#BrioEmpowers Table & Apron: Playing the F&B Team Sport
The F&B industry is notoriously hard on people. The work is physically hard, the environment stressful, and the hours are long.
In turn, this presents a problem for F&B businesses. The prevalence of casual labour means that restaurant owners have to adapt to this unique HR situation. “The F&B industry relies on different types of communities, whether it is foreign labour coming in, or locals wanting to work,” says Marcus Low, restauranteur and co-founder of Table & Apron, a top-rated restaurant located in Damansara Kim, Petaling Jaya.
“There's a lot of churn. That’s just naturally how the industry is. From an HR perspective, we want to embrace the fact that people come and go – that they use our organization as a station to help them get an experience that will help them in their future careers as well,” explains Low.
Here is how Table & Apron uses BrioHR to empower their staff and create great dining experiences.
Embracing the Churn
Everything starts when a new team member is welcomed into the Table & Apron fold. “We're here to create great experiences. And if we can do that for our team, then we believe they can do that for our guests as well,” Low explains.
In bringing together different stakeholders, e.g. HR, line managers, colleagues etc, new employees are aligned and consistent in their focus from the minute they join. This is done through BrioHR’s onboarding dashboard, where new hires can have their own access to get instant visibility on the onboarding process.
“BrioHR has been a tremendous help in streamlining how we actually onboard people in every time a team member joins us. We treat them as if they are our guests – can they give us a five-star review? And that starts with us making sure that they when they come in, they know what our mission is,” Low says.
More organizations should get BrioHR to help align employers and employees.
Orchestrating a Team
But at the same time, creating a great employee experience is crucial, even for employees that will leave after only a few months. Low believes greatly in putting people first, in line with his ethos that having a good team means having happy customers.
“It takes many individuals to make a guest feel that this is their favourite place, it goes beyond just the food itself being great. it goes beyond the service. It really is an orchestration of everyone in a team doing that,” he says.
To ensure the team runs smoothly, Table & Apron uses BrioHR to automate their HR processes and empower the team. “We are subscribed to several modules, but the one I think stands out is the Leave Management module,” says Low. “In F&B, we work on weekends. And a lot of our team takes leave when they can. So, the Leave Management module increases transparency, as we can see who else has applied for leave,” he explains.
“In our business, it is service before self. It is a team sport. It’s important, therefore, to have a platform that allows a shared perspective. I believe that more organizations should actually get BrioHR to help align employers and employees. If anything, the software actually empowers them to have more information, so they don't have to chase and close down on information gaps between the team,” says Low.
