In the restaurant industry, time is an ingredient as important as salt or sugar. It’s the invisible seasoning that can make or break a restaurant’s success.

That’s why a growing number of foodservice businesses, of all sizes and categories, are exploring labor-saving products in their battle against the clock. These ingredients aren’t just culinary shortcuts; they are strategic decisions that can improve your operation’s efficiency and success.

Why Choose Labor-Saving Products?
Labor-saving products provide more than convenience. By removing unnecessary steps, streamlining prep procedures, and incorporating time-saving ingredients into your most popular and profitable menu items, you’re not just simplifying food preparation; you’re opening up a world of possibilities for marketing, social media engagement, and business growth.

The direct benefits of labor-saving products are clear…

• Save Staff Time: Reduce the hours spent on tedious prep work.
• Cut Training Requirements: Simplify the on-boarding process for new staff.
• Reduce Waste: Minimize the risk of human error and ingredient spoilage.
• Ensure Consistency: Deliver the same high-quality experience every time.

The ancillary benefits come with time…
With time reclaimed through labor-saving ingredients, your team can shift their focus from the cutting board to the drawing board. This newfound time could be used for brainstorm sessions that fuel fun marketing ideas, epic food photo shoots, fostering engagement with your audience across social media platforms, and to drive overall business growth.

“I wish I had more time…” is something I hear often from business owners regarding their marketing efforts. Marketing, social media management, and content creation are just a few of the areas that would benefit from having more time. What other aspects of your business could benefit from a little more time invested?

Looking toward the future of foodservice, in a world exploding with AI-powered advancements; it’s clear that speed and efficiency will be increasingly tied to profitability. By embracing labor-saving products, you’re not only keeping up with the times; you’re future-proofing your business.

Visit www.dennisfoodservice.com/laborsavers to explore a selection of our favorite labor-saving ingredients. For personalized recommendations and suggestions, don’t hesitate to reach out to your Account Executive. Together, let’s optimize your kitchen’s efficiency and unlock new opportunities for success.

8 tips attracting and retaining top talent in the restaurant industry.

What’s the best way to attract and retain top talent in the restaurant industry? That’s easy: show your employees respect. If you respect your employees and take steps to demonstrate your trust and appreciation, you’re way ahead of the game.

When employees feel respected and appreciated, it can improve the overall quality of your restaurant. Happy employees are more effective workers, have less turnover, and can help keep your restaurant running efficiently. Over time, this can have a powerful impact on your bottom line. Ready to create a positive culture in your workplace? Start with these pro tips:

Train Your Employees

One of the best ways to ensure that employees won’t jump ship? Take the time to properly train them.

A lot of restaurant owners and managers breeze past training, instead opting to throw new employees in the fire and let them learn the ropes as they go. Big mistake.

This approach starts employees out on the wrong foot. It makes them feel expendable and unimportant, and it doesn’t make a good first impression of your management style.

A proper training period not only helps empower employees on a personal level, but it equips them with the tools they need to be better workers and salespeople. It also shows them that you value them enough to spend the time to educate them, which can lead to better employee retention.

Get to Know Your Employees

Take the time to get to know your employees. Sure, you probably asked them a thing or two during their job interview. But if you really want to create a positive work culture, it’s important to take a continued interest in who your employees are and what makes them tick.

Taking the time to ask how school is going, how they’ll spend their day off, or asking how their kids are can help foster a more nurturing and caring work culture. These small shows of appreciation can have a big effect on the overall mood of your workplace.

Listen to Your Employees

Your employees are the eyes and the ears of your restaurant, and they can provide valuable insights that can improve your business.

For instance, if an employee notices that several customers have complained about your to-go containers, it could inspire you to find a new vendor and improve your takeaway business. Or if a server notices that a lot of people are requesting their burgers with avocado, it might prompt you to offer that modification on your menu as an upsell that can improve profits.

But you won’t benefit from your employees’ ideas and insights if you don’t give them the opportunity to share them.

Be sure to make yourself open to feedback. One way to encourage feedback without pressure? Create comment cards for employee feedback. Comment cards are perhaps best-known for soliciting feedback from customers, but they can also give employees the chance to weigh in.

Have a Time-Off Request System in Place

There are certain things that you’ll always have to contend with when you have employees, both in and out of the restaurant industry—namely, requests for time off.

If you’re just reacting to every request as it comes along, you’re doing yourself a great disservice. Plus, that approach increases the likelihood of your restaurant being understaffed, which can make your employees feel stressed and unappreciated.

Establishing a protocol for how employees request time off can save both you and your employees a lot of time and a lot of headaches.

Sure, you’ll always have to deal with a few last-minute requests. But having an established system for requesting time off can help you reduce quite a bit of the stress associated with scheduling.

Check In With Your Employees

Regular check-ins with employees can keep your restaurant running smoothly.

Employee check-ins are commonplace in office jobs. It’s not as common in the restaurant industry, but it should be.

Even if it’s very brief, checking in with employees can give you a unique perspective on how your restaurant’s doing and where you could stand to improve. Don’t just check in with managers—check in with everyone, from the dishwashers to the hosts and bartenders. Not only will you learn a lot, but it’s a great way to demonstrate your appreciation and respect to everyone who works for you.

Give Employees Bonuses

Everyone likes to be acknowledged for their hard work. While you can’t go wrong with a cash bonus, there are plenty of other ways to reward your employees for a job well done.

For instance, you could pay for an employee night out, or give a hard-working employee a paid night off of work.

Bonuses create plenty of goodwill, but they do more than that. When employees feel “seen,” they’re a lot more motivated to continue doing good work. This can help increase employee loyalty and retention.

Feed Your Employees

Nobody does their best work when they’re hangry.

A little food can go a long way when it comes to boosting employee morale and showing your staff that you care.

For instance, many top restaurants offer a family-style staff meal before or after the dinner shift. Not only does this promote a sense of community, but it can also educate employees on your offerings, especially if you test out specials on them.

Even if you can’t offer a staff meal, do offer employees a free meal at the end of their shift.
It may seem like a small gesture, but it can have a big impact on making your employees feel valued and cared for.

Think Positive

Great employees are crucial to any restaurant’s success. They’re the beating heart of your business—they’re the ones who greet customers, sell your products, and keep things running on a day-to-day basis.

If you want to create a positive work culture that attracts the best talent, you’ve got to treat your staff with respect and show your appreciation on a regular basis. By following the tips in this post, you’re well on your way to attracting and retaining the best employees possible. Get started today.

Source: Mark Plumlee, FSR Insider via Operators-Edge.com

Find more great foodservice industry articles on Operators-Edge.com!

There was no “deep end.” In fact, many businesses affected by pandemic-fueled labor shortages simply decided not to open. At the same time, 2021 was a record-breaking year for travel and tourism destinations like Maine. The question then becomes, where is the workforce that will see us through future record-breaking years? Enter, HospitalityMaine and Derek Fassett.

Derek Fasset, the new Workforce Development Director at HospitalityMaine, recently took the reins of a multi-year workforce development plan. His top priority is building momentum by creating self-filling pools of hospitality workers across the state. As we know, these employees are essential. Whether you’re a small independent business or a multi-million dollar resort, a successful season depends on your ability to fill job openings. In this episode, Derek shares how Maine’s premier hospitality organization is working with its partners across the state to create a pipeline of employees. This system will be crucial to the success of Maine’s hospitality-based economy for years to come.

Upcoming HospitalityMaine Workforce Development Events

January 26
HMEF- Maine Department of Corrections Webinar

February 2
HMEF- Bureau of Rehabilitation Services & Maine Medical Center Webinar

February 15 [Updated Date]
HMEF- Learning Works Webinar

To learn more about HospitalityMaine, or to become a member, visit their website at www.hospitalitymaine.com

Dennis Knows Food Podcast   podcast@dennisexpress.com

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It’s no secret that COVID-19 has impacted the restaurant workforce. According to data from 350,000+ restaurants that use 7shifts at the time of publishing, while overall shifts being scheduled are still sitting 24% below pre-COVID levels, shifts for delivery-related roles have increased 38%.

According to CareerPlug, three in 10 restaurant workers are currently unemployed, and of those who are working, 56% are looking for new positions.

Restaurant recruiting during the COVID-19 pandemic can be advantageous for restaurants because so much restaurant talent is looking for work. Restaurants must be picky, however, to ensure that new hires are good fits for the long term and that they’ll work safely alongside existing staff.

It’s important for restaurant hiring and training processes to reflect new COVID-19 safety measures. When hiring restaurant employees, it’s also important to find staff that will take these measures seriously. In this guide to COVID-19 restaurant recruiting you’ll learn:

• How to adjust your restaurant recruitment process including:
• Rewriting your “Careers” page
• Adjusting job descriptions
• Learning how to interview restaurant staff during the pandemic
• What to look for when hiring restaurant staff during and after the pandemic
• How to safely train new hires

How to adjust your restaurant recruiting process during COVID-19

Bringing on employees in the new climate of COVID-19 needs to change—just like your roles, restaurant, and the industry itself have over the past few months.

“Your job postings and hiring process should look different today versus pre-COVID,” explains CareerPlug’s director of HR, Natalie Morgan.

“Revise your job descriptions to include details about how you’re keeping them safe on the job and during the hiring process — what social distancing guidelines are in place? What PPE will you provide? Will any of the hiring or training be conducted remotely? Provide answers to these questions upfront to stand out and build trust with candidates” she says.

Here’s how to implement those restaurant recruitment changes to keep your current staff safe and give job candidates peace of mind.

1. Update your careers page with a safety section

Let job candidates know what your restaurant is doing to keep employees safe during the pandemic, and what its expectations are for staff. If job candidates think your safety measures are too strict, their values don’t match yours and they won’t be good long-term fits for the team anyway.

Are you making wearing PPE mandatory? Are you providing staff with PPE? Are you conducting daily health checks and making results available to the whole team through notice? Are you offering paid sick time to ensure that staff doesn’t worry about missing a paycheck? Share your protocol with job candidates on the restaurant hiring page of your website.

“For bonus points, tell the story of how your company reacted to COVID-19 on your careers page (or at least be prepared for this question),” says Morgan. “If you were able to support employees, what did that look like?”

2. Add safety measures to job descriptions

When it comes to COVID-19 restaurant recruitment, pandemic-related safety measures need to make it into job descriptions, as keeping customers and fellow staff healthy is now an important part of every restaurant’s role.

Here’s a sample server job description with requirements for upholding safety measures and valuing the safety of staff and customers:

Server Job Description

Customer-facing duties:

• Informing guests of COVID-19 protocols and making sure that guests follow them
• Teaching guests how to use contactless ordering technology
• Recommending menu items to guests
• Upselling menu items
• Bringing orders to tables
• Professionally handling complaints and feedback from guests

COVID-19 safety duties and expectations:

• Maintaining social distancing measures and enforcing guest social distancing
• Wearing PPE and holding staff and guests accountable for doing so as well
• Maintaining sanitization procedures
• Participating in daily temperature and symptom checks
• Holding fellow team members accountable for adhering to COVID-19-related safety measures

Use this sample job description for hiring restaurant staff by customizing it for different roles.

3. Adjust your interviewing practices

Adjust your restaurant interviews procedure by reducing or altogether eliminating in-person meetings with candidates and adding new questions around health and safety.

Want to know how to interview a restaurant manager, server, or cook remotely? Stick to phone or video interviews until it’s absolutely necessary to bring candidates into the restaurant. When candidates come in for restaurant interviews, conduct temperature, and symptom checks.

Use 7shifts’ Manager Log Book to ensure that all restaurant recruiting managers understand and follow the new restaurant interviews process.

Restaurant hiring in a pandemic: What to look for in job candidates

There’s a new layer of qualities you need to look for while hiring restaurant employees that you either haven’t had to think about before, or need to emphasize now.

For all roles, it’s important to ask how strictly job candidates adhere to COVID-19 safety measures in their personal lives. If they understand the importance of slowing the spread of the coronavirus, they’ll take pride in doing that at your restaurant too.

Here are other qualities you should look for while hiring restaurant staff based on role:

Management

• Not afraid to enforce safety measures.
• Will report rule violations.
• Able to swiftly adjust staff schedules if staff members fail health checks.
• Able to carry out traditional restaurant manager skills and responsibilities.

FOH

• Care for customer wellbeing.
• Can maintain appropriate distance from customers.
• Not afraid to hold fellow staff accountable for following COVID-19 safety measures, like wearing PPE.
• Not afraid to enforce COVID-19 safety rules for customers.
• If you’re considering asking FOH staff to work as delivery drivers, make sure they have valid drivers’ licenses, access to cars that are in good condition, car insurance, and clean driving records.

BOH

• Care for customer wellbeing.
• Not afraid to hold fellow staff accountable for following COVID-19 safety measures, like wearing PPE. Wearing masks is of utmost importance for food handlers, even if it’s hot in the kitchen!
• Able to maintain strict hygiene standards, including ensuring up-to-date food handling certification.

Candidates will also be curious about how your restaurant reacted to and fared through COVID-19, so be ready to answer questions about that.

How to adjust new hire training during COVID-19

You should aim to complete as much new staff training remotely as possible. Conduct a virtual training with all new hires that covers general procedures, like your COVID-19 protocol, employee handbook, rules and expectations, and shift scheduling. With 7shifts’ chat and announcement functions, you can share procedures and organize training sessions with staff quickly and efficiently.

Conduct in-person training on an as-needed basis.

• Keep cooks-in-training safe by staggering training times, doing one-on-one sessions, and conducting them when the restaurant is closed to ensure the kitchen isn’t crowded.
• Keep servers-in-training safe by conducting one-on-one shadowing trainings and asking trainees to maintain 6 feet/2 meters of distance between themselves, their trainers, and customers.

Once employee training has been completed—whether onboarding new employees or providing more training to existing ones—you can use the Manager Log Book to keep track of which employees have been trained on what and when. That way, any manager or owner can search the log at a later date to find which employee has what training to schedule or further train accordingly.

Wrapping up: recruiting during COVID-19

Hiring restaurant employees during the coronavirus pandemic presents new challenges for restaurants. However, it also presents an opportunity to find candidates that are great long-term fits for your restaurant’s team.

Update your job descriptions, restaurant interviews process, and training process to reflect COVID-19 safety measures to find new staff who are as serious about the health and safety of your team and guests as you are. You can easily weed out candidates who object to your new way of doing things.

Source: Ana Cvetkovic, 7Shifts

The Transition to Employee Ownership

A family owned and operated business for 107 years, Dennis Paper & Food Service became the largest employee owned foodservice distributor in New England in 2015. Ron Dennis, President and Owner at the time, saw how the deep personal commitment of his employees had developed into a culture that deserved the ultimate recognition. So, he sold the company to the employees in January of 2015, and the Dennis Employee Stock Ownership Plan was formed.

Now, 8 years later, Dennis Paper & Food Service has grown to nearly 200 employees, constructed an advanced 130,000 sq-ft facility and become a shareholder in UniPro – the world’s largest foodservice cooperative. Through all the changes over the past 112 years our focus, determination and dedication to our valued customers remains the same.

“We all have a stake in the business. It gives us pride in what we do and helps us go the extra distance for our customers. It’s more than a job, it’s who I am.” – Mario Tribuzio 2019 Dennis Difference Award Winner

The Difference is People

The daily efforts of individuals and departments, the partnerships formed with our customers and a deep-rooted culture of safety unite to bring us closer everyday to our vision of being the leading foodservice distributor in New England. Underscored by a tenaciously competitive spirit, we call the magic that comes out of this synergy the Dennis Difference. Each year we recognize a Dennis Difference Award recipient who is nominated by their peers. As well as a Safety Person of the Year chosen by our operations department. These individuals go above and beyond the normal call of duty. Celebrating our companies independent spirit and employee-ownership the awards are presented annually; a recognition of employee-owners by employee-owners.

“Everything I do in my day-to-day duties to increase safety and decrease accidents not only benefits the company. But also me directly, as an employee owner.” – Ginger Shubert, Director of Risk Management

US and ESOPs

“In an ESOP you no longer work for somebody, now you’re working with everybody.” – Travis Estes, Lead Buyer

A Historic Future

The dedication to service and quality that exists at Dennis today was established 100 years ago, and will continue to thrive long into the future thanks to employee ownership. Now, more than ever, the commitment of our team to the success of our business, our customers and the foodservice industry can mean the difference between success and failure; and when you own the company failure is not an option. Dennis Paper & Food service delivers thousands of items to Maine and New Hampshire’s restaurants and food operations, convenience stores and delis, schools, institutions and many many locally owned independent businesses. We couldn’t do what we do, the way we do it, without the dedication and hard work of our employee-owners and for that we are truly thankful.

Dennis ESOP News

¹Nest Egg Communications

1. Buying larger quantities to get volume discounts saves money. Not after one accounts for the extra waste, theft, spoilage, bigger portion sizes, and overall carelessness that results when more product is purchased than is needed. Smart operators purchase just what they need, even if the price/unit is a little higher. They know they make more money focusing on product utilization, not quantity discounts.

2. Paying higher hourly wages increases labor costs. A trend of increasing average hourly wages is usually a sign of better employee retention and lower turnover Reduced employee turnover results in less training, less hiring, better productivity, improved customer satisfaction, and lower overall labor costs.

3. It is better to have cash overages than shortages. Although neither is great news, cash overages are often an indication of one of an operator’s worst nightmares – unrecorded sales.

4. Keeping food costs low means larger profit margins. Many of the most profitable restaurants in the country have high food costs, some as high as 45% – 50%. The issue is not how high or low food costs are, but rather how many gross profit dollars your menu items are generating. That’s why menu items should be promoted based on their gross profit contribution (dollars) rather than having a low food cost (percentage).

5. Only the chef or the manager on duty should check in deliveries. The chef and the manager on duty are usually the two people in the operation with the least time to always do a complete, thorough job of checking in deliveries. Many companies use an hourly employee who is training to be a dedicated receiving clerk during certain hours of the day. An hourly employee generally has the uninterrupted time to devote the attention necessary to do a proper job checking in each and every delivery.

6. Profit & loss statements should be prepared and reviewed monthly. It is of limited value to compare a monthly P&L to a previous month. There may be a different number of total days or a different number of weekend days that will invalidate any meaningful sales comparison. Many restaurants do over 50% of their sales on two days of the week, Fridays and Saturdays. Many restaurant operators prepare their P&Ls on a 4-week, 28-day cycle so that each P&L reflects the same number of days and the same number (4) of each day of the week.

7. The most important part of pricing the menu is determining each item’s food cost. Costing out each item is very important, particularly to determine the gross profit contribution of each item. However, determining what customers will pay in your immediate market is the most important consideration. While not an exact science, shopping the local competition, plus an evaluation of your customers’ income levels and spending habits, should provide valuable information to use as a framework for pricing decisions. Also, ask your servers how much they would charge for a menu item. After all, servers are closer to your customers than anyone.

8. The best accountant in most restaurants is in the bookkeeper. It’s usually one of the bartenders. Their accounting skills are honed through years of experience keeping track of liquor usage and unrecorded drink sales with elaborate counting schemes using glasses, stir sticks, toothpicks, pennies, and even olives.

9. Using garbage cans in the kitchen is a good way to dispose of trim and waste. Garbage cans often become a “black hole” for excessive food waste, trim, and preparation mistakes – all of which is food that should have gone on the plate. Smart operators use clear plastic food boxes to deposit kitchen scraps and trim. Managers take a moment to inspect the contents of each box at the end of the shift.

10. Paying overtime is a sign of bad management or poor scheduling. Not necessarily. Overtime may also be a sign that a well-conceived, tight schedule was prepared and the restaurant was busier than expected. The absence of any overtime can be indicative of padded schedules and having more employees than needed. Occasionally paying overtime can also be an excellent incentive and reward for deserving employees, particularly kitchen personnel.

Source: Restaurant Owner

Congratulations to Mario Tribuzio, our 2020 Dennis Difference Award recipient!

The Dennis Difference Award was established in 2015. Nominated by their peers, the Dennis Difference Award is presented to one deserving employee each year. Among several considerations, the award is voted on and honors the employee’s distinguished commitment to upholding our company values. For many there is no higher form of recognition than being recognized by one’s peers. This Award does just that – it is for employees by employees.

From Mario’s nomination:

When I think of someone this lives the Dennis Difference Mario is the first that comes to mind.

From a professional standpoint, I have witnessed him working with new accounts to help set them up for success. An example would be helping a new owner learn the meat business and how to make it more profitable, as well as maintain the best quality cuts to help establish the business. He is always helpful at reception should there be a customer that has questions about a product or isn’t quite sure exactly what it is that they might be looking for. He also is a great resource for new Dennis Account Executives should they have questions or need support.

He is a valued member of the safety committee and often contributes great suggestions. He is also active in his local fire dept, the Lions club and his church. He sets a good example and is often willing to help where needed.

I believe that what we consider our company core values are the same as his personal standards.

Congratulations to Mark McGraw, our 2019 Safety Person of the Year

From, Ginger Shubert
Director of Risk Management

Part of my role at Dennis Paper & Food Service focuses on the impact and importance of workplace safety. As part of that it is my privilege to be able to recognize employees who work hard and work safely; employees who lead by example.

We’ve put a big emphasis on our culture of safety over the past 8 years, it has become a key initiative in our business. During that time there have been many nominees and outstanding candidates who make safety a part of their work day, everyday. We are proud and pleased to honor this year’s recipient, Mark McGraw.

Mark was nominated and awarded Safety Person of the Month in November of 2019, here is an excerpt from the nomination:

Mark consistently takes some of the biggest runs, both with the number of bundles and the number of stops. Mark navigates and delivers in some very congested coastal areas with considerable vehicle and foot traffic, especially in the summertime. Mark delivers and drives safely at all times and is also safe when he is unloading here at the warehouse.

Thank you, Mark, for your commitment to creating a safe workplace for everyone – not just yourself and the Dennis team, but for customers and the public as well. You’re efforts toward safety might not be visible to everyone, but they matter more than most people will ever know – and that’s how we know you’re getting it done right!

On behalf of the entire Dennis Paper & Food Service team, we wish to thank all of our customers for a fantastic 2019. With your support we continue to grow our business. Smashing previous records; 2019 was one of the best years in our company history! We sincerely have you to thank for that.

To all of our long-standing customers and those new customers getting to know us… We are proud to serve you. Our number one goal is to be the leading independent foodservice distributor in Northern New England.

With over 100 years of experience working with customers to craft the right solutions for their businesses – we’ve learned what providing great service is truly about. We put our customers first, building our business around your needs, growth and success. We also know that our customers have a choice when it comes to selecting a foodservice distributor, so we work hard every day to earn you as a partner.

Through all of the excitement and growth in the past year, and the changes yet to come in 2020, one thing remains a constant: The Dennis Paper & Food Service team of employee- owners is focused on your complete satisfaction and success.

Best regards,
Rick Robertson
President & CEO