Restaurants have always been a large group of employers in this country, but in recent years, they have increased employment rates even further. This is in part due to a high turnover rate within the industry. With the rise of social media and apps that are built to rate companies not only on how they treat their customers, but also on how well they treat their employees, it is important that you maintain the image of being a great place to work.
Despite restaurants employing so many people, many of them have yet to figure out how to create a great work environment for their employees. The horror stories of working at a restaurant can be found splattered across the internet. In an effort to make sure that your company is not one of these infamous restaurants, we have developed a list of tips you should use to create a great environment for your employees.
Promote Social Events
If you want your employees to enjoy the place they work, then they need to enjoy the people they work with. It is hard to get people to like, or even know, their co-workers if they only have work-related conversations with them during their shift. While you do not want to encourage a lot of social conversations during working hours, as this can have a negative impact on their productivity, you do want them to get more comfortable with each other.
A great strategy to accomplish this is to offer your employees advantages to get together in a social situation after or before work hours. Telling employees that they can get an additional 10 percent off their drinks or meals if they stay after their shift is over is a great way to encourage them to grab a drink or two together and get to know one another on a personal level.
Make Job Descriptions Clear
A large contributor to workplace problems is when an employee or group of employees begins taking on the responsibility of another employee that they repeatedly fail to do. Getting this task done is obviously not optional, but that does mean it has be put onto another employee’s shoulders who is not usually responsible for doing it. That is why you need to make it extremely clear who is responsible for what and make sure that those employees are not skipping out on their duties or repeatedly taking on the responsibilities of others.
Recognize Employee Performance
Everyone wants to be recognized whenever they do a good job. Unfortunately, in restaurants, whenever someone does a good job, you generally don’t notice. It is only when someone makes a mistake that it really stands out because that is when customers complain and orders get behind. Therefore, you should be on top of tracking employees who go above and beyond and offer them little rewards of some sort, which can include any number of things. Company swag is a great example of perks you can reward your employees with, as it also helps build up your employer brand and makes your organization a more engaging place to work at.
For more information about how you can improve your workplace environment, contact us today.
