Whether you manage one or 100 locations, it’s important to know what makes the best staff successful and how to improve performance across the board at your operation. As a restaurant owner or operator, knowing how to hire and train employees is key to providing a top-notch customer experience, which ultimately drives guests back to your doors.
Server retention is a universal industry challenge—turnover rates can go as high as 60 percent. It’s also well-known that every employee in your restaurant is capable of bringing in $84,000 in revenue so long as they are performing at their best. Your servers are the face of your restaurant and have a direct impact on your bottom line, so a comprehensive management strategy includes the following:
- Measuring tenure: Meet with your tenured staff and understand what motivates them to stay. This way, you can learn how to keep—and motivate—other staff members.
- Conduct “exit interviews”: Leverage reasons employees are leaving to help you figure out the best practices for retaining the rest of your staff.
- Implement “stay interviews”: These are check-ins with your veteran staff that allow you to get a pulse on why they are happy or dissatisfied in their job.
- Identifying stressors: Talk to your staff regularly about their pain points and ask them how you can help.
- Keep communication open: The more open your lines of communication with your staff, the better able you are to provide them what they need to stay, long-term.
You work hard to create a good customer experience—and that means that great food, a stellar atmosphere and amazing service must come together. Since servers are the face of the customer experience, hiring, training, managing and retaining top front-of-house staff is essential. By developing a comprehensive and consistent training strategy, employees will better understand exactly how things are done at your restaurant, setting up your entire operation for success.
This post is sponsored by Upserve