In today’s email:

• Stay with me: 3 steps to take before you lose your best team members

Not even 4 months. You read that right. That’s the average length of time an employee stays at your restaurant. So what are you going to do to keep them around longer?

Because let’s be honest, we now live in a world where someone can make the same money online in a day that you can offer them with a monthly salary.

That’s your competition along with other businesses in the area.

Three big reasons staff might leave you are because

• they aren’t making enough money

• they feel they don’t have an opportunity for growth

• they’re not getting enough recognition.

If you’re a restaurant owner or manager, you’re gonna want to address these issues in your venue.

One of these alone won’t make the magic happen, but put them together and you’ll have a more loyal team that will help you attract others like them.

13 years I’ve worked in kitchens- 6 years as a chef. I made plenty of leadership mistakes in that time, but I learned from them, and I want you to benefit from what I got wrong.

Not making enough money

There was never getting away from this one. Paying over market is usually a good practice though tough to pull off. You can pay them more if you increase your daily sales and customer volume by the required amounts.

Most of your team already has a second job, not because of their passion for food and hospitality but because they need the additional income for basic living expenses.

Minimum wage works for rent and food, but not much else. Do some of your staff not have kids? Are all of your staff in perfect health all the time so that they never have medical expenses?

These exhausted employees are more prone to make mistakes or be too tired to wake up on time to make it to their shift. If their pay was doubled most of them would drop that second job in a heart beat.

Obviously you as a business can’t double wages without the income to match it, but be aware that this is happening in the industry.

Many have switched from tips to service charge that is then distributed amongst the entire staff. Some have removed tips and have ‘donations’ instead.

Between the laws in your area, the type of venue you operate, you’ll need to talk to your accountant for the numbers that will work for you.

But keep in mind that a bigger pay-check isn’t the only way to improve their compensation.

Benefits

Employee benefits are a major way to keep great staff. Not many restaurants provide health coverage and more importantly insurance options.

If an employee had the peace of mind that certain medical situations covered with their employer, they’d think twice about leaving any time soon.

Family leave is another big one to consider. Laws in certain cities don’t always allow enough time for both parents when there is a newborn or an unexpected issue that comes up.

If you could add to the their paid-time-off allotment that would be greatly appreciated.

Commute Compensation

Depending on your location you can provide a transportation stipend. If your business is in a city with a public transportation network, consider giving a monthly travel card to staff in the right areas.

Think about a company issued Oyster card in London or MetroCard in New York City.

Not enough opportunity for growth

Most places train the team when they first join and then… that’s it. Have planned times where they can learn new skills not only for their current position but for future ones too.

No one wants to feel like another brick in the wall, come in to work, churn out the same thing every day, and come back and do it again forever.

Make them better than when they joined. Customer service training ranks high among training requests from staff.

• How do you treat an upset customer?

• What are tactics for effective upselling?

• What skills would your staff need for a promotion?

• Do they have the opportunity to be cross trained?

• Is there an incentive for them to do so?

You can train them on the business side of things, like accounting, outside of their immediate role, so that they are better prepared to pursue their goals.

Arrange workshops with outside experts on any number topics that apply to your business, or business in general, or even personal finance.

I get it. It’s scary to train them with the possibility of them leaving, but if you have an abundance mindset then you know that the best way to get more out of your team is to give them more.

Not enough recognition

We’ve all experienced an unhappy staff member walk out mid-shift or quit unexpectedly, and someone else had to cover the gap.

But if you don’t publicly recognise the efforts of those individuals who do step up then they will start to feel that you either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

And once they feel that it’s just business as usual then they’ve lost the incentive to do it again or even to continue working for you.

Pre-shift meetings are perfect opportunities to acknowledge the work and life achievements of your team. Let them know you appreciate their efforts. Then they’ll know it wasn’t for nothing.

Conclusion

Talk to your team. Ask them what they need that would make their time with you more enjoyable.

If their life isn’t improving as a result of being a part of your team, then believe me they’re asking themselves, “What am I even doing here?” And the questions you need to ask yourself are,

“Do I truly value my employees?” and if the answer is yes, “Am I showing it?”

Meme

I know employee compensation isn’t a restaurant marketing topic, but it’s tough to market your restaurant to new staff if your current staff don’t want to be there.

Also let me know what you like about this newsletter and what I can remove. Do you like the “In other news” section? The free resources? Let me know.