Bar Staff Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

Bar Staff Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

This post provides exhaustive information of the job description of a bar staff, to help you understand what they do.

It highlights the major duties, tasks, and responsibilities that commonly make the bar staff work description in most organizations.

This post also shows you the requirements most recruiters/employers will want you to meet to be hired by their organization if you are seeking the bar staff job.

Please, read on to learn about the bar staff career:

What Does a Bar staff Do?

Bar staff, otherwise known as bartenders, work in bars, restaurants, hotels, and pubs. They are good at mixing and serving drinks to customers.

These staff could be seen interacting with customers on some issues of interest to the customers.

Bar staff could also help out in other functions as might be needed at the time.

The major duty of a bar staff is to mix, serve, and attend to customers in various way as required by their employers.

The bar staff is expected to keep the tables and the general environment clean and conducive for the customers to sit and drink.

In addition, bar staff should be able to interact with customers that come around to drink.

This requires good communication skills as well as listening skills.

The job of a bar staff goes beyond just mixing and serving drinks to customers.

They offer warmness, friendliness, and welcoming nature as prerequisites for serving customers.

To be able to attend to customers well, bar staff need to have sufficient knowledge of alcoholic drinks.

They need to have good team spirit to be able to work well when under pressure.

Regardless of where a bar staff is employed, whether in a bar, restaurant, or tavern, or other hospitality business, their core duties and responsibilities remain the same and skills unchanged.

Bar Staff Job Description Example/ Sample/Template

To throw more light on what bar staff do, here is a list of duties, tasks, and responsibilities that typically make up their job description:

• Welcome customers and presenting beverage menus to them
• Make accurate recommendations and answering questions from customers relating to drinks
• Check the age of customers to ensure each customer is eligible to take the drink they ordered
• Take orders from the customers
• Take orders from the employer in regards to customer treatment and service
• Keep an accurate record of drinks into the register system
• Mix and serve alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks in accordance to standard recipes
• Peel, slice, and put fruits for garnishing drinks
• Serve mixed and garnished cocktails as requested by the customers
• Also serve snacks to customers at the table on request
• Attend to questions from customers in a friendly and professional manner
• On ground to ensure that customers do not get into problems related to excessive drinking
• Facilitate payments by customers via POS or any other means of transaction obtainable
• Prepare receipts for customers
• Arrange drinking glasses and bottles in an attractive manner
• Ensure that the drinking area is well cleaned and conducive for customers’ relaxation
• Ensure strict compliance to relevant health, safety, and hygiene standards and policies
• Balance accounts at the beginning and end of every shift
• Monitor inventory of drinks in the bar
• Restock the bar as at when due
• Observe a customer to know when to stop giving further drinks
• Move objects like bottles and glasses from where they are kept by customers to their rightful place
• Clean up used glasses after use by customers
• Remove ashtrays used for smoking by customers.

Download job description template.

Bar Staff Job Description for Resume

If you are writing a resume or CV as someone with some bar staff working experience, you can apply the sample job description above in making the professional experience part of your resume.

By highlighting the duties that you performed or are currently performing as a bar staff in your resume, you will be telling the employer that you have the experience to perform effectively in that position.

If you need help to make a great resume, see: What does a good resume look like.

Bar Staff Requirements – Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for a Successful Career

If you are seeking the job of a bar staff, here are major requirements most requirements/employers may want you to meet to be qualified for hiring:

• Education: For a bar staff, much emphasis is not placed on the educational background of the bar staff.

Skills are usually demanded more than educational background or qualifications.

Therefore, the basic educational qualification like High School diploma will do while additional certifications will be regarded as bonus.

Some other qualifications that recruiters/employers may require are: Food and drink service, hospitality management/supervision, multi-skilled hospitality service, wine and spirit education trust specialist course, customer and drinks service, beer and cellar quality, responsible alcohol retailing.

• Experience: 3-4 years of experience in the bar staff role or similar role is highly sought after.
• Knowledge: To work as a bar staff requires knowledge of the following: Good knowledge of standard drink recipes, efficient knowledge of spirits, wine, and beer, good understanding of different kinds of alcohol, glasses, brand names and garnishment, satisfactory knowledge in mixology of different drinks, must be up to 18 years and above depending on the regulations in the area.
• Skills: Here are the skills to have as a bar staff: Excellent customer service skills, good and efficient communications skills, interpersonal skills, team spirit, good energy level, ability to work in a fast paced work setting/environment, reliability, known for honesty and integrity, good in simple math skills, flexibility, discretion, good sense of humor, organizational skills, good planning skills, stress management, attention to details, professionalism, good memorization ability.
• Professionalism: For the comfort of the customers, a bar staff should be professional in his/her approach and relationship with the customers.

Satisfaction of the customers should be the only priority for the bar staff.

Conclusion

This post is helpful to individuals seeking the bar staff career; they will be able to learn what the duties and responsibilities of the role entail and decide if that’s the way to go.

It is also useful to recruiters/employers to make effective work description for use in hiring the right bar staff for their organizations.