What is restaurant training?

Employee training is a real investment. Putting thought and structure into the training within your restaurant reaps long term benefits. Well trained staff bring energy and life to any business, improving your reputation and keeping your business safe. Ensuring your restaurant is compliant with industry regulations is more important than ever. In our experience, the single best way to improve compliance in restaurants is to improve training. If your employees do not know what to do and how, do not be surprised if they encounter problems.

Why is training so important?

In Ireland, there has been a massive rise in the number of Hotels and Restaurants compliant with Health and Safety and GDPR regulations. Stats are indicating that close to 90% of restaurants are now up to date. The government is coming down hard on the remaining 10%. There were 8 Irish food businesses served with closure orders in July alone. Lack of proper staff training and knowledge was a key reason for the closures. Dr Pamela Byrne, Chief Executive, FSAI had this to say: “It is completely unacceptable that workers in some food businesses are unable to demonstrate adequate food hygiene knowledge and skills. Some food businesses are failing to provide high food safety standards in their premises and among their staff.” it’s vital that your restaurant is not caught in the minority of non-compliance.

How can I train staff?

There are 3 main ways to train restaurant employees. The most common methods are ‘on the job training’ and ‘traditional classroom training’. Frankly, both these methods are outdated and put you at risk. With on the job training, there is minimal structure or consistency. Staff pick up knowledge and skills as situations develop. While this method is simple, it tends to leave significant gaps. More importantly, there is no records of training kept, a big red flag for any restaurant inspector. Classroom Training is a thing of the past. It’s very costly, leaves a lot of downtime and is poorly suited to most restaurant employees who have irregular schedules. You might also find it difficult to keep records.

Online staff training is the best option. Employees can sign up for courses and complete them whenever they have time. From a manager’s point of view, an online training platform offers tracking and reporting. You can find out with a few clicks which employees have completed training and which need a reminder. The HiUp platform was built in co-operation with the RAI (Restaurant Association of Ireland). You can save yourself time, money and stress in 3 clicks. From a manager’s point of view, it’s a dream come true. Restaurant server training courses, food safety, GDPR and much more are all available online.