Working in the restaurant industry is fast-paced, exciting, and full of delicious dishes. Despite the wonderful aspects of working in this industry, there is one high score every restaurant owner and operator wishes they could bring down: the turnover rate.
Employee retention is a challenge. The industry experiences an annual turnover rate of 74%. That is nearly five times higher than the average for other industries. It’s also estimated that losing just one employee can cost a restaurant up to $10,000 in recruiting, hiring, and training.
The financial losses are only one aspect. The high turnover rate can also have a large effect on team morale. Losing valuable coworkers, constantly training new folks, and recruiting people take time and energy away from the job they enjoy doing, creating incredible guest experiences.
Read on to find out how, with a few significant changes, you can reduce turnover at your restaurants. It doesn’t take much to ensure your high-performing team members are happy, thriving, and have an established career path to grow with your business.
You’ve seen it before. Your best employees are working all the time because they are the most reliable people. Your newer team members haven’t had a chance to learn the ropes quite yet, so they aren’t scheduled as often. You’re on the verge of losing both of them. One is so burnt out from overworking, and the other doesn’t have enough hours to make ends meet.
A scheduling tool that can balance labor demand with employee preferences and availability, and most importantly sales, will improve your team morale. When you automate shift scheduling with smart tech, fairness improves, giving people a healthy amount of hours while limiting burnout. It also frees up managers from spending hours poring over schedules only to create a substandard labor mix. Your bottom line will grow as guests will enjoy a better experience with engaged, unflustered team members who are prepared for anything the day throws at them.
One of the most difficult things with teams who are on their feet and not sitting in front of a computer all day is communication. How do we ensure that everyone gets the information they need to ensure that they show up on time when schedules or shifts change? Do you still print out an Excel spreadsheet and post the weekly schedule in the back office? Sure, people can snap a picture of it and refer to it throughout the week, but what happens when that schedule changes? Group texts are risky. You could accidentally leave out a number or risk your message getting lost in a sea of texts.
A mobile app dedicated to work-related things will save you and your team headaches. Send out companywide announcements or alert a team of a specific location of a schedule change. It’s a great solution so everyone can keep track of work-related things, all in the same place. As a person who needs to communicate, you can relax knowing that you can pass on vital information with just a few keystrokes and clicks. It’s much easier than showing up at work and pulling everyone aside individually or making sure everyone shows up at the same time for a meeting. It saves everyone time and keeps everyone in the know.
When people feel like they’re stuck or have done all they can, their instinct is to move on. Losing talented people can have a major impact on your business and employee morale.
What if you had a whole learning management system that not only initially trains employees on the basics of working in your restaurants but creates career tracks and goals? With technology like this, you can identify top performers by monitoring their performance and placing them on a training track to prepare for promotions.
You can also recognize your team members along the way to show your appreciation. You can track KPIs and performance metrics. No matter what anyone says, being recognized for hard work by their employer lets them know how much you value them and their contributions to the business.
When you have to create these career paths from scratch, it can be very overwhelming. Partnering with the right technology will improve your ability to retain top talent by giving you the tools you need to help them thrive.
For team members, getting cut from a shift you were expecting to work is never fun. The money you were planning on making was potentially cut in half. If that happens frequently, staff is more likely to leave and seek employment elsewhere.
Labor forecasting helps restaurant owners plan for what’s ahead based on historical data. If you’re typically very busy on Tuesday nights, your labor forecasting tool will help you create a schedule to ensure you have the staff on hand to meet the expected sales. Your business and guests won’t feel the strain of short staffing. You can then offset the costs of having so many people on the schedule on a slower night when you don’t need as many people on the floor or in front of the ovens.
Getting payroll right is imperative to employee happiness and retention. People want to enjoy work but ultimately, a paycheck is the reason why everyone is there. So, ensuring accuracy is not something that should be left up to chance. There is a much higher chance of getting it wrong when you’re working with a handful of disconnected systems.
Your technology should have all the information it needs to automate and integrate time tracking and payroll, so employees are paid the correct amount and on time, without fail. You will boost trust with your employees when they never experience a hiccup in their paychecks. When an employee trusts an employer to pay them accurately, they are far more likely to stick around and contribute happily to your business.
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Reducing turnover in the restaurant industry is no small feat, but it is achievable with the right strategies, a proactive mindset, and tools that support both your business and your team. From creating fair schedules and improving communication to investing in growth opportunities and ensuring payroll accuracy, small, consistent improvements can lead to stronger retention and a more engaged workforce.
At the end of the day, a happy, supported team leads to better guest experiences and healthier business overall. When operators prioritize their people, everyone wins.
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