With rising food costs, supply chain challenges, and evolving guest expectations, how do you retain and inspire your restaurant staff and front line service workers?
Every day is a challenge in the foodservice industry and in today’s environment, labor shortages are more common than not.
Retaining and inspiring your staff should be a top priority.
Here’s how you can combat your staffing challenges and elevate the employee experience:
Culturally Inspire
Company culture means everything to employees. Culturally inspiring them is a way to motivate them to do their job meaningfully. This means building strong relationships and connecting with them to ensure they have a purpose at your operation.
When you give them an appealing environment to work in, you help drive productivity and greater performance.
Strategically Align
To strategically align your employees, you need to give them something that will help them accomplish their career goals. Food workers want a sense of purpose. They’re interested in investing their own time to make the workplace better for both themselves and your guests.
Your restaurant should work in their favor to help them meet their career goals. Strategically aligning their needs with your agenda will benefit both you and your employees. This means listening to what they need to ensure their goals are met.
Tactically Enable
Enabling your employees means empowering them with the resources and engine they need to complete their tasks. Technology is the best way to streamline these processes. Give them the right tools to help them get their job done efficiently and effectively. You want to equip them for success. Involve them in the decision-making process when identifying technology solutions that best fit their process. Employee insight is important. Get your staff involved and encourage them to use the new tools to drive success.
Communicate, Recognize, and Celebrate
Effective communication from both ends is a critical aspect of maintaining a healthy work environment. Establish a feedback loop. Ask your employees to give feedback on processes that are working and ones that are not.
Remember to recognize your employees for all their hard work and celebrate their accomplishments and achievements, big or small. You are their biggest advocate.
Engaging positively and being transparent with your employees will help impact their happiness and satisfaction. When you have a consistent format for praising employees, this inspires the rest of your staff to bring on their A game and put in their utmost effort to elevate the guest experience.
