As a manager, there are always aspects of your job that you are going to hate. Whether it’s doing the budgets on spreadsheets, filling out tedious absence request forms or having to prepare for that monthly forecast. These are jobs you’d rather not be doing.
When its comes to bar managers the most hated job has to be planning the weekly rotas. It takes up far too much time and the whole thing is prone to errors. But how do you get around these well-known issues and how many of the possible solutions do you recognise?
Passing it on
For most bar managers, when it comes to rota planning, you just have to grin and bear it, taking on the mammoth responsibility of sorting out the shifts all on your own. You’d do anything to get rid of this tedious task, even if it meant selling your granny. But does it have to be this way? Do you have to shoulder all the burden?
Possible solution: You could pass it onto an eager member of staff and dress it up as ‘career development’
The nickname
Everyone knows a Dave, there are about 12 million of them here in the UK and five of them work for you. But what do you do when all five of them turn up for the quiet Monday day shift? That’s right, you’ve put Dave down on the wall chart but you haven’t specified which one. Now they all want to work it and you’re going to have to sort this mess out.
Possible solution: Give them all nicknames to avoid the confusion. Dave 1, Big Dave, Little Dave, Davey McDaveface, Slightly smaller than big Dave but still quite big Dave.
Multimedia mayhem
Creating the rota is a nightmare at the best of times but when you factor in absence requests the whole thing just got a whole lot harder. What’s more, all your staff send in their request to you in different ways. Some by text, some by email, a few via whatsapp and some even leave a post-it note on your desk. Having to remember who is off and then look for the request wastes valuable time and chances are you’re going to miss one. And it’s never good waiting for someone to start their shift only to remember they had a holiday booked.
Possible solution: To keep track of all the requests you could get your staff to send them via special delivery. That way you have to sign for everything and you're less likely to miss something.
The spy phone
People are scared of many things: spiders, snakes, clowns. But by far the scariest thing in the world is getting a call from the boss when they’re outside of work. ‘What have I done now? Was I meant to be in? I bet they want me to come in’. It’s no wonder staff decline your calls when they see your number. But this makes it very extremely difficult when you need to tell people their shifts for next week.
Possible solution: You could call from a withheld number but chances are your staff will still ignore you, or you could change your SIM every week so your staff never know it’s you. Very MI6!
There’s an easier way to sort your shifts out...
Request a free demo of BrightHR
With BrightHR creating the bar rota is quick and easy, so there's no need to palm it off onto an unsuspecting member of staff. Shifts can be assigned directly to individuals, any staff absence request can be viewed from one convenient location, and staff are automatically notified that they have been assigned a shift as soon as the rota has been published.
No more wasting time, no more clashes, no more missed shifts.
Get your free demo today to see how easy BrightHR can solve your shifting problems.