By Mohammad Ashrafi
Accountability in an organizational sense means responsibility, transparency, obligations and, above all, trust, especially when there’s money involved.
As employers, we expect this from our staff. We expect them to be accountable for upholding the quality of their work, for maintaining positive interactions with guests, for taking pride in a job well done and to act with integrity. We spend countless training hours to instill the values and methodology of our businesses in order to set accountability expectations. Then we expect that this baseline of accountability will remain with the employees over the long-term even when opportunities present themselves to act contrary to these expectations.
Regardless of the training, tools or guidance we provide, we are all human beings, and unfortunately this makes us the perpetual weakest link in the chain.
All humans have flaws. When presented with the opportunity to deceive, defraud or steal, some of us can’t help ourselves. Some individuals are more inclined to this behavior while others may have the best of character but still be enticed to act in a negative way. Again, it’s human nature.
Thus, we must look to instill accountability using methods beyond training, coaching or employee handbooks. In most cases nowadays, this means utilizing technology that is likely already in place on your property but not engaged to its fullest extent.
At Dynamic Minds Consulting, we specialize in improving accountability via Point Of Sale (POS) systems. This is, after all, an interface rife for employee malfeasance.
Not only do these frontline staffers have access to cash and sensitive data such as credit card information, they also have an obligation to properly use an extremely important tool that provides incredible insights into our revenues streams and business performance. This is trust in its purest form.
Accountability when using POS terminals can take many forms. We expect our staff to not steal from us, that they will ring in every transaction for proper monitoring of inventory and to charge all patrons for the all products or services purchased.
When we talk about POS theft, most of us think about taking cash straight from the drawer. While this is in fact the most common type of theft, there are many other ways your employees may be hurting your bottom line due to security settings or loopholes within the systems.
Let me first say right off the top that modern software systems are readily able to fix these gaps, provided you have the right expertise. For instance, most POS products have specific job classifications for the different groups of employees that use the system. These classifications can track human resource functions like payroll, time or attendance, but their main role should be to reconfigure permissions to only allow access to what’s absolutely necessary for each employee to do his or her specific task as a server, bartender, cashier, manager and so on.
This alone will greatly enhance operational efficiency and heighten accountability. Along these same lines, you should be using the settings and safeguards built into these POS products to remove the enticement altogether. This will set your employees up for accountability success by not allowing for access to functions they don’t need to do their jobs.
Let’s take a look at some common areas of access that don’t always need to be accessible to all staff. I should clarify that, in some operations, access to these areas is required, but for a vast majority this access is only exacerbating the chances of failure.
Are you currently allowing staff to:
- Split checks or items?
- Void items or checks after the first save?
- Access all discounts and coupons?
- Utilize the no sale or open cash drawer functions?
- Generate reports with visibility to cash drop amounts?
Next, ask yourself how often your business actually requires these functions be performed? If you were to take any of these functions away, would it negatively impact the guest experience? Would it be better to leave this as a manager override function instead?
In most cases, taking the access away from the employee while also instilling a system of checks and balances is the smartest approach. The technology has matured to the point where we can now take the human element out of the equation completely, and the evidence is showing us that this is good for your business.
Reprinted with permission from Cayuga Hospitality Consultants. All rights reserved.
