Bakery Manager Job Description, Skills and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a bakery manager. Feel free to use our job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a bakery manager.
Who is a Bakery Manager?
When one talks about the essentials of life, he is most likely to mention food, shelter, and clothing. If that person is told to narrow those items down to one thing, it most likely will be food. Food plays a pivotal role in our lives. Without food, we cannot function properly. In fact, staying without food for long periods can lead to severe health complications, including death.
Pastries are a very important class of foods and no one would want a world without pastries. To this extent, bakeries and groceries stores are very essential to the common man. But who ensures that these bakeries live up to their expected functions and roles? This introduces the question, who is a bakery manager?
A bakery manager coordinates the operations in the bakery department of any grocery store. Staff management, supply of materials, and the likes are some of the essential functions of a bakery manager.
Bakery Manager Job Description
Below are the bakery manager job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a bakery manager job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
- Ensuring that the bakery does not lack adequate supplies and baking ingredients.
- Ensuring that the materials in the bakery are quality materials, with no element of spoilage.
- Maintaining baking equipment and utensils, by ensuring they are sanitized properly.
- Routinely observing the quality of the bakery items and ensuring that they do not fall short in standard.
- Coordinating the recruitment of new staff members, to ensure full optimization in the daily activities of the bakery.
- Organizing training sessions for staff and ensuring that they are acquainted with up-to-date baking practices.
- Developing and monitoring work schedules to ensure that staff put in optimal effort in the management of the bakery.
- Monitoring the performance of the staff and ensuring work etiquette is maintained, by meting out proper disciplinary action on defaulting staff.
- Relating with customers to ensure that their grievances are addressed professionally.
- Observing price tags and ensuring that changes be effected when necessary, to ensure profit maximization and proper service.
- Ensuring that proper tabs are kept on the daily activities of the bakery, by way of record keeping.
- Discovering and applying new advertising techniques to encourage customers to offer more patronage.
Qualifications
The role of a bakery manager is very essential in any bakery. To this extent, not just anyone can be hired as a bakery manager. There are certain qualifications that a bakery manager must possess before he is considered for the job. These qualifications can be outlined as follows:
- Academic Qualifications
To become a successful bakery manager, you must have at least a high school diploma. Alternatively, you may have a General Educational Development Test( GED). Rather, unfortunately, a GED does not enjoy the same prestige as a high school diploma. Therefore, it is most advisable to obtain a high school diploma.
It is also advisable to obtain an Associate Degree in Culinary Arts or Pastry Arts. With a degree in these courses, your recruiter will be most certain that your experience level is high and you stand a chance to be hired amongst others who do not possess this degree.
- A Food Handler’s License
Most recruiters ensure that employees have proper experience when it comes to handling food. Since the role of a bakery manager is extremely important, a bakery manager will certainly be required to have this experience as well.
This need for experience is satisfied by obtaining a food handler’s license. A license does two things:
It certifies that you are familiar with the basic ethics of food hygiene.
It certifies that you have completed the basic food safety training.
To obtain this certificate, you must attempt and pass a food handler’s course. Accreditation is very important when registering for these courses. Many food handlers’ licenses are rejected because the course in question was not accredited. Therefore, to obtain your food handler’s license, you must ensure you register for an accredited course.
To discover an accredited training program, you must conduct research and go scouting. It is preferable to offer courses accredited by the American National Standards Institute(ANSI). Fortunately, these courses are now offered online and you can take them from the comfort of your home.
- Experience
Experience in the industry is highly valued by recruiters. To be a bakery manager, you must have experience working in bakeries, or dealing with food. Therefore, you may choose to start as a baker for a few restaurants, before eventually making the ultimate decision to become a bakery manager.
Many times, recruiters do not hire bakery managers who cannot cook or bake. The general assumption is if you cannot, perform the task, how will you coordinate several people performing the same task? Thus, you must get to experience as a baker in any restaurant of your choice.
During your time in these restaurants, take up leadership roles and also make necessary contributions. In your way, input value into the industry. That way, you have a lot to add to your resume as recruiters search for people who can add value to their industry.
- Certification
Many recruiters require that their bakery managers must be adequately certified. Note that this certification is distinct from possessing a food handlers’ license. This certification will be discussed as we progress further.
Essential Skills of a Bakery Manager
- Verbal Communication Skills
In communicating with customers, a proper understanding of the language of communication is required. You must be able to be fluent in the language of communication, whether it is English, French, Hindu, Spanish, etc. Moreover, you require these skills when you are relating with the staff.
To this extent, you must develop strong verbal communication if you must excel in the profession.
- Leadership Skills
A bakery manager coordinates a team of employees. He must ensure they keep to the high standards of the employee, as well as perform their tasks effectively. You cannot be a successful bakery manager if you cannot lead a group of people.
Decision-making is very essential in the leadership process. You must have the ability to make decisions, knowing that your decisions affect the management of the bakery. Thus, leadership skills are essential in the profession.
- Organizational and Time Management Skills
A bakery manager must have the ability to compartmentalize the tasks in the bakery, ensuring that they are completed on time. Even the arrangement of work schedules requires a proper grasp of organizational skills.
Moreover, organizational skills are a necessary complement to the leadership skills of the bakery manager.
- Creativity and Analytical Skills
There is huge competition in the baking industry. Thus, to attract more customers, you must be able to stand out. Standing out is only possible when you introduce new techniques into the industry.
These new techniques can only be introduced by one with a creative and active mind. You must be able to think outside the box, coming up with amazing strategies that will win you more patronage. Moreover, you must be able to analyze old strategies and working patterns; and come up with improved plans to enhance efficiency.
- Interpersonal Skills
Customers appreciate someone they are free to associate with. You must possess strong interpersonal skills to allow you to relate with any kind of customer, as different customers have different character traits and need to approach differently.
Moreover, you need these skills to have a flowing relationship with your employees. If your employees are not in sync with you, efficiency will be great.
- Stress Management Skills
Several bakery managers work under pressure. Sometimes, this pressure may end up being overwhelming, and rather, unfortunately, several bakery managers have a mental breakdown.
To avoid this, you must develop strong stress management skills. With these skills, you will be able to work under extreme pressure and not break down.
- Problem-Solving Skills
In the industry, the tendency of meeting several roadblocks is very high. However, problem-solving skills will allow you to address whatever situations that may arise, with a lot of efficacy.
Therefore, a bakery manager must be a problem solver.
- Dedication
If you cannot commit to a task, then the profession is not for you. You must possess a strong resolve to commit to certain tasks which may come your way in the industry. This resolve will allow you to coordinate with your staff to meet up to your expectations.
- Cooking Skills
You cannot be a Mathematics teacher if you do not know Mathematics. In the same vein, you cannot be a bakery manager if you do not know about cooking. Therefore, you must be able to cook to be a successful bakery manager.
How to Become a Bakery Manager?
The first step in becoming a bakery manager is being academically grounded. To be academically grounded, you must, first of all, attain a high school diploma or a GED. The next step you have to take is you must enroll in an Associate Degree Program. While enrolling for these programs, you must ensure that the program you are enrolling for is certified or you may not have a high chance of employment in the future.
The next step you have to take is to gain work experience. Gaining work experience in this field does not require an internship of any sort. Rather, you must apply for any position in a bakery. The journey to a job as a bakery manager is not a one-day task. Therefore, you must not become a bakery manager immediately after you obtain your Associate Degree. Therefore, you can apply for any position in the bakery and groom yourself to become a bakery manager in the nearest future. You may achieve this in your current workplace or a different environment.
The next step you must take is that you must be certified. Certification plays a very important role in the industry, and your recruiters will require some sort of certification when you are hired. It is trite to note that a food handlers’ license does not entirely qualify one to be a certified bakery manager, but is necessary nevertheless. The question now is, which form of certification can you obtain? The few certifications you can obtain are outlined as follows:
- Certified Food Manager
- Certified Management Accountant
- Food Safety Manager Certification
- Certified Professional Food-Safety
- Certified Manager Certification
- Certified Dietary
- OSHA Safety Certificate
However, the most important certification is obtained from the Retail Bakers Association(RBA), which offers different certificates, depending on which requirements the person in question has reached. These requirements are outlined as follows:
- Certified Journey Baker(CJB)
To obtain this certification, you must have a minimum of one year of experience in the field. Alternatively, you must have a minimum of one year of education and commercial baking work experience for a minimum of 40 days of working experience.
- Certified Baker(CB)
To obtain this certification, you must have a minimum of four years of working experience in the field. Alternatively, you can have a CJB certification and three years of working experience to obtain this certification.
- Certified Master Baker
To obtain this certification, you must have a minimum of eight years of working experience. Alternatively, you must have a CB certification and four years of working experience.
It is recommended that you begin by obtaining the CJB certification, before attempting to obtain the other two certifications. Moreover, if you want to be quickly assimilated into the industry, you must obtain the CJB, while obtaining the other certifications at a later period.
After being certified, you can now apply for jobs. This brings us to the next question, where can you work as a bakery manager?
Where to Work
From the title of the job, it can be inferred that a bakery manager works in a bakery. However, this assumption only limits the scope of a bakery manager’s profession. A bakery manager can also work in a grocery store and a restaurant. Technically, any organization that deals with ‘sweet’ foods will require the services of a bakery manager.
Salary Scale of a Bakery Manager
The salaries of bakery managers differ due to several factors. Most times, the difference can be traced to the organization they work in. However, the salary of a bakery manager ranges from $30,000 to $60,000 per year.
In all, the work of a bakery manager is an exciting task and highly recommended for anyone who has knowledge of food. However, you must develop leadership skills as you apply for this job, without it, you cannot be a ‘manager’.