What are Front-of-House roles?
Pubs and restaurants are lively and fun places to work where you’ll people with different personality types and skill sets doing a range of different roles.
Varied though they may be, all service roles in a pub can be split between two basic categories. Front of house—which means customer facing. And or back of house—which is any job based behind the scenes, usually in the kitchen.
Here we’ll take a look at some of the front-of-house roles, what they involve and how you can get one for yourself.
👉What does front-of-house mean?
👉What different front-of-house roles are there?
👉What’s good about front-of-house roles?
👉How do I get a front-of-house role?
Greene King Bar Team
What does front of house mean?
A front-of-house role in hospitality is any role that involves interaction with customers. On the front-of-house team you’re kind of like the face and voice of the pub or restaurant.
When a customer comes into a pub, a front-of-house team member will be the first person they encounter. This could be someone whose role it is to welcome guests and show them to their table or it might be a member of the bar staff or a waiter. Really, it’s every front of house team member’s job to make customers feel welcome as soon as they walk through the door.
Front-of-house roles can also involve letting the team behind the scenes—colleagues working in the kitchen, for example—know what the customers want and passing on feedback. Information needs to be relayed quickly and accurately—especially if a guest has an allergy—so being able to communicate effectively even when the pressure is on is really important.
What different front-of-house roles are there?
Front-of-house roles vary from place to place depending on the size or the style of the pub or bar. Some places might have a maitre d’ or host overseeing all guest experiences, whereas other places will have a simpler waiting staff and bar staff set-up. However an establishment is run, you’ll find teams full of specialist skills, whether that’s mixing drinks, using the till and cash handling or upselling the day’s specials and add-on orders.
Behind the bar and waiting teams serving food and drinks, you’ll find the managers who support motivate them. Among them are assistant managers who are responsible for driving sales as well as developing and motivating the front of house team. At Greene King, our general managers are the figureheads of our pubs and restaurants who have overall responsibility for their success and for the customers’ experience.
In a front-of-house role, you might be mixing cocktails 🍸 one minute, serving home-made cakes 🍰 the next or explaining the origin of sustainably caught fish 🐟. It can be hugely varied work—whatever it involves, you’ll need to be friendly, outgoing and able to think on your feet and deal with situations ‘on the fly’ (which means ‘right now’!).
Greene King Front of House
What’s good about front-of-house roles?
No day is ever the same when you’re working front-of-house in hospitality. You’ll deal with different customers and face fresh challenges every day. It will be lively and action-packed and there’s a great sense of team spirit with the rest of the team members. Sure, there will be evenings and weekends to work but, when you’re part of a great team, you can have just as much fun as those on the other side of the bar.
Being on the front-of-house team comes with its perks, too. At Greene King, for instance, you get a 33% discount at any of our pubs, plus discounts with well-known retailers and brands including Apple, ASOS and John Lewis.
There’s also a clear progression plan so you can get your career off to a flying start with support and development opportunities at every step of the way. Once you have the skills and experience you need for a front-of-house role, you’ll open yourself up to a whole world of opportunities.
From communicating with the front of house team to greeting customers and checking in on the kitchen, communication is paramount as an Assistant Manager. They keep the whole establishment running like clockwork and shape customer experiences that keep people coming back. Other important skills include enthusiasm, staying calm under pressure and being organised. An Assistant Manager picks up plenty of knowledge as they do their job, especially about food and drink, which they can share with customers and new members of the team.
How do I get a front-of-house role?
A front-of-house role can be very rewarding. You’ve heard the phrase ‘smash it’, right? Well, when you’re an important part of a team that pulls together to craft special customer experiences, even when it’s busy, you’ll know exactly what that feels like. Spoiler alert: it feels good!
At Greene King, we call it ‘pouring happiness into lives’ and, whether you have years of experience in hospitality or none at all, there’s a role for you doing just that on the front-of-house team at our pubs. There’s also an exciting range of apprenticeships for those new to the industry and management roles for hospitality professionals. You can see the full list of vacancies on our website.
From Apprenticeships to management, from the north of Scotland to the far west of Cornwall, if you’re looking for a role in a hospitality, the huge range of opportunities that Greene King have are definitely worth a look.👀
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