Christmas 2020: the importance of training your staff

Christmas in hospitality is the busiest period of the year and, in 2020, it promises to be a particularly challenging one. With the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, having your staff trained and confident is essential for success. UKHospitality shares their advice on training your employees.

Remind and repeat

Keep reminding your staff of the guidance. Repeat it daily to hammer the message home so it becomes the new normal. Staff may feel they need time to get into the habit of the new ways of working, but, unfortunately, we don’t have time.

It can be easy to revert to type and slip into old habits after a few months. So, we need to really drive the message home to staff and customers that we all need to play our part. The goalposts have completely shifted and we can’t go back to the old way of working, certainly not for the foreseeable future. Nobody wants to see our venues shut again under a fresh lockdown, so we all have a responsibility to act accordingly.

Seasonal staff

If December is traditionally a time when you bring in seasonal staff, make sure you keep a record of your temporary team’s shift patterns for 21 days. You can assist NHS Test and Trace with requests for that data if needed. Obviously, you should be doing this for all full-time staff too. This could help contain clusters or outbreaks.

Make sure every member of staff is fully trained on any new working practices you’ve implemented. Christmas is a uniquely busy and highly complex time. It brings its own set of catering conundrums to work through before the added pressure of social distancing is considered. Consider a ‘soft launch’ and invite friends and family for a sitting, to iron out any niggles before the season starts.

For the latest advice, visit UKHospitality.