How to Use the Food and Beverage Manager Onboarding Template

Why structured food and beverage manager onboarding matters

The food and beverage manager sits at the intersection of every department in a hospitality operation. They're responsible for service standards, financial performance, team management, guest satisfaction, and revenue growth — all at once. When this role goes well, the entire operation hums. When it goes badly, the effects ripple through every service, every shift, and every guest interaction.

Despite the breadth of the role, many operations onboard F&B managers with little more than a tour of the venue and a stack of passwords. The assumption is that an experienced manager can work things out as they go. But every operation has its own systems, financial targets, team dynamics, and service culture. A structured five-day programme gives your new manager the knowledge and relationships they need to make good decisions from week one, rather than spending the first month guessing.

This template moves from the practical (venue systems, team introductions) through to the strategic (action planning, marketing, and KPIs). Each day includes assessment questions so you can check understanding, and success indicators so both you and your new manager know what good progress looks like.

Day 1: Operational Overview and Team Introduction

Day 1 is about getting your new F&B manager orientated — physically, technologically, and socially. They need to know the building, the systems, the team, and the standards before they can manage anything effectively.

Venue Orientation and Systems Overview

Why this matters: An F&B manager who doesn't know the venue inside out will miss problems and make poor decisions about staffing, table allocation, and workflow. Systems competence is equally important — a manager who can't pull a report or process a payment is immediately dependent on their team rather than leading it.

How to deliver this training:

• Walk the entire venue during a quiet period: every service area, the kitchen pass, all storage areas, staff facilities, and back-of-house spaces
• Sit down at the POS system and work through every function they'll need — table management, payment processing, voids, discounts, and reporting
• Demonstrate the inventory system hands-on, including how orders are placed, stock is counted, and par levels are managed
• Log into the reservation platform together and walk through table allocation, capacity management, and how booking data is used for forecasting

Customisation tips:

• Hotel F&B managers need to understand how the restaurant operation connects to room service, banqueting, conferencing, and the bar — schedule visits to each outlet
• Standalone restaurants can combine the venue tour and systems training into a single morning session

Team Structure and Introductions

Why this matters: The F&B manager's success depends on relationships — with department heads, front-line staff, and the kitchen team. Early introductions that go beyond "this is your new boss" create a foundation for trust and collaboration.

How to deliver this training:

• Start with formal introductions to all department heads and key team members, giving the new manager time to ask questions and learn names
• Walk through the organisational chart together, clarifying who reports to whom, where responsibilities overlap, and how communication flows between departments
• Schedule a brief initial team meeting where the new manager can introduce themselves and share their management approach
• Arrange one-to-one meetings with the head chef, bar manager, and any other department heads to understand their priorities and current challenges

Customisation tips:

• Larger operations with multiple service areas should spread introductions across the day rather than cramming everyone into one meeting
• If the team has been without a manager or has experienced recent changes, acknowledge this context — the team will be watching how the new manager handles the transition

Operational Documentation Review

Why this matters: Service standards, HR policies, health and safety protocols, and performance targets are the framework the F&B manager works within. Understanding these documents on Day 1 prevents them from making promises or changes that conflict with existing policies.

How to deliver this training:

• Provide the employee handbook and highlight the sections most relevant to daily management — disciplinary procedures, absence policies, uniform standards
• Walk through current service standards documentation, explaining which elements are non-negotiable and where the manager has flexibility
• Review health and safety protocols, including fire procedures, first aid arrangements, and incident reporting
• Share current performance metrics and targets, explaining how they're tracked and who receives the reports

Customisation tips:

• If your documentation is outdated or incomplete, be honest about it — the new manager may identify updating these as an early priority
• Hotel operations should include brand standard documentation alongside local operational procedures

Assessment Questions

Use these questions to check understanding at the end of Day 1. Have a relaxed conversation — you're looking for confidence with the venue and systems, and early signs of rapport with the team.

How to use these questions effectively:

• Ask practical questions: "Walk me through how you'd process a split bill on the POS" or "Where would you find the allergen information for table 12's order?"
• Look for how they describe the team dynamics they've observed — are they picking up on the informal relationships and potential challenges?
• Note whether they've already started identifying operational priorities

Success Indicators

By the end of Day 1, your new food and beverage manager should be demonstrating these behaviours. If any are missing, revisit the relevant training section before moving to Day 2.

Day 1 Notes

Record observations about how Day 1 went — their confidence with systems, how they interacted with the team, and any early concerns or positive signs.

Day 2: Service Standards and Financial Management

Day 2 tackles the twin pillars of F&B management: delivering an outstanding guest experience and making money doing it. Service standards and financial literacy are inseparable at this level — the manager needs to understand both to make good decisions.

Service Standards and Menu Knowledge

Why this matters: The F&B manager sets the standard every team member follows. If they don't know the menu cold — ingredients, preparation methods, allergens, and the story behind signature dishes — they can't train, coach, or lead the service team effectively.

How to deliver this training:

• Walk through the complete guest journey from arrival to departure, noting each touchpoint and the service standard for each one
• Arrange a full menu tasting with the head chef, covering every dish on the menu with explanations of ingredients, preparation, and key selling points
• Sample signature cocktails, key wines, and non-alcoholic options, discussing pairing recommendations and when to suggest each one
• Observe a live service together, comparing what actually happens against the documented standards — this honest assessment is more valuable than any training manual

Customisation tips:

• Fine dining operations will need a longer tasting session and deeper beverage knowledge
• Casual dining and high-volume operations should focus on speed of service, consistency, and the upselling opportunities within the guest journey

Financial Management Systems

Why this matters: Financial literacy is what separates a good F&B manager from a great one. Understanding budgets, cost percentages, labour management, and revenue analysis means they can spot problems early and make decisions that protect profitability.

How to deliver this training:

• Walk through departmental budgets together, explaining historical performance and current targets
• Demonstrate how food and beverage costs are calculated, including portion control expectations and waste tracking
• Show the scheduling and labour cost tools, explaining productivity metrics and how they're used to inform staffing decisions
• Review sales mix reports and average spend data, discussing which areas have the biggest revenue opportunities

Customisation tips:

• Hotel F&B managers need to understand how food and beverage revenue contributes to overall hotel performance, including captured versus external guests
• Independent restaurants should focus on the direct relationship between daily operational decisions and bottom-line profit

Pricing Strategy and Profit Optimisation

Why this matters: Menu pricing is both an art and a science. An F&B manager who understands contribution margins, menu engineering, and pricing psychology can identify profit opportunities that others miss — and avoid the trap of competing on price alone.

How to deliver this training:

• Walk through menu engineering principles using your actual menu data — which items are stars, ploughhorses, puzzles, and dogs?
• Discuss pricing strategy in the context of your market position — are you competing on value, experience, or exclusivity?
• Explain contribution margins by menu category and how small changes in product mix can significantly affect overall profitability
• Look for profit leaks together: over-portioning, uncosted specials, unmonitored waste, and underpriced high-demand items

Customisation tips:

• Operations with separate food and beverage menus should analyse each independently — a profitable bar can subsidise a lower-margin restaurant, but the manager needs to understand this dynamic
• Seasonal venues should discuss how pricing strategy shifts between peak and off-peak periods

Assessment Questions

Check these at the end of Day 2. By now your F&B manager should be connecting service excellence to financial performance, not treating them as separate concerns.

How to use these questions effectively:

• Ask them to talk you through a dish they tried today — its ingredients, selling points, and profit margin
• Test financial understanding with a scenario: "Average spend per head dropped by two pounds this week — where would you start looking?"
• Note whether they're starting to connect guest experience decisions to commercial outcomes

Success Indicators

By the end of Day 2, your F&B manager should be comfortable with the menu, showing financial awareness, and starting to spot opportunities for improvement. If they're strong on service but weak on numbers — or the reverse — address the gap before moving on.

Day 2 Notes

Record how your F&B manager engaged with the service and financial training — their product knowledge, comfort with numbers, and any early ideas they've shared.

Day 3: Staff Management and Development

Day 3 focuses on people — the most challenging and rewarding part of the F&B manager role. Scheduling, performance management, and team development are the three areas where the manager's approach directly shapes the team's output and morale.

Scheduling and Staffing Strategies

Why this matters: A well-built schedule balances three competing pressures: guest service quality, labour cost control, and team satisfaction. Getting any one of these wrong creates problems — understaffing causes service failures, overstaffing erodes margins, and unfair scheduling drives turnover.

How to deliver this training:

• Demonstrate the scheduling system hands-on, including how to create templates, forecast demand, and publish rotas
• Walk through staffing ratio analysis together — how many covers per server at lunch versus dinner, how bar staffing changes by day of the week
• Review historical data to identify seasonal patterns, event-driven peaks, and quiet periods that affect staffing needs
• Establish communication protocols: when the schedule gets published, how change requests are handled, and what the expectations are for short-notice cover

Customisation tips:

• Hotel operations with multiple outlets need to discuss cross-deployment — when and how staff can be moved between restaurants, bars, and events
• Seasonal businesses should walk through the full annual staffing cycle, including recruitment timelines for peak periods

Performance Management Systems

Why this matters: Clear performance expectations and consistent feedback are what turn a group of individuals into a high-performing team. The F&B manager needs to be comfortable having both the positive and the difficult conversations.

How to deliver this training:

• Define the KPIs for each position the F&B manager oversees, and explain how they're measured and reported
• Establish the feedback cadence: how often the manager should be having formal and informal conversations with their team
• Walk through the disciplinary procedure step by step, including documentation requirements and escalation points
• Discuss recognition strategies — formal programmes and, just as importantly, the informal recognition that happens during a shift

Customisation tips:

• Operations with a union presence need to explain how performance management interacts with union agreements
• Smaller teams may rely more on informal feedback — the manager still needs to document consistently

Training and Development Systems

Why this matters: Investing in team development drives service quality and reduces turnover. An F&B manager who can identify skill gaps, build training plans, and create progression pathways keeps their best people and raises the standard of the whole team.

How to deliver this training:

• Review existing training materials and methodologies — what's working, what's outdated, and what's missing
• Walk through a skills gap analysis together, identifying the highest-priority development areas across the team
• Discuss cross-training opportunities and succession planning — who can cover which roles, and who has potential for promotion
• Explain certification and compliance training requirements: food safety, alcohol service, first aid, and any brand-specific qualifications

Customisation tips:

• Operations with structured training programmes should introduce the platform and content library
• Smaller operations may need the F&B manager to build training programmes from scratch — frame this as an opportunity to shape the team's development

Assessment Questions

Day 3 covers the people skills that separate competent managers from outstanding ones. Use these questions to check whether your F&B manager is thinking about people as their primary tool for driving results.

How to use these questions effectively:

• Ask them to build a schedule for next week using the data they've seen — this tests both system competence and commercial thinking
• Role-play a performance conversation: give them a scenario and see how they handle it
• Note whether they're identifying specific development priorities for the team, not just generic observations

Success Indicators

By the end of Day 3, your F&B manager should be thinking strategically about the team — not just filling shifts, but building capability and managing performance. If they're avoiding the difficult side of people management, address it now.

Day 3 Notes

Record observations about the F&B manager's approach to people management — their scheduling logic, comfort with performance conversations, and ideas for team development.

Day 4: Revenue Optimisation and Guest Experience

Day 4 combines commercial thinking with guest experience management. The best F&B managers understand that revenue growth and guest satisfaction are not opposing forces — they're two sides of the same coin.

Upselling and Suggestive Selling Techniques

Why this matters: Effective upselling increases average spend without making the guest feel pressured. It's a skill that needs to be taught, practised, and measured — and the F&B manager is responsible for embedding it into the team's service culture.

How to deliver this training:

• Review suggestive selling techniques and the language that works in your operation — natural recommendations rather than scripted pitches
• Identify the highest-margin items on both the food and beverage menus and discuss how to direct attention towards them
• Develop a beverage pairing strategy: which drinks complement which dishes, and when to suggest an upgrade
• Create a plan for training the front-line team on upselling, including how performance will be tracked and recognised

Customisation tips:

• Fine dining operations should frame upselling as enhancing the experience — recommending a wine to complement a course, suggesting a tasting menu for a special occasion
• High-volume operations should focus on simple, repeatable techniques: "Can I get you a side with that?" or "We have a great cocktail that goes perfectly with the steak"

Reservation and Table Management

Why this matters: Every empty seat during a busy service is lost revenue. Effective table management maximises capacity without rushing guests or creating wait times that drive people away.

How to deliver this training:

• Walk through reservation pacing together — how bookings are spaced, when tables are expected to turn, and how walk-ins fit into the plan
• Review table configurations for different party sizes and discuss how layouts can flex during different service periods
• Establish wait list management protocols: how long waits are communicated to guests, what recovery options exist for delays, and when to turn people away
• Create or review systems for identifying and accommodating VIPs, regulars, and guests with special requirements

Customisation tips:

• Operations with outdoor seating need to discuss weather contingency and how capacity shifts between indoor and outdoor spaces
• Venues with private dining rooms should cover booking procedures, minimum spend requirements, and staffing implications

Guest Feedback and Recovery Systems

Why this matters: How you respond to a problem matters more than the problem itself. A strong recovery turns a disappointed guest into a loyal one, while poor handling of feedback drives negative reviews and lost business.

How to deliver this training:

• Walk through online review management: which platforms matter, who monitors them, how responses are crafted, and the tone to aim for
• Discuss in-moment service recovery — the empowerment guidelines that tell the team what they can offer without seeking approval, and when to escalate
• Explain how guest feedback is collected beyond reviews: comment cards, post-visit surveys, direct conversations with regulars
• Connect the dots between feedback and action: how insights from guests translate into changes to service, menu, or operations

Customisation tips:

• Operations with high review volume should discuss monitoring tools and response templates
• Venues where the F&B manager is regularly on the floor should practise face-to-face recovery techniques

Assessment Questions

Day 4 tests whether your F&B manager can think commercially about the guest experience. Use these questions to check that they're connecting revenue strategy to real-world service delivery.

How to use these questions effectively:

• Ask them to train you on an upselling technique — this reveals whether they can teach, not just understand
• Present a guest complaint scenario and ask them to handle it in real time
• Probe their thinking on table management: "Friday night, full book, and a six-top hasn't shown up twenty minutes after their reservation — what do you do?"

Success Indicators

By the end of Day 4, your F&B manager should be thinking creatively about revenue growth and showing confidence in handling guest interactions. If they're strong on strategy but hesitant on the floor, schedule more live service time.

Day 4 Notes

Record how the F&B manager engaged with revenue and guest experience topics — their commercial instinct, service recovery confidence, and any specific initiatives they've proposed.

Day 5: Strategic Planning and Business Development

The final day moves from operational management to business leadership. Your F&B manager has spent four days absorbing the detail — now it's time to step back, set priorities, and build a plan for the first three months.

Action Planning and Priority Setting

Why this matters: Without a clear plan, even the best managers get pulled into reactive mode — fighting fires instead of building systems. A structured priority-setting exercise on Day 5 gives the F&B manager a roadmap for their first 90 days and gives you a shared set of expectations.

How to deliver this training:

• Facilitate a SWOT analysis together, drawing on everything the manager has observed and learned during the week
• Work through a 30/60/90-day plan: what needs to happen immediately, what can develop over the first two months, and what's a longer-term project
• Identify the resources needed to accomplish priority initiatives — budget, people, systems, or time
• Create a detailed implementation timeline with milestones and accountability measures

Customisation tips:

• Turnaround situations need a heavier emphasis on the first 30 days — what quick wins will build credibility and momentum?
• Stable operations can focus the plan more on growth and development than on fixing immediate problems

Marketing and Business Development

Why this matters: The F&B manager's role extends beyond managing what happens inside the building. Understanding marketing, customer acquisition, and business development helps them contribute to growing the business, not just running it.

How to deliver this training:

• Review current marketing initiatives together, explaining what's worked, what hasn't, and what's planned
• Define the target customer: who you're trying to attract, what they value, and how your offering meets their needs
• Identify local partnership opportunities — hotels, corporate offices, event venues, and community organisations that could drive business
• Review the events programme: what events are profitable, what's underperforming, and where there are opportunities to grow

Customisation tips:

• Hotel F&B managers should understand how restaurant marketing connects to the hotel's broader marketing strategy and loyalty programmes
• Independent restaurants may need the F&B manager to take a more direct role in local marketing — social media, local partnerships, and community engagement

Performance Metrics and Ongoing Development

Why this matters: Clear metrics create accountability and give the F&B manager a framework for self-assessment. Knowing what gets measured and reported — weekly, monthly, and quarterly — helps them prioritise their time and focus their team's energy.

How to deliver this training:

• Walk through the KPIs for the F&B operation: revenue per available seat, average spend, labour cost percentage, food cost percentage, and guest satisfaction scores
• Explain reporting requirements and deadlines — what the GM or owner needs to see, and in what format
• Discuss self-development and continuing education opportunities: industry events, professional qualifications, study visits, and peer networks
• Build a leadership skill enhancement plan together, identifying specific areas the manager wants to develop

Customisation tips:

• Corporate operations with structured reporting should provide templates and walkthrough examples of good reporting
• Independent operations may need to set up reporting frameworks from scratch — involve the F&B manager in designing them

Assessment Questions

These final questions check whether your F&B manager is ready to operate as a strategic leader, not just an operational manager.

How to use these questions effectively:

• Ask them to present their 90-day plan and defend their priorities
• Test marketing understanding with practical questions: "You've got a quiet January — what three things would you do to drive covers?"
• Be honest about any gaps you've noticed during the week and agree a plan for continued support

Success Indicators

These are the markers of an F&B manager who's ready to lead independently. If all are present, your onboarding has set a strong foundation. If any are missing, extend the supported transition and address the gaps directly.

Day 5 Notes

Record your final assessment of the onboarding period. Note strengths, development areas, and any agreed next steps for continued support.

Making the most of this template

Five days gives your new F&B manager a solid foundation, but the depth of the role means some topics will need revisiting as they settle in. Consider the five-day programme as the start of onboarding, not the end of it — schedule formal check-ins at 30, 60, and 90 days to review progress against their action plan.

Use the notes sections at the end of each day to build a record of your manager's development. These notes are valuable for performance reviews, for identifying patterns in how new managers settle into your operation, and for refining the onboarding process for future hires.

The assessment questions and success indicators create shared expectations. They work best as conversation starters rather than checklists — the goal is an honest dialogue about what's going well and what needs more attention. If a success indicator isn't being met, that's useful information for both of you, not a mark against the new manager.

If your F&B manager is joining a complex operation — multiple outlets, large teams, or a turnaround situation — consider stretching the programme across two weeks so each day's content gets the attention it deserves. Rushing through the material to hit a deadline defeats the purpose.