A restaurant has two parts: the front of the house and back of the house. The front consists of servers and hosts, while the back is the chef and prep cooks. Both halves must work harmoniously to ensure customers are satisfied and become repeat diners. And one of the ways restaurants accomplish these goals is by hiring a general manager.
The general manager of a restaurant coordinates daily operations, ensuring every service is efficient and provides a high level of service. But the role is so much more than making sure the front and back of house work together.
What Is a Restaurant General Manager?
In a sense, a manager is the captain of the ship. They oversee everything from top to bottom and make sure everyone has the tools they need to get their job done.
A restaurant general manager oversees restaurant operations from the front to the back of the house, ensuring customer satisfaction, and making the restaurant a smooth and efficient operation.
Why You Should Consider Hiring a Restaurant Manager
If the restaurant general manager job description sounds like something you’re already doing as the restaurant owner, you’re probably right. So, you may think that hiring and paying a general manager to do what you do doesn’t make much financial sense. However, restaurant general managers take those duties off your plate so you can focus on other things.
For example, good restaurant general managers handle the day-to-day details, like hiring and inventory management, giving you time to focus on growing your restaurant or opening new ones. A restaurant general manager also focuses on training and retaining existing staff, so you have less churn, which improves overall restaurant performance.
And, finally, a restaurant general manager can help you take a step back so you won’t burn out!
What Does a Restaurant General Manager Do?
So, that’s why you might want to hire a general manager for your restaurant, but what exactly do they do, and how do they do it?
Hire and Train Staff
General managers are responsible for hiring and training restaurant staff for the front and back of house. They ensure servers know how to key orders into your POS, provide exceptional customer service, and the proper way to serve a table.
A general manager also ensures the back of the house functions smoothly. While they may not create the recipes or prepare the dishes, general managers ensure everyone knows what their duties are and ensure they are not only doing them but also have the proper tools to get things done.
Work With Customers
The general manager doesn’t necessarily serve customers but is responsible for ensuring every customer has a positive dining experience. That includes making sure drinks and orders are being pushed out as efficiently as possible and that every order is correct.
And when something goes wrong, it’s up to the general manager to correct the error and find an agreeable solution.
Handle the Back Office
Restaurant general managers also handle the back office, which isn’t the same as the back of the house. The back office is where the administrative and business management tasks happen. While some of these tasks may be outsourced, a restaurant general manager may handle:
- Accounts payable and receivable
- Payroll
- Managing labor costs
- Menu engineering
- Recipe costing
- Managing food costs
- Forecasting
- Inventory management
- Budgeting
- Marketing
What to Look for in a Restaurant General Manager
If you’re convinced adding a restaurant general manager position to your restaurant makes sense, here’s what to look for in your new hire.
Experience
Ideally, you’ll hire someone with some experience in the restaurant industry and as a restaurant general manager. This helps them hit the ground running and takes some of the pressure off you. Alternatively, if you’re not ready to hire a general manager right now but think you might be in a few years, you can see if any current employees might be interested in training for the role.
However, previous management experience is only one part of what you’re looking for. You also want someone with experience at a restaurant that’s similar to yours. Someone who’s only managed at a fast-casual chain may not be a good fit for your fine-dining concept.
Soft Skills
A successful restaurant general manager needs excellent soft skills. Soft skills
are what take your general manager from good to outstanding. Some of the skills you should look for are:
- Communication. General managers need to communicate with tact and grace as well as urgency and understand that speaking to staff is different from talking with a customer.
- Leadership. The general manager ensures daily operations in the restaurant run as flawlessly as possible, which requires good leadership instincts.
- Organization. A restaurant manager has a lot of duties. They need to stay on top of inventory, schedule staff, and keep track of everything during service.
- Problem solving. Sometimes things go wrong, and whether that’s the inability to get a key ingredient or multiple staff members calling out sick at the same time, the general manager needs to find solutions quickly.
Data-Driven
While soft skills are important, a restaurant general manager should also use data to inform their decision-making.
For example, if the general manager sees that a particular dish isn’t selling well, they should dig into the data to see if they can figure out why. Did they change suppliers recently? Are servers not highlighting that dish? Likewise, if something is selling, the manager should see that and adjust their ordering accordingly.
Get Things Done
Hiring a general manager for your restaurant can ensure service is excellent, your team works together, and every customer is satisfied. What’s more, a general manager can lighten your load, freeing you up to focus on the tasks that matter to you.
If you think a restaurant manager is right for you or you want an outside opinion, Kezner Consulting can help. Contact us today and schedule your free consultation.
