an ingredient list for a successful holiday season

by aaron fish

1

Schedule a Recurring Planning Meeting

Most often the biggest obstacle that we have to overcome in working with the resident engagement team is communication. There always seems to be a last minute request, an activity that was overlooked, or a change in the order. The quickest and easiest way to avoid all of these things happening is to schedule a recurring meeting with your engagement director. This will allow you to work through every event on the calendar, make adjustments to the orders, and collaborate to make average events even better.

As we all begin preparing for the holiday season, we will be doing everything we can to put our best foot forward for residents, families, and other guests. But in order to do this, we have to remember that our biggest enemy to having a successful end of year will not be high food costs or staffing concerns, but rather a lack of planning and coordination between the two most important departments this time of year - resident engagement and your food & beverage team.

2

Institute an Event Order System

To help you as the food & beverage leader get ready for the coming onslaught of events, parties, happy hours, and other goings-on, the team at Trestle Hospitality Concepts wants to offer you our ingredient list for holiday success. As with any well prepared dish, these ingredients will help you form the foundation that will help you build a camaraderie with your resident engagement team (and other departments) so that you all have an amazing holiday season. This will be important for both departments to ensure that your events are seamless and create the festive holiday atmosphere you want for your residents. And the best part? Once in place, it will carry over into next year and help you keep your sanity as you kick off a new year with new programs and budgets.

So here is our list of five key ingredients to help you and the whole community team get ready to tackle the most wonderful time of the year: Unless you have the ability to work seven days a week, you will want to make sure that you have an effective event order system in place. The best systems include the ability to detail out all aspects of the event, which department will be responsible for them, and has a specific set of guidelines for using and submitting events. The biggest key is that whatever system you have in place, it must be easy for all staff to use. Using the system needs to be strictly enforced, and every new employee in the F&B and resident engagement departments must know the system.

3

Take an Inventory

One of the biggest obstacles that will get you in trouble with both the budget and at set up time is not knowing what equipment you have available. If you have the space for an event closet or storage room, now would be a good time to organize and set it up and take inventory of what items you have. Do you have broken chafers or tables that need to be replaced? Do you need to buy linens or reusable decorations? Create a worksheet of all of your event items and do an audit of them at least once a quarter. This will help you avoid the last minute panic of making a run to the closest party planning or 10 | BOLDLY DEFINING THE FUTURE OF SENIOR LIVING BOLDLY DEFINING THE FUTURE OF SENIOR LIVINGrestaurant supply store.

4

Create a Reservation System

While many times the actual winter holidays are not very busy due to residents going to stay with family, the days and weeks around them can be jam packed with festivities. And you will have families and outside guests clamoring to join and be a part of these events. So now is the time to create a reservation system. It can be as simple as a spreadsheet kept at the front desk, or could be a part of your point of sales system. Regardless of what you use, be sure that there is clear communication to residents and guests about cutoff dates and times, event costs, special meal & diet requests, or any other details that are important. Setting these expectations in advance will save all of the staff heartache come event time.

5

Delegate Tasks to Other Departments

We’ve all heard the saying - “many hands make light work”. The holiday season is a busy time for food & beverage and resident engagement departments. But the fun and festivities should not be relegated to just those employees. Be sure that you work with your executive director to institute an “all hands-on deck” approach to event coverage and support. Engage your sales & marketing director host and bartend a happy hour (and invite prospects!), or have your maintenance & housekeeping teams be sure to assist with set up and clean up of larger events. This will help with your sanity, as well as help spread the holiday cheer out amongst all the staff.

aaron fish

Founder & CEO Trestle Hospitality One final point - be sure that you make time for your team to also enjoy the holidays. If they feel stretched thin because of the chaos of what’s happening, you are going to have employees that are less likely to help out or do the little extras that will make your events shine. Make time for them to be off with family, or host a casual employees only party so they can unwind. This will go a long way with winning them over, and having the best versions of them come showtime.

So as we get ready for the upcoming holidays, please be sure to set your teams up for success. These ingredients for managing and planning events combined with the creative minds of the food & beverage and resident engagement leaders will create a fool-proof recipe for holiday success.