INtouch
PO Box 7577, Columbia, SC 29202
AUGUST 2020
PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID COLUMBIA, SC PERMIT 168
Businesses Hit Hard by Coronavirus Claw Back Jobs Is your restaurant committed to the Palmetto Priority? Join more than 2,500 restaurants who have already made the commitment to making safety and health a priority. Visit PalmettoPriority.com for more information.
SCRLA Member Spotlight Hard Rock Cafe® Reopens Restaurant Locations Under Newly-Introduced SAFE + SOUND Program Hard Rock’s new SAFE + SOUND program implements the highest level of safety, sanitation, food handling and employee training, following recommendations from national and local health officials. As part of the new protocol, all guests and team members are required to participate in a state-of-the-art, non-intrusive thermal temperature screening process before entering each Hard Rock Cafe location. In addition to the thermal temperature screening process, the “SAFE + SOUND” protocol also incorporates elements of each location’s local, government mandated policies including, but not limited to, the following: • • • • • •
A dedicated ‘Clean Team’ in-restaurant, focusing on regularly sanitizing all high-touch areas, including restrooms, tables, seating, menus and door handles Full sanitization of the location each night Extensive employee training on COVID-19 precautionary measures Hand sanitation stations for guests and team members throughout the restaurant Mandatory facial covering/masks and gloves for all team members Menus utilizing the latest in antibacterial coating, as well as contactless menu options
Tony Iannice, General Manager of the Hard Rock Cafe in Myrtle Beach, is taking the Recommendations for Reopening Restaurants very seriously and has made it his goal to go above and beyond the safety and sanitation standards and protocols. He says the feedback he has received from his guests has been positive. Hard Rock is committed to providing a safe and healthy dining environment for their guests and team members. As part of the program, every Hard Rock Cafe location is required to pass the Safe + Sound 272 point inspection, independently assessed by the NSF (formerly known as the National Sanitation Foundation). To learn more about the program, please visit hardrockhotels.com/safe-and-sound.aspx.
The two industries that suffered the most job loss because of the coronavirus pandemic and related shutdowns—hospitality and retail—saw the strongest gains the past two months as the U.S. economic engine restarted.
billion tourism industry would be cut in half for 2020.
Still, those industries—and employers more broadly—are far from replacing all the jobs lost since February. And bars, restaurants, hotels and stores are particularly vulnerable to renewed layoffs because a recent spike in coronavirus cases in several states is causing governors to halt or roll back reopening plans.
“We have a long way to go until our state can reclaim its previously historic low unemployment rate, but with the hard working people who make up this state, we know that when opportunity presents itself, they will be eager to rejoin the workforce and help be the necessary catalyst in rebooting our economy,” SC Department of Employment and Workforce Director Dan Ellzey said.
Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 2.1 million in June, the Labor Department said Thursday, accounting for about 40% of the overall gain in payrolls last month. Restaurants and bars were the driver, gaining about 1.5 million jobs for the second straight month. Despite the increases, total employment in food services and bars is down by 3.1 million since February. Total employment in June was down 14.7 million, or 9.6%, from February’s pre-pandemic level. Employers will add jobs in July, but at a slower pace, said Roiana Reid, an economist at Berenberg Capital Markets. The June report reflects the first half of the month “when state reopenings were progressing quite smoothly across the country,” while missing recent closures, she wrote in a note to clients. “We expect a smaller but still strong increase in nonfarm payrolls in July as other states that have flattened the curve continue to progress to new phases of their reopenings” As South Carolina’s unemployement rate increased dramatically to 12.8% in April, it was significantly less than the U.S. rate. The coronavirus wiped out nearly half of the state’s restaurant, tourism and hospitality jobs, with officials estimating overall annual revenue from the $24
Compared to a year ago, state officials said, South Carolina’s economy has lost 193,000 seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs.
The Labor Department said the overall unemployment rate is still an undercount because some workers were misclassified as employed, but absent from work, when they should have been counted as unemployed, on temporary layoff. “The degree of misclassification declined considerably in June,” Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner William Beach said. He added that the government is continuing to investigate the error and take steps to address the issue. Had the error, which has occurred since March, not happened, June’s unemployment rate would have been about 1 percentage point higher than reported. A recent report showed the share of unemployed workers on temporary layoff, meaning they expect to return to the same job within six months, remained historically high at 60% in June, but was down from an April peak of 78%. That reflects that some layoffs which appeared temporary early in the spring have become permanent separations. However, it also shows that the number of Americans entering or re-entering the labor market is rising again.
Upcoming ServSafe Manager Classes
Snap-Back! Toolkit
ReOpening Resources foodie.sysco.com/snapback
Charleston - Aug. 10 Greenville/Spartanburg - Aug. 11 Florence - Aug. 12 Bluffton/Hilton Head - Aug. 13
Myrtle Beach - Aug. 17 Charleston - Aug. 26 Columbia - Aug. 27 Charleston - Sept. 10
SCRLA members receive a 20% discount using the code SERV2. To sign up, visit AtlanticFoodSafety.com
Restaurants are Turning to QR Codes for Digital Menus and Contactless Payment Contactless ordering has erupted as a musthave option for restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic.
Hotel Industry Releases Top 5 Requirements to Travel Safely The American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) has united the industry around the announcement of the “Safe Stay Guest Checklist,� a list for guests on how to travel safely, including the required use of face coverings in all indoor public spaces. This checklist is part of AHLA’s Safe Stay guidelines, an industry-wide, enhanced set of health and safety protocols designed to provide a safe and clean environment for all hotel guests and employees. “Safe Stay� is AHLA’s initiative focused on enhanced hotel cleaning practices, social interactions, and workplace protocols to meet the new health and safety challenges and expectations presented by COVID-19. Safe Stay was created in accordance with guidance issued by public health authorities, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Safe Stay Guest Checklist includes: 1. Require face coverings in all indoor public spaces and practice social distancing in all common areas at the hotel. 2. Choose contactless options, where available, including online reservations, check-ins, and payments. 3. Consider daily room cleaning, only if necessary. Ask the hotel about your options. 4. Request contactless room service delivery. 5. Refrain from traveling if you have, or recently had, any symptoms of COVID-19 or contact with anyone diagnosed with COVID-19. “The top priority for the hotel industry is the health and safety of guests and employees. Utilizing these best practices, including requiring face coverings and practicing social distancing in public spaces, will create an even safer environment for all our guests and employees,� said Chip Rogers, President and CEO of AHLA. “As an industry, we want every guest to experience a clean and safe hotel no matter where they stay. We applaud governors who have standardized the use of face coverings in all indoor public spaces and we urge all lawmakers to help make this a national standard by implementing this requirement in their states. These preventative measures make it safer and easier for Americans to travel while also supporting hotel and tourism employees.� For more information about AHLA’s Safe Stay initiative, please visit AHLA.com/safestay.
Safe Stay Guest Checklist
đ&#x;˜ˇ đ&#x;“˛ đ&#x;§ź đ&#x;?˝ đ&#x;¤’
Face coverings required + practicing social distancing Choose contactless options, where available Consider daily room cleaning, only if necessary Request contactless room service delivery Refrain from traveling if ill
Most chains and independent restaurants have upgraded their digital systems to allow guests to safely order and pay for food without having a physical exchange with employees. The movement has led to a resurgence in QR codes, which are being used to view digital menus and pay for meals with a personal phone. QR codes enjoy widespread use The Centers for Disease Control advises restaurants to avoid using shared items like menus. Instead, the agency recommends using disposable or digital menus. The agency also suggests using touchless payment options. Enter the QR code. First used in the auto industry, QR codes were slightly ahead of their time and disappeared from widespread use until recently. Initially, consumers had to download an app in order to scan a QR code used by a business. Now the bar codes can be auto-scanned by any camera phone. That’s made it easier for restaurants to meet safety guidelines in jurisdictions where dine-in has resumed. The barcodes are now ubiquitous -- found “ready to be scanned� on dining room tables, bartops, coasters, restaurant websites, paper checks and hostess tables. “The QR code is seeing huge responses, some days over 50% use so they [guests] are definitley warming to the new approach now that it’s been a few weeks,� said Joe Manzella, owner of a string of upscale-casual dining restaurants in Orange County, Calif. “The first week, we had a slow acceptance level and that has completely turned around. Guests are definitely accepting of it and using it,� he said. Uptown Network is one provider finding high de-
mand for its QR-code enabled digital menu system, dubbed BYOM. About a year ago, the company began developing a system where the menu could be downloaded through a person’s mobile device. “We started working on it. And we were actually questioning [ourselves] for a while, ‘Is anyone really going to want a menu on their phone?’� Jack Serfass, CEO and co-founder of Uptown Network, said. During the pandemic, the answer became clear. The company’s new BYOM digital menu platform is now being used at more than 100 locations across the U.S. Another upside: Uptown’s system is dynamic, giving restaurant owners the ability to make menu updates in real time because it lives on the cloud. It’s not a PDF download like other online menus. The QR code can also be added to a restaurant’s website so consumers can check out the menu before coming to the restaurant. Consumers can also share the menu with others, giving restaurants the added benefit of free user-generated marketing. With single-use disposables on the rise, Serfass said Uptown is also helping restaurants that want sustainable solutions during the pandemic. As of early July, Uptown’s BYOM has kept nearly 723,000 throwaway menus out of landfills, he said.
WE’VE GOT YOUR BACK. AND FRONT OF HOUSE.
Restaurant
Powerful. Scalable. Feature-rich point of sale.
Let’s get social! @SCRestaurantandLodgingAssociation
@SCRLA_ | @RestaurantWeekSC
August 2020 • SCRLA.org
@SCRLA
heartland.us/restaurant A Global Payments Company Š2019 Heartland Payment Systems, LLC