It seems like restaurant owners and operators have either a love or hate relationship with checklists. Personally, I love them!
When I operated restaurants, they were the most important management tool I had in my arsenal to help keep my restaurant running smoothly, my staff happy, and me spending less time managing staff and more time working on the things I love most about the business. Today, as a restaurant consultant, checklists help keep my staff organized, efficient, and completing projects on time (and sometimes even early!).
Believe me, I have heard it many times, and you’ve probably even said this yourself, “Checklists don’t work.” To be totally honest, the checklists in your restaurant probably aren’t very effective. My guess is they are ugly, messy, not formatted properly, or not organized. They probably haven’t been updated in years and are just photocopies of photocopies of photocopies. It’s no wonder you and your restaurant staff hate checklists!
My goal is to convert you to a lover of checklists by showing you how to make them an effective tool in your restaurant’s arsenal.
CREATE AN EFFECTIVE RESTAURANT CHECKLIST
Before we dive into the three main criteria for effective checklists, I want to remind you that checklists are living, breathing documents. They are constantly in flux and constantly changing as you update processes, change menu items, grow or make changes in your restaurant, etc. A checklist that doesn’t work is one that was created a couple of years ago and then forgotten about.
Restaurant checklists must be specific
The most important thing about a checklist is that they assign items to a specific person or station. If your restaurant has two people working at a station, you have to have a Person 1 or 2 or Station A or B. For example, you have two fry cooks then you need a checklist for Fry Cook 1 and Fry Cook 2. You cannot assign a checklist to multiple people nor can you just have a ‘Kitchen Checklist’ or ‘Opening Checklist’. You have to have an Opening Checklist for a specific person or station, such as Opening Checklist Fry Cook 1 and Closing Checklist Fry Cook 2.
Restaurant checklists must be complete
The second most important thing about checklists is that they ensure that your employees have anything and everything they need for a successful shift. In a nutshell, a restaurant checklist manages your staff so you don’t have to you. It amazes me how much time is lost when your staff is constantly having to run to the walk-in to grab something that was missing or not stocked properly. This is also the number one culprit to slow ticket times. So make sure your checklists are complete with ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that station needs for a successful shift.
Restaurant checklists must come in many different forms
Tying the above two points together, a restaurant should have many kinds of checklists made for each station. For example, you should create an Opening Checklist that tells your staff how to ‘open up’ or to get their station ready for the day or for their shift depending on how your restaurant operates. Your restaurant could also have a Maintenance Checklist that reminds staff each day/week/month/quarter to perform a specific maintenance task or check on equipment at their station.
A Closing Checklist reminds staff of what needs to get done to close up shop. A Station Prep List (which is technically a checklist) tells each station what they are responsible for prepping each day. Without the specificity of each checklist, you will find mistakes and ultimately spend more time than needed on managing your staff or fixing the mistake yourself. Where’s the efficiency in that?
If you want to see exactly how I build an effective opening station checklist, I created a free training video where I dive into my computer and show you step by step how I would create this checklist. I think you will see how when you take the time to build effective checklists for your restaurant, the payback in staff efficiency is like striking gold!
Ryan Gromfin is an author, speaker, chef, restauranteur, and founder of therestaurantboss.com, clickbacon.com, and scalemyrestaurant.com. He is the most followed restaurant coach in the world helping Restaurant Owners and Operators increase profits, improve operations, and scale and grow their businesses.
