The Labor Shortage and How Your Brewery POS Can Help

As taprooms nationwide continue to struggle through the pandemic-induced labor shortage, employers are reimagining the work environment and searching for any solution that sticks. While there’s surely no quick fix, your brewery POS system is actually a great tool to lean on when grappling with a smaller staff. 

“The Great Resignation”

This is what the US has coined the overwhelming amount of attrition we’ve seen in labor since the start of the pandemic in 2020. Service industry workers were no doubt hit the hardest —their jobs were essentially eliminated as restaurants, bars, and breweries all closed down completely when lockdown struck. 

But almost 2 years since, the restaurant and hospitality industry continues to struggle to find staff. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 890,000 hospitality workers quit in August 2021, which was at more than double the rate of the national average. 

We won’t dive into how we got here, but the point is that this problem is still very relevant. So how can your brewery thrive in the labor shortage with the lovely employees you still have? With the help of your trusty brewery POS system. 

Keep Your Beloved Staff Happy

One thing the labor shortage has solidified for employers is how integral of a role your staff plays in the success of your business. So before you brainstorm ways to recruit, you should think about how to retain those team members you have!

The best brewery POS systems help keep staff onboard with ease of use and limited technical difficulties. Afterall, if the POS they have to use day in and day out isn’t cutting it, their growing frustrations may push them out. Here are some features of brewery POS systems that staff members love. 

Offline Mode

A power outage is every staff member’s problem and out of everyone’s control. It can cause chaos in a crowded taproom, and result in a huge loss in sales if your brewery POS isn’t equipped to continue transacting. 

Offline mode is a superhero in these situations. Servers can continue to serve your delicious libations to thirsty customers, or close out the tabs of guests that are ready to head out. When power is restored, all sales data in your cloud-based brewery POS is synced once again. This is a huge weight off your staff members’ shoulders—now they can still collect the tips they deserve!

Card on File

Nowadays, there’s no reason your brewery POS should be requiring your staff to keep a rolodex of credit cards at the bar. Guests hate the feeling of handing over their card with the fear of forgetting it, and staff hate the liability of holding it. Modern POS systems can keep tabs open without holding onto physical credit cards, and you should save your staff the headache and seek out a new POS if your system can’t. 

Customer Support

The best brewery POS companies offer unlimited customer support to their clients, because they know that when your staff has a question, they need an answer ASAP. Helpful, responsive customer service is unparalleled, and your staff will no doubt be grateful for both phone and email assistance when they need it most. 

Features like these rid your staff of unnecessary stress, and make them more efficient—which is especially helpful when you’re working short staffed!

Implement QR Code Menus, Ordering, & Payments

Speaking of making your staffs’ lives easier, QR code ordering supported by brewery POS systems are extremely useful tools in eliminating tedious administrative tasks for your hustling staff. These matrix barcodes are continuing to rise in popularity in the service industry as a way for customers to start tabs, order, order more, and close out, all from their own smartphones. 

But how do they help in the labor shortage?

Maximize Efficiency

This one’s obvious—it helps your staff work smarter instead of harder! When guests have the ordering power right in their hands, servers don’t have to worry about running back and forth to deliver the check or get that last round of beers into the beertender’s queue. In fact, QR code ordering supported by brewery POS systems save 30-50% on labor costs by reducing the need for servers to take orders and collect payments. 

When you’re working with a smaller staff, technology like this allows your staff to flex between service models. Guests can order from their phones or from a roaming server, and the dining experience is seamless!

Engaged Staff-Guest Interactions

QR codes don’t at all replace your beloved staff, but instead improve the interactions they have. Since servers aren’t stressfully running table to table, they have more time to engage with guests about the hops they’re enjoying, or encourage a pretzel pairing with their Porter. 

It also gives staff the opportunity to upsell and become experts on the products you’re selling. This empowers team members to learn about your food and beer, making them better servers, and also improves the experience for guests. Plus, guests happen to order 10.3% more when staff offer recommendations, which doesn’t hurt your bottom line!

Bigger Tips

What does faster service, hospitable conversations, and bigger tabs have in common? They result in bigger tips! Guests opening their own tabs via QR codes has proven to increase tip size by 24%. Now that is sure to put smiles on your staff members’ faces. 

If you’re interested in learning more about QR code ordering and how to implement them with your own brewery POS, check out The Ultimate Guide to QR Codes in the Taproom. 

Leverage Your Data

To truly understand your brewery’s staff needs, and make proactive decisions about overall business operations, utilize the plethora of important data your brewery POS system provides! Your findings may save you time and money by helping you and your staff be more efficient. 

These are some helpful stats that your brewery POS can glean:

• Ounces Poured: This tells you how many ounces of beer you’re pouring, by size and time. This way, you can track trends in what brews are selling the most, and make educated choices regarding production, marketing, and distribution.
• Hourly Sales by Product: This reports what products you’re selling during what time of the day. This kind of report collects data on when exactly menu items are ordered, versus when the payment is transacted, which is really important in a brewery setting. Afterall, some happy hour guests have so much fun that they stay until close! With this sales data, you can curate timed menus based on the staff you have on. No need to offer the most time-intensive (or unpopular) food items when you’re short staffed! 
• Hourly Total Sales: These reports help you plan ahead for staffing. You can track trends to see what hours during which days of the week that you’re typically slowest or busiest. You can staff up when you’re usually slammed, and rely on a couple servers and your trusty QR codes when business is slow. 

Data doesn’t lie, and it can be extremely useful in determining staffing needs for any given day!

Automate What You Can

Brewery POS systems are built to make your life as a business owner easier. And as it turns out, this smart technology can integrate with other softwares to extend the functionality of your POS! 

Here are some of our favorite brewery-specific integrations that work together with brewery POS:

Ekos Business Management: Ekos reduces manual bookkeeping of POS and ecommerce transactions with your accounting system, so you can run your brewery restaurant smoothly. Syncing your POS software with Ekos eliminates manual processes and duplicate entries so you can focus on growing your business and gain complete visibility to the metrics that matter the most. 

Yellow Dog Inventory Management: Inventory management for food and beverage is easy with a robust integration between Yellow Dog and your brewery POS software. 

QuickBooks Accounting Software: Daily sales get imported into QuickBooks, so you can then cross-reference your brewery POS reporting with your bank deposits. 

Shogo Accounting Automation: Shogo automatically syncs daily sales data to an accounting software of choice—so you know what your guests purchased, and how they paid for it. 

Craftpeak Online Solutions: Craftpeak helps breweries sell their beer online with pickup, local delivery, and shipping options, and also builds websites with brewery-specific features to help you connect with customers. 

Automating this flow of data between your brewery POS and robust integrations like the ones above saves your staff time number-crunching, ensures optimal accuracy in your data, and runs your overall business better. By letting technology do this work for you, you have time to engage with your staff and ask what they need help with instead. 

Utilize Marketing Tools

Now that you’ve done what you can as far as optimizing current processes and ensuring your current team is satisfied, it’s time to think about recruiting new team members. Luckily, brewery POS systems have tools available to support your job marketing efforts.

To get the word out about any job openings available, you can start by sourcing from the people who frequent your brewery. Afterall, once visiting a happenin’ taproom like yours, available workers will be drawn to the energy you and staff are projecting! 

You can work with your brewery POS to add a job opening ad: 

• At the bottom of all of your customer receipts  
• Sprinkled throughout social media posts
• In email campaigns to your loyalty members

These job postings, in addition to all the work outlined above to make your brewery more efficient and your staff more enthusiastic, will surely attract good candidates to join your team. 

Re-Evaluate Your Current Brewery POS

If you’re now realizing the current brewery POS system you have in place isn’t going to support your needs, it’s time to re-evaluate which POS system you should use. POS systems built particularly with breweries in mind are unmatched in terms of functionality and convenience. 

Of course, make sure your staff has a say, too. 

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Arryved POS is a mobile, cloud-based system that was built in an actual taproom by craft enthusiasts and tech professionals. We know the tools your brewery POS system requires because we ask our customers what they need! If you’re looking for a brewery POS that decreases service friction and increases guest satisfaction, request a free, personalized demo with an Arryved specialist today!