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It’s always important to strategically think about the mix of people you’re rostering on together. Just like a Cosmopolitan requires the perfect balance of vodka, cranberry juice, triple sec and lime juice, your team requires a certain mix of abilities to make the night a success.
What are your staff’s strengths and weaknesses? For each shift you’ll need a strong team of people with mixed expertise. On any given night you may need a few expert cocktail makers, waiters/waitresses with excellent order recall, someone who knows what to do if the till breaks down and a confident supervisor to keep everyone in order.
Create the perfect mix of staff with smart rostering. It is so much easier to have a system that’s able to record employee skills and talents when building your rosters. You should be able to tag all staff with their default roles as well as any specialty skills that are relevant.
The risk, especially with a large crew, is that the roster manager has all of this knowledge in their head, but as soon as they are sick or on holiday you have a problem. You wouldn’t just have one person in your whole bar who knew how to make cocktails. Likewise, your rostering approach should be smart enough to not rely on one person, and to help you understand what mix of skills is needed.