Post-Holiday Checklist for Hospitality

⏰ Est. reading time: 2 mins

💡 What you’ll learn:

• What to ask after the chaos of the holidays subsides at your restaurant
• How to use this time to reflect on areas for improvement
• Why digital tip payouts can help streamline your busy seasons, and every day of the year

Post-Holiday Checklist: 4 Questions for Reflection

The decorations are coming down, the last of the holiday parties have wrapped, and your team is finally exhaling after another whirlwind season. As you settle into the new year and catch your breath, now is the perfect time to perform a post-holiday check-in. It’s time to evaluate what worked, what caused stress, and what you can streamline before the next busy rush.  Here are a few key questions worth asking yourself and your team.

1. What went well—and what didn’t?

Holiday seasons bring in traffic and revenue, but they can also highlight operational bottlenecks that only show up when your restaurant is running at full speed. Take an honest look at how the end of year went. You can consider these general questions (and ask your team for their feedback, too!) before thinking about more specific aspects of your operations:

• Did you meet or exceed your revenue and tip expectations this holiday season?
  
  
• What parts of service ran smoothly (kitchen, front of house, bussing, take-out, etc.)?
  
  
• When things did get hectic, what caused the most friction: slow tip-outs, cash handling, shift closeouts, or something else?
  
  
• Did you spend more time than expected on end-of-day tasks (counting cash, stuffing envelopes, reconciling tills, running to the bank)?

2. How much time or money did the tip payout process cost you?

Now let’s take a closer look at the details of how you paid your staff this season. As you look back at the holiday rush, it’s worth reflecting on tip payouts in particular because it’s often a process that involves a lot of resources.

If your restaurant used cash tip payouts over the holidays, there’s a potential that you and your employees lost time—maybe even hours each night—to bank runs, counting and distributing cash, or reconciling the till. Get a rough estimate on time spent on these tasks; when it adds up across many shifts, it can impact managerial bandwidth and take away from guest experience or staff support.

It’s also possible that if you’re still putting employee tips onto paper checks, you could be spending unnecessary dollars on issuing checks, and your employees could potentially be subject to check-cashing fees as well. 

3. How did your team feel about tip distribution?

It’s important to understand the bottom line of your current tip payout process—including time and money spent on paying out tips—but it’s also important to gauge employee sentiment. Holiday shifts tend to be long and stressful; did your team feel fairly and promptly compensated for all their hard work? Or  were there delays, confusion, or frustrations about when and how tips were distributed? 

Today’s tipped workers increasingly expect transparency, fairness, and prompt access to their tips. Tip pooling has become a popular way to ensure fair distribution among front and back of house staff, and fast digital tip payouts can ensure people get access to their tips right away, without having to scramble for bank runs or put tips on their next paycheck. 

If you heard complaints about waiting for tip payouts, that’s a strong signal to re-think the process before the next busy period.

4. What could you improve or automate before the next busy season?

With the benefit of hindsight, now is the perfect time to identify which areas you could automate or improve. Whether you spent extra time on tip payouts or there were issues onboarding seasonal employees, take a moment to examine what aspects of your daily operations felt inefficient over the holidays. Then, make some or all of these changes based on what your restaurant needs most:

• Eliminate cash tip payouts. They’re time-intensive, and can be frustrating for employees. Switching to fast, digital tip payouts can save managerial time and free up focus for staff training or guest service.
  
• Rethink paper checks. Issuing checks is costly, and it can be one more hassle for employees to deal with, especially if they are unbanked.
  
• Improve transparency and fairness in tip distribution so staff trust the system. Consider tip pools if your state allows them.
  
• Streamline onboarding of seasonal employees so there’s less ramp-up time for seasonal staff to get up-to-speed. Communicate early and often about expectations, policies, and order of operations so that everyone’s on the same page.
  
• Reward your team for a job well done. It doesn’t hurt to plan a celebration, reward, or bonus for employees around the holidays to keep morale up and usher in a new year with an engaged workforce.

Why Going Digital Makes the Holiday Rush (and Everyday Shifts) Easier

If your check-in revealed friction from outdated processes like cash or paper checks, slow tip-outs, or staff dissatisfaction, switching to digital tip payouts with Branch can directly address those pain points. 

With Branch you can:

• Send tips and other one-off payouts digitally after each shift, at no cost. Staff receive funds directly to their Branch account and debit card.
  
• Eliminate bank runs, stuffing envelopes, and manual reconciliations by working with a digital-first solution that allows you to send payouts with the push of a button.
  
• Offer payments peace of mind. The flexibility of digital payments means you can push tip payouts at any time, including nights, weekends, or holidays—something that helps everyone sleep a little better at night.
  

Switching to digital tip payouts can give you and your team hours back each week—not to mention save on payroll-related costs if you’re currently issuing paper checks. Instead of dealing with outdated processes, digital tip payouts free you up to focus on guest service, team support, and strategic planning—three ingredients to smooth operations 365 days a year.

A Simple Action Plan for Q1: Post-Holiday Reset 

The holidays may be behind us, but what you learn now can shape how you operate moving forward. If your tip payout process was challenging, consider using this reset moment to adopt a digital approach that saves time, reduces hassle, and helps keep your team happy and focused on the guest experience. Ready to learn more?

Explore Branch for Hospitality

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