The hospitality industry comes with a fair set of challenges and your interviewer will be looking to find out how you would handle this in a time sensitive and, often, high pressure environment. Our hospitality experts have used their decades of experience, on both sides of the interview process, to give you an idea of what you might be asked and what to demonstrate in your answer.

This guide is primarily designed for those being interviewed. However, the suggested questions will also be useful to employers and show what to look out for in an answer.

Use the links below to find the interview tips most relevant to your hospitality role:

Interview Questions for Bar Staff
Interview Questions for Waiters and Waitresses
Interview Questions for Chefs
Interview Questions for Hosts

Let us know how your interview goes and feel free to suggest questions and answers from yours!

Interview Questions for Hosts

A host is the first face the guests see when they enter a restaurant. They need impeccable organisation skills and a warm demeanour as this will be the customer’s first impression of the restaurant itself.

Question: Could you tell me about a time when a booking arrived, their table was not ready and there were no available tables to use?

Answer: In this scenario, there are a few best practice ways to respond and keep guests feeling happy. Some good reactions are to:

• Explain the situation and be honest. If the table before were late arriving they should have been told that the table would be required at 8pm.
• Offer some complimentary drinks and sit them in a waiting area or bar.
• Whilst they are waiting they should be offered menus to look at so that they do not have to wait again when they get to their table. And if everyone has decided, their order can be taken whilst they are waiting.
• Discount may be applied at the end of their meal if it’s required (but, hopefully, your hospitality as a host will have rectified the issue by now).

Question: Can you describe how you prepare for an evening as a host?

Answer: All businesses are different, and every host has their own way of doing things. Generally, though, good hosts will mention things like:

• Having an up to date table plan – either a handwritten or electronic one. Bonus points if you mentioned how you’d make quick adjustments.
• Knowing what’s on the menu.
• Organising a break plan for staff.
• Stockpiling pens and pads.
• Making sure menus are clean and correct.
• Communicating any special table requests well in advance to waiting staff and kitchen.
• Making sure that allergen information is to hand.
• Ensuring entry points are clean and inviting.

You could mention times in your life where organisation has been helpful to consolidate your answer with experience.

Question: Two starters are ready to go. You’ve got a Vegetable Soup and Moules Mariniere. What items should also be on the table to eat the dishes correctly?

Answer: Any host worth their table salt should know you’d need to bring a soup spoon, an extra dish for mussel shells, and a finger bowl filled with lemon and hot water. The interviewer may ask this question about a variety of dishes that require extras so it’s a good idea to look at their menu and think about this in advance.

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Tips for a Hospitality Interview

During the interview, take a step back and remember to take a breath. It’s fine to be nervous – if anything, it shows you care about the role.

It’s better to answer the questions with anecdotes or stories as it shows you’re using your experience to make informed decisions about what you would do. Even if you’re new to the role, think about other roles or experiences you’ve had where you’ve had to use similar skills and use that as an example.

Doing this shows you’re genuine and able to adapt to a new environment, both of which are important in a busy restaurant, bar or pub.

Overall, try and enjoy the interview experience. Even if it doesn’t go as you’d hoped, it’s still a really valuable experience. You can draw on what happened in the interview and use it to improve for next time.

Good luck!

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Further Resources

• Preserving the Art of Hospitality in a Post-Brexit World
• How to Handle Customer Complaints in Hospitality
• Restaurant Hospitality Quiz
• Interview Questions for Waiting Staff
• Cellar Cleaning and Maintenance Schedule for Busy Pubs and Bars
• Interview Questions for Bartenders
• Online Food Hygiene Training

The post Interview Questions for Hospitality Staff appeared first on The Hub | High Speed Training.

Allergen Labelling

When a pre-packaged food item contains any of the 14 named allergens the allergenic ingredients must be emphasised on the food packaging label, such as in bold. It must be located in a single place to make it easy to identify.

Currently, all foods produced and packed on the premises, such as those sold in delis and cafés, do not require labelling on packaging, provided that customers are informed that they can ask about allergens. However, Natasha’s Law, requires businesses to label the food with a full list of ingredients for all food they make on the premises, such as sandwiches.

What is Natasha’s Law?

Natasha’s Law is a new food labelling legislation that came into force in October 2021, with similar arrangements expected to follow in other nations for a UK-wide approach. It was created following the death of 15 year old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who had a fatal allergic reaction to a Pret a Manager baguette that contained sesame seeds. It requires businesses to label food that is pre-packed directly for sale and made on the premises with a full list of ingredients, including allergens.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has developed guidance on the list of foods to which Natasha’s Law applies. Food businesses were given a two-year transition period to prepare for these new requirements.

For further guidance you can visit the FSA’s information page.

When Should I Use Precautionary Allergen Labelling?

Food allergen labelling prevents people with food allergies and intolerances for consuming foods which may cause stomach upset or anaphylaxis (a severe allergic reaction).

So, if you produce and package biscuits in a delicatessen you could create stickers to put on the back so that your customers can see the ingredients you have used and check for allergenic contents.

What are the Named Allergens?

There are 14 named allergens. If your product contains any of these or was prepared in a place where these are also prepared, you must say so on the product packaging. The named allergens are:

1. Celery and celeriac
2. Cereals containing gluten
3. Crustaceans
4. Eggs
5. Fish
6. Lupin
7. Molluscs
8. Milk
9. Mustard
10. Nuts
11. Peanuts
12. Sesame seeds
13. Soybeans
14. Sulphur dioxide and sulphites at levels above 10mg per kg or 10ml per litre

Need a Course?

Our Food Labelling Regulations Training Course has been designed by food industry experts to help food businesses understand how to label their food products legally and correctly.

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Nutrition Labelling 2016

In 2016 it became mandatory for companies to display nutritional information on the back of prepacked food. Of course, these nutrition requirements do not apply to natural mineral waters or food supplements. Both of which are governed by separate directives.

PARNUT foods are manufactured to meet particular nutritional requirements such as medical food products, baby food and formula, and meal and total diet replacement foods, and these have specific nutritional rules. For more information on packaging requires for PARNUT foods check out the FSA guide to PARNUT labelling.

All pre-packaged foods should feature nutrition information on the back of the packaging. This can also be repeated voluntarily on the front of the pack. The aim of this is to allow consumers to make healthier choices and to understand what they are consuming. This article will look at nutrition guidance for both the front and back of prepacked foods.

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Mandatory Nutrition Labels: Back of the Pack

On the back of your prepacked food, you must provide information on:

• Energy value (in kJ and kcal).
• Fat levels.
• Saturated fat levels.
• Carbohydrate levels.
• Salt content.
• Protein.
• Sugars content.

Nutritional information has to be presented in a specific order: energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt.

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Front of Pack and Additional Information

Front of pack information is intended to give your consumers an overview of nutritional information. These regulations have been created to help producers improve public health. Repeating information from the back of the pack on the front of the pack is voluntary.

Other nutritional labelling requirements include:

• High caffeine content: Drinks with a high caffeine content should be labelled as ‘not recommended for children, pregnant and breastfeeding women’. The caffeine content must be quoted.
• Minimum font size: Labels must be clear and all mandatory information should be included in a minimum font size.
• Origin information: Fresh and frozen meat must feature origin information, such as ‘Scotland’, ‘England’ or ‘Wales’. If the origin of the main ingredients is different to where the final product is made, this must also be declared.
• Vegetable oil: The types of vegetable oil used in the food must be stated.
• Date of first freezing: alongside use-by and best-before dates on pre-packaged meat and fish, they must also display a date of first freezing.
• Added water: if meat and fish products contain more than 5% added water and look like a cut, joint or slice, then the fact that they include added water must be shown in the name of the food.

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Organic Food Labelling

To label a food product as organic or use phrasing such as ‘organically grown’ the product and farming methods have to meet a series of strict guidelines.

You cannot label a product as organic if it has more than 5% non-organic ingredients.

Organic food labels must include:

• Certification code.
• Certification symbol (this will depend on which association accredits your organic produce).
• EU organic logo.
• The origin of raw materials.
• Traceability code.

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What To Read Next:

• 17 Ways To Reduce Food Waste In Your Restaurant
• What Is The Difference Between Use By & Best Before Dates?
• Clean Label Packaging & Food Trends
• Why is Food Labelling Important?
• Food Labelling Course

The post A Guide to Food Labelling Regulations appeared first on The Hub | High Speed Training.

All these approaches are valid, but each has a few pros and cons. This article looks at preventive maintenance which, when done right, is a time and cost saving process. Preventive maintenance can also reduce machine downtime, prevent and minimise damage, and extend the useful life of the equipment.

This article looks at the importance of equipment maintenance and maintenance logs, including a checklist and template to help you plan equipment maintenance.

Importance of Equipment Maintenance

An effective maintenance routine makes sure that operations continue, repair costs are minimised, and downtime is reduced.

Preventative maintenance is the checking of machines and equipment on a planned, regular basis. The aim is to prevent costly downtime and lessen the likelihood of faults. It requires more planning and effort than other methods – but has long and short-term benefits in cost-reduction and efficiency of machine performance.

Preventative checks are made before a machine breaks and while it is still running. Generally, the strategy leads to good food hygiene and prevents foreign materials entering food produce.

Plants that use the preventative method have a far greater chance of catching and correcting issues before they become problems. The method uses a fair amount of labour time to perform the checks – but it pays off.

Organisations that use the preventative method, check machines at specified time intervals. This method tends to save energy as machines are maintained at a peak level of performance.

Other Maintenance Approaches

Reactive Maintenance is a method where machines run until they fail.  It’s a hands-off approach (which can’t really be called a strategy), and the big benefit is that it keeps routine maintenance costs low. But, and here’s the big but, it tends to be costly in the long run.

Organisations who use this method find that costs arise in other areas. So when a machine fails without warning, the plant has a lot of expensive downtime. Also, it’s likely that the downtime will increase labour costs to get the machine operational again. Making it, all in all, an inefficient method.

Predictive Maintenance uses advanced technology such as infrared and ultrasound equipment during the routine inspection of machines.  NASA claims that the method can stop unexpected breakdowns and by using advanced tech, factories can minimise the amount of time needed to inspect equipment piece by piece.

This method checks machine health and the data provided allows the person accessing the machine to estimate when repairs are going to be needed and to predict when a failure might happen. The bad news is that equipment like the ‘Ultraprobe’ are expensive, but if you’re willing to fork out, this method accurately stays a step in front of faults.

Proactive Maintenance is a systemic issue-focused maintenance program. Rather than examining equipment, this approach considers how to control the problems that lead to machine wear and tear as opposed to the deterioration itself.

Need a Course?

Our Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Course provides learners with a thorough understanding of food hygiene practices that are specific to food manufacturing premises, focusing on the specific day-to-day processes in a food or drink factory.

Preventative Maintenance Procedures

A preventive method is more complex than a run-to-failure (or reactive) method. But it’s less complex than a predictive method.

A preventative method will involve things like conducting safety checks, cleaning parts, and replacing parts.

Checklist for Planning Maintenance 

• Identify the assets that require preventative maintenance.
• Distinguish what kind of safety checks the machine will need.
• Assess whether parts need replacing or cleaning.
• Decide how regularly assets need checking.
• Create a formal risk assessment process to help the person responsible for checks.
• Talk to employees who work closely with equipment to discover more about how the machines are operating at the time of the check.
• Find out if parts need cleaning, lubricating or changing.

This checklist isn’t exhaustive. Instead, it gives you an idea of what you might need to do to plan your preventive maintenance procedures.

Machine Maintenance Logs

After completing any preventative maintenance, you should complete a log. This log entry should include a description of the work carried out, who carried it out and the date and time that it happened.

Your logs are also a good source of data which you can use when you want to know whether or not to fix or replace a machine. Use your logs to look at the time and effort it has previously taken an engineer to fix a machine. Then, you can weigh the cost of repairs against the cost of replacement.

Of course, your logs also provide you with a record of due diligence evidence in case a machine fault happens.

Download Our Machine Maintenance Log Template Here

What to Read Next:

• 5 Key HACCP Considerations for the Bakery Industry
• 28 of your HACCP Questions Answered
• Good Manufacturing Practice Quiz
• Good Manufacturing Practice Online Training

The post Preventative Maintenance in the Food Industry appeared first on The Hub | High Speed Training.

• Workplace Health and Wellbeing Quiz
• Am I Being Bullied at Work? 12 Signs of Bullying in the Workplace
• How to Promote Positive Mental Health in the Workplace
• Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Employer Responsibilities
• Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: What Is It and How Do I Report It?
• What To Do If You Suspect Mental Health Discrimination at Work
• Workplace Bullying and Harassment Training

The post Bullying and Harassment Quiz appeared first on The Hub | High Speed Training.

Previous employers tend to give two types of references: a factual reference or a full reference.

Factual references are short and only include key information, such as the candidate’s name, dates of employment, and job title. These are actually the most common type of reference because they are seen as safer. They also work well for big companies who may not have time to write full references.

Full references offer a description of skills, capabilities, and accomplishments. They could be negative, neutral, or good. It’s a common myth that references can’t be bad! Many companies just avoid giving bad references because they fear legal action. The law on references states only that information must be accurate.

Contact referees after you’ve shortlisted candidates but before you interview. Then you can clarify any issues that arose during the reference check in the interview. Candidates should supply you with two references (one from their current employer, another from their last). Alternatively, if they have worked in a role with children and young people before but they don’t now, they should give you referee contact details for that role.

What to Ask in a Reference Check

Never accept a reference that has come directly from the candidate because it may be forged. Instead, contact the referees to check that the information the candidate gave you is accurate and to find out their opinion.

When you request a reference, provide a few questions to help the referee give you useful details. It’s always a good idea to ask questions. It’s up to the referee whether they answer in full and refusing to give a reference isn’t always a sign that the candidate was bad, it could be a time restraint. Although, you would hope that old employers would make time for truly exceptional employees.

Provide each referee with the job description and person specification so that they can tailor the information they give you to the role. These are a few general questions that are good to ask, alongside these, try to tailor your questions to important aspects of the role. For instance, is team work essential? If it is, ask the referee for information on how they worked in a team.

1. How long did the candidate work for your organisation?
2. What was the nature of the candidate’s role in your organisation?
3. What was the candidate’s salary?
4. Did they receive bonuses or overtime payments in addition to this?
5. Where was the candidate employed before joining your organisation?
6. Could you comment on the employee’s absence history?
7. Did the candidate have any weaknesses?
8. How does the candidate compare to their colleagues?
9. Did the candidate deliver urgent tasks on time?
10. Would you rehire the candidate?

Need a Course?

Our Safer Recruitment Training Course will teach you about how to create an effective applicant information pack, how to successfully interview candidates, and how to carry out pre-appointment checks (including DBS checks) before a candidate is appointed.

Example of a Good Reference

A good reference explains why the candidate is qualified, is specific for the position, and has examples that demonstrate why the candidate is brilliant. The following example is a good reference for an English teaching position at a high school.

Most of all, good references tend to be enthusiastic and that’s the most important factor to look for.

What About a Bad Reference?

Although many people think you can’t give a bad reference, this isn’t the case. It’s more that employers don’t like giving bad references because it could lead to legal action.

If you think it’s important to provide an accurate (in other words, bad) reference you should stick to objective facts and ensure that you are providing data without your opinion. For example, ‘Deanna worked with Alwoodley Youth Hockey Team between January 2015 and November 2015. She left to go to University.’

Another kind of bad reference is one that provides no examples of their behaviour. If all the information is something you can find out by looking at the candidate’s CV, then you have a bad reference on your hand.

That doesn’t mean that the candidate is a risky hire, instead, it could simply be that the referee isn’t a great writer or hasn’t written many references. But it might also be because the author has no clue who this person is or just isn’t all that enthused about the candidate and that’s a warning sign.

What to Read Next:

• What is Safer Recruitment?
• Safeguarding Interview Questions for School Teachers
• Safer Recruitment Training

The post How to Check References for Safer Recruitment appeared first on The Hub | High Speed Training.

Marking symbols are a set of agreed values between students and teachers. They are used to improve writing skills, make the marking process quicker, and make feedback interactive. Symbol marking works best with written work, like a story, especially if the task is a work in process.

So, when you mark a piece of written work, you could use a P to highlight punctuation issues or a C to show the student they need to add a capital letter. When you hand the marked work back, you allow your class time to consult their symbol guide and figure out how to improve their writing.

For example, if a child writes ‘I live Birmingham.’ Adding ‘Prep.’ (because the preposition ‘in‘ is missing) in the margins or near where it’s absent prompts the student to correct the sentence. This is a more constructive way of helping the student improve, rather than correcting it yourself, the student has to use your hint to think about how to remedy the sentence on their own.

Marking Symbols for Primary School

Effective feedback requires two components: confirmation and explanation. 

In other words, students need to know what is wrong and how they can correct it. Our symbol marking guide is effective because it does just that.

If you’re keen to try symbol marking, we’ve created a blank PDF for you to download. Simply fill it in and photocopy however many you need for your students. Ask the class to stick it at the front of their exercise books for easy referral.

Download Your Blank Marking Guide Here

The guide is dual sided. On the front, your students can see the meaning of the symbol. The other side gives an example or hint that illustrates how to correct the problem.

Other Marking Strategies for Teachers

You don’t have to sit marking a pile of exercise books for hours on end.

In fact, if you find a method that works for you and your students, you may not have to take work home at all and could cut marking time in half.

Live Marking

Biggest benefit: research suggests that feedback is most effective when it’s immediate.

How it works: set your class onto a task and visit a few students individually to discuss their work as they are completing it. Since you’re giving feedback as the student works, it’ll be coming at the time that is most relevant to them (i.e. when they’re working).

You might want to target students who you know need extra help, and if you begin to spot a pattern after visiting a few students, you can stop the class and discuss the issue. This way the immediate marking benefits the entire class.

Find and Fix

Biggest benefit: students ‘play detective’ to enhance their critical thinking skills.

How it works: With ‘find and fix’ marking, you don’t tell students what is correct or incorrect. Instead, you tell students the number of answers or areas that need improvement. You then give the class time to find and correct their mistakes. You can do this in a group or as an individual task.

Peer Assessment

Biggest benefit: it encourages tact and gets children to engage with their peer’s work (and consequently, reflect on their own).

How it works: provide the class with criteria for thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of a piece of writing. Give a set of objectives that the work should meet and keep them up on the whiteboard or projector. For example, if the writing aims to persuade, write down a series of methods that your students might use to ‘write to persuade’. This provides focus to the peer assessment. Set your students the task of giving three constructive comments for their peers.

Once you have defined marking guidelines for your class, you must also establish a supportive environment. One way to do so could be to put together a book and at the end of the project publish the book for parents and other classes to see. An end goal like this creates a sense of community (a bit like a writers workshop) to help students interact with each others’ work carefully and constructively.

Finally, you need to give your students feedback techniques. This helps children develop tact and is a brilliant skill for later life. One technique is the contextual statement (I liked… because…) or an interactive question, such as ‘Could you try…?’ or ‘Next time, why not try…?’

Self-assessment

Biggest benefit: students begin to think critically, proof read and edit their work.

How it works: give your students an opportunity to assess their work before they hand it to you. Then, look at the work with the student and discuss the comments and adjustments they’ve made and suggest further areas for improvement.

If there’s a marking strategy that you love, leave us a comment to spread the word! 

What to Read Next:

• Electrical Safety for Kids: A Teachers Guide
• Food Hygiene Worksheets for KS1,2,3 Children
• Environmental Awareness for Children: Ideas for Children

The post Marking Symbols: A Guide for Primary School Teachers appeared first on The Hub | High Speed Training.

Examples of structured play include throwing and catching (to develop motor skills), playing Simon says (learning how to follow instructions), or playing a board game (improving turn-taking skills). Most kinds of structured play develop social skills because they involve interacting with another child or an adult. Some, like peek-a-boo, are particularly beneficial and are essential for healthy development.

If you’re interested in using structured group play for your child or those you look after, this guide will give you an insight into the benefits and different types of structured activities you can use.

Why is Play Important for Child Development?

Babies and toddlers need to take part in structured play for personal, social, and emotional development. Without this integral development, preschoolers may struggle to gain the essential skills needed for academic success, making and maintaining relationships, and healthy mental and physical development.

Structured play is also a brilliant way to introduce your child to activities that they wouldn’t be able to do during free play, such as getting used to a swimming pool and learning how to swim.

It’s important to choose to play a structured game or activity when your child is receptive, like after a nap or food. When you start, only carry out activities for a few minutes and gradually increase the time you spend playing.

Think about your child’s interests when you plan structured activities or games. You’ll begin to notice that your child has favourite toys and activities. Embrace the things they enjoy to improve the learning process.

Need a Course?

Our Challenging Behaviour Training teaches learners how to communicate with children effectively, how to help children deal with any issues, and how to improve children’s behaviour in a confident and constructive manner.

Social Development Activities for Babies

Peek-a-boo! 

Playing peek-a-boo is a bit of an all-rounder.  It’s one of the best games to develop your child’s sensory awareness and it teaches your child about eye contact. The game also improves coordination, motor skills, and it’s a superb way to get your child giggling.

Above all, peek-a-boo teaches your baby about object permanence. This is the idea that even though you can’t see something, it still exists. Babies start to develop object permanence around 5 months.

Play peek-a-boo when your baby is well rested because newborns are easily overwhelmed. So, if your child turns their head away or is shocked by your ‘boo’, take a break and try again later.

Reading 

Reading aloud can help you bond with your newborn. And it’s never too early to start because there’s nothing your child loves more than to hear your voice. The more you read to your child the more they’ll start to pick up on rhythm, tone, and inflection, which will help them when they start learning how to read.

Some studies show that newborns whose parents read to them tend to have larger vocabularies and better mathematical skills as they grow. There’s also a direct link between the number of words a baby hears per day and their language skills.

Reading also introduces your child to emotions through the voices you use for characters and descriptions. Doing so helps your child to understand that words and sounds can convey ideas and have meanings.

Playing with blocks

Building blocks are made for sharing. So, when your baby begins to build with others, they can start to improve their cooperation skills. In fact, playing with building blocks is one of the first times your child can work in a team which makes building blocks a great tool for social skills and interaction. And even though you’re introducing your child to the activity, building games tend to provide your child with a certain amount of freedom and an opportunity to be creative.

Social Development Activities for Toddlers & Preschoolers

Dramatic play

Imaginative play encourages self-awareness and understanding of social situations. When your child acts out a scenario with others they have to collaborate to create a scenario that works. Children often get frustrated during imaginative play because they are unused to working with others. That’s why it’s so essential to help children learn about other people’s wishes and team working.

Collaboration is a tough skill to learn, but you can help. During dramatic play, intervene to lead the story in a direction that gets children cooperating and consider each others’ wishes.

Finger puppets

Finger puppets can prepare children for dramatic play and social situations with other children. It’s really great for children with autism or ADHD who may struggle with social situations. You can control the social challenges that your child faces to prevent them from feeling overwhelmed, and you’ll have opportunities to intervene to encourage your child to think about how others may respond or think about their behaviours.

Equally, if your child lacks confidence, they can use puppets to express themselves and try out new personalities by playing as a shark or lion.

Treasure hunt

This is a good game to play in a group, but you can also play it alone with your child. To play the game, the ‘seeker’ (the person who will find the treasure), waits outside of a room or garden while someone hides an object (the treasure).

The group then use the tone of their voice to guide the seeker towards the treasure, for example, the children might whisper ‘cold’ when the seeker is far away from the hidden object and might yell ‘hot hot hot’ when they are near. This game helps children to develop perseverance and cooperation. It’s also a good game for improving children’s listening skills.

Another way to mix the game up is to ask the children to mime instead of using their voices. So you might help the seeker find the treasure by shivering when the seeker is far from the object and acting hot when the seeker is near. Mime can help children improve their ability to read body language and social/facial cues.

Further Resources:

• A Guide to Promoting Positive Behaviour in Early Years
• Supporting Language Development in the Early Years
• Dealing with Challenging Behaviour in the Classroom
• Curiosity Approach in Early Years: Importance and Ideas
• Why is Child Development So Important in Early Years?
• How to Encourage Children to Express Feelings & Emotions
• Child Development Quiz
• Challenging Behaviour Training

The post Promoting Social Development in Children Through Structured Group Play appeared first on The Hub | High Speed Training.

A test purchase is when Camelot, Trading Standards, the police or another local authority employ an underage customer who will visit your bar or shop and try to purchase age-restricted goods. This is to check that you are complying with the law.

Who is responsible for conducting test purchases?

National Trading Standards carry out test purchases on:

• Alcohol
• Fireworks
• Cigarettes
• Knives

Camelot is the company responsible for carrying out test purchases on the National Lottery, including scratch cards.

Camelot’s test purchases are known as ‘operation child’, and they are particularly difficult for staff because many members of staff are underconfident when it comes to IDing people for scratch cards or lottery (this could be because it differs from the standard ‘Think 25’ and staff become uncertain). Another element that staff tend to find off-putting is the assumption that people between the ages of 16-17 won’t have ID. It’s a good idea to remind your staff that a passport (which many 16-17 year-olds will have) is a valid form of ID.

All of these test purchase operations happen collaboratively with local authorities, such as the police.

When can a test purchase be conducted?

A test purchase can happen anytime that your premise is open.

The police may carry out a spot check following a complaint or intel about your premises selling age restricted products to underage consumers. However, a randomised test purchase could also be simply a matter of routine.

When a test purchase happens, the police tend to use under-18s who look their age. They are not trying to trick businesses, so basically, when a test purchase happens you should not doubt that the person is underage.

When police intend to carry out a test purchase, they’ll typically inform the licensing authorities in your area, and they’ll work alongside them.

Need a Course?

Our Licensing Law Awareness Training Course aims to raise awareness of what your responsibilities are under the Licensing Act 2003. The course is aimed at anyone who works in a premises that sells or supplies alcohol in England or Wales.

What happens if I fail a test purchase?

Once the test purchase is complete, if you failed, the licensing authority will put an action plan in place to work with you to tackle any issues relating to age-restricted sales. An action plan could involve offering guidance, staff training on age restricted products, and advice on how to deal with fake identification or helping staff to challenge 25 at the point of sale.

Alternatively, the licensing authority may review your licence under the licensing act. This may happen because you (the licensee) acknowledge that there’s an issue or because the police or safeguarding child unit have submitted an application to have your licence reviewed. Your local authority could have some options in mind when they submit an application to the licensing authority, and they may suggest that:

• You implement additional licensing conditions, such as refusal logs.
• You remove the designated premises supervisor (the person responsible for alcohol sales).
• The licensing authority suspends your license.
• The licensing authority revokes your license completely. There is an appeals process to the magistrates when this happens.

When you fail a test purchase, it’s likely that you’ll receive another test purchase within three months (or even within a few days or weeks).

Is there a fine for failing a test purchase?

If someone in your premises fails a test purchase, they may receive an on the spot fine and may have to appear in court. Further penalties could include losing your license to sell alcohol, tobacco, or lottery tickets and scratch cards. You could even face imprisonment as a maximum penalty for selling products like fireworks, solvents, and knives to underage purchasers.

For selling alcohol to someone underage, you could receive a fine of up to £90 for a first offence. If you repeatedly sell alcohol to people who are underage, you or your staff may incur a maximum fine of £20,000 or an alternative sanction of a voluntary closure period during which alcohol cannot be sold. The voluntary closure period can range from 48 hours to a maximum of 336 hours.

Need Guidance on Creating a Refusal of Sales Log?

What is an agency purchase of alcohol?

A proxy purchase of alcohol is buying alcohol on behalf of someone under 18. You may also know a ‘proxy purchase’ as an ‘agency purchase’. It is an offence to buy alcohol on behalf of someone who is under 18.

If you purchase alcohol for someone who is underage, the police could fine you a fixed penalty of £90. If you knowingly allow someone underage to consume alcohol in your bar, you could receive a fixed fine of £60.

These fines are a ‘Penalty Notice for Disorder‘ (or PNDs). Police can issue PNDs on the spot for low level, anti-social, or nuisance behaviour.

PNDs have two on-the-spot tiers:

• £90 fines for upper tier offences.
• £60 for lower tier offences.

The good news is that you can easily avoid these fines and other legal consequences. All it takes is an awareness of age restrictions and licensing law, which staff can easily acquire through appropriate training.

Further Resources:

• How To Spot A Fake ID
• Refusal of Sales Log; Why do I Need One?
• Licensing Law Awareness Training

The post What Happens If I Fail a Test Purchase? Your Questions Answered appeared first on The Hub | High Speed Training.

It’s a legal requirement to keep your premises clean to keep food hygienic and free from pathogens (so you can protect the health of customers, your reputation, and the quality of the food you serve).

Under HACCP, it’s also a legal duty to have an effective food safety management system in place. A cleaning schedule is a great way to meet your legal duties and it comes with a whole host of other benefits too.

A cleaning checklist increases levels of accountability and can act as evidence of due diligence when an Environmental Health Officer visits. You can also use it to improve levels of hygiene and make sure that cleaning in your premises is a consistent process.

Why Does a Restaurant Need a Kitchen Cleaning Checklist?

Your cleaning schedule is a description of what needs cleaning, when your staff need to clean it, how your staff need to clean it, and also who needs to clean it.

To be of real value to you and your staff your cleaning schedule needs to be specific and detailed. There should also be a section for staff to sign and date after each cleaning task is completed. This can act as evidence of your commitment to cleanliness in case an EHO visits your premises or one of your customers gets food poisoning.

A few benefits of a daily kitchen cleaning checklist include:

• Increased levels of accountability.
• Consistent levels of cleanliness.
• Improved hygiene standards.
• Evidence of due diligence for EHO. 
• Reduced risk of food contamination and food poisoning.
• Helping you and others to identify pest problems. 
• Removing materials where pests could live. 
• Creating a clean, hospitable working environment for staff. 

Without an effective cleaning schedule, you could face legal action. Premises with low levels of cleanliness also tend to get a bad reputation and plenty of bad reviews.

Poor levels of cleanliness may also lead to a loss of customers, pest infestations, a heightened risk of contamination and food poisoning, and customer complaints.

Need a Course?

Our Food Hygiene Training Courses are designed to ensure a comprehensive knowledge of all food safety and hygiene procedures.

Cleaning Schedule Template for Restaurants

Make sure that your cleaning schedule is specific and unambiguous. So, detail what your staff need to clean, like surfaces and equipment, what chemicals they should use, and how frequently surfaces and/or equipment needs cleaning.

It’s the duty of every member of staff to follow the cleaning schedule.

You should also outline any safety precautions that staff should take when they are cleaning and outline a person to check whether cleaning standards have been met.

Walk through your premises to find out what needs cleaning. You could even act out an average day if it helps you think of all the cleaning tasks that will need doing.

While you’re walking through, you should also pay close attention to the items that staff will need to disinfect. Typically, these are the items that come into contact with food produce, like raw poultry, that could lead to cross-contamination.

To make your schedule, write each item (or group of items) on the cleaning schedule and make a note of:

• How to clean the item, surface, or area.
• Which chemicals to use and how to use them.
• Which equipment to use and how to use it.
• How often the item, surface, or area needs cleaning.
• Who is responsible for cleaning the item, surface, or area.

Download Your Free Cleaning Template Here

Want to find out where your town or city ranks in the UK for food hygiene? Check out our latest report: Food Hygiene 2019: Know the Score 

What to Read Next:

• How to Improve Restaurant Efficiency
• What is a “Clean As You Go” Policy?
• How to Foster Motivation in Your Restaurant Employees
• Upselling Techniques in Restaurants
• 17 Ways to Reduce Food Waste in Your Restaurant
• What’s the Importance of a Chef Uniform in Hospitality?
• Disabled Access Requirements for Restaurants
• Pest Control for Rats in a Restaurant
• Risk Assessment for Cleaning: Free Template
• What are High Touch Surfaces and How Should You Clean Them?

The post Restaurant Cleaning Schedule Template appeared first on The Hub | High Speed Training.

There are many businesses out there that only do a stock take once a year. Maybe the levels of stock they have don’t change much or they think the job requires too many work hours.

Using stocktaking software, however, can speed the process up and help you to increase gross profit, reduce loss, improve control of allowances, reduce waste, and provide instant results.

Purpose of Stocktaking

Stocktaking allows you to keep an accurate track of the physical stock you have, what’s been sold, and what hasn’t. It’s all about comparing the physical stock to what the report says then finding any discrepancies. Calculating wastage and allowances will then give you the whole picture as to what’s gone through the till, what’s been wasted, and what has been given away as complimentary.

Stocktaking also allows you to see if there’s a significant discrepancy between what you think you should have and what you actually have. Your stock take can highlight a number of problems including theft and shrinkage issues.

In your latest stock take, let’s say you notice that your team has thrown away a large number of napkins. When you ask them why, they tell you it’s because the napkins were wet. When you go to investigate the issue, you find a small leak in the room where you store napkins. Thanks to your stock take you’ve discovered an issue!

That’s not nearly all though, there are 9 critical reasons why you should carry out a regular stock take.

A robust stocktaking method allows you to:

1. Measure how well a product is performing against others.
2. Become efficient at ordering and forecasting stock levels.
3. Keep up to date with your current purchase prices and lets you see when they are creeping up.
4. Uncover and eliminate theft within the business.
5. Calculate how much your stock costs to buy, what price to sell it at, and how much stock you have on your site.
6. Ascertain accurate gross profit margins for your products.
7. Maintain gross profit levels or find out why you are not hitting your targets.
8. Know what stock you have in your building and when it’s due to go out of date.
9. Discover dead stock: seeing how long you’ve had particular products for helps you to determine which items sell and which don’t. 
   

Want to Learn More?

Our Online Food Hygiene Training is designed to ensure a comprehensive knowledge of all food safety and hygiene procedures. Find everything from Restaurant Hospitality to Cellar Management.

Types of Stocktaking

The best way to take stock is to have some decent software that can provide same day reports and real-time information. While the equipment can be costly, the benefits far outweigh any other type of stocktaking method and can make operations run smoothly wherever you work.

A few other methods of stocktaking include:

• Periodic stocktaking – an inventory method that happens at the end of an accounting period or on a set periodic basis. This method will help you effortlessly keep up-to-date records of either your inventory or costs of goods sold.
• Spot checks are scheduled (and sometimes random) manual checks on stock or cash in tills. They can allow you to make sure there are no discrepancies between what your software thinks you should have and what is actually there. These are also good to do if you think theft is occurring.
• Continuous, perpetual stocktaking is done throughout the year at a few different points.
• Stock out validation happens when stock levels have become dangerously low.
• Annual stocktaking is done in the last month of the financial year. In some circumstances, it may require premises to close for a few days.

Advantages of Stocktaking

The importance of stocktaking is clear. It allows you to regularly monitor and increase gross profit, reduce loss, improve control of allowances, and reduce waste.

Traditionally, stock reporting was carried out on one day, the numbers crunched over the next couple of days, and then you got your results after a few days (or sometimes a week). With a decent (preferably electronic) stock taking method, you get same-day reports, and with epos and back office systems, you can even get live, real time reports.

If you have back office software connected to your tills, the reporting of sales, staff transactions, and stock movements highlights anomalies quickly. Which means that you can get to work finding out why money is missing or stock levels are down.

Receiving real-time data this way allows you to be proactive and responsive to the current needs of the business.

With a slower method, you’d have to wait until your next stocktake to find out if you had fixed a problem, but with same day reports you can implement changes and find out whether the changes have worked the same day or over a much shorter period, helping to rectify issues much quicker.

What to Read Next:

• 17 Ways to Reduce Food Waste in Your Restaurant
• How to Foster Motivation in Your Restaurant Employees
• Restaurant Hospitality Quiz
• Menu Engineering: How to Use it to Increase Profitability
• Daily Opening and Closing Checklists for Restaurants

The post The Importance of Stocktaking in Hospitality: Guide for Managers appeared first on The Hub | High Speed Training.