Impos is excited to launch Ananas – a valuable online training and management platform for the hospitality industry

Impos is getting set to launch Ananas next month, an online platform created solely for the fast-paced hospitality industry. Impos have been working closely with Sven Almenning, the Founder of Ananas and the CEO of the renowned Speakeasy Group, a multi award winning bar and restaurant group in Australia that includes Eau de Vie, Mjølner, Boilermaker House & Nick & Nora’s, all powered by Impos.

Impos CEO Andrew Paynter was quick to see the value in the Ananas platform, “This has been an exciting project for us, and we have been working for the past few months with Sven and the team at Ananas to build out the Impos content, which will be available exclusively for Impos customers in early October. Timing is everything and this launch comes at a time when hospitality venue owners continue to struggle through the aftermath of ongoing Covid lockdowns and restrictions, which forced a lot of owners to stand down experienced staff. The Ananas platform provides owners and venue managers with the power to regulate the training and knowledge of their staff, all able to be done virtually and in their own time.”

Ananas provides online training modules for all elements of your hospitality venue, from your point of sale system to world-class spirit category training and hospitality skill courses. The value is two-pronged; for hospitality venue owners to automate their onboarding and training, and for hospitality workers to grow their skillset and showcase their talent for employment advancement and career opportunities.

Anyone in hospitality will tell you one of the biggest pain-points of the industry is finding and retaining experienced staff. The investment in training staff is immense and it used to be when your most experienced venue manager left, they took all of their knowledge with them. This is no longer the case with Ananas, which is where Impos sees the real value of this platform.

There is no doubt that staff training is both an important investment into your team and your business. Well-trained, skilful and knowledgeable staff work faster, provide better service and up-sell more than those that lack skill and knowledge. Combined, these things should lead to a higher retention of staff, more return customers, increased word of mouth recommendations and a healthier P&L.

Here we talk about the benefits of Ananas, and how you can’t afford not to invest into training your hospitality staff.

Invest in your Team

What makes or breaks any hospitality business is the quality of your team and the product that they deliver for your guests. It’s not your fit-out – Sure, an amazing design and a beautiful view go a long way to complement your business, and it may even be what has drawn your guests to your venue in the first place. However, if the service and the quality of your food and drinks are not equally impressive, it’s all for naught.

Your guests will enjoy a great location, a beautiful view and a well-designed and comfortable venue, but in the end it’s the service and the product itself that determine whether they had an awesome time, and whether they will return again, recommend your venue to friends and leave a positive review online for your business.

Ditch the paper

In most bars and restaurants training is ad-hoc and unstructured. New and junior staff are often left to learn on the job, and often from senior staff who themselves have not been properly trained.

Internal procedures and processes are most likely to be found buried in a large tomb of paper, handed out on the new-starters first day, and quite likely not referenced again. Service can be inconsistent and simple drinks such as a G&T might arrive once in an old-fashioned glass with lime one-time, the next served in a highball with a lemon wedge.

Training staff can be hard, and this is why most venues don’t do it. Writing scripts, doing research, not to mention testing, all takes a lot of work, both in terms of preparation, as well as execution; And of course, knowing stuff, and teaching stuff are two very different things. Education is a skill, and being a great bartender or waiter, or even being a great manager does not mean you necessarily are going to be a great teacher or trainer, nor does it mean your public speaking game is going to be on point.

In addition, most venues will have a pretty high turnover of staff meaning that there are constantly new people joining the team. Often these newcomers work in a venue or organisation for weeks, sometimes months before they are properly on-boarded and trained.

Learn to earn

Online training platforms, make on-boarding and ongoing training a breeze. Ananas features the most comprehensive online training materials for the bar and restaurant industries and has been created by a collective of some of the world’s most well-known and awarded industry experts.

In addition to the vast database of industry specific training content, Ananas also includes an environment for businesses to host their own organisation-specific training materials such as Sequence of Service, cocktail recipes, food menu, your company vision and values etc; All of which can be assigned by job role, loading your entire team with the role-specific training they need to work in your venue the minute they are invited to join your business.

The future is online

Online solutions allow staff to study wherever and whenever that suits them best. This means higher compliance rates, faster on-boarding and a better trained and more knowledgeable team. As an owner or manager you can easily see who has done what training, and who has not, as well as their individual pass rates and scores.

This type of learning also costs a fraction of developing and hosting 100% of your training in-venue. With Ananas, for less than the cost of a cup of coffee per person, per week, you and your team can have access to the most comprehensive training platform for hospitality existing at current.