Rather than flipping new staff a book for their self-study or allowing a new bartender to learn the poor habits of a shoddy veteran, integrate these key elements into bar staff training for maximum effectiveness:
Engaging and Interactive: creating a hands-on training experience improves the likelihood that staff will retain and utilize the information.
Pre-Training Ritual: having house policies in place before training standardizes the process and answers common questions such as what to do about fake IDs, taking away keys and designated drivers.
In-house Training: keeping the training in-house rather than sending employees to an outside school for generic training allows an operator to blend the house policies into a general bar training curriculum.
Taste the Difference: allow staff to taste a drink made properly and another with a missed step, thereby offering staff evidence as to why they need to make a drink properly.
