How To Motivate Your Restaurant Employees
When crafting the recipe for a successful restaurant, delicious food, and an excellent location are usually the first two success factors that come to mind. But the key to excelling in the competitive restaurant business is a staff that is competent, friendly, and motivated on the job.
This is easier said than done. Food service is a highly transitory job for most people. The work can be grueling, and everyone’s under a constant threat of burnout. It takes a special kind of leadership to build a solid, well-oiled service team.
That said, below, we’ll lay out a few tips for food managers hoping to get the most out of their restaurant staff.
Be the Change
Those at the top set the tone for an organization. It’s as true for restaurants as it is for huge corporations – maybe more so since you’re working side by side, day and night.
To create a positive restaurant work environment, owners and managers have to set an example with their words and actions. Show up. Contribute. Bring positivity, fairness, and a great attitude to work every day, and your employees will follow.
Invest In Management
Food service managers handle staff, oversee food preparation, ensure customer satisfaction, ensure legal compliance, and juggle a thousand administrative tasks that keep the gears turning.
They’re the biggest x-factor to reduce restaurant employee turnover and improve employee engagement. The quality of the management can make or break a restaurant.
This makes hiring restaurant management a critical task. When there’s a vacancy in management, it can be tempting to plug someone in as soon as possible, whether they’re good enough or not, but you have to prioritize finding the right candidate.
Once a manager is hired, the work isn’t done. Invest in your manager’s training, development, and mental health constantly. The first step in motivating restaurant employees is motivating your manager by making them feel valued, heard, and appreciated.
Schedule Mindfully
Scheduling is one of the biggest headaches for restaurant management, but it can also be a huge demoralizer for your staff.
First, be fair with who gets the best shifts. Yes, your best employees earn some privileges in that area, but you need to provide a good mix of earning opportunities to each employee. When it comes to restaurant employee retention strategies, this is big. If someone is only getting light shifts with few tips, they’re not going to stick with you for long.
Second, keep shifts as predictable as you can make them. That way, people can plan a life outside of work, and anything you can do to promote a work-life balance will lead to less burnout.
Third, try to accommodate employees’ preferences. Obviously, you can’t make everybody happy all of the time, but you can take their needs into account. Ask questions like, “If you had to pick one day a week as the one you’ll never work, which would it be?” Make it clear that you’re not making any promises but follow through on a good-faith effort to accommodate their needs.
And don’t just pay attention to employees’ explicit requests. Look for patterns in their behavior. Are they particularly motivated or distracted on certain days of the week or times of the day? Are there other staff members they work more productively with? Are there ones they clash with?
Set yourself, and your employees, up for success by working with their strengths and quirks.
Avoid Understaffing
Speaking of scheduling, make sure you plan to have enough staff for each shift, and take seasonality and holiday or event traffic into account. Use data if you have it, and if you don’t, start collecting!
It’s impossible to create a positive restaurant work environment if everyone is slammed all shift and juggling multiple job responsibilities because you left them shorthanded. Don’t assign the number of people you need to get by. Assign enough staff to keep things clicking along even when one staff member is taking a breather.
One step toward avoiding an understaffed shift is to have a system for sick day coverage beyond “figure it out yourself.”
Another is to cross-train staff into key positions. This will add flexibility for sick day coverage, rush hours, and general scheduling, all at the same time.
Address Problems Quickly and Fairly
Conflicts between employees are inevitable, but how you handle them can have an enormous impact on your business’s culture.
It’s hard to motivate restaurant employees who are at each other’s throats, but it’s even harder to motivate them if they feel you’re being negligent or unfair.
Plan ahead for likely problems and sources of conflict. Develop an action plan to address internal issues while your head is cool and you’re thinking clearly. Write them down and enforce them consistently.
Having reliable and well-thought-out approaches to interpersonal conflict is one of the best restaurant employee retention strategies you can have.
Provide Training & Development Opportunities
A lack of opportunity for advancement is one of the top reasons for restaurant employee turnover, so staff development should be at the top of your list for reducing it.
This doesn’t have to be about advancement up a ladder. There are a lot of ways to develop employees to keep them engaged in their jobs.
Provide leadership development opportunities routinely and continue nurturing those who show talent and enthusiasm. Cross-train staff in other skill areas – this will not only reduce your scheduling woes, but it’ll also keep things fresh for the staff. Even training in soft skills like communication and conflict resolution will pay dividends and serve as a signal that you’re invested in their professional success.
Adding training and development can be intimidating if it’s a new initiative, but you don’t have to do it alone, and you don’t have to start from scratch.
You probably already outsource your compliance training like Food Handler, Food Manager, and Alcohol Server courses. A reputable online provider like us can provide broader development solutions as well, from leadership skills to conflict resolution.
