When you’re in the business of hospitality management, certain operations must be handled by a trusted and highly skilled employee. Take for example in the case of a hotel with a bar and restaurant. There must be a head housekeeping to see to the cleanliness of your rooms, a sales manager to deal with your business’s sales, and a food and beverage manager to handle your hotel’s restaurant, room service, and dining operations.

Over 955,000 were employed in the food and service industry in 2019. And with restrictions easing up, you can expect customers to return and behaviors to get back to normal. You’ll need to hire a variety of roles for your restaurant for this rebound in demand, including food and beverage manager.

If you’re planning to hire this role soon, you can use my template below to copy, edit, and paste into online job boards. By the end of this guide, you’ll also know what a food and beverage manager does, responsibilities, and the skills you need to be on the lookout for.

Introduction

Are you planning to hire your Food and Beverage Manager?

A food and beverage manager is the person in charge of overseeing all dining operations. They’ll in many cases be in charge of making making sure all the right ingredients have been ordered and are in-stock to execute a menu and supervise staff. Waiters, chefs, dishwashers, restaurant managers, and everyone else employed in the kitchen and dining department answers to the food and beverage manager.

Aside from the duties, one quality you must look for in a food and beverage manager is their enthusiasm and passion for the job. Communication skills and organization is a must. Menus must be updated once in a while so understanding changing taste and consumer trends is also important. Promotional tactics such as weekend buffets or Valentine’s dinners also need to be considered in the day-to-day operations.

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By finding the right candidate for your food and beverage manager position may be difficult in an extremely tight labor market. As a result, you’ll want to use a strong job description that appeals to your ideal candidates.

Job Description Summary for Food and Beverage Managers

An ideal F&B Manager must understand the basics of catering and events.

When you start your job description, include a summary of your business and the position you’re looking to fill. Include that reveal just how big your business is, how long it has been running, and the type of position you are open for hire.

Below is a sample job description to better understand what this section is all about:

The Purple Orchid Plaza is a 5-star hotel and restaurant located in the heart of the city. For 10 years, it has been the prime hotel for travel, business, and leisure. The hotel has 500 rooms and we see to it that guests who stay with us leave with the most relaxing and fun stay at the Purple Orchid Plaza.

We are looking for a Food and Beverage Manager to oversee the day-to-day operations of the hotel’s dining service which includes the coffee shop, restaurant, and the room service. The Food and Beverage Manager must have experience in handling staff and planning menus. They must also be passionate about serving good food and following the service standards of a 5-star hotel.

Just from the job description, your applicant will understand you operate a top-notch establishment, not a motel with a snack bar. They will be able to gather from the summary what their core responsibilities are going to be. If this is something a candidate thinks they can handle, they’ll proceed to the next part of the job description.

Primary Responsibilities

Listing down the responsibilities your Food and Beverage Manager will have can help your applicants size up the job they’re about to apply for and whether or not they can handle it. It’s important that you list everything in detail here so that when the time comes for you to hire the applicant, the both of you are clear on what you expect them to do.

Below is a list of primary responsibilities of a Food and Beverage Manager:

  • Oversee the kitchen’s operations. This includes making sure that day-to-day activities are met and that food and beverage must be of the highest quality.
  • Develop and plan out the menu for the month and update it as the season changes to introduce new food to guests.
  • Supervise the staff and discipline them.
  • Delegate tasks.
  • Conduct meetings regularly to be updated with the operations as well as disseminate major instructions.
  • Maintain cleanliness in all areas of the kitchen and dining places.
  • Monitors and checks supplies and coordinates with the food checker for any supplies needed to be purchased.
  • Keeping up with the food trends to integrate with the menu and to satisfy customers with new tastes. Coordinate with the marketing team for any monthly specials.
  • Handle customer complaints.

You may add more to the list depending on your establishment’s needs. For instance, if you are looking for a manager for your hotel, you will have to state that they will be in charge of the coffee shop and restaurants as well.

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Desired Skills / Role Requirements

When you hire a Food and Beverage Manager, list the skills you expect them to have when they apply for the position you posted. The role of a Food and Beverage Manager must have experience since this is an important role in your business. They’ll be handling a lot of people too so they must have good social and interpersonal skills.

Below are skills you would need your manager to have before hiring them:

  • Minimum of 3 years experience in food and beverage management
  • Must have a degree in business or hospitality management
  • Must have excellent social and interpersonal skills
  • Must know how to lead and can also be a team player
  • Must be computer literate
  • Must have attention to detail and can multitask
  • Has the ability to forecast kitchen and dining needs

In some cases, you can list certain management training course certifications that you might prefer. But the list above shows the basic skills you will be looking for in an applicant for the desired position.

Sample Job Description Template

You are now ready to write your job description. To see how everything looks altogether, here is the sample job description template you can use and follow:

The Purple Orchid Plaza – Food and Beverage Manager Position

The Purple Orchid Plaza is a 5-star hotel located in the heart of the city. For 10 years, it has been the prime hotel for travel, business, and leisure. It has 500 rooms and we see to it that guests who stay with us leave with the most relaxing and fun stay at the Purple Orchid Plaza.

We are looking for a Food and Beverage Manager. They must oversee the day-to-day operations of the hotel’s dining service which includes the coffee shop, the restaurants, and the room service. The Food and Beverage Manager must have experience in handling staff and planning menus. They must also be passionate about serving good food and following the service standards of a 5-star hotel.

Food and Beverage Manager Job Responsibilities:

  • Oversee the kitchen’s operations. This includes making sure that day-to-day activities are met and that food and beverage must be of the highest quality.
  • Be in charge of the operations of the coffee shop and the restaurants that host breakfast, lunch, and dinner specials every day.
  • Develop and plan out the menu for the month and update it as the season changes to introduce new food to guests.
  • Supervise the staff and discipline them.
  • Delegate tasks.
  • Conduct meetings regularly to be updated with the operations as well as disseminate major instructions.
  • Maintain cleanliness in all areas of the kitchen and dining places.
  • Monitors and checks supplies and coordinates with the food checker for any supplies needed to be purchased.
  • Keeping up with the food trends to integrate with the menu and to satisfy customers with new tastes. Coordinate with the marketing team for any monthly specials.
  • Handle customer complaints.

Skills and Experiences:

  • Minimum of 3 years experience in food and beverage management
  • Must have a degree in business or hospitality management
  • Must have excellent social and interpersonal skills
  • Must know how to lead and can also be a team player
  • Must be computer literate
  • Must have attention to detail and can multitask
  • Has the ability to forecast kitchen and dining needs

Job Type: Full Time

Schedule: Wednesday to Monday; 6 am to 3 pm (please be open to schedule changes depending on special events)

Salary rate: $75,000 a year

Benefits:

  • Employee discount
  • Free meals
  • Flexible schedule
  • Health Insurance
  • Paid leaves
  • 401k

Contact information: (insert both your email and number)

Join our Purple Orchid family! To apply, send us your resume at the email address provided with the subject line, “Team Purple!”

Questions to Ask During an Interview for F&B Manager

Here’s what to ask during the interview for a food and beverage manager.

You finally posted your job description and are starting to get a response. What’s next? It’s time for you to schedule the interviews.

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Below are a few questions to ask during the interview to know applicants better and apply to this sort of role:

  1. Can you work overtime and during holidays?
  2. Tell us about an instance in your previous job where you’ve encountered a problem. How did you fix it?
  3. Why did you leave your last job?
  4. What do you think is the best way to train people?
  5. What is your process in designing a new menu?
  6. How would you handle customer complaints?
  7. How would you handle terminating an employee?
  8. What do you like about our establishment? How do you think you can improve it?
  9. How would you maintain health and safety regulations in the workplace?
  10. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Interviewing an applicant may not prove just how fit or perfect they are for the job but it’s their answers and how they answer the questions that will give you an insight into their personalities and how they handle pressure. You may also ask them additional questions than the ones mentioned above. You may even ask them what they expect at your workplace should they be hired for the position.

Average Salary Job Statistics

Here are some statistics on the Food and Beverage industry

Be updated with the latest statistics on the Food and Beverage industry. This can help you figure out the salary your manager is to have and the roles required of them under state laws.

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Here are a few that you will find useful and can come in handy when you’re hiring a Food and Beverage Manager:

  • According to Salary.com, the average yearly wage of a Food and Beverage Manager is $76,194.
  • According to the Bureau of Labor, the following are the roles and responsibilities of a Food and Beverage Manager:
    • Oversees employees. Also in charge of hiring, training, and terminating employees
    • In-charge of ordering equipment and supplies
    • Oversees the presentation and preparation of food
    • In-charge of inspecting the equipment, work area, and supplies
    • Makes sure that employees follow the necessary food safety and health standards
    • Addresses comments and complaints about food quality and service
    • In-charge of scheduling staff and assigning them their duties
    • Manages payroll records and budgets
    • Sets standards for customer service, food quality, and personnel performance
  • There is an estimated 8.97% job growth for Food and Beverage Managers.
  • The average age of Food and Beverage Managers are 38.7 years old.
  • The most common degree that Food and Beverage Managers hold is a Bachelor’s Degree.
  • Most Food and Beverage Managers are found in Orlando, Florida, and New York, New York.
  • Beijing, China has over 4,169 hotels and is considered as the city with the most number of hotels.

You’re all set and ready to start hiring that Food and Beverage Manager for your establishment.  During the interview, always remember to ask the right questions pertaining to the job and avoid any other personal questions. With this template, you’re well on your way to finding the right candidate for the job. Happy hiring!

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