tabology – give your staff money confidence

Whether you run a bar, pub, cafe or restaurant, it’s the people who create the atmosphere. Which is why staff wellbeing is more vital to hospitality businesses than most other sectors – happier staff equals better quality interactions with customers (which means they’re more likely to return).

But money worries are starting to have a bigger impact on hospitality staff. Recently, Wagestream’s The State of Financial Wellbeing: Hospitality Outlook found that almost 9 in 10 hospitality workers had worsening mental health due to money worries. These pressures make it harder for staff to focus and bring their best selves to work, which can have a wider impact on a business.

With venues facing a host of other pressures, it’s more important than ever to prioritise staff wellbeing and make sure you attract and retain the best people. The good news is that relatively simple measures can go a long way in supporting your staff’s financial wellbeing – and this can have a big impact on morale, retention and performance.

Giving your staff money confidence

As much as our bartenders and waiters are experts in making conversation, money can be a tricky thing to talk about. There’s a stigma attached to financial difficulty, and unhelpful labels such as ‘bad with money’ can prevent people from trying to improve their situation. As a hospitality manager, there are things you can do to give your staff the confidence they need to manage their money and feel better about their finances.

Create a positive culture

The report found that over a quarter of hospitality workers wouldn’t tell their employer about money issues due to a lack of trust, a belief their employer doesn’t care, or fears of discrimination or even dismissal. So it’s vital to alleviate these fears by avoiding judgemental language and stereotypes. Staff may be more comfortable talking to peers rather than bosses, so consider if any of your staff could be a ‘money champion’. These supportive peers have positive conversations with fellow workers and direct them towards further support. 

Provide incentives to save

Hospitality workers are less likely to have savings than those in other sectors, so having a scheme in place to support this can go a long way, particularly if staff are unfamiliar with saving and need some help to get started.

Signpost support

Make sure staff know about the support available, including free financial and debt advice, guidance, and helplines. There are also charities and organisations that can run financial workshops for your staff. 

Show you care

According to UK Hospitality, 73% of workers in the industry say they’d be drawn to an employer that prioritises financial wellbeing. So having these measures in place and genuinely caring for your staff will grow your reputation as a responsible employer. This helps you attract and retain talent and boosts staff performance. 

A simple, low-cost and powerful way to incentivise your staff and invest in their wellbeing is to use TiPJAR to manage their tips. 

TiPJAR x Tabology

TiPJAR is the leading tip and tronc management platform, and recently partnered with Tabology to integrate with our EPOS. TiPJAR ensures your staff keep every penny of the tips they earn, and pays them within a week. 

TiPJAR works by collecting sales data from Tabology. It tells you, the operator, how much you’ve taken in tips. You send the funds to TiPJAR, who distributes them based on your tronc scheme, which uses a point system to determine the rate for each role. You do not need to pay NICs on any tips managed through TiPJAR.

What’s more, managers don’t need to lift a finger during this process. The hours you previously spent managing and distributing tips can now be spent on more important tasks, such as supporting your staff and improving your venue. 

This simple and transparent process builds trust and motivates staff to deliver outstanding service, so customers have a better experience. But TiPJAR’s financial wellbeing support goes further than that.

Better financial wellbeing with TiPJAR

TiPJAR’s Spend and Save scheme puts staff in control of their tips and encourages them to develop good financial habits.

With the Save aspect, employees can hit pause on their tip payouts. Instead of getting them straight away, they can add them to a secure savings pot that pays interest.

The Spend part: staff get a TiPJAR card, and when they use it to spend their hard-earned tips, it pays cashback at thousands of high-street venues.

Take tips easily with Tabology EPOS

With our EPOS, your venue can take tips in three different ways.

The simplest way is adding a tip on the EPOS. Simply press the ‘tip’ button and enter a value when cashing off an order (Tap to Pay on our iPhone-based Mini EPOS also asks customers if they’d like to add a tip).

You can also convert an overpayment to a tip, which is great when a customer rounds up a payment and tells you to keep the change – the ‘convert to tip’ button will automatically show whenever there’s an overpayment.

Finally, you can also configure your online ordering to enable tips. A slider will appear on the online ordering payment page that will allow customers to add a tip.

However you collect tips, it all gets sent to TiPJAR automatically, and every penny goes to staff (with no need for NIC contributions). 

Can TiPJAR improve your staff’s wellbeing?

If you’re already using Tabology EPOS, it could be very straightforward to get started, depending on your current setup. Get in touch with our support team to find out.

If you’re not currently using Tabology’s EPOS at your venue, then now’s a great time to see how it can transform all of your operations. While your staff will love our TipJAR integration, they’ll be even more amazed by how easy the EPOS is to use. And with all the management tools you need in a single platform, your job as an operator becomes easier too. Speak to our consultants to explore the system and try it out for free.