Everyone needs to know what's going on.
Without a proper pre-service briefing, everyone can feel slightly disconnected.
Some of your staff have been working since lunchtime. They already know you're running low on salmon and you've completely run out of Malbec. You've got a large booking arriving at 5:30, but nobody told the person who started at five, so they've just sat a walk in of four on the table you needed.
Now you've got to move the guests, reset the table and explain why they're being shuffled around before you've even started the evening service.
These are hypothetical situations, but they're all things that can happen on a normal shift. They're also things that could have been avoided by getting everyone together for five minutes.
You're a team, so start the shift like one.
Getting the team to stop for a few minutes, bringing everyone up to speed, maybe tasting one of the specials you're selling that evening, all of that helps people feel more connected.
It also gives you an opportunity as the manager to inject a bit of energy into the room.
Hospitality can be hard work. People have been on their feet all day, they might have had a difficult lunch service and now they're about to go straight into a busy Saturday evening. Sometimes you need to give everyone a bit of a lift.
That doesn't mean standing there giving some ridiculous motivational speech like you’re about to square up against Sparta. Your team would probably think you'd lost your mind.
It’s as simple as asking how everyone's feeling, having a bit of a laugh and making sure everyone knows they're ready for what's coming.
The floor team is exactly that, a team. They should be going into service feeling like one.
Preparation isn't just about setting tables.
I've always maintained that the defining difference between a smooth service and a chaotic one is preparation, and that doesn’t just mean the things in front of you, it means the hidden things too.
You can have every table perfectly laid, the restaurant looking spotless and the bar fully stocked, but if nobody knows what they're supposed to be doing, you're still going to have problems.
Your staff need to know which sections they're working, who is responsible for what and whether there's anything unusual happening that evening.
If you've got a large party arriving, everyone involved should know about it. If a particular table needs to be kept clear, that should have been communicated. If you're pushing a special, the whole team should know what it is and be able to explain it properly.
None of this is particularly complicated, but it's amazing how often these little bits of information get missed.
And once service starts, you’re not going to be able to bring everyone together and explain things, you’ve lost that chance.
Your five minutes beforehand is the best opportunity you’re going to have all shift to get everyone on the same page and save you considerably more time later.
AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE BRIEFING
Your staff know things you don't.
This is probably one of the most misunderstood reasons for having a pre-service briefing.
It's an opportunity to listen to your staff.
There are some managers who seem to think their job is to tell everyone what to do and expect it to be done without question.
Shockingly, that isn't always the best way to get the most out of people.
Your staff are the ones spending the entire shift on the floor. They're speaking to customers, dealing with the same problems repeatedly and noticing things that you might not even realise are happening. In fact, it might hurt you to hear but they probably know more than you about the smaller details on the floor.
They know that 90% of customers sitting at table 14 ask to move because the air conditioning is blowing directly onto them.
They know that you keep running out of steak knives during £10 Steak Thursdays.
They know that a particular part of the restaurant is difficult to navigate when it gets busy, or that something you've asked them to do is taking twice as long as it needs to because the back of house is badly organised.
If you don't give them an opportunity to tell you these things, you're making your own job harder as well as theirs.
You should always encourage your teams to come to you with ideas.
I used to tell mine that if they thought something could be done better, I wanted to hear about it. We'd talk through the suggestion and decide whether it was something we should change.
That doesn't mean every idea gets implemented. Sometimes it's a great suggestion and we'll use it. Sometimes there are reasons it won't work, or we might take part of the idea and incorporate it into what we're already doing.
I made a point of explaining that just because we didn't go with someone's suggestion, it didn't mean I didn't want to hear the next one. I like to think I know quite a lot when it comes to my work, but I'm absolutely aware that I don't know everything. Listening to other people's suggestions is only going to improve what I know.
If a member of staff thinks they've found a better way of doing something but doesn't feel comfortable bringing it to you, there's a good chance they'll just start doing it anyway.
They'll probably try to hide it from you because they know you won't approve. Now you've got a new problem. You’ve got a team where everyone is doing things slightly differently and you don't actually know who's doing what.
By being approachable, you give yourself the opportunity to hear those suggestions, work out which ones are worth using and bring everyone together around one consistent way of working.
Your staff feel listened to and you end up with a happier, better team.
Everyone wins.
What my pre-service briefings looked like.
I never wanted my briefings to feel like formal meetings.
I'd gather everyone together before the first tables arrived and start by seeing how everyone was feeling.
"Are we all pumped for another busy Saturday?!"
Usually delivered with a healthy amount of sarcasm since I am not immune to the fact that a busy service can be hard work and the staff in front of me are all just human. You're not trying to be negative. You're acknowledging that everyone knows it's going to be a busy evening and having a laugh about it before getting stuck in.
Once everyone was together, we'd go through what was happening that night.
How many bookings did we have? Were there any particularly large parties or VIPs coming in? What time were they arriving?
I'd assign sections and make sure everyone understood where they were working.
I'd also check that everyone had what they needed for service. Pens, waiter pads, waiter's friends, whatever they were going to need to do their jobs properly.
We'd go through anything that had been an issue over the previous few days and let everyone know if it had been resolved.
Then we'd cover anything that was unavailable, running low or that we were particularly trying to move that evening.
If there was a new special, this was a good opportunity to let everyone taste it and give them a quick explanation of what it was. It's much easier to sell something when you actually know what you're talking about.
I'd usually include one or two reminders based on things I'd noticed during previous shifts.
For example, if you were working a section near the entrance, I'd ask you to keep an eye out for customers coming down from the bar and greet them if no one was able to seat them yet.
Or if you sold a steak, make sure you set the table with a steak knife when the order is taken. Don't wait until you've served the food and the guest is sat there waiting for you to go and find one.
These are tiny details, but they're exactly the sort of things that make service run more smoothly.
Once we'd covered everything, I'd open the floor up to questions and give everyone an opportunity to raise anything I'd missed. The key point to remember here is to actually listen to what is said and give a proper response, there's nothing worse than getting the courage to bring something up in front of a group to then be ceremoniously shot down.
Then a final bit of encouragement, tell everyone they're going to smash it, and off we go.
It didn't need to take ages, usually five minutes or so. Some days there was more to talk about than others, but the principle stayed the same.
Everyone started service knowing what was happening and what was expected of them.
A briefing should be a conversation, not a lecture.
It's worth remembering that communication goes both ways.
Yes, you're the manager. You need to lead the briefing, make decisions and make sure the team understands what's expected.
But you should also be making it easy for people to speak up.
You might even have missed something yourself. The horror!
I'd much rather have somebody point that out before the restaurant fills up than discover it in the middle of a busy Saturday evening.
Of course, you don't want a five minute briefing turning into a half hour debate about which way round the knives and forks should be set. Some conversations can wait for another time.
The important thing is giving people an opportunity to raise anything relevant while keeping the briefing focused on the service ahead.
Size doesn't matter.
It's funny how something as simple as a pre-service briefing can have such an impact on the rest of the business.
You might only spend three or four minutes going through bookings, tasting a new wine and reminding someone to put steak knives on the table before the food arrives.
But you've also brought everyone together, given them the information they need and made sure they've had an opportunity to be heard.
You've given yourself a chance to spot problems before they happen and you've sent the team into service feeling like they're all working towards the same thing.
It's such a small part of the day, but the effects carry through the entire shift.