Published on 21/10/2020 by Any Business.Com.Au

Hiring and Managing Café Staff

Keeping 'Em Happy: Hiring and Managing Café Staff

Once you've bought your café, you have to start thinking about ways to get the most out of it. A successful café is about the staff just as much as it's about offering a quality cup of coffee.

Hiring and managing the best workforce you could have will undoubtedly make your life easier as well as give your business a boost, so here are our tips on hiring and managing a healthy, happy café crew.

Securing New Staff

You may be busy, but it's worth investing time to secure quality staff. Developing a method for hiring, interviewing and training new employees ensures you'll have top-notch staff from the get-go, which will save you hassles in the long-run.Before we begin, an important note: Assess a café's staff before you buy the business to identify skill shortages. Some staff could have signed non-compete agreements with their previous employer, which means you may lose them once you've bought the business. Check where each employee sits before you buy. That helps you determine the kind of staff you need when you take over the business.

Where to advertise

You'll want to advertise as broadly as possible to get a range of new staff candidates. A café job is typically more casual than a professional career, so your advertising strategy needn't be over the top. Tell family and friends you're looking to fill a position and encourage them to spread the word.Make the most of your premises – put signs up on the windows, the counter, or at the till to let customers know you're on the hunt. This kind of advertising prompts job-searchers to inquire in person, which is always preferable to phone or email applications.If you'd like to cast the net wide, pop online. There are plenty of job advertising websites. If you want a casual, unpaid advertisement head straight to Gumtree. You can also post job descriptions on online university job boards to attract young, casual staff.Other advertising avenues include:*Simply Hired *CoffeeJobs.com*Job Seeker *Indeed *SEEK

How to advertise

Be succinct in your job description so applicants have a reasonable idea of your expectations. Outline whether the position is permanent or temporary, and part-time, full-time or casual.In your advertisements, highlight specific skills you want new employee to bring to the job, whether it's coffee experience or a Responsibility to Serve Alcohol (RSA) certificate.

Who to hire

Many café businesses owners emphasise that an employee's personality and character is more important than the amount of experience they might have. Inexperience is OK if it means you can start with a blank slate and teach the new employee the ropes. That way they won't bring along bad habits developed in their previous workplace.Key qualities in café staff include a hard-working attitude, positivity, cleanliness, detail to presentation, and most importantly the ability to be welcoming and friendly to your customers. You can gauge most of these traits in a face-to-face interview.You may want to consider hiring more people than you need, in case one or two don't work out. That way, you don't have to go through the whole rigmarole of hiring again.Finally, offer potential employees a probation period of two or three months. This means you're both aware of your rights, and you have it in writing that you've given the employee a fair go if you do have to let them go.

Managing Your Staff

Once you've established your ideal team, you need to make sure they've signed written employment agreements. These set out legal obligations from you and the employee.With your stellar team in place, you'll want to manage your staff to optimise your chances of keeping them. As a new business owner and manager, it's important you familiarise yourself with your legal obligations to your employees. These are laid out in the Fair Work Act – visit the Fair Work Ombudsman for more info.

What to pay your café staff

The rights of café staff are governed by the Restaurant Industry Award 2010 [MA000119]. Any employee covered by the industry award cannot be paid less than the minimum wage rate, which you can find on the Fair Work website. Keep in mind that on top of the minimum wage, you may need to supply a host of other benefits, including superannuation contributions, workers compensation insurance, leave entitlements, and payroll tax. This could add a further 25-30% to your staff costs.Every Australian employee, including café staff, is entitled to ten minimum conditions of employment detailed in the National Employment Standards (NES), including rights to paid leave, minimum weekly hours of work, and notice of termination pay. For more information on these conditions, read our comprehensive article here.

How to improve your staff productivity

On top of wages, you're accountable for ensuring your staff knows their responsibilities. We advise holding regular staff meetings, where employees can air complaints and you can hammer out any problems at work. Make sure your workers understand their duties, from answering phones and taking orders to tending to the coffee machine and serving food.Confident staff members make for happy staff, so it's worth providing proper equipment, protective clothing, and supervision. This could mean having a manager always at hand, supplying aprons or caps, and investing in quality equipment for your staff to use.Staff training is important to a café business, especially one that prides itself on providing quality food and service. It may be worthwhile investing in barista training or coffee making classes so all your staff members are confident in their work activities and deliver the best product they can.

Listen to your employees

Under the Fair Work Act, you staff are protected from discrimination, sexual harassment, workplace bullying, and unfair termination. The best way to combat any of the above is to be approachable so your workers can sound out any concerns or complaints. Try to establish a workplace system to deal with grievances, whether it's regular catch ups with each staff member, or a general meeting to clear the air. Since your employees' happiness and security at work is your responsibility, it's up to you to make sure you have their trust. Let employees know they have your full discretion and can speak in confidence about any complaint.

Keep 'em happy

Finally, a happy workplace is a welcoming workplace. Since your café depends on a steady influx of customers, you want to establish a welcoming atmosphere; having staff who love their jobs contributes to a friendlier business. So how can you keep your staff happy?Along with encouraging respect and trust in your employees by keeping your communication channels open, make sure you've shown gratitude when they've gone the extra mile, or simply endured a hard day at work.A great way to promote loyalty among staff is to supply rewards for outstanding work, whether it's producing a top-notch coffee, maintaining a clean workspace, providing stellar customer service, or keeping cool, calm and collected under pressure.And don't forget to treat the team like a family. Hold regular social events so your workers feel comfortable and rewarded for working in your workplace. If you're interested in owning a café, browse our listings across Australia today.

Want to Know More?

To learn more about owning a café, check out the following articles: *Handy Hints for Marketing Your Café

*Top Café Industry Bodies in Australia You Need to Know About *Australian Café Licences and Permits You Can't Go Without

AnyBusiness.com.au

Mary is the founder of AnyBusiness.com.au. She has a degree in Business from Monash University and been helping showcase businesses for sale for over 10 years. In the course of running her own business and working daily with business owners and brokers she has developed a keen sense of the Australian market for businesses for sale and shares her knowledge on this blog and others such as female.com.au

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