At a time when energy prices are high and it’s more important than ever to make efficient use of labor and time in restaurants, your equipment needs to do its job well. When it comes to cleaning tableware, how well does your dishwasher do? Is it ever necessary to rewash items or polish them by hand? Depending on what kinds of new foods you’re bringing to the menu, you may need to make some changes. A recent Restaurant Business report says that beyond proper racking and scraping of tableware prior to loading in the dishwasher, you may need to consider new washing products that are designed to remove high-protein foods or other foods that call for tableware to be washed differently.

Even as the pandemic wanes and many cities relax their vaccine mandates, restaurant operators continue to be in a difficult position – managing consumers and employees who are concerned about Covid on one hand, as well as people who are determined to resume life as it was before the pandemic. If you find yourself in this position, do as much as you can to get out in front of the challenge: On your website, social media, front-door signage and menu, post clear, brief, easily digestible information about your safety policy – and surround it in welcoming terms. Your safety standards are about taking care of your staff and everyone who enters your restaurant so you can continue to serve your guests the food they love. If needed, a member of staff can help reinforce the message as guests enter your facility so you can avoid having to confront someone after they have bent the rules. Online, have some boilerplate language ready to respond to the trolls – and again here, surround your policy in welcoming, neutral language. For as many guests who boycott your business over safety rules, you are likely to attract many others who will go out of their way to support you because of them.

​We’re all suffering from Covid fatigue – and a desire to get back to some semblance of pre-pandemic life. But restaurants are in a tough spot: They will likely be unable to relax pandemic safety policies while local regulations continue to change and the public’s concerns about safety rise and fall with the presence of new virus variants. (And for some time still, customers will be taking precautions based on their personal health and vaccination status.) How does a restaurant keep pace with the shifting environment – and keep staff informed about ever-evolving regulations? A recent report in The Atlantic about how we might manage the virus going forward may provide some clues. Several experts interviewed for the piece, including an infectious disease physician and global-health expert, anticipate we will adopt a tiered system of response – similar to how we categorize and respond to hurricanes. Rather than flipping a switch – masks or no masks, well-ventilated indoor dining or no indoor dining at all, for example – we can expect gradations. Future approaches will likely include pieces of the safety protocols you have had to adopt over the past two years – with some choice involved in how far a business goes. Going forward, how can you adapt your training procedures to flex with current environmental risks, as well as to concerns of employees and customers? Consider how you can provide just-in-time updates to trainees by packaging and delivering the content in new ways.

Restaurants are having to do more with less, make training new staff as straightforward as possible, and uphold safety protocols – so where any processes can be made easier, why not make a change? Cleaning products are one example. They should be simple to use. Can your cleaning products be used in a variety of applications and locations across your restaurant? The food safety company Ecolab advises restaurants to make the cleaning process less complex by using multifunctional cleansers specifically designed to require fewer steps, less time and less dependency on certain temperatures.

Covid-19 has made consistent food safety training both more critical and more difficult as operators have tried to adjust to evolving regulations and procedures, as well as increased employee turnover. If your training practices have suffered due to Covid-19, you’re far from alone: A recent study of quick-service operators by NSI International found that more than half of operators said they had had to cancel or delay training due to the challenges of the pandemic. The lack of on-demand training, as well as inconsistency in the quality of courses, has created the conditions for increased food safety risks, it found. If you’re still relying heavily on manual training aids and in-person coaching to onboard staff, ask us how you can better automate these tasks this year – or deliver real-time training updates remotely in case of absence.

As labor challenges in the restaurant industry have persisted, mental health has taken the spotlight. How restaurants help employees manage the stresses of the work, which have surged during the pandemic, will play a role in their ability to retain and attract staff as we move out of it. While some restaurants are approaching this by offering more flexible schedules, family-friendly hours and insurance or well-being benefits, a Denver restaurant made news recently for hiring an in-house, full-time therapist to help employees with mental health challenges day to day. While it may sound like a measure unlikely to become commonplace in restaurants, most restaurants can expect employees (and potential employees) to scrutinize how they treat mental health concerns going forward – and whether newly improved policies are actually practiced within the business. How are you addressing mental health concerns in your business?

​The labor shortage, along with the spread of the Omicron variant, have resulted in many restaurants modifying their hours in an effort to manage concerns over customer and worker safety. A recent Fortune report said McDonald’s U.S. locations are open 10 percent fewer hours than before the pandemic and 9,000 Starbucks locations have also modified their hours. In your restaurant, do you know how to best ride the line between serving customers competently and protecting the safety of everyone who comes through your doors? Throughout the course of a shift, can you identify the precise number of employees you need on hand at various stages to complete the work that must be done? Would temporarily modifying your hours help ensure you have enough minimum staff on hand during the hours you are open?

Restaurant operators are having to do more with less these days – and that can expose them to risks they were able to manage more easily before the pandemic. The current operating environment calls for a robust risk management plan that reflects today’s challenges and the need to cut corners. Your insurer can help you assess your existing operation and get a clearer sense of your biggest liabilities – whether they relate to your property, worker’s compensation, delivery, cyber, employment practices or some other aspect of business – and advise you of what steps to take now to prevent those risks from becoming costly problems.