Olive Garden - Restaurant Manager Management

Working at Olive Garden, everyone has a chance to succeed. We provide extensive training and educational opportunities. We are committed to open and honest communication, mutual respect and strong teamwork. When you work at Olive Garden, you're considered family.

In January 1995, then Olive Garden President Brad Blum took his first "whirlwind tour", visiting Olive Garden Garden restaurants throughout the country. He held numerous meetings with diverse groups of Olive Garden frontline employees in order to improve communication, share ideas, and set priorities. After meeting with and listening to many servers, line cooks, bartenders, prep cooks, dishwashers, hosts/hostesses and other employees, Brad realized the need to develop a set of Olive Garden principles that have become a guiding force for how we work and what we value. The employees always voiced the same two requests at every meeting:

Hold us to High Standards
Treat Us with Respect

From these simple words, the Olive Garden Principles were born–the philosophical touchstone for all Olive Garden employees. The principles are as follows:

1) We are committed to open and honest communication, mutual respect and strong teamwork.

2) We are clear on each individual's role, accountabilities and key performance measures.

3) We do not compromise standards in selection, training and job performance.

Not Just an Initiative

Olive Garden celebrates and promotes diversity throughout the company and the community. We celebrate the distinctions that our employees bring to the workplace, including race, gender, religion, age, disability, and sexual orientation. Blind to any of these, we treat and expect everyone to be treated with equal respect.

When you work at Olive Garden, you are held to high standards, both in terms of how you treat customers and how you treat fellow employees. Just as we put a great deal of energy and time towards making customers feel at home, we go a long way to make sure that when you work here, you're family–and are treated as such.

When you work at Olive Garden, you're family.

It makes sense. It's the backbone of what we call Hospitaliano! ® – 100% guest delight.

We want our guests to feel at home. We only meet this goal as well as we do by ensuring that the people serving our guests feel at home. While the concept is simple, we invest a great deal towards fulfilling it. Management that listens and cares. Opportunities for advancement. A strong commitment to diversity in the workplace. And these are just starting points. The point is, we want you to be confident and comfortable with everything you do here. This is part of why we offer such extensive training and self-development, flexible schedules, and most important, a place you can call home.

Olive Garden managers rotate through three distinct roles. Upon graduation from our Manager-In-Training program, managers set the pace as leaders of the service, sales or culinary departments in one of our restaurants. After meeting leadership standards in one role, managers rotate to another role as part of their career development. Skill development continues in all three roles as our managers journey towards senior leadership positions.

Service Manager Delights each guest by providing 100% Guest Delight service which, in turn, results in guests’ recommending Olive Garden to their friends. Focuses on delivering fresh, high quality, Italian food complemented by a great glass of wine in a comfortable home-like and Italian setting, welcomed by people who treat you like family. Creates an atmosphere in the restaurant that builds energy, vitality, and fun, generating excellent service ratings and positive “word of mouth.” Selects and retains highly skilled service-oriented employees; models the Olive Garden principles. Motivates and retains them by providing ongoing training and development; models the Olive Garden principles. Regularly measures and evaluates service levels and standards using guest and employee feedback and develops plans for continuous improvement.		Culinary Manager Provides leadership for the preparation of fresh, high quality, Italian food complemented by a great glass of wine in a comfortable, home-like and Italian setting, welcomed by people who treat you like family. Guarantees consistent planning, production, preparation, and prompt delivery of piping hot food. Creates an environment that builds energy, vitality, and fun, resulting in excellent food taste and temperature ratings. Responsible for the efficient and successful execution of all culinary initiatives. Selects and trains highly skilled culinary employees and motivates and retains them by providing ongoing training and development. Continually develops culinary employees’ cooking, food preparation, food safety, food and wine pairing and sanitation skills to ensure the delivery of great tasting, piping hot food.
Sales Manager Delights each guest through the delivery of a genuine Italian dining experience with fresh, high quality Italian food complemented by a great glass of wine in a comfortable, home-like, Italian setting, welcomed by people who treat you like family. Creates and fosters an environment in the restaurant that builds energy, vitality, and fun, resulting in positive “word of mouth”. Maintains a high level of motivation, encouraging and achieving sales improvements for each employee. Selects, trains and retains highly skilled service-oriented and hospitality-focused employees. Conducts and coordinates ongoing training for employees and managers to develop food and beverage product knowledge and sales skills, focusing on food and wine pairing. Continually enhances food and beverage product knowledge and is regarded as the restaurant wine and alcohol beverage expert.