Teamwork makes the dream work, but if your bar staff aren’t working well together, then your entire business can crumble. It takes a lot of smooth actions and practiced responses to handle rushes and drunk or disgruntled customers. Depending on where you’re located, there may even be complex rules about serving customers, like moderating how much they can drink and needing to watch for signs of drunkenness before you serve, or else face liability.

This is a lot to put on any team. Add in the rushes that come after work, or on the weekends, and an uninitiated team will falter. You need your employees to trust one another, and to know what they are doing, which is why you need to follow this guide to boost teamwork amongst your staff:

Boost Teamwork with Fun

When it comes to helping your team bond together and establish that trust, you need to think of fun activities. You can organize a chocolate tasting experience, for example, which isn’t just a great bonding experience, it’s also an excellent holiday party that lets you organize it entirely remotely. Other examples are to host fun competitions amongst your bar staff. Who can make the best version of a classic cocktail? Who makes the tastiest signature drink? The prizes could be monetary or of some other value, like the ability to choose their schedule for the week.

Make Sure Everyone Knows Their Role

Everyone needs to know their role and what’s expected of them. This means who covers what tables, what area of the bar you man, and so on. Secondary roles can also be divvied up if there’s a lot of chaos, but tasks like cleaning, polishing, or mopping can and should be handled by whoever has a moment. Managers need to be on standby to handle these secondary tasks to support their employees.

Prepared to Help Out When They’re Needed

That being said, you also want your team to be able to recognize when a team member is struggling and how to help. Rather than just jumping in and possibly dismantling someone’s system, have your team get used to asking or establishing certain tasks that should be handled by everyone when they have a moment, like pushing the dishes through the washer or wiping down surfaces. These small tasks, handled by everyone whenever they can, will help the entire operation work smoothly.

Support Your Employees

Work with your employees so that they enjoy their workplace. If they know that they can come to you to let you know that they have exams coming up and need more time off to study, work with them to find an acceptable compromise. You want them to trust you and respect your authority, which means you must show them the same courtesy in return. Having clear-cut, established rules of conduct for things like requesting a schedule change, taking a sick day, or dealing with a disability or injury can help immensely.