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Job Roles Within A Bar Outlined – Stop Confusing Your Staff & Get The Best Out Of Them

A lot of staff are not good at their jobs…. because they haven’t been told what their job is. So here is your simple guide to the different job roles within a bar

It’s that simple.

This post on job roles within a bar is designed for you to print out and stick to the wall, Give to new starters or even to give to your boss to show them what you should be doing.

You lot have just got to promise me one thing…

Integrate these job roles into your bar and watch how easy it becomes to operate as one well-oiled machine

Profits will soar.

Tips will soar.

And most importantly, staff and customers will be happier

But Joel – How do you know that everyone will become happier?

Well, this happens to be the first thing I do when I get to work on bringing a bar back up to speed. I simply make sure every member of staff knows exactly what their job role within the bar is.

Now, this isn’t something that I have dreamt up… No this is backed by research.

 

job roles within a bar

Source

When there are no excuses surrounding an employee, i.e when something doesn’t get done because they claim not to know that they were supposed to, you can really start to evaluate them for the roles they are in.

It allows us as hospitality professionals to have a baseline of the minimum job expectancy.

How many job roles have you been in where the manager has favoured someone on their personality rather than their ability to perform the job role within the bar properly?

 

The guys over at JobDig place extreme importance on knowing your job role

“If you or your coworkers have any questions about your responsibilities, it can make for a very inefficient, confusing, and unsatisfying situation­- and it’s a terrible way to work. Misunderstanding can be avoided if everyone knows the game plan in advance.

The more you work to learn what’s expected of you, the more recognized, appreciated, respected, and valued you will be!”

 

The job roles within a bar we will look at today will be

  • Floortender
  • Barback
  • Bartender

Don’t forget, you can download your printable PDF file here as a handout or a stick-up poster

 

 

Right, let’s get into it

job roles within a bar

Floortender

The floor tenders job roles are often regarded as the least important or least cool job in a bar.

It is however equally as important as the other roles. The average customer spends only 10% of their time at the bar being served by a bartender.

The rest of their time is spent Front of House (FoH) in the customer area. The floor tenders role is to look after the customer area.

A customer only spends 10% of their time at the actual bar! #TheFloorIsWhereItsAt Click To Tweet

It is therefore essential the floor tender provides the highest level of service as it is likely they will make the biggest difference to a customers’ experience…

How many times have you gone to sit at a table and realised the previous customer has spilt a drink and their glasses haven’t been cleared… what impression does this give to you as a customer?

Floortenders should not be in the backroom for prolonged periods of time as there may have been a spillage, breakage or glassware which needs collecting.

The floor-tender is responsible for the following job roles within a bar:

Clearing glasses from tables and the customer area

Wiping tables after the customer has left and the glasses have been cleared

Ensuring the toilets are kept to the highest standards (in some bars)

Clearing any empty glasses from the smoking area, emptying & cleaning ashtrays and wiping tables in the smoking area on a regular basis

Sweeping up any breakages in the customer area – with the ‘claims culture’ we now live in this is essential, if a customer falls onto broken glass your company could face a hefty court case and you would most likely lose your job

Mopping up any spillages on the floor & placing a wet floor sign above the spillage. (Again see above regarding compensation claims)

job roles within a bar

Bar Back

The bar back’s job roles is the hardest role in any bar, but without one a bar simply wouldn’t run.

It is the barbacks’ job to provide the bartenders with everything they need to be able to serve quality drinks to the customer.

The bar back is the communication point between the bar and the floor.

If the bar is running low on glasses, the bartenders will inform the bar back, who will then inform the floor tenders so they can concentrate on getting as many glasses as possible over the next few floor runs they do.

The bar back is responsible for the following job roles within a bar:

Washing the glasses collected by the floor tenders and replacing them on the bar

Replenishing stations with ice

Replenishing stations with cut fruit

Replenishing stations with citrus juice

Replenishing stations with fruit juice

Restocking bottle fridges with the labels facing forward. When restocking fridges the bar back should not wait for the fridge to be empty. Move all the cold bottles to one side and fill the gap with bottles from the cellar or the cool room (whichever your bar uses). This way the bartender can always serve a cold beer to the customer without having to reach to the back of the fridge to get a cold one

Restocking each stations bar caddy with long straws, sip straws & Bev naps

Changing the bin on the bar for an empty one if it becomes too full

Replacing any empty spirit bottles for the bar. If a bottle is placed on the back bar with a pour spout, in the bar back must get a new bottle from the spirit store & replace it on the back bar or in the appropriate speed rail. If there is no pour spout in the bottle the bartender will have already replaced it from the backup stock from underneath the bar.

Changing kegs/postmix/gas in the cellar. Cellars are very dangerous places and no member of staff should attempt any of the above activities unless management has given the go-ahead.

The best #barbacks make the best #bartenders Click To Tweet

 

JOB ROLES WITHIN A BAR

Bartender Job Roles

As a bartender, you become the face of the business as you are likely to be the first person a customer comes into contact with when they enter.

First impressions count, so make sure yours is a good one!!! You must always be smartly dressed, well-groomed, hair tidy and have high levels of personal hygiene.

Each bartender must provide the high service expectations we outlined above.

Bartenders are responsible for the following job roles within a bar:

Giving customers the highest standard of service

Serving the highest quality drinks to each customer

Ensuring the bar top is kept clean and dry at all times

Serving every drink on a bev nap (beer mat)

Serving every bottle and draught product with the branding facing the customer

As a bartender, you become the face of the business! So do it right Click To Tweet

For our more in-depth look at the job roles of a bartender then check out our 20 commandments.

So there are your job roles with a bar. what else would you add? let us know below.

The best suggestions will get added to the post.

Remember you can download the PDF cheat sheet for this post.

 

Having worked within the hospitality trade for over 15 years I've done a lot. From scraping plates to the managing of 150+ staff and regularly creating thousands in revenue per week. My passion is creating a winning team that blows the competition away. There is no greater feeling than seeing the staff's achievements. So share away and let's all be better bartenders. | | The upkeep of this website can be thirsty work! Would you like to buy us a drink?

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