Restaurant Management

How to Recruit Summer Staff for Your Restaurant

Posted on June 26, 2023June 26, 2023 by kickfinadmin

School’s out — which means a lot of students are about to hop into the hospitality workforce. If summer is your busy season, you’re probably used to pulling in folks who are looking for a gig so you can meet high-volume needs.

But the labor market is still tough, and you won’t be the only restaurant looking to staff up. If you want to win over the in-demand seasonal workers, you’ll need to stand out from the crowd.

Why hire summer employees for your restaurant?

It’s been hard to find good help at your restaurant thanks to the labor shortage, so it might seem counterintuitive to hire someone just for a season.

But now more than ever, flexibility is your greatest recruiting tool. By hiring people just for the summer, you can beef up your team to handle the busiest season of the year without requiring long-term commitments that could turn off potential hires.

Plus: If you’re in need of year-round help, it can also buy you some time to run a real recruiting process and hire for the long haul.

How to bring in summer hires:

You’re not going to be the only restaurant looking to add to their staff, and your applicants will have their pick of places to work. It’s time to get proactive — and creative — with your recruiting strategy to win them over.

1. Get the word out (and leverage every channel)

The obvious first step to finding new employees? Let them know you’re hiring.

Go social: We’re talking about Gen Z here, so if you want to meet them where they are, it’s time to go digital. At a minimum, post your job description wherever you’ve got a following (no matter how big or small) — Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Boost it: It doesn’t cost a lot to boost a post, so if you want to expand your audience, put a small spend behind your listing. Be sure to identify geographic targets as you’re setting up your mini-campaign. (If your restaurant is in Milwaukee, you don’t want to spend money on impressions in Santa Fe!) And of course: sell it. Include pictures and #workperks (more on that below), and show off your team culture.
Leverage email: Got a customer email list? Take advantage of that, too. Even if your target staff demographic doesn’t overlap with your customer base, word of mouth can be a great way to pull in talent.
Update your site: These days, everyone checks out the menu before they hit up your restaurant. Use a homepage banner or pop-up tool to get your
Old school still works, too: And then, of course, don’t neglect the tried-and-true recruiting methods. “Now Hiring” signs and fliers are still effective. Have applications ready at the guest stand. And think outside the four walls of your restaurant. Check with local high schools, colleges, and shops to see if you can display a flier in the bathroom or near a register.

2. Promote your perks

What makes your restaurant a great place to work? Identify your restaurant’s unique selling points and mention them often in your job descriptions and when you meet with candidates. And while offering healthcare and PTO for your long-serving employees is great, you need to have perks that apply to new hires who will only be around for a few months.

Having trouble thinking of your perks that would benefit a short-term employee? Here are a few ideas you can pull from:

Monthly employee awards and celebrations
Instant tip payouts with a digital tipping tool
Upselling competitions with gift cards as rewards
Flexibility with vacation days
Free shift meals
Employee discounts

3. Offer referral bonuses

Turn your top talent into your ambassadors by encouraging them to refer potential employees. You’ll cast a wide net with less effort (and you’re more likely to get intro’d to team members you trust), while your staff will have the opportunity to work with their friends — it’s a true win-win.

Encourage and incentivize your employees to bring qualified candidates in for interviews. To ensure you’re working with a high quality pool, consider structuring the referral program so that employees get a referral bonus if their candidate actually gets offered the job.

4. Lean on technology

Most of your summer hires are going to be Gen Z students out of school for the summer — and they’re going to expect tech in any workplace. They probably won’t even look twice if you don’t offer a mobile-friendly job application online.

On top of an easy application process, you’ll need to differentiate yourself from other restaurants by showing applicants the tech you use and how it can benefit them during their tenure. For example, do you have a scheduling system or are you still printing off and posting schedules the old-fashioned way? Do you use tech to easily trade or pick up shifts?

Finances are also top-of-mind for your summer applicants, so let them know how tech can benefit their wallets, too. If you have a digital tip out solution in place, you can show them how easy it is to get direct, instant access to their tips — meaning no more waiting around for cash after their shifts. Instead, servers will be able to head out as soon as they finish their side work and spend the rest of the day by the pool.

For restaurant owners, summer is an exciting – and hectic – time of year, but with the help of summer employees, you can make it your most lucrative season.

Ready to leverage tech in your recruiting strategy? Check out a demo of Kickfin today.

Beat the Labor Shortage: How to Increase Tips and Keep Your Best Servers

Posted on June 20, 2023June 20, 2023 by Kaley Pigman

In the midst of a (neverending?) labor shortage, restaurant operators are doing everything they can to encourage their best servers to stick around.

A sure-fire way to keep your current employees happy? Help them earn more money. Of course, when margins are tight, that can be tricky — which is where tips come in. Tipping allows employees to earn significantly more than what your revenue constraints might allow.

In fact, for many restaurant teams, particularly in the full-service segment, tips make up the majority of a server’s income. And if you practice any sort of tip pooling, then tips can increase take-home pay for other front-of-house and back-of-house employees, too.

While tip amounts are generally determined by the total bill and the quality of service a customer receives, there are things you can do to help your employees earn more tips. Here are a few ideas to try out at your restaurant.

1. Give them bigger sections

Your veteran servers can handle a lot more than you give them credit for. They probably want everything you throw at them, because more tables can generally mean more tip-making opportunities for them.

We get it: you don’t want customer service to slip. But you can trust your best servers to be honest about how much they can handle. If their answers vary, you can create different-sized sections where you reward top performers with more tables, while newbies get their feet wet with smaller sections.

2. Server training sessions

In the restaurant industry, you’re bound to get a lot of green serving staff. Give them the knowledge and tools they need to exceed customer expectations and operate with efficiency, so they can start earning more tips, faster.

If you don’t already have some kind of formalized training program in place, now’s the time to start. (For tips on onboarding new employees, check out our webinar here.)

Of course, there are some basics they’ll need to learn — policies, standard operating procedures procedures, how to use your tech stack, etc. If they’re new to the industry, don’t make any assumptions: introduce them to every part of the restaurant. It’s important that they understand operations from front to back and how their success is tied to the success of the whole team.

Soft skills are equally important. Being able to engage with guests in a warm, professional manner can take the dining experience to the next level — and it compensates for slip-ups here and there while employees are still learning the ropes.

3. Teach the art of the upsell

In addition to the training they receive during onboarding, it’s never a bad idea to offer ongoing sessions for newer staff and seasoned pros alike. One focus area to consider: coaching your team on the art of the upsell.

No, you don’t want your servers to turn into full-blown salespeople; but when it’s done in a way that’s focused on improving the guest experience, it has the added benefits of boosting tip amounts and increasing your restaurant sales, too.

For example, hold a drink pairing class where your team learns what drinks to suggest for each order. Help them practice presenting daily specials in a way that’s appealing and easy-to-follow. Remind them not to miss an opportunity to suggest a starter and be smart about how they position the option for a dessert. (E.g.: They’re full from dinner? Offer that pie to-go!)

Not every server will have time for extra classes (school, family, and life can get pretty hectic), so make these classes optional. Your servers who can make it will thank you for providing them with flexibility and tools to increase tips, and your customers will notice and appreciate how knowledgeable your staff is.

4. Run your kitchen efficiently

We all know that servers bear the brunt of frustrated, hangry customers. If guests are waiting and waiting for their food, they often blame the server (even if they’re not at fault) and deduct from their tips. Also, the longer a party sits waiting for their food to come out, the longer the server will have to wait to get their next table.

Want your servers to earn more money? Address any back-of-house issues that might be impacting the customer experience. Hungry guests will be much happier when their food arrives quickly, and it’ll help your servers turn and turn more tables throughout the night.

And keep in mind: For restaurants that include back-of-house employees in their tip pool, kitchen employees benefit from better tips, too — so help them understand how a rising tide lifts all boats.

5. Manage expectations at the host stand

Just like the kitchen, the host stand is completely out of the servers’ control — but it can seriously affect their tips. While you can’t really help going on a wait during a busy Saturday night dinner rush, you can train your hosts to tactfully manage guests’ expectations, so they aren’t fuming by the time their server comes to greet them.

For one, hosts need to accurately predict wait times. There’s nothing worse than telling a customer that it’ll only be a 20-minute wait and then watching them sit squirming in your waiting area for 45 minutes. Consider taking advantage of restaurant tech that can help hosts manage the floor and the waitlist.

It can also be confusing to guests if they’re on the waitlist, but they see empty tables. What they may not know is that you don’t have enough servers to cover all of the tables in the restaurant — so if that’s the case, consider asking your hosts to be proactive about explaining the situation.

Of course, when a party leaves and the table is ready to be cleaned, encourage your hosts to jump in and support busy bussers so that the next guests can be seated quickly.

6. Put your managers back on the floor

When things go wrong, managers often swoop in to save the server’s tip. Managers are there to smooth over customer complaints and ensure a high-quality dining experience for every guest in your restaurant. But if they’re in the back office working for the entire shift, servers don’t get the support they need.

Free up your managers’ shifts so they can spend more time touching tables, refilling drinks, and supporting the FOH staff. When managers can spend more time interacting with guests and helping servers who are in the weeds, guests enjoy their dining experiences more and are happier to leave a generous tip.

(One idea to give your managers hours back in their day: Try out Kickfin’s instant cashless tipping software so your managers can spend less time counting out cash tips and crunching numbers, and more time connecting with customers and supporting your servers. Check out a demo today.)

7 Reasons Your General Manager Will Thank You for Digitizing Tip Payments

Posted on June 13, 2023June 13, 2023 by Kaley Pigman

General managers have one of the toughest jobs in hospitality. They’re in the trenches with their team, day in and day out — but with the added responsibilities of hiring, training, purchasing, inventory management, maintaining guest satisfaction, ensuring adherence policies and standard operating procedures…the list goes on.

It takes the right skillset — and a lot of grit — to succeed as a GM. When you find a talented one, as an operator, it’s worth doing everything you can to keep them happy and make their life easier.

Enter: digital tipping. For restaurants that move away from cash tip-outs and automate tip distribution, cash management becomes one less (tedious) task on your GM’s plate. That means they have hours back in their day for work that matters. (Or maybe — just maybe — they’ll get to head home at a slightly more reasonable hour.)

Here are 7 reasons why your GM will thank you for making the switch to digital tip distribution.

1. Fewer bank runs

Your general manager probably bears the burden of ensuring there’s enough cash in the safe to pay out tips after each shift. For a lot of GMs, that means running to the bank to withdraw thousands of dollars in cash on a weekly (or more frequent) basis. Your GMs will be more than happy to scratch that task off their to-do list so they can stay in the store and on the floor.

2. Enhanced safety

Running to and from the bank isn’t just a time suck: it’s also a major liability. Having that much cash on your person makes your GM a perfect target for theft. And the same goes for their team once they’ve received their tip-outs and are heading home in the wee hours of the morning. (And realistically, the more cash you have on hand, the more opportunity there is for internal theft and skimming.) Sending tips straight to their bank account is truly the best of both worlds: employees still get instant access to their earnings, right where they want it — and everyone is a whole lot safer.

3. Less time counting (and recounting) cash

As long as you accept cash at your restaurant, your managers will have to deal with the daily task of counting down cash registers before and after every shift. But the vast majority of restaurant sales are credit card transactions. Given the inefficiencies (and risks) of cash management, there’s simply no reason to introduce cash into the equation in order to pay out those credit card tips.

Digital tip-outs eliminates the need for your GMs to manually count out stacks of cash and rolls of quarters until they’re going cross-eyed — which saves time and greatly reduces the risk of human error.

4. Freedom to shine on the floor

All of that time saved from bank runs and cash counting means your managers can spend more time on tasks that really matter. Sure, there will always be admin work to be done. But generally speaking, GMs aren’t in hospitality because they want to spend their days and nights heads down in the back office; it’s because they love to be on the floor managing their team, engaging with guests, and filling in gaps as needed. Finding ways to automate what you can — like tip distribution — gives them the freedom to do just that.

5. Minimal distractions (and drama)

Every time a server comes by the restaurant to pick up tips from the previous night, managers have to stop what they’re doing to open the safe, watch the server count the tips, and sign that they received them. Then they’ll try to return to the task at hand…only for another server to show up 15 minutes later.

Some restaurants also struggle with tip disputes — i.e., employees claiming that they didn’t get what they were owed. Unfortunately, with cash tip-outs, there’s low visibility into payment history and a lot of room for error. Combined, those two things can create major trust issues for your team.

Cashless tip-out solutions mean tip payments happen instantly — not the next day or week — and they provide you with a digital paper trail, which cuts down on the distractions and drama that your GM has to deal with on a daily basis.

6. Easy reconciliation and reporting

Your general manager wears a lot of hats — and for many restaurants, that includes some level of reporting or bookkeeping. Your cash tip-out system might include a lot of hand-written records, complicated spreadsheets…and heavy reliance on your bleary-eyed managers’ late-night math skills.

The right digital tipping solution will provide a much simpler and more accurate source of truth for tip payments, as well as robust reporting by shift, date, location, or individual employee.

7. A smart recruiting play

Your GM has been fighting on the front lines of the labor shortage, and they need new, creative ideas to bring in new servers. Digital tipping options could be the differentiator they need to bring in talented servers. As more restaurants embrace digital tipping, they’re finding that a lot of candidates — especially the Gen Zers — consider instant, direct-to-bank payouts a major work perk that’s rapidly becoming table stakes.

Give your GM the tools they need to succeed

A GM has to be good at juggling a lot of tasks in a fast-paced environment. That’s a non-negotiable. But when there’s an opportunity to make your operations run more efficiently and make your GM’s life easier? That’s a no-brainer. Eliminating the hassles of cash management makes a world of difference for the captain of your ship — so if you’re still doing tip-outs old-school, now’s the time to seek out the right digital tipping solution for your team.

Want to check out Kickfin’s digital tipping software? We’ll show you all of our general manager-friendly features in a 10-minute demo — schedule yours today!

How (and Why) To Write a Restaurant Mission Statement

Posted on July 12, 2020June 7, 2023 by Keely Hungate

When you were first inspired to start your own restaurant, what was the spark that made you want to do it? With around 30% of restaurants failing the first year and 60% after three years, it’s important to have a very clear vision for your business. Aside from operational costs, good staff, and the proper location, one often overlooked aspect of success is a restaurant mission statement.

Like any business, your restaurant needs a way to communicate why you’re starting your business in the first place. What’s the need that will be fulfilled by your brand? What’s the purpose that will drive customer loyalty? Establishing your restaurant mission statement will communicate exactly why you’ve decided to open your business in the first place. But there’s more to it than that.

What is a mission statement?

Most businesses have a mission statement. Typically, it’s a sentence or a short paragraph about why the company exists. It’s the beating heart of the institution; not a business plan that explains how the company will make money, but a statement that clearly defines the motivation for why it exists.

Many people confuse a mission statement with a vision statement, and it’s important to establish the difference between the two. While a vision statement focuses on a company’s future, answering the question, “Where are we going?”, a mission statement answers the question, “Why are we here?”

Why every restaurant needs a mission statement

Writing your restaurant’s mission statement is an essential part of your brand’s identity. It’s how your investors, employees, customers, and the media identify what your business is all about.

Your restaurant mission statement may be the first impression new customers will have of your establishment. And it will serve as a constant reminder to your and your employees as to why you started your business. Consider it a rallying cry for your entire restaurant staff to get behind — a unifying factor that will help bring consistency to everyday operations and overall growth.

It’s also a starting point on which to base your vision statement for where you see your operations years down the road.

Examples of restaurant mission statements

We all have our own favorite places to eat. Whether it’s a local dive or an established chain, we have our reasons for loving these restaurants — the great food, the friendly and efficient service, the welcoming atmosphere. These eateries are our favorites because their owners have established their purpose, and they strive daily to reinforce it to their customers and staff.

It doesn’t matter what kind of dining establishment you’re operating—a fast-food chain, a family-owned sit-down restaurant, a deli or a pub or bar—a well-executed restaurant mission statement won’t ensure your business will succeed, but it will provide consistency and purpose that will help establish your brand for the long run.

There’s a reason these eateries have been around for as long as they have. For a little inspiration, peruse these famous restaurant mission statements:

Fast food restaurants

McDonald’s – “McDonald’s brand mission is to be our customers’ favorite place and way to eat.”

Dunkin’ Donuts – “Make and serve the freshest, most delicious coffee and donuts quickly and courteously in modern, well-merchandised stores.”

Arby’s – “To provide an exceptional dining experience that satisfies our guests’ grown-up tastes by being a “Cut-Above” in everything we do.”

Bars, taverns and pubs

Iron Hill Brewery – “Inspire loyalty in both our guests and in our staff.”

Ninety Nine Restaurant & Pub – “A passion to serve”

The Dead Rabbit Grocery & Grog – “To bring the Irish bar into the 21st century.”

Cafe and fast casual restaurants

Starbucks: “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”

Chipotle: “Ensuring that better food, prepared from whole, unprocessed ingredients is accessible to everyone.”

Panera – “Food as it should be. Food should taste good. It should feel good. It should do good things for you and the world around you.”

Family-style restaurants

Medieval Times – “Our valued team is fueled by the passion to provide our guests with genuine hospitality and exciting entertainment. It is our honor and privilege to care for our animals and to be good corporate citizens in our communities.”

Cheesecake Factory – “To create an environment where absolute guest satisfaction is our highest priority.”

P.F. Chang’s – “Celebrate Life. Family. Food.”

Writing your own mission statement

According to Dr. Chris Bart, FCPA, the CEO of Corporate Missions Inc, an international consulting firm dedicated to helping organizations excel in the execution of their strategies, a mission statement consists of three essential ingredients:

Key market: the target audience.
Contribution: the product or service.
Distinction: what makes the product unique or why the audience should buy it over another.

When writing your own restaurant mission statement, you want it to be short and memorable, with clear objectives. This is not something you want to take lightly. Do some soul searching. Spend time thinking about your core values and why you want to open your restaurant. Here are some questions to think about as you write your restaurant mission statement:

Why does my restaurant exist?
What does my restaurant do?
Who do we serve?
What are my restaurant’s goals?
What do we believe in? How do we strive to bring those values to life?
What makes us different than our competitors?

A strong mission statement is memorable and inspiring. It’s a way for customers to trust in your brand and to create loyal, trusting employees. Here are six attributes you should keep in mind as you write:

Accurate – Be concise in what your restaurant will do. If your mission statement doesn’t accurately reflect your restaurant, it might be time to revise some of your operational policies.
Attainable – Having high expectations is great. But make sure your goals are realistic, measurable, and achievable. Simply stating to be the best at something is generic and tough to measure. Be as specific as you can in the goals you set for your restaurant.
Actionable – Not only should your goals be specific, but you should mention how you plan to achieve them.
Concise – Nobody is going to remember a mission statement that’s a page long. It needs to be easily digestible and understood. Try to keep it under five sentences.
Honest – Avoid business jargon as it comes across as insincere. Be simple and honest about what you want your restaurant to be.
Unique – Your mission statement should not sound like your competitors. Millions of restaurants exist already. How is yours different than all of the rest? If your mission statement doesn’t reflect the difference your restaurant is going to make, then it’s not doing its job.

Now that you’re prepared to write your restaurant mission statement, get to writing!

Mythbusters: Questions and Misconceptions About Digital Tipping

Posted on June 7, 2023June 7, 2023 by Kaley Pigman

The advancement of digital tipping technology has a whole host of benefits for your operations, your team, and your bottom line.

But as every employer knows, any change to the payment process — even if it’s for the better! — can create uncertainty and concern among employees. That’s especially true in an industry like hospitality, where it’s not unusual for employees to live paycheck to paycheck.

While digital tipping is quickly becoming table stakes for restaurants, it’s still a relatively new technology. So if you’re considering a digital tipping solution for your restaurant, your employees will likely have questions — and maybe even some misconceptions — about what instant, cashless tip-outs really mean for them.

Below are few of the myths we find ourselves regularly busting, as well as important information that can help your people rest assured that digital tipping is a simple, secure — and did we mention instant? — way to receive the tips they’ve worked so hard to earn.

Does digital tipping affect servers’ tax liability?

For some servers, one of the big perks of working in the restaurant industry is that cash tips can’t necessarily be tracked — so they may not report all of their tipped income. As digital tip-outs rise in popularity, many servers are concerned that this will mean more tip reporting and higher tax liability.

But the thing is: it doesn’t. Even though your employees’ tips might be paid out in cash, that doesn’t mean income is unreported. If your restaurant is using a POS system where you input your credit card tips after each table closes out, that POS data is already being used to report your servers’ income and the IRS is taxing them on it — which is why your employees might receive $0 paychecks. In fact, the IRS is gearing up to rely solely on POS data for tax information.

Just like before, if a customer leaves a cash tip, it’s on the employee to claim it, but credit card tips have been (and always will be) reported to the IRS.

Do employees need to download an app?

If your employees are anything like us, they have no storage to spare on their smartphone. So when you announce the rollout of a digital tipping solution at your restaurant, you might get some eyerolls: Does this mean there’s another app they have to download, and another account they have to manage on a regular basis?

Short answer: nope. It depends on the solution, of course, but a software like Kickfin doesn’t require an app download.

In fact, employees can sign up for Kickfin in 30 seconds — without having to download anything. You simply send out an invite to each employee, they click the link, and they sign up through their browser in seconds.

That means your staff get instant tip payouts, and they don’t have to delete a million photos to free up space for yet another app. Win-win!

Do digital tipping solutions require employees to use a paycard?

Here again, not all digital tipping solutions digitize tips the same way.

Yes, some solutions require employees to use a paycard. The problem with paycards is that employees might get hit with unexpected fees when they want to use their card or transfer money to their bank account. (And those bank transfers can take up to 3-5 days!)

Kickfin’s solution bypasses paycards and sends tip earnings directly to their bank accounts — which is where most employees prefer. Funds are instantly accessible the moment employees are tipped out (including nights, weekends and bank holidays), so your people don’t have to deal with the paycard wait times if rent is due or they have bills to pay.

Does Kickfin store servers’ banking information?

Hackers and identity thieves are constantly taking advantage of weak security thresholds (or worse: accidental data leaks). So it’s not surprising that your employees might hesitate to share personal or financial information with a new vendor.

With a solution like Kickfin that sends tip earnings straight to your employees’ bank accounts, it’s fair to assume their banking information is saved within Kickfin and could be compromised.

But that’s actually not how it works.

In addition to being 100% PCI compliant, Kickfin tokenizes your employees’ financial information. Without getting into the weeds, the bottom line is that their financial information is safe from bad actors, period.

What about personal information?

Constant spam calls and emails are driving everyone nuts, so your employees may be concerned about entering their phone number and email address into yet another database that could be sold to telemarketers, spammers, and even scammers.

We get it: Kickfin will never sell your employees’ personal information. We value your trust too much. And if an employee opts out of Kickfin or moves on to a new job, they can easily delete their account.

Can unbanked employees use Kickfin?

Kickfin connects to 100% of all 10,000+ banks for instant, cashless tip-outs. But what about hospitality employees who are unbanked?

Realistically, some workers aren’t old enough to have a bank account; some might be undocumented; and some people simply choose not to use a bank.

If your unbanked employees are worried about how they’ll get paid with a direct-to-bank tipping solution, make sure you’re selecting a software that gives them options. For example: With Kickfin, employees can simply opt out of instant payouts and receive their tips via payroll. It doesn’t add any administrative complexity for your team, and it ensures they’re still getting access to the tips they’ve earned.

Still have a burning question about digital tipping? We’re here to help. Schedule some time with us today and we’ll get you the answers you’re looking for!

[WEBINAR] A Tip Pooling “Deep Dive” with Restaurant Strategy Podcast Host Chip Klose

Posted on May 17, 2023May 17, 2023 by Keely Hungate

Tip pooling can have big benefits for your entire team…but landmines abound.

Don’t just take our word for it: a quick Google News search for “tip pools” will return countless stories detailing costly lawsuits against operators who were — sometimes unknowingly — running illegal tip pools.

Of course, if you’re going to pool or share tips in your restaurant, compliance is only one (albeit very important) consideration.

It’s also critical to choose the best structure for your restaurant based on a variety of factors — including your restaurant type, team size and local market. And then there’s the rollout: Properly communicating the policy to your team and soliciting feedback can go a very long way in ensuring the success of your tip pool.

>>> DOWNLOAD OUR FREE TIP POOLING CALCULATOR TEMPLATES <<<

If you’re considering instituting a tip pool or tip share — or if you want to evaluate your current tip distribution program — check out our recent webinar moderated by Restaurant Strategy Podcast host Chip Klose and featuring Justin Roberts (co-CEO, Kickfin); Larisa Thomas (VP Operations, Kickfin); Beth Schroeder (Partner, Raines Feldman LLP).

Watch the recording below to hear the panelists cover the ins and outs of tip pooling, including:

Pros and cons of running a tip pool
The most common types of tip pool structures
Tip pooling myths and misconceptions
Avoiding costly tip pooling compliance mistakes
Best practices for launching or updating a tip pool policy

5 Questions To Ask When Choosing a Digital Tipping Solution

Posted on May 2, 2023May 2, 2023 by kickfinadmin

So, you’re ready to break up with cash. Good news: the hardest part is over.

But before you pop the champagne and celebrate your freedom from the pain of cash tip-outs, you have a few decisions to make. Payroll tips or digital tips? Instant tips or pay cards? There are a number of approaches to cashless tipping — but which one is right for your restaurant?

We’ve been there (actually, we live here…), and we’ve done the research for you. As you’re wading through your options, here are a few things to consider when choosing a digital tipping solution.

1. What is the employee experience like?

No servers = no sales. In year three of the labor shortage, we all know how hard it can be to find good employees, so you can’t afford to lose your best servers to the restaurant across the street. If your new tipping system doesn’t benefit employees, go ahead and dust off your “Now Hiring” sign.

Most of your employees want (and deserve) to be paid on a daily basis — so before you make the switch, consider how it can affect their financial situations.

And if you’re looking at a paycard solution, bear in mind — these types of digital tipping programs can cause a host of problems for your staff. For example, paycard fees can quickly add up, effectively docking your servers’ pay.

Ideally, you should choose a solution that gives your people instant access to their earnings (the same immediate gratification they had with cash) with minimal disruption.

2. What will implementation look like?

New tech can be daunting — but digital tipping software should be simple to implement, especially if you’re running as a standalone system. Make sure you ask the vendor you’re evaluating about things like:

How long will this take to implement?
What kind of training or onboarding support can we expect?
Are there any fees associated with the set up?

Bottom line: digital tipping should make your life easier, and that includes implementation. Make sure your solution has a clear, well-run process that gets you up and running fast.

→ Tech has never been so easy: See Kickfin’s digital tipping solution in action.

3. How does user management work?

You have veteran employees who’ve been with you for years, others who are just around for a season, and even some who work at multiple locations. When digging into digital tipping options, look for a solution that automates user management, making it simple to add new users and new locations as your business evolves.

4. What happens when I need customer support?

When you’re introducing any new system or process, questions are inevitable.

If your digital tipping solution doesn’t also include a robust, always-on customer success team, you may find yourself lost in the midst of employee questions, operational chaos, and maybe even some regret. Rather than feeling frustrated, ensure success by seeking out tipping platforms that are there to support your transition and keep you afloat.

5. Will I be in compliance with tip pooling laws?

Tip pooling regulations are always changing (and vary from state to state), so your digital tipping solution should also be a tool to help you stay in compliance with the law. As you evaluate tipping solutions, ask if they put up guardrails to prevent any tip pooling mistakes that could result in serious fines and lawsuits.

Evaluating digital tipping solutions for your team? We’ve got you covered. Schedule time with our sales team today and we’ll answer any questions you throw at us.

What Digital Tipping Really Means: Tip Acceptance vs. Tip Distribution

Posted on May 1, 2023May 1, 2023 by kickfinadmin

Confused by digital tipping? We hear you. Get up to speed with this quick rundown so you can keep up with the ever-expanding world of restaurant tech.

Digital tipping is an umbrella term that gets used interchangeably — but it covers a few different use cases. If you’re in the market for a digital tipping solution, it’s important to understand the different types of digital tipping.

Here’s how we break it down: tip acceptance and tip distribution. One is important for accommodating customers’ needs (and frequent lack of cash on hand); the other allows your business to pay employees more efficiently.

Depending on the type of company you’re running and the way your team is structured, you might have a need for digital tip acceptance, digital tip distribution, or both.

Digital Tip Acceptance

We’re probably stating the obvious here, but cashless tip acceptance isn’t new: every time a customer pays for a meal or service and leaves a tip on their credit card — well, you’ve just accepted a cashless tip.

But now more than ever, companies are using POS systems and digital tipping software (like Kickfin) to accept cashless tips where cash had been the norm — or where a tip may not have been offered at all. For example:

QSR and fast casual restaurants: Rather than dropping their change into a tip jar at the coffee shop or to-go counter, customers are being prompted to leave a digital tip directly on the POS. (You know, the old iPad swivel…)
Online ordering: Online ordering systems now allow users to leave a tip from their phone instead of paying a delivery driver in cash. Brands like Panera even give you the option to tip when you’re placing a rapid self-pickup order and wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to interact or tip the people preparing your food.
Hotel guest services: Many hotels are adopting text-to-tip options and QR code tipping so that guests can easily tip their housekeepers, valets, and concierges if they forgot to swing by the ATM first.

With the expanded uses of digital tip acceptance, we’re seeing many more opportunities to thank service industry employees for their work, even when we don’t have bills in our wallets or a direct interaction.

More tipping options allow employees to boost their incomes (and who doesn’t love that?), so they stop losing out on tips just because customers don’t carry cash. Plus: it allows even more employees to become tip eligible Business owners and managers can also use the opportunity to earn tips to attract and retain more hourly workers.

See cashless tipping in action! Get a Kickfin demo today

Digital Tip Distribution

Since most of your employees’ tips are cashless anyway, paying out cash tips has become a major operational challenge — which is why so many restaurant teams are choosing to move away from cash tip-outs.

But that doesn’t mean employees can’t get paid on the daily. Enter: digital tip distribution.

Instead of having your managers run to the bank, count out tips, and distribute envelopes of cash day after day, shift after shift, there is now a range of options for digital tip distribution — payroll, paycards, or instant digital tip-outs.

This side of cashless tipping is a little newer, and it’s impacting how restaurants, hotels, and other service industry businesses view their daily operations and hiring practices (for the better):

Digital tip distribution saves managers from running to the bank during a shift — when they could be touching tables, helping on the line in the kitchen, or getting caught up on inventory.
Operators save money because digital tipping eliminates costs associated with cash deliveries and employees waiting for their tips on the clock.
Digitizing tip payments can reduce the risk of error and theft.
Gen Z and Millenials are increasingly demanding instant, digital payment options. If you’re competing with other restaurants for the hourly workers, offering instant digital tips can make your establishment stand out from other employers.

Ready to check out cashless tipping for yourself? At Kickfin, we offer cashless tip acceptance and instant digital tip outs that are sent straight to your employees’ bank accounts, the second their shift ends. Request a demo of Kickfin.

The Hidden Costs of Tipping Out in Cash

Posted on March 17, 2023March 23, 2023 by Keely Hungate

Roughly 4-in-10 Americans say they aren’t using cash in a typical week, according to a recent report from Pew. But even as we creep toward a cashless economy, a large chunk of the hospitality industry is holding fast to cash — at least, when it comes to tip distribution.

Most of the restaurants, bars and hotels groups that continue tipping out in cash do so because it’s “the way they’ve always done it.”

And if you’re in that camp? We get it. Sticking with the status quo can feel like the path of least resistance. (Which counts for a lot these days.)

Plus: Paying out in cash daily also helps with recruitment and retention: hospitality employees expect and deserve to get paid in real-time. Meeting that need is critical in the face of an ongoing labor crisis, when restaurants and bars are competing for talent with other establishments and gig economy employers (hi, Uber and DoorDash).

But the reality is that cash distributions aren’t the only way to tip out in real time. And they actually come with a whole host of hidden (unnecessary!) costs that could be putting a major dent in your bottom line.

Don’t take our word for it: here are seven ways that your business may be “paying” for cash tips.

1. Managers get pulled off the floor

Managers already have a lot on their plate — helping out on the floor, checking in with guests (and smoothing over any issues), or even working the line in the kitchen. They step in where they’re needed, but distributing cash tips is an unnecessary task that takes them away from work that really matters. In fact, the whole process can consume 10+ hours of their week, every week.

Cash tip-outs take so much time because more customers are paying with credit cards or digital payments. As a result, restaurants simply don’t have cash on hand to pay out server tips at the end of each shift.

That means:

Many managers find themselves making frequent bank runs — sometimes every day.
Once cash is in hand, they’re tasked with calculating tip pools and counting cash. It’s a tedious job for anyone, but for a run-down manager who’s trying to keep their eyes open while they’re closing out at 2 a.m.? It’s the worst.
Not only is it tedious: cash tip distribution keeps them chained to the back office when they could be out on the floor, doing what they do best.
If employees come to pick up their tips from the night before, the managers are once again pulled off the floor to ensure everyone gets what they’re owed.

2. Unnecessary labor costs

If you’re still paying out cash tips, your labor costs are likely higher than they need to be.

Sure, your managers might be salaried — but at many restaurants, hourly employees will be waiting on the clock for their manager to pay out their tips since both the employer and employee need to be physically present when currency is exchanged.

To quantify this, pick a state…how about Colorado where the server minimum wage is $10.63? If a Colorado restaurateur has 10 employees waiting together on the clock for 15 minutes, that’s 150 minutes of unnecessary compounded labor or $26.58/day – about almost $800/month.

(Of course: managers could send employees home to save “on clock time.” But that means they’ll have the inconvenience of either waiting until their next shift to get their payout, or trekking back to work on a day off — which comes with added gas money or public transit costs —to complete the envelope pass.)

3. Employee theft

You work hard to hire the right employees: people you can trust. You ask the right questions, check all their references, run the background checks.

You can do everything right, but employee theft still happens. An estimated $3-6 billion of revenue is lost annually as a result.

Does it mean your employees are bad people? Not necessarily. But tough personal times — or pure temptation — can lead good people to make bad professional choices and justify illegal behavior. Reducing or eliminating cash held on premises for tipping out mitigates the risk (and temptation) of both minor skimming and major theft.

4. Human error

Even if your employees don’t intend to skim from tips, counting errors happen. After a particularly exhausting Saturday night shift, your managers are often sitting there counting cash for so long that they start to feel cross-eyed — and they’re bound to slip up from time to time. Even if you just misplace $5 every other day, you could be losing nearly $1,000 every year.

And if a mistake is made, there’s no record of it. Once the cash is gone from your restaurant, you have no way to recuperate it.

5. The ABCs of fees

Accounting fees – Cash tip reconciliation and accounting for last-minute bank cash orders is time-consuming. Your bookkeeping firm will bill for the additional hours needed to accomplish these tasks. If you’re also at the helm of a multi-location establishment, you’ll need to plan for the reporting delays and additional costs involved in requesting payroll reports from each location.

Bank fees – As many banks outsource their vaulting to cash management companies, they roll a piece of their cost for this service down to their customers in the form of a fee for local cash pick up. Combine this particular fee with a massive liability issue: anything could happen while your GM is off premise to courier the cash, including theft or robbery. And of course, bank runs take up on-the-clock time that your GM could be spending managing the business.

Cash in transit fees – Choosing to use an armored car service to deliver cash is common practice for high-volume locations. However, it comes with both a fee for delivery and for the cash itself. Those can range from $250 – $400 per week.

6. Rounding up (and down)

Some employers use a time-rounding policy that can result in shortchanging employees on wages they were scheduled to earn.

Other employers round up or down to the nearest dollar to make the cash counting process easier — which either inflates the tip outs or withholds money that is supposed to be payable to the employee. The rationale used in both cases is that eventually it all evens out.

But beware the security risk you’re inviting here. Employees can claim that you are underpaying them for their time and/or their tips since it’s not an accurate disbursement each night. And for the teams that consistently round up: those quarter

7. Employee safety and financial wellness

Restaurateurs also often feel responsible for their employees in ways that don’t apply in other work environments. You spend a lot of time together, and it starts to feel like a family.

As the head of that family, you can make choices to further promote employee safety. For example, employees feel safer and more secure leaving at night without cash in their pockets. They also report that tipping out in something other than cash means they tend to spend less of their tips on frivolous things.

Digital tipping cuts the costs of cash

Yes, cash tip outs are slow, risky and costly — but for years, it was the only way to give employees instant access to their earnings.

That’s changing fast, thanks to the advent of digital tipping. No longer is cash tip distribution a necessary evil.

Innovative, easy-to-use technologies present safer, more efficient alternatives to tipping out in cash. They can make a standard process easier for you and your team, decrease liability, and eliminate other hidden costs to your business. The best part: it’s easy to use and a breeze to implement.

(Want to see digital tipping in action? Request a personalized Kickfin demo today!)

8 Ways to Manage Change at Your Restaurant

Posted on March 17, 2023March 17, 2023 by kickfinadmin

Change is constant in the restaurant world — and it can be a great thing. (Carryout cocktails, anyone?)

But for upwards of 11 million people, restaurants are workplaces. And change in the workplace? That can be pretty scary for all parties involved.

In the last few years, there’s been a whole lot of change for restaurant workers: between a pandemic, an unstable economy, a tough labor market, supply chain nightmares, and a rapid digital transformation…it’s been a lot, to say the least.

Which means there’s never been a better time to implement a well-considered change management strategy. Whether it’s a new menu, new software, or even new ownership, there are a few things you can do to help your staff prepare for and adapt to the changes that always seem to be coming down the pike.

If you’ve never had a change management strategy, or if yours needs an update: here’s a list of 8 best practices for successfully introducing and implementing changes in your restaurant.

1. Communicate the change — and the why behind it

The number-one way to ensure a smooth transition: effective communication.

Don’t just spring a completely new system on your staff. Communicate changes as early as you can and offer as much transparency as possible.

Remember: while change can be a hard pill to swallow, it’s a whole lot more palatable if your employees understand why it’s happening. Here’s a simple way to structure your initial communication around a change:

Overview: Give them a brief summary of the change. Keep it short and simple — and let them know that further details are coming soon.
Logic: Explain your rationale behind the change. Was there an obvious problem that this change will solve? And why now?
Benefits: Show your employees how the change will positively impact the restaurant (and, hopefully, the employees themselves). For example, if a new system will improve the customer experience, then your servers and bartenders can expect higher tips (woo!). And of course, remind them that a successful restaurant means greater job security.
Details: How will the change play out? Explain how the change will affect day-to-day operations and processes.
Timeline: Lay out all of the key dates for the transition. Mark down any big training or implementation days, the day when the change will officially take effect, and a future date for employees to provide their feedback about the new system.

2. Use the proper channels (hint: more than one)

Make sure that no employee misses the memo on a major change.Here are a few things to remember when getting the word out:

Employ multiple channels. Whatever your “primary” communication is, you likely have multiple ways of reaching employees and distributing information. Especially for big changes, make them hard to miss. Maybe in addition to a team meeting, you also send out a text, hit up the #announcements channel on Slack, and hang a flier in the kitchen. (Pro tip: This is also a great time to evaluate and optimize your communication channels.)
Consider the gravity of the change. Does your staff need to start wearing blue socks instead of black ones? Might not be worth an all-staff meeting. Was a seasoned manager let go? Probably want to communicate sensitive news in person. Make sure the channels you’re using are appropriate given the nature of the change.
Squash the rumor mill: In a close work environment, people are going to talk. But getting ahead of “breaking news” in your restaurant and communicating it to employees all at once — instead of letting it trickle through the team — will go a long way in maintaining a healthy, transparent culture.

3. Gather feedback the right way

No, you don’t have to make every decision by committee, or put every change to vote.

But when you do it right, soliciting feedback can be beneficial. Your employees are on the front line and will likely be most affected by a major change — be it a new menu or new closing procedures — so they might bring valuable insights to the table. Bonus: it shows you care about your employees’ POV.

With that being said, we humans are naturally averse to change. If you ask for opinions, expect to hear some strong ones.

So, the million-dollar-question: How do you show that you value your employees’ without creating a free-for-all?

A few tips:

When you initially communicate the change: Along with presenting the logic behind the decision, be honest about whether the topic is actually open for discussion.

If it’s open for discussion: Put an organized system in place to solicit and review feedback. To help minimize negative, knee-jerk reactions, give employees time to digest the news before asking them to submit feedback. And consider providing guidance to keep that feedback focused and healthy. This could be something as simple as a series of prompts, e.g.:

What do you like about the change?
What questions or concerns do you have about the change?
What suggestions do you have that you think might improve the change?
If it’s final: You should still make sure every member of your team feels heard and supported. Give them a clear path to voice concerns and be willing to talk through objections.

(If and when you gather feedback, bear in mind: It’s always going to be harder for your employees to effectively weigh all risks and benefits. They’re not running a company, and they don’t have insight into every aspect of the business. At the end of the day, employee feedback should be thought of as an input, not the entire equation.)

4. Get buy-in on the front end

If there’s a natural, trusted liaison between employees and upper management – like your head servers or FOH managers – consider pulling them in early to make them aware of the change before sharing it with the broader team.

A few reasons why this could work in your favor:

It’s a great relationship-building tactic to demonstrate the trust you have in that person as a team leader.
They might be able to help you anticipate concerns or objections from the rest of the team, so you can be prepared to address those early.
If they show that they’re comfortable with — or even excited about — the change, that can help set the tone for everyone else.
They can act as an additional channel of communication and sounding board for employees and relay back additional insights that you might have missed.

5. Offer options when you can

Again, soliciting feedback can be tricky. Because the status quo tends to be very comfortable, given the choice between change and no-change, many employees will likely choose the latter.

So consider framing the situation as: “The status quo is no longer workable, so we need to make a change. Here’s the option that our management team believes is best for everyone — and here are a few other options on the table.”

Our Kickfin customers do this all the time. While employees love getting their tips instantly, directly to their bank account — moving away from cash can feel daunting for some folks at first. So before making the switch to digital tipping, management might set the stage this way:

“Cash tip distribution is having a negative impact on our business. We need to move away from cash tip-outs, and we believe Kickfin’s digital tipping solution has the most benefits for you, as employees, and for our operations. We’ll provide all the details as to how Kickfin works and what this change means for you. Another option is to receive your tips on payroll. Let’s talk it through!”

6. Provide training and support

You wouldn’t want to learn a completely new process overnight — so don’t expect the same of your staff. With any major change, make sure to provide several opportunities for staff to prepare before they hit the ground running. Here are a few ways you can do this:

Host a tasting event for new menu items (a good opportunity to teach them how to suggest drink pairings)
Hold (paid!) training sessions on a new POS system or technology
Invite new managers to meet with staff before they take over the helm
Be available for one-on-one training and questions

Most importantly, don’t expect employees to just “get it” right away. Be accommodating to their questions and provide as much support as they need.

7. Create positive energy

Once again, for the people in the back: change is hard. Acknowledging that your employees might be experiencing some disruption — and recognizing their hard work — can make all the difference when it comes to adjusting and adapting.

Here are just a few ways you can express your appreciation for their flexibility, patience and positive attitude:

Shout-out employees at pre-shift meetings
If employees don’t already get a free meal each shift, offer a week of comped employee food
Give away merch (branded hats, bags, t-shirts, etc)
Offer a gift card or small bonus as a token of thanks
Throw a staff party to celebrate a successful transition

8. Check in with your team

After you’ve implemented a new process or change, your work isn’t quite done.

Check in with your staff regularly to see how things are going. Ask them specific questions around the impact of the change — don’t get offended if they answer honestly. You need to know if a new process is actually improving your restaurant’s workflows and day-to-day operations.

Most importantly, give your team ample time to settle into the change and work out any kinks before attempting to course correct.

Bottom line: managing change is really all about managing people. Effective communication, proper training, and fostering a culture of trust and transparency will ensure a smooth transition for all parties involved.

Looking to change how your restaurant manages tip outs? Check out Kickfin’s cashless tip-out platform, and request a demo today.