.

• Staff should offer more drinks when guests are almost at the bottom of their glasses. Also, make
sure waiters know what products you stock, in case customers ask for ale or wine
recommendations.

• Ensure staffs always offer dessert and coffees at the end of a meal. Guests might not know you
have desserts unless there’s a menu on the table or you tell them directly, and some diners may
not go out of their way to ask.

2. Improve table management

Few things are more off-putting to a customer than an overcrowded restaurant or turning up to find a
table is double-booked. Maximise the amount of comfortable, satisfied customers you can accommodate
on a busy night with a proper table plan.

To manage tables more efficiently you should:

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• Identify how many tables you have and how many they can comfortably fit. Be aware of the
number of occupied tables at all times and record the arrival times of diners, so you can give
walk-in guests an estimate of how long they have to wait.

• Experiment with table arrangements to maximize the amount of people you can accommodate.

• Shift tables to improve your use of space when you have a lot of reservations lined up.

• Calculate the average amount of tables that get booked. Averages give you an awareness of
when tables might be going spare or are likely to get fully booked up.

• Utilize a POS system and table management software. At a glance, staff should have a clear idea
of how the dining room seating is booked for the day.
• Train all staff to use these systems and ensure they understand the most suitable and efficient
table arrangements, as well as averages.

3. Cost Reduction Strategies in Restaurants

Strategies for cutting costs are easy to implement, provided everyone follows them.

• Ensure staff members update tabs.

• Staff should enter products as they are ordered and should check everything is accounted for.

• Use proper food safety systems (like HACCP). Follow guidelines on labeling, preparing, and
covering food in the fridge.

• Keep up-to-date inventories so you are never carrying too few or too many products.

• Ensure staffs follow a FIFO food storage strategy so customers are always served the best
quality stuff and nothing goes to waste.

• Use a POS system to forecast stock levels.

4. Rotas

• Make sure rotas correspond with bookings, i.e. you should have the right number of staff
working for the nature of the shift.

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• Monitor rotas and calculate staff hours needed for certain shifts. Quieter shifts like afternoons
are a good time to get jobs done, but they can also make it easy for slacking off. Therefore, make
sure downtime is utilized effectively, e.g. for cleaning and odd jobs.

5. Maintenance

• Ensure staffs carry out regular routine maintenance on production and service equipments to
keep running costs down. Turn off air conditioners and other electrical appliances after use to
save electric costs.

6. Gross profit management

• Set gross profit targets and monitor it carefully. Doing so is vital to ensuring the business makes
money.

• Ensure that the costs of menu items maximize gross profit. Be aware of which foods are
distributed into a dish and which are used fully, and keep in mind that you want your menu to be
affordable.

7. Suppliers

• Use approved reputable suppliers to ensure you get what you pay for.

• Keep up to date with your suppliers about prices. Suppliers’ prices can often creep up, and there
may be a cheaper alternative or offer going elsewhere.
Improved restaurant efficiency and costs will bring more customers to fill the dining room night after
night and ensure the business reaches its full potential.

Supervisory function in Food & Beverage Service Operations

Briefing

All staff are expected to attend the briefing in proper attire and conducted by the supervisor prior to the
service. During the briefing the supervisor verifies the personal grooming of the staff to ensure the wait
staff is in an acceptable condition.
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After checking the personal grooming the supervisor briefs the wait staff on number of covers, profile of
guests, service procedure, dishes that are to be concentrated during suggestive selling, dishes that are not
available and anything pertaining to the restaurant policies and food service. Allocation of tables is also
done during briefing.

Checking mise en place and mise en scène

Mise en place means keeping everything required in readiness for service which comprises list of
activities. Mise en scene refers to keeping the area clean and presentable.

These activities are carried out prior to service. It is the responsibility of a wait staff to carry out all the
activities to an acceptable level. The head waiter prepares duty rota to show the assignment of task to
staff.

Handling of Tips

Tips are the amount given voluntarily by the guest at the end of the meal or function to the service staff
appreciating their good work. In most hotels, tips are taken only by the service staff and not shared with
kitchen staff.

Stock Taking

The supervisor must maintain the stock of all area under his/her control. It should be taken periodically
at least once a week. This work should be assigned to a team of or three staff in rotation.

Requisitions

Supplies required during service are requisitioned from the stores by the supervisor. Supplies in the
service area include edible and miscellaneous items. Edible supplies are sugar, proprietary sauces, salt
pepper, butter Miscellaneous Supplies include paper napkins’ doily straws placemats tooth pick etc.

Training the Staff

All employees of an organization must be trained continuously so as to deliver the products and services
as per the standards set by the organization.

Sales Analysis

This is the most important function of a supervisor is to analyze the sales at the end of the day, week,
and month in order to be aware of the following:
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• Actual Sales and budgeted sales.

• Fast moving dishes.

• Slow moving dishes.

• Average sales per cover.

• Average revenue per waiter.

• Most preferred tables.

Cost Analysis

Cost refers to expenses incurred in producing or serving goods. In food service it includes all expenses
that occur right from procurement of raw material to washing the soiled plates of the guests. Every
employee should be committed towards containing of cost so as to earn more margin of profit. There are
basically three types of cost.

• Food Cost

• Labour Cost

• Over head Cost

Handling Complaints

Success of food and beverage operations is ensured when the needs and them expectation of the guest
are met. Complaints from F & B operations are basically of two types:

• Food related

• Attitude related

It is the duty of the service staff to analyze the root cause of the problem for the complaints and take
necessary actions and ensure complaints do happen again. All complaints made and action taken should
be recorded in a notebook.

Managing Discipline

Discipline is the hallmark of a good hotelier. Following are some general guidelines to maintain a
disciplined team:

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• Ensure that there are written house rules and code of conduct.

• Motivate staff to follow rules.

• A fault committed must be checked at once.

• Always be disciplined. Set an example in front of juniors.

Staff Scheduling

A supervisor must be aware of peak days and rush hours to do the staffing accordingly. Forecasting
busy schedules and staffing accordingly is the key to success. Few points to be kept in mind are as
follows:

• The schedule should be displayed well in advance.

• Staff distribution should be optimal.

• Holidays should be evenly distributed.

• Staff should be rotated in each shift.

Supervisory functions ensure smooth operation of any organization. These functions vary from
organization to another. Supervisors are expected to guide the subordinates towards the attainment of
objectives.

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)

A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a set of written instructions that documents a repetitive activity
followed by an organization. The development and use of SOP are an integral part of a successful
quality system as it provides individuals with information to perform a job properly and facilitates
consistency in the quality of a product or service.

Writing a SOP

• SOPs should be written in concise, step by step, easy to read format. The document should not be
lengthy.

• SOPs should be written with sufficient details so that anybody with limited experience or
knowledge can successfully reproduce the work when unsupervised.

• SOPs should be made available for reference.

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• SOPs should periodically revised to keep them updated.

• Every organization has its style of writing a SOP. There are no ideal or correct formats. Following
is a sample format.

Points to keep in mind while making a standard operating procedure:

• Use Job Titles and not names of people.

• Follow a logical thought process.

• Start each step of the procedure with a action word. For example lift, pour, etc.

• Use graphics and visuals.

• Sentences should not be long and complicated.

Sample Standard Operating Procedure

Title of SOP SOP id no:

Hotel ABC Date of review:

Department:

Date of issue:

Made by:

Approved by:

Steps of the procedure:

• Step 1

• Step 2

• Step 3

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Source adapted from:

• Food and Beverage Service by Dennis Lillicrap & John Cousins, ELBS, UK, ISBN 0 - 340 -
63067 - 1.
• Food & Beverage Service by R. Singaravelavan (2019), New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

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