How to Keep Your Best Team Members at a Restaurant
Within the hourly worker world, turnover is high and this has been the case for many years. With the current rate over 100%, this means each role is turned over once a year. While this might seem part and parcel of working in the restaurant industry, you should know that it costs close to $5,000 to replace somebody on $30,000 because you need to pay out to advertise the role, hire the right person, and then train them up to standard. For us, this is pure inefficiency so we have four tips to prevent a high turnover in your own establishment.
Hire Carefully – While keeping an eye on the skills of the individual and their ability to perform in the role, you should also be looking out for those who will stay for the longest time when hiring. If you don’t advertise the role correctly or you don’t spend enough time with candidates, the two parties are more likely to come across something they don’t like later down the line. If you hire carefully and ensure you’re both on the same wavelength, you enter a long-term agreement and partnership.
In addition to an extensive hiring process, we also recommend avoiding candidates who have had ten jobs within the last three years. Instead, look for those who have shown loyalty or at least ask the candidate why their employment has been so short in the past. In some circumstances, they’ll have a valid reason such as going back to school or looking after a sick family member. During the interview process, if you do it correctly, you can learn a significant amount about an individual.
Schedule Carefully – If your employees ask for certain days off, do your best to accommodate this or at least sit them down and explain why it isn’t possible rather than ignoring them completely. With your staff being the ones that decide your customers’ experience, you need them to want to be at work as opposed to hating it. Nowadays, you can take advantage of technological advancements to get your scheduling right. After collecting information regarding availability, platforms can now create a schedule from a template.
Handle Requests Carefully – Leading on from the previous point, everybody needs some time away sometimes otherwise they get sick of the same four walls. As well as allowing vacation time each year, pro-actively make arrangements to allow staff extra time off after a long period without a holiday. Of course, this includes yourself so stop thinking you’re immune from needing time away. If we get too much of anything, we grow tired so have a break and come back fully refreshed and motivated.
To prevent staff becoming annoyed when they can’t get the weekend off on a Friday, have some rules in place so the system is fair for everyone. For example, ‘all staff members should inform of requested time off at least weeks in advance’. With a digital system as shown previously, everything can be done automatically and you don’t have to remember the days each member of staff has asked to avoid.
Communicate Carefully – If you want to avoid a high staff turnover, communicate with all employees and avoid lying to them because this can be detrimental for your relationship with all staff. If you communicate and have a positive relationship, they’ll know you aren’t refusing time off for no good reason and you can build from here.