More than 30% of business failures are directly related to employee theft. Without a Reliable POS System in Kenya this figure is even higher in bars and restaurants where employee theft can be very rampant.
If you think your bartenders are stealing, well, that’s probably because they are. The goal is to establish systems that keep your honest bartenders honest and identify – and weed out – the dishonest ones. Just like any other member of your staff, bartenders have an important role in helping you run a profitable restaurant. You can’t possibly be everywhere at once, so it’s good to have systems in place to help deter theft.
Here are other suggestions to keep your staff from stealing from you:
Use a Reliable POS System in Kenya.
For every food item and drink, the server must give a ticket to the employee preparing the order. Nothing leaves the kitchen or the bar without a order slip — nothing!
Label Your Drinks
Ensure you create your own stickers to stick on high value drinks like whisky, rum, wines etc. This will ensure that bar attendants do not bring and sell their own stock while your drinks remain on the counter
Make sure that every customer gets a bill/ticket/receipt, including you.
Everyone sitting at the bar should have a bill in front of them. Don’t place the check behind the bar. Write the customer’s name on the back of the check. And if you buy someone a drink, ring it up. Everything has to be rung on the Reliable POS System in Kenya, even if you are giving out for free.
All employees should leave and enter by the same door, and all coats and bags should be left in an employee area with a closed door with a camera installed outside or near the door.
The employees must have a place to keep their purses, valuables, and coats. A dishonest person will steal from anyone, even her co-workers. If people question your motives, tell them that you’re stopping people from stealing from you and them.
Don’t let a bartender count the money at night.
Instead, have him bring it to the office with a time of closing, the kitchen tokens, and any slips documenting any money taken out and with the specific reason it was done from the Reliable POS System in Kenya. (For example, if the bartender has a hundred Ksh 1,000 notes in the drawer in the middle of a shift, you may decide to pull that money out and move it to the safe in the back for safe keeping. If you do that, you need to replace the money with a note saying who’s taking the money and why. Only a select few people should ever have reason or authorization to do this.)
Keep a daily diary behind the bar.
It should list the time your bar opened, the time it closed, and any other facts that are important for each shift. Managers and supervisors complete the log, and should keep log entries factual and professional. This tool will be extremely valuable when you have to reconstruct events for any reason. These documents can be subpoenaed and read in court, so make sure they accurately represent your business.
Watch or have your manager watch employees leaving at night.
You don’t have to pat them down or make them declare their 3 ounces of liquids, but make sure they are not leaving with the store.
Put locks on doors.
This suggestion sounds simple, but if you want to keep people out of something, lock it up. You can lock up coolers, storerooms, offices, bar wells, liquor cabinets, and just about anything else. If people want to steal, they’ll figure out a way, but locks are your first line of defense.
Give keys to as few people as possible.
The fewer people with keys, the easier it will be to find out what’s going wrong. And in this case, keys are a deterrent to the few people who do have keys — they know that it’s usually not hard to figure out what happened.
At SimbaPOS, we do not just offer Restaurant and Bar POS Software in Kenya- we endeavor to provide holistic products, services and information that will ensure your restaurant/bar grows. You can check for more insightful articles like this here, check SimbaPOS pricing, view SimbaPOS Features, read success stories from customers or get in touch with us.