Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Train Employees to Protect Your Establishment
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
By David Gaudet
Finding qualified employees to fill positions at the front of the house, back of the house and everywhere in between is a conundrum plaguing bars and restaurants at present time. As the proverbial door revolves back and forth, the National Restaurant Association reports slow Q1 job-growth right alongside elevated hires and increased departures during the same period of time. Put simply, a sizable number of employees are leaving a job at one restaurant only to go to work at another.1
The trend has a few states taking restaurant worker shortages into their own hands. In Kentucky, new legislation is helping bars and restaurants to attract younger workers, as 18-years-olds are now permitted to serve alcohol; the former age of eligibility was 20-years-and-a-day.2 This same legislation permits cashiers as young as 18-years-old to sell boxed alcohol, where it is sold; and for those tending bar to be as young as 20. Ohio also lowered its minimum alcohol-serving age from 19 to 18-years-old. One Buckeye State politician said it “just made sense.”4
Although employee churn is not too far removed from pre-pandemic trends, it does magnify the crucial need for thorough employee training to ensure compliance with local, state and federal regulations for selling and serving alcohol. Ample training ensures new employees are adequately informed and set up to successfully perform job-specific duties. And if not a practice already, consider adding a compliance policy that establishes proof of ID for patrons under the age of 35, when transactions include alcohol, tobacco or related products. Enacting such a policy ensures employees know who and how to ID.
For reinforcement of your compliance training efforts, enlist The BARS Program. Our signature Green and Red Card Platform implores self-regulation for monitoring sales of age-sensitive products. To get started, contact The BARS Program at 1-877-540-5500, or visit https://www.barsprogram.com to learn more about the compliance platform and the Green and Red Card System.
Sources
1National Restaurant Association, 04/01/2022; Restaurant job growth slowed in the first quarter
2Lexington Hearld Leader, 03/22/2022; Death penalty, alcohol servers, church closures: Some lower-profile Ky. bills to track
3Kentucky General Assembly, House Bill 252
4The Colobus Dispatch, 12/23/2021; Ohio changes its homebrew liquor laws, lowers age to serve alcohol
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