Next to facing a tax audit, the single most dreaded task of any business owner with supervisory responsibilities comes when appraisal time rolls around. Unlimited amounts of angst can settle into your soul when you know you have to assess someone’s performance relative to that of their peers. Fortunately, the employee management tools featured in your company’s point of sale system can bail you out of this stress-producing task.
What is an employee management system?
Your point of sale system, that software-hardware combination that takes payments and helps with customer relationships and inventory tracking, is also stocked with a robust set of employee management tools. These are vital in recording and keeping track of your workers’ activities, including scheduling, tips, sales numbers, hours, and overtime. All of this information can make the process of performance appraisals smooth and fair.
Ready access to time clock information.
The digital time clock built into your POS system gives you organized access to a wide range of individualized information about each worker. This includes commission reports showing how much the person earned and any tips they received. Many systems also integrate with payroll, enabling you to see all of a person’s responsibilities in your organization so that you can see their level of success in each.
Escalating levels of permission as responsibilities increase.
As the saying goes, your employees only need to know what they need to know. When a worker’s competence grows, you may delegate additional responsibilities to them. Your POS’s employee management system lets you set distinct employee roles that allow you to grant increasing levels of access as a person’s job description evolves. This makes training easier, enhances your security environment, and gives each worker everything they need to do their job well.
Granular reports about activities.
Your POS has the ability to run till counts before and after shifts change so that you can see who had access to your money and when. Additionally, the system gives you valuable insights such as who is turning over the most tables, making the most sales, giving out the most comps, etc. Armed with this data, you can make better scheduling decisions and provide training and feedback to those who may be struggling. What’s more, you can print out a report that lays out these incontrovertible details in black and white during the performance evaluation to highlight a job well-done or show where someone has fallen short.
Keeping your workers accountable.
Personnel reviews don’t just highlight how well or poorly a worker is doing; they also make it perfectly clear how a manager is performing. If an employee falls below your standards, your criticism will only be valid and effective if you can demonstrate that you have communicated your expectations from the outset as well as exactly how the person has fallen short.
With a modern POS, your employee management tools do more than allow you to set shift times. You can also accept time off requests, approve shift trades, and set up task and goal lists. This ensures that you and your staff are always on the same page when it comes to what you require of them and when it needs to be completed.
Providing exceptional onboarding and training.
Although it may seem like an eternity has gone by between your worker’s hire date and their evaluation, it is important to realize that those first few weeks of instruction and feedback were crucial in helping to mold the person into the exemplary — or struggling — employee who sits across from you today. Although you can’t change the past, from now on it’s important to know that your POS can be an invaluable assistant throughout the onboarding process for new employees.
That’s because a modern POS, combined with a clear and accessible document that lays out all of your procedures and protocols, will give your new hire much of what they need when getting oriented to your company, its protocols, and its culture. You are then only responsible for providing that all-important human input that helps to sow the seeds of commitment and passion for representing your brand.
With a good POS at your side, performance reviews are both fairer and easier. The system automates many simple tasks, leaving you more time to tend to your workers and evaluate their performance. Moreover, it incentivizes optimal employee performance by providing complete training, increasing accountability and making it easier for workers to provide excellent customer service. When you set up and fully utilize the employee management features in your POS, it will serve to promote an environment of success throughout your company.
