The Absolute Basics of Alcohol Compliance
As a business owner in the food and beverage industry, losing the ability to serve alcoholic beverages or sell alcoholic products can be a deadly blow. This is why business owners invest so much in alcohol compliance training and preventative solutions. In a nutshell, to have a staff well-trained in alcohol compliance means to have a staff that operates legally according to federal and local alcohol regulations. There is much to learn about the topic of alcohol compliance, but there are some foundational tips that can help a business owner get started on their journey towards alcohol compliance excellence.
Thankfully, the business owners who have learned the hard way offer us many examples of lessons learned from their alcohol compliance failures. The four foundational tips below cover various areas of alcohol compliance like training and education, enforcement strategies, monitoring and performance, and tech solutions.
#1: Training and Education for Employees is a Must
Without proper education and training, employees are not set up for success and can become a risk to business continuity. For example, if employees are not trained to validate an ID, minors may consume alcoholic beverages illegally and or purchase tobacco and vape products. There are many negative outcomes to a business serving minors. With multiple infractions, business owners will lose their license to sell alcohol or tobacco, and vape products, thus putting their business out of commission.
Training, both in a formal classroom forum as well as on-the-job, is vital for businesses that want to reduce over-serving of customers, eliminate the risk of serving minors, and learn tactics to successfully intervene in high-risk situations.
Businesses in a community in Minnesota failed municipal stings and, in response, blamed their troubles on staffing shortages. This may play a role in the problem, but it could be argued that education and training programs for these employees could be made more robust to prevent failed municipal stings. Employees hired to sell alcoholic beverages must, at a minimum, be relied on to ask for identification at the point of sale.
#2: Enforcement Strategies Should be Added to an Alcohol Policy
As Stinger Compliance Founder, Cliff Crider, shares in a recent interview, the employees of his local restaurant and bar must sign an alcohol policy before their employment begins. The alcohol policy that Crider mentions is a document outlining the minimum requirements for his employees who will be serving alcoholic beverages within his business. Some details include clarity on ID checking practices (employees must ask for identification for anyone who appears to be under the age of 40) and also how employees will be disciplined and/or removed depending on the severity of the breach of the policy.
The alcohol policy clarifies how a business owner will enforce alcohol compliance within the establishment and sets clear expectations for the management team and the employees, ensuring that incidents are escalated as necessary and issues are resolved. With a clearly written alcohol policysigned by new employees, business owners communicate to managers and employees alike, that compliance with local and federal alcohol regulations is an absolute priority and any infraction is met with swift disciplinary measures with little debate
#3: Tech Solutions Are Not Enough
Business owners lacking a culture of alcohol compliance excellence may want to up-level their alcohol compliance behavior by adding tech solutions. An example may be ID scanners that help to verify a customer is of age and is using a valid ID. This can be a great tool for employees, but it cannot replace training and routine monitoring of compliance as stated above.
For instance, if an employee scans an ID and does not visually inspect the ID card, they may serve a minor who is using their older sibling’s ID card illegally. Visual inspections of IDs cannot be replaced solely by technology but can be used by well-trained employees to increase service speeds or to remove suspicion of fake IDs.
An interview with security personnel of a local bar in Woodstock, GA corroborates that tech solutions must be paired with training and experienced staff. For example, blue-light flashlights can be used to confirm the presence of holograms, but it’s up to the employee to determine whether the hologram is accurate for the ID in question.
#4: Employees Should be Routinely Monitored for Alcohol Compliance
In addition to training and alcohol policies, employees should be routinely monitored for alcohol compliance. This is the whole reason that municipal stings exist: to catch employees in the act of selling age-restricted products to underage customers. Unfortunately, municipal stings usually result in a legal or financial burden on the business owner and the employee involved.
An alternate solution is to hire a service that can routinely monitor a business’s level of compliance through pre-arranged private Stings. Companies like Stinger Compliance offer 100% risk-free private Stings using a trained team of Stingers (all over the age of 21) who visit an establishment and note if the employee asks for identification at the point of sale of an age-restricted product like alcohol, tobacco, or cannabis.
These Stings are conducted regularly to monitor employees and provide a progress report to management. Business owners should be able to answer the following questions:
Are my employees regularly asking for IDs?
Are my employees visually inspecting IDs?
How often are we not in compliance with alcohol regulations?
Are there any employees that stand out as risks to my business?
Ready to book your first Sting with Stinger Compliance? Book here today!
