Minimize waste. Prevent accidents. Control costs. Produce the best quality product. Oh, and make it quick. No wonder the atmosphere in the kitchen feels like the hot seat. But your kitchen employees can take the heat — or can they?
Training Your Kitchen Employees Need
Training is key to ensuring your kitchen employees can handle the pressure that comes with working in a restaurant. Kitchen employee training must cover a wide variety of topics. Some basic topics are obvious, such as the following:
- Safety and skills training: The majority of restaurant accidents happen in the kitchen. Training topics such as knife safety, proper cooking procedures, safe lifting techniques, and cleaning processes can all help reduce accidents in your restaurant.
- Compliance issues: Some training topics, specifically for kitchen employees, are required by federal, state, or local guidelines. Food safety training, for example, may be required to safeguard public health.
- HR training: Human resource issues such as sexual harassment, FMLA compliance, diversity, and harassment in the workplace can have a critical impact on your business. Kitchen employees should take the same HR training as the rest of your staff.
While these topics are certainly necessary for your kitchen employees, there are several other topics that can help your kitchen run more efficiently.
Training to Promote Teamwork
As a restaurant manager, it’s important that your kitchen employee training program also promotes teamwork. Train your kitchen workers on their importance in the big picture. (And train the rest of your staff on this issue, too!) Their team’s contributions often seem to go unnoticed because, from their view in the back, they rarely see or interact directly with the guests.
Training to Promote Guest Service
Your training program should also stress that good service isn’t just the front-of-house team’s responsibility. It takes a concerted effort from everyone on the kitchen crew, too. The prep cook, the food expediter and the cook are critical to providing a great dining experience for guests. Serving those guests well means a kitchen production line that operates at its most efficient level.
Cross Training Your Kitchen Staff
When you cross train members of your kitchen crew, they’ll not only be able to back each other up when necessary, but it will also keep their jobs from becoming mundane. Additionally, cross-training employees means should your cook have a family emergency, you won’t be wiped out for the shift since you’ll be able to rotate your prep cook in to cover the orders.
Online Food Handler Training
Training for your kitchen employees has to start with food safety. Restaurant industry experts estimate that the average cost of a foodborne illness outbreak can cost a business about $75,000. Food safety training can save your operation – and your customers – from the dangers of foodborne illness. Training is the key to prevention. Click here for an easy-to-implement online food handler training solution.
