Top 12 Assistant Restaurant Manager Skills to Put on Your Resume
Landing a position as an assistant restaurant manager means proving you can juggle operations, people, and numbers—without dropping the guest experience. Spotlighting the right skills shows you’re not just a fit, you’re someone who will raise the bar for service, speed, and consistency.
Assistant Restaurant Manager Skills
- POS Systems
- Inventory Management
- Customer Service
- Staff Training
- Scheduling Software
- Conflict Resolution
- Sales Analysis
- Food Safety
- OpenTable
- Financial Reporting
- Marketing Strategies
- Team Leadership
1. POS Systems
A POS (point-of-sale) system is the digital backbone for order entry, payments, menu controls, discounts, inventory ties, and reporting—arming an Assistant Restaurant Manager with speed, traceability, and insight in one hub.
Why It's Important
POS systems knit together sales, inventory, and guest data. Fewer errors, faster turns, cleaner books, clearer trends. You get real-time visibility and fewer operational blind spots.
How to Improve POS Systems Skills
Make your POS work harder than you do:
Keep it current: Update software and firmware regularly to gain stability, features, and security patches.
Connect the stack: Integrate with inventory, accounting, loyalty, and reservations so data flows without copy-paste headaches.
Train in sprints: Short, frequent training beats one long session. Cover speed keys, common voids, comps, and error recovery.
Go mobile where it matters: Tableside order-and-pay trims ticket times and slashes misfires during peaks.
Lock it down: Enforce strong user permissions, encrypted payments, and PCI-compliant procedures.
Mine the data: Use built-in dashboards to spot menu winners, dead weight, and hour-by-hour traffic patterns.
Listen, tweak, repeat: Gather staff feedback on friction points and refine layouts, buttons, and workflows.
How to Display POS Systems Skills on Your Resume
2. Inventory Management
Inventory management means tracking every ingredient and supply—what’s on hand, what’s moving, and what’s wasting—so the kitchen never stalls and margins don’t leak.
Why It's Important
It keeps plates consistent, costs predictable, and waste down. The outcome: stable food cost, fewer stockouts, happy guests.
How to Improve Inventory Management Skills
Straighten the pipeline and the numbers follow:
Run FIFO relentlessly: Use older stock first. Label dates clearly and set up smart storage flow.
Adopt software: Track counts, pars, orders, and transfers digitally to curb errors and save time.
Audit on a rhythm: Schedule weekly spot checks and monthly full counts; investigate variances immediately.
Dial in vendors: Negotiate pricing, define delivery windows, and confirm specs to reduce surprises.
Train the team: Portion control, proper storage, and receiving checks make or break accuracy.
Forecast with sales: Align orders with demand by watching daypart, seasonality, and event patterns.
Fight waste: Track trim yields, repurpose safely, and adjust prep sheets to actual throughput.
How to Display Inventory Management Skills on Your Resume
3. Customer Service
It’s the orchestration of warm welcomes, quick fixes, and crisp service standards—coaching staff, handling complaints with grace, and keeping hospitality at full beam.
Why It's Important
Great service turns first-timers into regulars, powers word of mouth, and shields the brand when hiccups happen.
How to Improve Customer Service Skills
Build habits that stick:
Train often, not once: Role-play tough tables, allergy calls, and pacing. Reinforce menu knowledge.
Collect feedback: Comment cards, quick QR surveys, and table touches reveal friction you can fix.
Empower decisions: Give staff guardrails to comp, replace, or escalate so guests aren’t left waiting.
Personalize: Note regulars’ preferences and occasions; small details feel huge.
Communicate clearly: Quote realistic wait times, explain delays, and set expectations early.
Resolve fast: Apologize, act, and follow up at the table. Close the loop before the check drops.
Use tech wisely: Smooth reservations, contactless pay, and clear digital receipts reduce friction.
How to Display Customer Service Skills on Your Resume
4. Staff Training
Training is the system that turns standards into muscle memory—teaching, testing, and reinforcing how you want service and safety delivered.
Why It's Important
Well-trained teams move faster, make fewer mistakes, and handle heat calmly. Consistency becomes culture.
How to Improve Staff Training Skills
Make training practical and continuous:
Role-based tracks: Build tailored paths for hosts, servers, line cooks, and managers with checklists and time-bound milestones.
Hands-on first: Shadowing, station rotations, and live practice beat slides and binders.
Mentors matter: Pair new hires with strong veterans; set clear goals for week 1, 2, and 4.
Assess and refresh: Short quizzes, mystery shops, and skill demos keep standards sharp.
Document everything: SOPs, recipe cards with yields, and visual guides reduce interpretation.
How to Display Staff Training Skills on Your Resume
5. Scheduling Software
Scheduling software helps plan shifts, balance labor to sales, manage swaps, and stay compliant with labor rules—without sticky notes running the show.
Why It's Important
Right-sized staffing crushes wait times and overtime. Clear schedules reduce no-shows and burnout.
How to Improve Scheduling Software Skills
Let the tool do heavy lifting while you fine-tune the plan:
Design for clarity: Clean views, color-coded roles, and drag-and-drop edits speed up changes.
Build flexibility: Enable shift swaps and availability requests with manager approval to keep coverage solid.
Integrate: Connect to payroll and POS so sales forecasts inform labor targets automatically.
Notify instantly: Push alerts for updates, open shifts, and policy reminders to cut miscommunication.
Go mobile: Ensure staff can view, acknowledge, and request updates from their phones.
How to Display Scheduling Software Skills on Your Resume
6. Conflict Resolution
Conflict resolution is the steady hand that turns flare-ups—between staff or with guests—into solutions that stick and relationships that hold.
Why It's Important
Unresolved conflict bleeds service quality and morale. Quick, fair resolution keeps teams aligned and guests at ease.
How to Improve Conflict Resolution Skills
Lean into the conversation, not away from it:
Listen fully: Let each person speak without interruption. Surface the real issue beneath the first complaint.
Show empathy: Acknowledge feelings and impact before proposing fixes.
Speak clearly: Tackle the problem, not the person. Keep language neutral and specific.
Solve together: Co-create options, agree on the plan, and define who does what by when.
Follow up: Check back to confirm the fix worked and adjust if needed. Close the loop.
Practice skills: Run brief scenario drills during pre-shifts so responses become automatic.
How to Display Conflict Resolution Skills on Your Resume
7. Sales Analysis
Sales analysis dissects what sells, when it sells, and why—so you can price smarter, schedule better, and sculpt a menu that pulls its weight.
Why It's Important
Clear reads on item mix, daypart trends, and promos tell you what to push, what to drop, and where labor should sit. Profit follows focus.
How to Improve Sales Analysis Skills
Turn raw data into decisions:
Leverage POS reporting: Track top/low performers, modifiers, voids, and comps by day and hour.
Pair with feedback: Blend numbers with guest comments to understand the “why” behind performance.
Watch competitors: Monitor pricing and trends nearby to stay relevant without racing to the bottom.
Forecast demand: Use historical sales, seasonality, weather, and events to plan inventory and labor.
Upskill the team: Teach suggestive selling and menu storytelling; measure the impact.
Review routinely: Hold quick weekly huddles to track KPIs and pivot menu placements or specials.
How to Display Sales Analysis Skills on Your Resume
8. Food Safety
Food safety is the discipline of storing, prepping, cooking, cooling, and serving food to prevent illness and keep guests safe—every time, no exceptions.
Why It's Important
It protects health, the brand, and the business. Compliance isn’t optional; it’s the floor.
How to Improve Food Safety Skills
Build a safety culture that doesn’t waver:
Train and certify: Ensure managers and key staff hold recognized food safety credentials and refresh regularly.
Control temperatures: Verify cooking, holding, and cooling temps with calibrated thermometers and logs.
Sanitize right: Use EPA-registered disinfectants, proper dilution, labeled bottles, and posted schedules.
Prevent pests: Implement integrated pest management with routine inspections and documented actions.
Prioritize hygiene: Enforce handwashing, glove changes, illness reporting, and clean uniforms.
Audit regularly: Run internal inspections against your local code and the FDA Food Code (most jurisdictions follow the 2022 edition).
How to Display Food Safety Skills on Your Resume
9. OpenTable
OpenTable is a real-time reservation and guest management platform that helps you fill seats intelligently, track preferences, and smooth the door-to-dining room handoff.
Why It's Important
It streamlines bookings, reduces over/under-seating, and supports personalized touches that guests notice.
How to Improve OpenTable Skills
Fine-tune the tools and the details:
Complete your profile: Accurate hours, sharp photos, and current menus pull in undecided diners.
Design smarter floor maps: Match table types to party sizes and pacing; adjust for daypart demand.
Work the waitlist: Use automated confirmations and reminders to reduce no-shows.
Use guest notes: Track preferences, allergies, and occasions to tailor service.
Respond to reviews: Thank praise, address concerns, and invite guests back with specifics.
Review analytics: Spot demand spikes, channel performance, and turn times; shift staffing accordingly.
Train the host stand: Consistent seating rules and clear communication prevent bottlenecks.
How to Display OpenTable Skills on Your Resume
10. Financial Reporting
Financial reporting means turning daily sales, labor, and cost data into clear P&L snapshots—so decisions aren’t guesses, they’re guided.
Why It's Important
It reveals what’s profitable, what’s bleeding, and where to correct course. Better budgets, better control, better results.
How to Improve Financial Reporting Skills
Make reports timely, accurate, and useful:
Automate inputs: Feed POS, inventory, and payroll data directly into your reporting—bye, manual errors.
Close on cadence: Produce weekly flash P&Ls with prime cost, labor percent, and COGS broken out.
Standardize formats: Use consistent charts and definitions so trends are obvious at a glance.
Dive beyond totals: Track menu engineering metrics, voids/comps, and daypart mix, not just topline sales.
Educate the team: Teach supervisors what each metric means and how they influence it.
Audit and reconcile: Regular bank, cash, and inventory reconciliations keep reports trustworthy.
How to Display Financial Reporting Skills on Your Resume
11. Marketing Strategies
Marketing strategies cover how you attract, convert, and retain guests—social, local, email, events, partnerships, all pointing to full tables.
Why It's Important
Done well, marketing keeps demand steady, highlights what’s unique, and fills slow slots without discounting your brand into oblivion.
How to Improve Marketing Strategies Skills
Make noise people want to hear:
Define the audience: Families, date night, game-day crowds—craft offers and stories they care about.
Show, don’t tell: Post crave-worthy photos and behind-the-line moments on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
Nurture with email: Build a list, share new dishes, events, and exclusives; measure open and conversion rates.
Polish your site: Fast, mobile-friendly pages with menus, hours, reservations, and clear calls to action.
Win reviews: Encourage happy guests to leave feedback on Google and Yelp; respond promptly.
Be local-first: Optimize for local search, partner with nearby businesses, and cross-promote.
Host moments: Tastings, themed nights, live music—give people a reason to choose you tonight.
Measure and adapt: Track redemptions, traffic lifts, and ROI; shift spend to what’s working.
How to Display Marketing Strategies Skills on Your Resume
12. Team Leadership
Team leadership means setting the tone, coaching with intent, and aligning people toward service goals—especially when the board is full and the line is humming.
Why It's Important
Strong leadership steadies the shift, builds trust, and elevates service. It’s the difference between chaos and flow.
How to Improve Team Leadership Skills
Lead by habit and design:
Communicate relentlessly: Run crisp pre-shifts, quick mid-shift huddles, and brief post-shift debriefs.
Motivate smart: Recognize wins publicly, coach privately, and tailor incentives to the person.
Delegate with clarity: Assign ownership—sections, side work, expo—along with clear success measures.
Solve problems early: Spot bottlenecks and reassign on the fly; celebrate creative fixes.
Develop talent: Map growth paths, cross-train, and provide feedback that’s specific and actionable.
How to Display Team Leadership Skills on Your Resume
