Alcohol is a great way to celebrate company events, but it’s important to ensure that your event is safe for your employees and minimizes potential business liability.
A few key elements will go a long way in helping to ensure that your company event is safe for your employees. Follow these 7 ways to serve alcohol at your next company event safely!
1. Servers should be trained
A trained server is a vital component of any company event. Having your staff well-trained in alcohol service best practices and getting a BASSET certification online, for example, can minimize the risk, ensuring the safety of guests and employees and keeping your event running smoothly.
New servers should be taught how to take orders, explain the menu, and offer checks. They should also be familiar with your restaurant’s policies around alcohol serving and how to intervene in an emergency.
While some people can pick up these skills naturally, you should pair sit-down training with shadowing for more experiential learning. This allows them to apply the knowledge practically before putting it into practice on their tables.
2. Book in advance
Whether your company hosts a holiday party or another staff event, you want to ensure it’s as enjoyable and safe as possible. This is why it’s important to keep employees safe and your business liability-free when serving alcohol at company events.
The best way to ensure that you don’t put your business at risk is to book in advance for any events where alcohol will be served. This allows you to set specific week hours or days when people can book your services.
3. Verify IDs
Many minors enter establishments that sell alcohol and age-restricted products by using fake IDs. These include newly manufactured fake IDs, altered real IDs, and borrowed IDs of adults over 21.
Regardless of the ID type, staff members should check it carefully to ensure it isn’t fake.
Use a reliable ID scanner at your store’s entrance or sale counter, bar, or pub. This tool can quickly and easily detect any phony ID that is presented. In addition, it will minimize the risk of human error.
4. Offer non-alcoholic drinks
Offering non-alcoholic drinks can help eliminate uncomfortable situations at company events where alcohol is a part of the mix. Guests may be on a special diet, have a medical condition or pregnancy that prohibits them from drinking, or dislike alcohol.
Serve a variety of non-alcoholic options, such as coconut and fruit mixes or juices, at your event. In addition, you can make them taste as good as alcoholic drinks by choosing low-calorie or herbal mixers.
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Ensure that employees refrain from drinking on an empty stomach by serving meals at the event’s start and providing a break in the middle to allow people to space out their drinks. Also, enlist designated drivers or offer free cabs for those who decide to drive home.
5. Serve food often
This means serving snacks such as nuts, crisps, and sweets to help slow the absorption of alcohol. These foods delay the effects of drinking and reduce the chances that people will drink too much or be injured due to a drunken episode at a party. In addition, serving food often at company events is a good way to prevent employees from drinking on an empty stomach. It can also get employees to talk with each other.
When it comes to alcohol, serve a limited number of drinks at the start of an event and ensure they are served until they are physically full or have consumed enough to keep them from overdoing it.
6. Increase your social awareness
Be aware of your surrounding when serving alcohol to people who look under 21 years old. In many states, it is illegal to sell alcoholic beverages to someone who looks underage or does not have an ID, and you could be held liable if you were involved in any legal action.
If you know that an older teenager accompanies the guest, be extra vigilant and ask if they are purchasing their drink or bringing one in.
Increase your social awareness at company events: Have managers and supervisors chaperone the event and look for unsafe behavior. This can include slurred speech, arguments, rude behavior, and loud voice volume.
7. Make it easy to get sober at company events
Offer non-alcoholic and booze-free options ahead of time, along with the drinks themselves.
Serve high-protein foods – Foods that contain protein and starch, such as cheeses, meats, and seafood, delay the absorption of alcohol in the bloodstream. Minimize salty foods, which cause people to become thirsty and exacerbate alcohol-related problems.:
Offer non-alcoholic drinks such as coffee, a soft drink, or a punch that contains no alcohol. This will help ensure guests are not overindulging and won’t be at risk for drunken driving or other injuries caused by drinking too much.
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