Responsible Beverage Service Training

Summary

Responsible Beverage Service Training (RBST) is an approach to reducing alcohol related problems associated with retail alcohol sales (includes stores, bars, restaurants, casinos, fairs and festivals) by educating merchants and their employees about strategies to avoid illegally selling alcohol to underage youth or intoxicated patrons.

Responsible beverage service training must utilize the Training for Intervention Procedures (TIPS) program and be implemented as part of a comprehensive alcohol misuse prevention approach that includes, at a minimum, compliance checks. As with all strategies that focus on policy change, enforcement should always be considered as a critical, parallel strategy. Effective deterrence increases the perception that those who violate the policy will be held accountable. This increases the probability that policy change will result in desired outcomes.

Policy Development

Offer to work with retail management to develop establishment policies and practices that will reinforce and complement RBST. For example, management can require staff to check IDs for anyone under 30 or adopt practices that promote a safer environment for the establishment such as barring intoxicated persons from entering the outlet.

In-house policies should clearly define how alcohol is to be sold such as:

• Monitor the door to prevent overcrowding and to screen people who appear to be intoxicated or underage.
• Offer and promote food during all hours of operation.
• Promote alternative beverages that include a wide range of alcohol-free beers, wines, and “mocktails.”
• Discourage drink specials, happy hours, or other pricing practices that encourage over-consumption.
• Price non-alcoholic drinks competitively with alcohol products.
• Check age identification of anyone appearing to be under the age of 30.
• Monitor and pace customer’s drinking by not selling more than one alcoholic beverage at a time.
• Train staff on how to refuse service to an obviously intoxicated person.
• Market and promote responsible beverage service philosophy, policies and practices to the public.

Community-level RBST-related policies such as affirmative defense as noted below:

• Create an “affirmative defense” policy in the community. This is the same sort of “incentive” that retailers can access if they successfully complete the Iowa Alcoholic Beverage Division (ABD) I-PACT online training.
  • The City or County Attorney will need to be contacted for input and to assist with next steps.
  • The following is language provided to I-PACT participants about the affirmative defense: Establishments that choose to participate in the I-PACT training are granted an affirmative defense, which may be used once in a four-year period. A business may avoid civil prosecution if an alcohol sale-to-minor violation occurs in their establishment. In order for the business to take advantage of the affirmative defense, the employee guilty of the violation must have been I-PACT certified prior to the time the offense occurred. However, the affirmative defense cannot be used if the employee sold to a minor under the age of 18. Only the business is eligible to avoid a civil penalty; the guilty employee will still be subject to a fine and their I-PACT certification will be revoked.

I-PACT and RBST

If retailers are sending employees through Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division’s (ABD) I-PACT online training system (https://i-pact.com/portal) and are resistant to send staff to a face-to-face training, consider sharing the following:

• Explain the benefits of having staff attend face-to-face training. Professionals should review the TIPS curricula and go through the I-PACT online training so the differences can be explained.
• RBST can be obtained from several sources. Employees could attend a face-to-face RBST and then gain supplemental knowledge through I-PACT or could attend RBST one year and participate in I-PACT the next.
• RBST should not just happen one time. Ongoing training should be provided, even for staff that have already been trained in RBST. This is where both I-PACT and RBST could assist with providing training to the retailer.
• Below is language from the Iowa ABD’s website about I-PACT and face-to-face RBST:
  • While I-PACT is offered free of charge from the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, in person supplemental alcohol education training offers an expanded approach to responsible beverage server training in a classroom setting.

Core Components

Dosage/Frequency

• TIPS training needs to be facilitated (not just offered) a minimum of four times per fiscal year in the funded community.
• A minimum of 50% of a specific retailer population of focus needs to be engaged through the strategy with at least 50% of employees per location being trained by the end of the project.

Required Key Steps

All policies developed or strengthened through this strategy must be formally written, signed by the community or retailer leadership and then provided to the Agency Project Director/Coordinator as documentation. Contact the Agency Project Director/Coordinator for additional grant requirements about this documentation.

• Implement in collaboration with the Alcohol Compliance Check strategy. If compliance checks are being provided through another agency or funding source the level of services should be sufficient to impact the population of focus as an effective deterrent. Information regarding this should be provided in the strategic plan.
• In collaboration with the coalition and community partners, conduct an assessment to determine which businesses are problematic.
• Implement a beverage service training program tailored to the specific problems identified through assessment, such as off-premises (stores), on-premises (bars, restaurants), and/or special events (fairs, festivals). Training must be well-executed and face-to-face and include:
  • Training for managers as well as servers and
  • Option to provide training at the retailer location.
  • Four-hour minimum duration.
• Identify a TIPS trainer who can be flexible regarding training times and training locations dependent on needs of retailers.
• Support of initial training or recertification of identified TIPS trainer. Coordinator should be aware that recertification needs to occur every two years and should be budgeted for accordingly.
  • Trainings are not always available regularly through TIPS so it’s important to plan ahead to access needed training for the identified trainer.
  • Training schedules and fees can be found at http://www.gettips.com/.
• Coordinator to participate in training.
  • Review TIPS training materials or attend a class so he or she can discuss specifics with retailers.
  • Take the I-PACT online training through Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division at Iowa Program for Alcohol Compliance Training (I-PACT) | Department of Revenue.
  • Coordinator should be ready to discuss the benefits of face-to-face training and the differences between TIPS and I-PACT with retailers (see above for additional details).
• Create and utilize a documentation system that can be continually updated, which saves demographic information about retailers and employees who have successfully completed RBST. This will serve as documentation regarding the percentage of businesses, and percentage of staff from each business, which have completed training.
• Target trouble spots. Focus training or dosage on high-risk establishments first (place of last drink data collected by law enforcement is helpful to identify these locations). Determine these locations by obtaining information from police arrests or other local data sources.
• Create a training schedule in collaboration with the TIPS trainer.
  • Work with the TIPS trainer and retailers to establish training locations, dates and times.
  • Provide the TIPS trainer with needed supplies such as printing, certificates of completion, etc.
• Discuss policy development with:
  • Retailer managers/owners to create in-house policies that address, at a minimum, restricting sales to underage youth.
  • AND/OR at the community-level for creation of an affirmative defense or mandating RBST for alcohol licensees.

Training Promotion

• Create a plan to continually promote trainings in ways that best resonates with retailers that can include:
• Utilization and distribution of existing promotional materials about the benefits of RBST that engages retailers.
• Discussion with retailer managers about what would encourage participation in training by retailers (retailer resources, training at retailer location, weekend/evening training, etc.).
• Send an informational letter about RBST to retailers before compliance checks are scheduled to occur and as a follow up to those who failed their compliance check, after each round of checks occurs.

Ongoing Recognition

Create a plan to continually recognize retailers which can include:

• Provide certificates which are delivered face-to-face for retailers which send at least 50% of employees through RBST.
• Place an ad in the local newspaper recognizing the retailer completing training. Be sure to obtain permission from each retailer before publishing their name or information in the media.
• Provide helpful/needed resources for retailers on not serving/selling to underage youth for participating in RBST.

Capacity Building

Create a capacity building plan to continually engage strategy stakeholders. Some ideas include:

• Build support for this strategy from alcohol retailers, community members and law enforcement.
  •  Increase support for RBST with retailer management.
  • Lack of support for RBST has shown to undermine employees’ implementation of RBST practices.
• Provide at least quarterly face-to-face visits to promote and educate retailers about RBST.
• Ask law enforcement to visit all retailers to promote participation in RBST.
• Mail letters informing retailers of the upcoming training occurring.
• Deliver helpful materials related to not serving or selling to those under 21 years of age.
• Recruit retailers to serve on the coalition or help be a champion for the strategy in the community.

Implementation Materials

Checking Age Identification
Preventing Underage Drinking: Using Getting to Outcomes with the SAMHSA Strategic Prevention Framework to Achieve Results
Responsible Alcohol Sales Training: Community Action Kit
Responsible Beverage Service Training
Responsible Beverage Service Training From Theory to Practice Webinar
TIPS Training

References

Gliksman, L., McKensie, D., Single, E., Douglas, R., Brunet, S., & Moffatt, K. (1993). The role of alcohol providers in prevention: An evaluation of a server intervention programme. Addiction, 88(9), 1195–1203. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.1993.tb02142.x

Holder, H. D., & Wagenaar, A. C. (1994). Mandated server training and reduced alcohol involved traffic crashes: A time series analysis of the Oregon experience. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 26(1), 89–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-4575(94)90071-X

Lang, E., Stockwell, T., Rydon, P., & Beel, A. (1998). Can training bar staff in responsible serving practices reduce alcohol-related harm? Drug Alcohol Rev, 17(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/09595239800187581

Russ, N. W., & Geller, E. S. (1987). Training bar personnel to prevent drunken driving: a field evaluation. Am J Public Health, 77(8), 952–954. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.77.8.952

Saltz, R. F. (1987). The role of bars and restaurants in preventing alcohol-impaired driving: An evaluation of server intervention. Eval Health Prof, 10(1), 5–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/016327878701000102

Stockwell, T. R. (2001). Responsible alcohol service: Lessons from evaluations of server training and policing initiatives. Drug and Alcohol Review, 20(3), 257-265. https://doi.org/10.1080/09595230120079567

Toomey, T. L., Kilian, G. R., Gehan, J. P., Perry, C. L., Jones-Webb, R., & Wagenaar, A. C. (1998). Qualitative assessment of training programs for alcohol servers and establishment managers. Public Health Reports, 113(2), 162-169. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1308656/