About 35 minutes to set up · claude.ai only

Build a first week training packet for one role

Today

You hire a busser or a front desk agent and the training is whoever happens to be closest that shift, because how you actually run the place lives in your head and in a binder nobody has updated since it was printed.

With Claude

You talk through the role out loud once, paste the transcript in, and get a one page task sheet, a day by day first week checklist, and questions a manager can ask on Friday to see whether it landed. The next hire gets the same training as this one.

The prompt

Paste this into claude.ai and replace anything in brackets.

You are writing training material for a new hire at [business name], a [restaurant, hotel, catering company, or event venue] in [city]. The reader is new to this role, may be new to the industry, and may read English as a second language. A manager will review and approve everything before it is used.

Role:
[name it, for example server, busser, line cook, dishwasher, host, front desk agent, housekeeper, banquet server, event captain]

Here is how we actually do this job, in my own words:
[paste your notes or a voice to text transcript: what the shift looks like start to finish, opening and closing duties, the tools and systems they touch, the standards you care about most, the mistakes new people always make, and who they ask when something goes wrong]

Our house details:
[uniform and appearance, clock in and break practice, phone policy, tip pool or tip out if any, who the manager on duty is, how to call out, and the safety basics you require]

Produce four things:
1. A one page task sheet for the role, organized as before the shift, during the shift, and closing.
2. A first week checklist, day one through day five, with what they should be able to do unsupervised by the end of each day.
3. Ten short questions a manager can ask at the end of week one to check that it landed, with the answers.
4. The five mistakes new people make in this role, and the exact sentence a trainer should say to correct each one.

Rules:
- Plain language, short sentences, and no jargon unless you define it the first time it appears.
- Use only what I gave you. Do not add a policy, a wage detail, a break rule, or a safety procedure I did not state, and do not summarize labor law.
- Do not write food safety, allergen, or sanitation procedures. Where one belongs, insert a line saying a certified manager will fill this in.
- At the end, flag anything I left out that a new hire would need on day one.

What to skip in restaurants, hotels, and event businesses

  • Allergen, dietary, and food safety language. Claude will produce a confident sounding gluten free or nut free line, and it can be wrong, and in a kitchen wrong means somebody in an ambulance. Menu claims, allergen matrices, cross contact procedures, cooling and holding steps, and anything that belongs in your food safety plan get written or verified by your chef, a certified food protection manager, or your local health department before they appear anywhere a guest or a cook can read them. Every prompt on this page tells Claude to leave those lines blank for exactly that reason.
  • Reviews and messages alleging illness or injury. A post saying someone got sick after eating at your place, or slipped in your lobby, is not a review to answer. It is a potential claim. Those go to you and to your insurer or your attorney before any words go public, because a well written public apology can be read as an admission. Same for anything alleging discrimination or harassment by a staff member.
  • Guest and employee personal data, and employment decisions. Do not paste card numbers, ID scans, full reservation or property management system exports, guest lists with contact details, or employee files including Social Security numbers, wage records, or write ups into claude.ai. Whether your chats are used to improve Anthropic's models is a setting in your account privacy controls, and that setting is still not a reason to put payment or personal data in a chat window. Describe people by role instead of by name and every prompt here still works. Termination, discipline, wage and hour, and scheduling law questions go to your HR advisor or attorney.

Want all 4 workflows for restaurants, hotels, and event businesses in your inbox?

Every prompt on this page plus the rest, so you still have them on Monday. One email, then four short ones on making it stick. Unsubscribe any time.

Or answer four questions and Claude writes three workflows for your specific business rather than the industry generally.

Before you try it

More for restaurants, hotels, and event businesses

Full guide for restaurants, hotels, and event businesses