Employee handbook for small restaurant

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View All Marketing Resources. In Canada, provincial governments set the minimum working age. Some provinces allow children as young as 12 to work but under limited hours, with restrictions during school weeks, and with written parental permission.

In Ontario, the minimum age is 14 years old for restaurant serving areas and 15 for kitchens. But wait. If you serve alcohol, additional age restrictions apply. In the US, the legal drinking age is In Canada, the legal drinking age is 19 in all provinces except for Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. That said, the legal age to serve alcohol does not always abide by this standard.

In Chicago, Illinois, you must be 21 years old to serve alcohol. Consider that there are some scenarios where staff might be able to resolve the conflict between one another and others where a manager should step in. In this section, we recommend you illustrate a few scenarios and your preferred course of action for each one. Specify that disciplinary actions are subject to your discretion as the employer and, depending on the infringement could involve:.

For U. Department of Labor requires that you state that your restaurant follows nondiscrimination and equal employment opportunity laws when hiring and promoting staff. Canada: Employment Equity Act. To do this, define what constitutes harassment, examples of harassment, consequences and how to report it. Our anti-harassment policy expresses that we will not tolerate behaviour that intimidates, humiliates, or discriminates against others based on age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, religion or disability.

Who does this policy apply to: This policy extends to all employees, suppliers, the public, customers and anyone else that comes in contact with employees while at work. The definition of harassment includes: bullying, intimidation, direct insults, malicious gossip, victimization and unwanted sexual advances.

Punishment: Punishment depends on the severity of the offence and can include verbal warnings, formal written reprimands, suspension or termination. Sexual harassment will not be tolerated and will result in termination. Incident reporting: If you feel you are being harassed or witness an act of harassment, contact the supervisor on duty or any member of management.

Again, state that the punishment of infraction depends on the severity of the offence and can include verbal warnings, formal written reprimands, suspension or termination.

Your employee handbook should cover policies pertaining to payroll, work hours and scheduling that apply to every staff member. Keep specific discussions of hourly pay, salary and any negotiated vacation time to individual employee contracts.

Define what constitutes overtime and how staff should log over time when they reach a threshold. Canada: Overtime is determined provincially but begins between 40 and 48 hours. In Ontario, overtime begins when an employee works more than 44 hours in a week. Whether through a POS that clocks hours via a personal employee code or on a sign in sheet, outline how employees should clock in and clock out of their shift so that you have a detailed, formal record of their hours worked. US Federal Holidays.

Canadian Federal Holidays. In your employee handbook, set out your policy on switching shifts. Most restaurants choose to ask staff to obtain managerial approval within a minimum time frame.

For example, you can switch a shift 48 hours in advance of the shift, pending managerial approval. An employee may want to book a day off. Rather, the employee is requesting to schedule their required shifts around a certain day. In order to manage and accommodate requests, require staff to place their requests before you create the weekly schedule. Outline this process in your handbook to avoid last minute requests that could result in inadequate staffing.

Indefinite shift-end times allow you to accommodate staff needs on busy nights because you can keep staff on until the traffic dies down. Conversely, indefinite shift-end times allow you to contain labor costs on slow nights, by cutting staff as soon as customer traffic wanes.

To protect employees, some labor laws require you to compensate scheduled staff members for a minimum amount of time, regardless if they work that minimum time or not. Illinois law does not require employers to pay employees for showing up to work if no work is performed. Employers are only required to pay employees for hours actually worked. If an employee has worked a certain amount of hours, they are legally entitled to a shift break.

While you can make it policy to give staff additional breaks, you must adhere to minimums set by states and provinces. This section should go through the various rules and responsibilities considered policy for the front of house and back of house. For each policy listed below, you should include opening and closing checklists and protocols for health, safety, sanitation and allergy as well as the response required.

Improper food handling is the major cause of foodborne illnesses. To ensure that your kitchen staff is handling food correctly, your policy on safe food handling should include:. Food Protection Certificate. Food Service Sanitation Certificate.

That said, most opening and closing procedures include:. As with the kitchen opening and closing procedures, dining room and bar duties are unique to your restaurant, operations and layout. They cover everything that front-of-house staff is responsible for above and beyond taking orders, customer service and delivering food. The duties you outline should include a list of all the rules and responsibilities front of house staff have when they:.

Front of house staff regularly collect cash payments and tips from diners. While US and Canadian law states that tips must be paid out no later than the regular pay day, most restaurants reconcile tips at the end of the night. Provide your staff with guidance on protocols on how to safely serve alcohol, recognize when a guest has consumed too much and how to ID customers who could be underage.

We recommend that you also provide your staff with steps to take if they need assistance in dealing with an unruly guest or if they spot an intoxicated guest getting in a car.

While only some states and provinces require alcohol servers to get certified, you can choose to provide your staff with training in order to protect yourself, your staff, and your guests from liability and injury. There is no state required responsible alcohol serving certification. The State of Illinois has made it mandatory for anyone serving alcohol to get certified under the Illinois Basset Alcohol Certification.

Anyone serving alcohol in the province of Ontario must have their Smart Serve certification. This un-fun section should deal with all things HR that are consistent from employee to employee. Your general HR policies should include:.

Determine a course of action that employees should take if they know they are going to be late. Also, outline a course of action for employees who are continually late. This could take shape as a three strike policy that could result in disciplinary action including a verbal or written warning, suspension or dismissal at your discretion.

In the case of an accident or emergency outside of work, outline the steps an employee should take to notify you and your management team. In the case of an accident or emergency at the workplace, outline how you would like the employee to respond. Various scenarios could include: illness or physical harm of a guest, fire, flood or a hostile person on the premises. Canada: The employee is entitled to sick leave protection of up to 17 weeks if they have worked for the same employer for at least three consecutive months.

The City of New York requires employers to provide workers with 5 paid sick days or 40 hours per year. The City of Chicago requires employers to provide workers with 5 paid sick days or 40 hours per year. A formal performance evaluation can take place quarterly, semi-annually, or on an annual basis. This should include what constitutes voluntary termination. For your purposes, voluntary termination is when an employee submits their resignation to a manager verbally or through a signed letter or email.

There, you can request that they give a specific period of advance notice, like two weeks notice. This will vary by provider.