By Rita Imerson – Operations & Training Consultant

 

As we all move into a new era of full dining rooms and business as normal, it’s clear there will be remaining challenges when it comes to hiring and staffing.

As we, the leaders, take on the burden of these challenges, it’s important we do everything we can to mitigate the stress it causes for our store-level team members.

 

 

We all understand that retention and low turnover are crucial when it comes to positive guest experience and profitability. So, in conjunction with a strong hiring plan to attract the best candidates, we also need to create a fun, structured workplace with a great work culture.

Some tips for appreciating your restaurant team:

• Distribute handwritten notes with a gift card from the CEO or Owner. A handwritten, personalized thank you goes a long way. Genuine appreciation from the face of the company is something team members can be proud of, and others will strive for.
• Give paid days off for the whole team to enjoy a team-building event. If there is a slower day of the week, consider closing and inviting the team to a fun day at a water park, a night of bowling, or an employee picnic.
• Social media appreciation. Ask each manager to submit a few employees and short bios and photos to be posted on social media, along with a thank you for their hard work.
• Establish a yearly recognition program for employee tenure. Determine yearly benefits that employees will receive on their work anniversary. When these are gifted, they should be publicly among the whole team, so everyone understands the value.

 

Remember that a sincere thank you goes a long way. It starts from the top down, from the CEO all the way to the busser. It’s been a challenging year, and as we look ahead to brighter days, acknowledgment of a job well done is more important than ever.

Over the past year, companies have fought hard to keep their businesses operating in the face of COVID-19. This challenge has been particularly significant for the restaurant industry, which relies on social gatherings and in-person meetings to make money. According to Business Insider, about 17% of all U.S. restaurants had closed permanently by December 2020, and the pandemic is unquestionably to blame.

 

But now, as the world reopens, restaurants are facing a new challenge: a lack of workers. Experts anticipate that many Americans across the workforce will not be returning to their pre-COVID jobs in the coming months – and for some, that is a deliberate choice.

 

Why People Are Leaving

 

Admittedly, a shortage of workers in the restaurant industry is not a new phenomenon. In May 2019 (eight months before the first COVID-19 case was reported in the U.S.), the American restaurant and hotel sectors had an astounding 991,000 job openings across the country. With nearly a million unfilled positions, the industry was already forced to reevaluate how it recruited and retained employees.

 

But then, the pandemic happened.

 

Over the past year, Americans from all corners of the workforce have had time to reassess what they want from their lives and their jobs. Some want more flexibility in their hours so they can spend time with their loved ones. Some want better pay or more generous benefits. Some want to pursue new fields entirely, following their interests to a job that might bring more personal fulfillment.

 

All this soul-searching has led to what economists are calling “the great resignation.” Up to 40% of workers – including more than 20% of restaurant workers are leaving their current industries permanently to look for greener pastures.

What Restaurant Owners Can Do

 

Restaurant owners are likely feeling a lot of pressure right now to make their employees happy. However, this is a unique opportunity for owners to invest in their employees and create a better working environment throughout their restaurant.

 

Proper training can help your workers learn valuable skills that will serve them in their restaurant careers. Expanded benefits like paid sick leave can give your team the freedom to take care of themselves (and this benefit can attract new talent). Simply giving your employees the support they need to feel heard and valued in the workplace can be instrumental in attracting and hanging onto your best workers.

 

 

“The great resignation” paints a bleak picture for employers across the American workforce, and the restaurant industry is no exception. However, there are signs of positive change; May 2021 saw 186,000 people rejoin the workforce in bars and restaurants. If those employers learn to invest in their workers through training and support, they will likely experience less turnover and a happier staff. SynergySync is the industry’s best training platform for your entire team.  It includes digital checklists, a newsfeed for communication with your entire team, a library of forms, and the best operating practices, comprehensive FOH and BOH training videos, available in both English and Spanish. We are confident that our training platform will increase your revenue, save you money, significantly improve your operations, and dramatically improve the guest experience because your entire team will be in SYNC.

Despite nearly one-third of hospitality workers losing their jobs during the pandemic, many reports indicate workers don’t seem to be returning to the hospitality industry.

Without sufficiently trained labor to fill in the gaps in hospitality establishments like travel, casinos, cruise ships, restaurants, tourism, and hotels, the entire industry could suffer from a global shortage of qualified workers, but what does this mean?

Causes for Hospitality Industry Labor Shortages

There are many different variables to consider that impact the hospitality industry and the loss of experienced workers.

A major factor is wages. In working roles where tips are a significant source of pay, such as with restaurants, employees may leave to find higher-paying jobs with consistent paychecks.

Consider, too, how quickly technology has become part of our daily lives, including our jobs. In some industries, like hotels, older employees may be forced out if they are not familiar with new technology.

Another variable includes an aging workforce with years’ worth of skills opting to retire from the hospitality industry.

Temporary Actions to Seal the Gap

While some hotels and other industries are trying to fill the gap with technology, for example, using cooking technology like sous vide and pre-portioned vacuum-sealed meals, others are assigning extra duties to available employees.

Still, these are stopgap measures that can only go so far. The best solution is training the new workforce appropriately.

There has always been a high turnover rate in the hospitality industry due to demands like working during holidays, nights, and weekends, difficult or angry customers, and high-paced work settings. However, we see the industry’s current struggle to fill essential roles that provide service and amenities to customers.

The Effects of Labor Shortage on Hospitality

While it’s difficult to predict the future, it’s highly likely that luxury and high-end hotels, restaurants, and services are on the verge of experiencing a monumental change. For example, over the next ten years, hotel rooms might decrease their number of rooms but increase in size to cater to the 1%. This will likely result in extremely expensive and sophisticated hotels, with fewer value-oriented hotels for those with a limited budget.

Still, this depends on a rejuvenated workforce, which likely might rely on the reformation of immigration laws. The hospitality industry is experiencing a record scarcity of employees, mostly due a drop in foreign-born laborers (source: Immigrants, the Economy and the COVID-19 Outbreak).

Guests might find themselves in long lines waiting for front desk assistance, room service, and more. Many hospitality executives are now calling for immigration reform to resolve these issues.

 

The Value of Customer Service Skills

Customer service skills are integral when offering a positive restaurant guest experience. These often include interacting with customers, maintaining a positive and cheerful attitude, and multitasking.

This is why it’s important to have a robust training program that includes standard operating procedures, accountability checklists, and proven methods in place, to enhance the capability of your staff. Our training platform—Synergy Sync— can help you with this. It promotes best practices throughout your restaurant, so training is a breeze. It’s also smartly priced, so you don’t have to worry about cost per user! For $350 a month, you get unlimited users per location and a wealth of industry expertise at your fingertips. Fully trained employees often translate into more satisfied employees. There is no better time than NOW to enhance and invest in your current and expanding team through a comprehensive training program.

By Mike Walls, Operations Consultant & Beverage Certified Cicerone

In a recent conversation with our friends at RASI, an accounting system, and educational service, we discussed the perils of implementing new technology without firmly establishing the fundamentals in systems, training, and operations to put good data into the system to get the results you need.

Many technology platforms can help to build those standards and best practices, and they’re getting better at it all the time, but there are a few issues that we repeatedly see in the field:

1. Wobble: Wobble occurs during growth periods, periods of high turnover, or in businesses with “telephone training” where information is passed from one person to the next without referencing source material or with no system of skills validation and accountability. Over time, the “why” is forgotten, steps are skipped, and what was once a firmly planted brand or practice begins to wobble from its foundation, which turns into more of a hindrance than a solution.
2. Over-reliance on technology: Sometimes, we rely too heavily on our technology solution or process and not enough on the people executing tasks. People + Process = Success. Both are needed, and one doesn’t work without the other. Try to think of your technology resource as 50% of the solution and your team as the other 50%. Train the team, tell them why, and hold them accountable. Make sure they have the tools to exceed your expectations. Refresh training regularly and make sure that no key players are left behind.

 

 

Many symptoms can be treated by addressing the underlying problem that is a lack of training. This should be the top priority of any growth-oriented company. New technology can help get you where you want to go, but to make the solutions long-term, you need to remember the other half of the equation and continuously work to keep your team empowered.

By: Rita Imerson – Operations & Training Consultant

 

We hear it time and time again…how do you retain the best employees with the industry being so competitive, compensation constantly increasing, and when the current workforce places a lower value on loyalty and job longevity?

 

The answer is complex, and there is no simple solution. Good hiring practices that truly target the Gen Z workforce, strong onboarding and training with clear expectations and management engagement, fair practices, and a positive work culture all help create an environment in which team members feel valued and enjoy working.

 

 

We all know scheduling and communication apps and checklist technology improve and simplify the workplace for team members, but now technology is stepping into employee perks.

 

With Onaroll, your team members are rewarded with points for the performance goals you set. Goals can include the speed of service, upsells, and on-time arrival. Additionally, you can reward tenure and keep your team invested in staying put working for you long term. Each week team members are given tickets with BIG winning opportunities…the longer they stay in the job, the more chances they have to win.

 

This technology integrates with your POS to award points automatically without any work for you or your management team. It is SMS-based, so there is no app or downloads, or enrollment.

 

If your leaders are looking for a simple way to improve productivity and boost morale, this may be just the answer. It’s an easy to implement option that offers a fun way for your team members to feel rewarded and valued.

Spruce Things Up with Economical Decorating Ideas

An Insta-worthy space will get a restaurant more visibility and encourage others to visit the establishment. There are many low-cost ways to set the perfect mood for a restaurant photo. Fake plants and wall decals are economical and can help create a warm atmosphere. Art can also be a factor when a customer is deciding where to dine. A study out of RIT Croatia found that customer satisfaction increased when the art in the space seemed to match the dinging experience’s quality. The highest percentage of those surveyed preferred paintings, followed closely by photographs. A low-cost way to incorporate art into your restaurant’s decor could be to partner with a local art league or art school and feature paintings and photographs from the students.

 

The same study also found the lighting of an establishment to be a one-way driving factor in customer influence, meaning that customers did not often cite good lighting as a reason they wanted to go to an establishment. However, they did cite harsh lighting as a reason not to want to go to an establishment. Simply swapping out harsh fluorescent light bulbs for ones that emit a softer, warmer glow could give a restaurant an instant refresh.

 

 

Extend Your Space into Social Media

Businessman and founder of Intuit Scott Cook once said, “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.” Even a minimal presence on Instagram and Facebook can remind a customer of all the positive associations they have with your space, or create an impression of a restaurant they haven’t tried yet. Create a hashtag for your restaurant, and periodically repost your customer’s posts about having a good time at your establishment. This can help turn your client base into more of a community. Drive engagement with small contests and giveaways.

 

Update the Menu

Consider your menu a selection of “greatest hits.” Are there a few menu items that no one seems to order? Consider a menu audit to tighten up your menu to cut out the deadwood. This adjustment can save your establishment money on supplies while continuing to offer only the favorites. Furthermore, space on your menu is like real estate. Since customers only spend a few minutes glancing at the menu, it’s best to offer a smaller selection of popular, appealing items.

In addition to cutting things from your menu, restaurant psychology expert Aaron Allen suggests that simply reengineering a menu can increase sales. Suppose a restaurant puts the most expensive dishes at the top of the menu. In that case, customers feel like they are getting a “deal” by choosing the more reasonably priced items below, driving up their satisfaction with the experience. Rewording a menu can also be powerful. A study out of The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly found that when used sparingly, vivid descriptions with positive connotations (for example, “scrumptious cookies like grandma used to bake”) could drive up sales and customer attitudes toward a business.

 

Let Them Eat Cake

Customers want to feel appreciated. Studies suggest that loyalty programs, when executed properly, have been shown to make guests feel special and also increase sales. Customers want to feel a return on the investment of visiting your establishment. Programs that give customers a free item or discount after a certain number of visits can incentivize visiting more frequently. Additionally, implementing a birthday program that offers customers a discount or freebie during their birth month could be an excellent way to establish your restaurant as a positive presence during someone’s celebratory plans.

 

Keep a Happy, Well-Trained Staff

A large part of the guest experience comes from their interactions with staff. Furthermore, happier, better-engaged staff often equals a more satisfied clientele. Boost morale among staff with bonding experiences and menu tastings to get them to know the restaurant better. Keep your team up-to-date on best practices with a restaurant training system that can help promote positive interactions between servers, managers, and guests. Synergy Sync is a web-based restaurant training program that is your one-stop learning management, checklist accountability, and process management system built by restaurant leaders for restaurant leaders.

In the restaurant industry, properly training all levels of staff is part of the recipe for success.

Roy Yamaguchi, celebrity chef and owner of award-winning Hawaiian restaurant, Roy’s, admits that his restaurant wouldn’t be nearly the smash hit that it is without a certain level of education: “You don’t go to school to become the best chef in the world right after you graduate. School is always a starting point so what people forget is that you go to school to build a foundation, and you want to build a foundation that’s not going to crumble,” he once said.

 

To that end, restaurant owners should approach training for their employees with the same attitude. With an in-depth onboarding program, they are helping employees build that foundation. As the business continues to grow and evolve, there should be logical continuing education opportunities for employees, similar to the upkeep and maintenance of a building.

 

Initial Training

Initial training is especially important to set the tone for new employees. In restaurants with high turnover rates, it can sometimes be tempting for restaurant owners and managers to want to skimp on the training for new employees. After all, they may see training as a waste of time, especially if they will likely need to train another new employee right afterward to take a recently trained employee’s place. However, some data points suggest that these restaurants are not focused on the right things, and this lack of proper training might be creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. A study out of Northern Georgia University found that when a restaurant employee’s satisfaction with their training increased, their rate of wanting to stay with that restaurant increased as well.

 

Onboarding is a unique opportunity for a restaurant to establish its culture, put Standard Operating Procedures into place, and distribute literature like a restaurant handbook that employees can use for continual reference. When an employee feels well-equipped for a job, they are more likely to feel fulfilled by that job and have intentions to stick with it.

 

 

Ongoing Training

While initial training is crucial for building a foundation, ongoing training is just as important. Creating a culture of ongoing learning can help take a restaurant far. Employees who grow to expect ongoing training can also be better at adapting to changes and embracing a growth mindset, which can help in the continuous improvement of a restaurant over time. A study of 137 restaurants in the Canary Islands found that Human Resources Management practices that supported a continuous learning culture had overall better results in effectively training and retaining their employees. This shows the worth of ongoing training in the overall success of an establishment.

 

Online Training

Not all training can happen in-person, especially with recent restrictions and limits in response to COVID-19. Luckily, there are plenty of online training modules that are intensive and employee-focused. These can be used as the backbone of training, or as a supplemental way to fill in educational gaps. Online programs can help save time and resources while getting new employees on board and helping veteran employees adapt to changing policies.

 

 

Responsive Training

It’s no question that the ongoing pandemic has changed the restaurant industry in numerous ways. It has thrown a curveball at many restaurant owners and has shown that even when employees have been thoroughly trained, there can always be more to learn. In response to the pandemic, restaurants had to train employees about intensified cleaning and disease mitigation techniques, following the guidelines provided by the CDC.

 

Implementing These Structures

While many restaurants know the importance of training in theory, sometimes the most difficult thing is putting a training program into practice. Luckily, Synergy Sync’s restaurant training program can help. We have recommended timetables and training modules you can schedule, and as a result, you will have a well-prepared staff embracing a culture of ongoing learning in no time.

By now, your wait staff and workers are well versed in COVID-19 safety protocols: masks, gloves, distancing, sanitizing, occupancy awareness—the whole nine yards. These measures are key to following local and state mandates, no doubt. As more strides are being made in the fight against this unforeseen pandemic, there now seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Vaccine rollouts are here, and people are getting them. With over a year of people feeling stuck and trapped in their homes with not much to do, a phenomenon of “pent-up demand” may be on the horizon.

 

We’ve all been relegated to watching movies at home, eating take-out at home, and experiencing the outside world on their computers at home. People are eager to finally get out and get back to normal. Restaurants should be prepared. No, that doesn’t mean we don’t need to follow health and safety guidelines —in fact, guests now would come to expect it.

 

Guests Returning for the First Time

 

We’ll need to acknowledge those guests who are willing to venture outside their home for the first time in a while, and some will need reassurances. For those who are noticeably anxious about dining out again, you can start by asking, “Are you comfortable with that seating arrangement?” or “Please let me know how we can increase your comfort level.” 

 

 

Starting the conversation will help increase comfort levels and build trust. When you can address the issue when you have the opportunity, you’ll own the situation. Encourage teams to inquire and thank returning guests who may have held off on dining out this past year. This show of empathy will help break down the barriers we’ve placed between us this past year.    

 

Now, when things do go back to a relative “normal,” your restaurant staff will need to brush back up on the basics. Training is key, and below are a few important points you’ll need to cover:

 

• In-person customer service: when food isn’t out on time or a guest has another issue, it’s always good to understand how to handle these scenarios.
• How to handle busy hours like lunch and dinner: brush up on managing orders and lines when there is an influx of guests.
• Managing inventory: it’s always important to make sure inventory is sufficient, especially when you expect guest counts to get back to where they were.
• Employee scheduling: there may be more staff on hand, so it’s important to iron out their schedules.
• How to market promotions: to encourage more patrons, you’ll likely have a promotion as things get back to normal. Training your staff properly to let guests know about certain promotions is vital.

 

Synergy Restaurant Consultants has a cloud-based training program that can be utilized across multiple locations to train staff on best practices. Synergy has honed their 33 years of restaurant consulting experience in one simple-to-use eLearning platform, also available in Spanish.

In Dana Spiotta’s short story “Control,” she imagines a high-end restaurant owner’s perspective on customer service, “Although a great restaurant experience must include great food, a bad restaurant experience can be achieved through bad service alone. Ideally, service is invisible. You notice it only when something goes wrong.”

 

While fictional, her observation on the need to be consistent and precise in the restaurant industry rings true. Top restaurants do not gain their prestige accidentally. Behind every successful restaurant is a set of rules and standards governing the way things are done. Standard operating procedures, or SOPs, are workflow systems and expectations put into place by management to keep things running smoothly. (These are sometimes also referred to as standard operating systems.)

 

What do SOPs provide?

SOPs provide the answer to the question, “How do we do things at this restaurant?” Many restaurants make the fatal error of answering this question casually. At these restaurants, training usually happens by word of mouth, and these procedures are only as consistent as the person who happens to be providing the training. Instead, SOPs should be well-documented in a restaurant handbook and implemented through a restaurant training program. With written procedures, there is less confusion and more consistency among staff.

 

Back of House Standards

How thinly should tomatoes be sliced at your establishment? When should food supplies be thrown out? What temperature should different types of meat be cooked to? Food preparation SOPs can help keep menu items tasting consistently fresh, minimize food waste, and, most importantly, ensure food safety.

 

Customer Service Standards

After being seated, how quickly should a guest be greeted? Should waiters bring out waters for everyone before getting drink orders? How often should waitstaff check back? Although these questions could be answered using common sense, different interpretations could lead to varying customer service experiences, from not enough attention to way too much. To make restaurant experiences uniformly positive, set specific guidelines and expectations for customer interactions in standard operating procedures. A great way to achieve this is through a script or flow chart that can provide visuals for interacting with a guest. Restaurants should publish these charts in a restaurant handbook and make them a part of a restaurant training program.

 

Effective Time Management

Standard operating procedures clarify many of the inconsistencies that come up during meal service. At a restaurant without SOPs, managers will likely spend time looking out for and correcting minor employee errors in the way things are run. With the presence of SOPs, managers will be free to spend more time on the things that matter and less time on correcting staff for mistakes they shouldn’t be making.

 

 

Why would not having SOPs be disastrous to my business?

In addition to negatively impacting company culture and creating confusion, attempting to run a restaurant without SOPs could lead to some genuinely devastating outcomes for a business.

 

Customer Service Lawsuits

Not doing things by the book could cost a business. Some of the most common lawsuits against restaurants include slip and fall accidents, harassment, and discrimination against customers. Luckily, most of these are preventable with SOPs in place. Furthermore, having these policies outlined in writing could help clear up discrepancies down the line.

 

Food Poisoning Lawsuits

It is sometimes easy to forget that customers’ health and safety are on the line in the food business. Chipotle was famously sued for $25 million this past year due to food poisoning, sickening people on a large scale. Food poisoning is preventable with specific necessary food safety standards in place. Making these a part of the standard operating procedures is essential to keeping customers safe.

 

Poor Reviews

As of a 2016 survey, 90% of consumers say that they check online reviews before visiting a business for the first time, and 84% of people even trust online reviews as much as they trust a recommendation from a friend. Good reviews can really help grow a business. On Yelp, raising a review rating by one star equates to a 9 percent increase in revenue. Inconsistent food and service are what lead to these bad reviews. Outlining what makes an excellent customer service experience in a restaurant’s SOPs is key to keeping reviews positive and keeping restaurant guests coming back for more.

 

Ultimately, standard operating procedures help restaurants build a culture and brand that delivers five-star service every time. Businesses currently operating without SOPs should consider creating them, documenting them in a restaurant handbook, and implementing them through an employee training program.

 

For just $2.17 a day, you can take control of your restaurant with the Synergy U Restaurant Management Training platform. Our app-based e-Learning training is an easy-to-use program and contains standard operating systems you can implement across all locations. 2021 is your time to get your restaurant organized, systematized, and consistently running like a well-oiled machine.

By Mike Walls

 

In Gino Wickman’s book, Traction, he says, “There is a direct correlation between adherence to core processes and your own ability to let go. Handing over a turnkey system to an accountable leader makes it easier to delegate and elevate. As long as they follow the process and possess the skill set to do the job, you’ll be confident that the job at hand will be handled correctly.”

 

This is a foundational concept in the Synergy Sync Operating System. So much depends on understanding this principle.

 

However, there is a problem we often see when reviewing the systems others have built: You only know what you know. Understanding that you need to develop a system is one thing, creating the system in the most effective way is another. We have spent decades helping people build turnkey systems and have learned a lot while doing it.

 

When we built our online training and operations platform, Synergy Sync, our goal was to give you more than a headstart in your business’s systemization. We wanted you to have a road map, a cheat sheet, and maybe even some performance-enhancing systems at your fingertips.

 

The feedback we’ve received so far indicates that we have achieved many of the goals we set out to accomplish with this program. Clients are opening new locations that are now systemized. Chains are implementing new operating systems across multiple existing locations based on our principles. We’re so grateful for all those involved in this launch and wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has chosen to build better systems with us, to empower their teams, and to free themselves to grow and prosper. We will continue adding valuable content to Synergy Sync and look forward to growing with you.

A recent testimonial “…I found the content to be very precise, detailed, and beneficial in many ways. It emphasizes the importance of having a well-structured system in place…” Neo D.

 

And another, “We have seen a rise in guest check average and feedback on food and service quality and repeat business!” Suzanne B.

 

Ready to build your restaurant training and operations system?  Book a  free 15-minute demo with us!