Running a successful restaurant requires careful coordination and management across multiple areas, from daily operations to staff management and customer satisfaction. For a restaurant general manager, this means juggling numerous responsibilities, often all at once. This heavy workload leads to many restaurant managers working over 60 hours weekly. A carefully considered and well-structured restaurant general manager’s duties checklist is essential for ensuring that no critical tasks are overlooked and that every aspect of the restaurant runs smoothly.
Restaurant General Manager Duties Checklists Provide Value in All Areas
A restaurant general manager is responsible for ensuring that everything goes according to plan, from ensuring guests have an exceptional dining experience to controlling costs and adhering to safety protocols. But with so many tasks to handle, how can they ensure nothing is forgotten? The answer is checklists.
Customer Experience
Customer satisfaction is at the core of any successful restaurant. A restaurant manager must supervise the quality of food and service, ensuring that customers have a positive experience every time. Checklists address every aspect of restaurant customer experience, including:
- Wait times
- Table setup
- Menus and signage
- Cleanliness in the dining area and bathrooms
- Timely responses to guest compliments and complaints
Revenue
Managers are responsible for implementing revenue-driving strategies set by headquarters, including loyalty programs and seasonal promotions. A restaurant general manager’s duties checklist helps ensure these strategies are executed efficiently. Begin with checklists to help you:
- Review daily sales reports.
- Manage inventory to control food costs.
- Monitor KPIs for restaurants, including COGS (cost of goods sold) and profit margins.
There is no limit to the checklists you can create. Checklists can even be used to track budget adherence, monitor vendor pricing fluctuations, and ensure labor costs stay within budget. With a digital checklist platform, managers gain the advantage of real-time tracking and automated reminders to improve efficiency and identify trends or issues, leading to faster action and increased profitability.
Operations
Day-to-day restaurant operation incorporates many moving parts. A restaurant general manager must ensure that the kitchen operates smoothly, the dining area is fully staffed, and all equipment is functioning properly. Checklists ensure that each of these tasks is completed properly and on schedule.
Daily operational checklists should include:
- Review inventory levels to prevent shortage or overage. This is particularly important now when 52% of restaurant professionals named high operating and food costs as a top challenge.
- Inspect food prep areas for cleanliness and organization
- Verify that all equipment, from ovens to freezers, is working properly.
- Track vendor deliveries for timely arrival and acceptable quality.
Digital checklist platforms are especially useful for operations management. They can be updated in real-time, allowing managers to adjust on the fly. If an issue such as a delay in delivery or a malfunctioning piece of equipment arises, you can update the checklist immediately and ensure that the problem is addressed without delay.
Staff
Managing staff is one of the most challenging aspects of running a restaurant, especially post-Covid, and it’s an area where checklists can make a real difference. A restaurant general manager must ensure that employees are properly trained, schedules are optimized, and performance evaluations are conducted regularly. With so many staff-related responsibilities, it’s hard to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks. That’s why you need checklists.
Staff management checklists can include tasks such as:
- Planning, scheduling, and conducting restaurant employee training sessions.
- Regularly reviewing staff performance.
- Scheduling that the right number of employees are scheduled for each shift.
- Organizing team meetings.
- Handling employee grievances.
- Promoting retention and growth with employee recognition and honors.
Using a digital system allows managers to schedule recurring tasks, such as monthly staff evaluations, and set automated reminders. This keeps you organized, guaranteeing that corporate-mandated tasks like training and performance assessments are completed on time.
Safety and Compliance
There’s no margin of error when it comes to complying with local health and safety regulations. A general manager must conduct regular safety checks, store food at the proper temperatures, and maintain accurate food labeling. A restaurant general manager’s duties checklist is a key tool for keeping customers safe and healthy, maintaining compliance with health codes, and avoiding costly violations.
You can cover everything related to restaurant safety and compliance with checklists, including:
- Keeping handwashing stations stocked with soap and towels.
- Verifying that all staff know how to monitor temperature and that food items are stored appropriately.
- Tracking the cleanliness of the kitchen, dining, and storage areas to prevent contamination.
- Logging compliance tasks.
- Generating reports on schedule and on demand when a health inspector arrives unannounced.
6 Reasons You Need a Digital Restaurant General Manager Duties Checklist Solution
Once the only way to track restaurant operations, traditional paper and clipboard checklist systems come with significant limitations. They can be lost, damaged, or incomplete, and they don’t allow for real-time updates or tracking across multiple locations. In contrast, using a digital system to organize the general manager’s duties checklists at your restaurant offers far greater functionality and flexibility.
- Digital checklists can be updated in real-time, enabling managers to adapt quickly to changes in protocols. If a task needs to be added or removed, this can be accomplished instantly. Such a quick level of responsiveness is critical in a busy restaurant environment where plans can change with only a moment’s notice.
- In addition to real-time updates, digital checklists provide automated reminders and alerts. This ensures that important tasks, such as staff evaluations or equipment maintenance, are not forgotten. Digital checklists can also integrate with other systems, such as temperature monitoring tools or inventory management software, creating a seamless operational ecosystem.
- Digital checklists are better than paper and pen at helping managers spot trends before they become problematic. With real-time data tracking, patterns such as repeated equipment malfunctions, high labor costs, or inconsistencies in food quality can be easily identified. By recognizing these trends early, managers can address the root causes—such as training gaps, equipment maintenance issues, or inventory mismanagement—before they negatively impact operations or revenue.
- For multi-unit operations, digital checklists offer the ability to standardize procedures across all locations. Corporate management can easily update and share checklists with all general managers, ensuring consistency in operations, no matter where the restaurant is located.
- Built into many digital checklist systems, photo and video capabilities boost accountability and quality control. Managers and staff can document tasks like proper food storage, equipment setup, or cleanliness standards. This ensures that procedures are being followed correctly and provides tangible proof for audits, inspections, and corporate reviews, achieving a higher level of transparency and precision across all operations.
- Finally, digital checklists provide an audit trail. Completed checklists are saved in the system, making it easy for managers to pull reports and demonstrate compliance with corporate and regulatory standards. This not only protects the restaurant from potential fines but also ensures accountability among the staff.
Take Control of Your Restaurant’s Operations with a Digital Checklist Solution
The transition to a digital solution for your restaurant general manager’s duties checklists is simple. Digital checklists offer unmatched flexibility, efficiency, and transparency, helping managers stay organized and ensure that nothing is overlooked. MeazureUp’s DailyChex and AuditApp provide restaurant managers with the tools they need to keep their operations running smoothly and maintain high standards across the board.
Ready to streamline your restaurant’s management? Request a demo of DailyChex and AuditApp by MeazureUp today and see how digital checklists can transform your operations.
