Tag: restaurant industry

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Restaurant workforce management tips to reduce turnover

Restaurant Workforce Management

The restaurant sector sees one of the highest turnover rates, at  81.9 percent as of 2019. But proper restaurant workforce management practices can help managers move the needle in the right direction and motivate employees to work harder and stay longer. 

Even keeping restaurant employees a little longer can help restaurants out, according to Lil Roberts, CEO and founder of fintech company Xendoo. Lower turnover ensures that managers spend less time training new employees, which also ultimately saves money on training costs. 

Also read: Boost your managers’ effectiveness with an essential mobile clock-in tool

Here are six restaurant workforce management tips to help owners and managers keep good employees longer and keep them engaged with the job.

Find the right team members that will be consistent and dependable 

Most restaurant employees don’t understand that their job can become their career, Roberts said. Moving higher up the ladder at the restaurant or moving to a higher-tiered establishment can be a potential career path for them. 

Managers must more carefully consider how to hire right, Roberts said, suggesting that they create scorecards unique to the establishment that allow them to vet candidates for job duties, culture fit and job expectations. Conversely, when they make a bad hire, they should “find the door they came through and nail it shut,” she said. 

For example, if a restaurant sees many employees who are inconsistent about showing up to work on time, managers can consider how to add behavioral-based questions into the traditional interview process. 

Also read: Knock out the practice of buddy punching for good

These behavioral questions shouldn’t be too direct, which might ultimately give a manager a yes-or-no answer that isn’t helpful. The question “Are you organized?” would give a more generic answer versus something like “If I opened your closet and looked left, what would I see?” Roberts said. A more organized candidate might end up being a phenomenal host or hostess, she added, while someone with different strengths may be a better server. 

Talk to employees about their future and career goals 

People often see restaurants as a workplace with few benefits and low pay, but the reality is that benefits and compensation depend on what level of the restaurant someone works at, Roberts said. It also depends on the dining establishment itself. A waiter at a casual sit-down restaurant may value flexibility and making enough money to get by until they move on, but at a more family-oriented restaurant managers have the opportunity to have meaningful conversations with wait staff, Roberts said. 

Questions include: What are your life goals? Are you going to school? Would you like to use this job as a stepping stone to a career in the restaurant industry? 

High-end restaurants like Morton’s Steakhouse with good wait staff jobs will hire based off skills and years of experience, Roberts said, and managers at more casual eateries can use the appeal of these higher tiered restaurants to retain employees longer. They can teach these workers skills needed to work at a high-end restaurant and give them the experience years needed to be eligible for those jobs.

Also read: Employee performance shines bright with valuable, continuous shift feedback

Not only do employees benefit in this situation, but employers in the restaurant industry can save money by reducing turnover.

Keep temporary employees just a little longer 

Not every wait staff member wants a career in the industry, and that’s OK. Restaurants can still benefit from enticing them to stay a few months longer than they originally planned. Managers can do this by learning what drives workers, Roberts said. 

If someone wants a fun workplace, one way to keep them engaged is creating contests that keep them entertained and happy, she said. If someone wants stability in their schedules because of other responsibilities that limit when they can work at the restaurant, managers can honor that and give them the same days and times each week. 

“Then your life is easy, and theirs is easy,” Roberts said. “And it all stems from behavioral hiring and hiring the right people. If you’re a business owner and you’ve got a revolving door, you need to not say ‘Oh, the workforce is bad.’ You need to look internally and say, ‘What process can I change?’”

Restaurant Workforce Management

Invest in the latest technology

Restaurants have been notorious laggards when it comes to adopting new technology, according to Sam Zietz, CEO of payment technology company GRUBBRR, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic has in part exposed what companies have embraced technology versus those that have been stuck in the past. Fast-food establishments like Chipotle, Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s had invested in technology before the pandemic, and they’re leading the pack, he added. 

Technology that makes restaurant workforce management simpler falls in a broad range, from self-ordering kiosks that allow former cashiers to find more satisfying jobs at the restaurant to shift-swapping software that gives employees a simpler way to trade shifts. 

Meet employees where they are

Regarding communication, managers should consider employee preferences, whether that’s texting, calling, emailing or something else. It’s simple, and respecting employee preference goes a long way, Roberts said. 

“As long as the employee is doing their job and fitting the culture of the company and the responsibilities of the job, pick what matters most,” she said. “Don’t try to have your whole team that just represents you and the way you move through the world.”

Promote a culture where team members feel comfortable approaching management

It’s very important to make sure managers create a safe workplace, Roberts said. According to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data, hourly employees in the restaurant and retail industries are some of the most susceptible to harassment. Managers need to know how to deal with this.

“As owners, you have to train your manager team how to deal with these kinds of situations. The manager can’t just fly off the handle and yell at the employee who called an employee a name. That’s not going to solve anything,” Roberts said. “ You have to be very careful. One thing I will say is if a restaurant doesn’t have an HR person, find a fractional HR person that is HR certified who can help you handle that.”

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On-shift scheduling doesn’t have to be a headache for managers or employees

shift scheduling for hourly restaurant workers, shift swap

Most hourly employees have dealt with shift scheduling problems at one time or another.

I’ve witnessed it first-hand with my kids. After a 10-hour Saturday night shift at a restaurant slinging beer and burgers until 2 a.m., I would hear one of them quietly creep into the house. OK, they were actually pretty noisy coming in and banging around in the kitchen. As I dozed back off I just prayed that they wouldn’t fall asleep after popping a frozen pizza in the oven.Rick Bell Workforce

The good thing was they got home safe and sound. And the kitchen was not charred to an ember when I woke up the next morning. After that kind of a late-night shift I expected them to sleep in late.

Nope. No sleep for the weary in the restaurant biz.

Somebody had to pull themselves out of bed and work brunch at 10 a.m., and guess who was on call? Yep, my sleep-deprived, bleary-eyed child. Not just once. Or twice. This insidious sleep deprivation technique was a regular occurrence.

I mean, who is doing this on-shift scheduling? What sadistic clown is shift scheduling an employee who closed at 2 a.m. the night before to be back on the clock to pour mimosas and serve bacon and two eggs over easy at 10 a.m. that same morning? Oh, right. A restaurant owner. Or the manager, who likely is on the same scheduled shift because, well, restaurant managers are just a different breed.

I know, restaurants and hospitality exist in the fast lane — fast cash, fast life for many employees. Seriously, how many industries lavish itself with weekly industry nights?

The cruel and unusual shift scheduling was a regular occurrence back in the day when I punched a time clock as a bellman at a resort hotel in San Diego. Work the late shift until the final check-in at midnight then back in at 6 a.m. for the early checkouts.

I’ve even heard the mad scramble to find replacement workers when I’m getting a roll of quarters at the service counter of my grocery store. The manager, who is a really kind, caring woman, is frantically on the phone to staff her Saturday evening shift because so-and-so just called off sick and two others are already on vacation. (Why am I getting quarters on a Saturday evening? Don’t ask.)

Unfortunately, it seems that pretty much every hourly employee short of a union pipefitter is subject to such short-sighted shift scheduling. Want to burn out your hourly employees and watch them leave for greener pastures? Give them a day’s notice, schedule them that evening and then tell them they need to be back in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed early the next morning.

We are finally seeing a groundswell of support from many states and municipalities for predictable shift, or fair workweek legislation but any sort of federal fair workweek law is unlikely for years to come.

Come on, people! This is not complicated! Your employees have lives. You have a life. Well, unless you’re a restaurant manager. Make the shift scheduling process as painless and humane as possible. For starters:

No on-call shift scheduling. Ever. Telling employees to call in before a shift to see if they are needed and then sending them home if the shift turns out to be slow is incredibly hard-hearted. Don’t be hard-hearted.

Provide your employees with work schedules well before they are supposed to show up. Like two weeks before. Minimum 10 days. That gives them time to switch shifts should an emergency or a really good party pop up.

And you know what? Go digital. Paper-based timekeeping? Really? I know, it’s hard to break a routine that’s been in place since, oh, the Bicentennial. But seriously, check your timekeeping software options.

One thing that I constantly harp on is engagement and communication. Engage your employees through sensible, predictable shift scheduling. Your workers are happier because they’ll have a predictable life. As predictable as life can be, I guess.

And it’s not a stretch to say that a happier workforce means a more engaged workforce, which cuts down on burnout and puts the clamps on the bane of all hourly employers – turnover.

It may not prevent your kid from torching the kitchen with that forgotten frozen pizza in the oven, but they won’t be nearly as bleary-eyed the next morning, either.

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3 Steps to Navigating Effective Wage and Hour Compliance

restaurant industry employees, wage and hour compliance for employers

Restaurant operators face many unique challenges — labor management being a top one.

In addition to today’s tight labor market, operators must also manage high employee turnover, complex scheduling as well as ever-increasing regulations around hour, wage and tip reporting requirements.

It’s no surprise that the restaurant industry continues to be a major target for Fair Labor Standards Act and class-action litigation. This type of litigation has proven to be costly in recent years as claims can be triggered by any number of employee complaints, including pay and hourly discrepancies.

In 2018 alone, the U.S. Department of Labor collected more than $42 million in employee back wages from the food services industry. This amount will only continue to increase as attorneys are now spending enormous resources on TV, radio, billboards and social media marketing campaigns to attract and inform hospitality employees on compliance violations.

Because much of the wage and hour legislation is new, and not coming off the back of federal law, there is little case history or precedence. And while there is a risk that employers do not pay their employees correctly under these new rules, the greater risk is that they do not have sufficient processes and auditable history in place to demonstrate compliance when challenged. This leaves restaurant operators vulnerable.

To avoid costly and time-consuming litigation, here are three steps restaurateurs can take now to better manage wage and hour compliance.

1. Begin internally: Start by educating managers on the statutory requirements for scheduling and paying employees, which can vary from city to city and state to state. For example, San Francisco, Seattle and the state of Oregon have started to implement “secure scheduling” or “predictive scheduling” ordinances. These rules require employers to provide schedules to employees up to two weeks in advance and extra pay if the schedules are changed. This creates a burden for employers who are not accustomed to being locked down so far in advance.

Once managers are up to speed on the current legislative landscape, conduct a thorough wage and hour audit to identify any existing or potential violations. The most common violations we see are the misclassification of employees as exempt vs. non-exempt status, the improper calculations of overtime wages for tipped employees, failing to maintain valid tip pools and the misuse of the federal tip credit.

The violations mentioned above are fairly easy to prevent; it simply takes commitment. Therefore, the last step should be to make compliance a companywide initiative by assigning responsibilities to someone internally or through an outsourced HR relationship. As the complexity of managing a workforce seems to grow exponentially each year with the addition of new legislation, continue to evolve internal processes and train managers to help ensure future compliance.

2. Enlist technology: In addition to scheduling requirements, operators are also required to manage employee breaks. For instance, in California, if a meal break starts just one minute later than required, the employer must pay an additional hour of pay to the employee. In New York, employers must pay an additional hour pay (called spread of hours) if the daily work schedule spans greater than 10 hours, regardless of the number of hours worked.

As pay and scheduling requirements vary depending on the location of the business, it’s nearly impossible for operators to manually manage multiple locations on their own. Restaurant-specific technology, with legislation and business rules built in, can enable operators to proactively manage compliance as well as provide an auditable history should claims of noncompliance arise. Utilizing technology can also help operators significantly reduce payroll errors as well as support and drive scheduling and time and attendance compliance efforts.

3. Educate employees: The expansion of restaurant locations and low unemployment has made it more difficult to find labor. These labor challenges often have a negative impact in the areas of training and enforcing best practices, areas that impact wage and hour compliance. Once you have finalized your company’s wage and hour-related policies — and have the technology in place to automate compliance — the final step is to effectively communicate these policies to your employees. Educating employees regarding their compensation, rights and obligations and encouraging them to come to management with any questions can help to significantly minimize future wage and scheduling claims. Policies can be communicated directly during daily shift meetings and through monthly training classes as well as in the employer handbook, which should be updated regularly.

With the daily demands of operating a restaurant, many lack the time needed to effectively manage wage and hour compliance. By following these tips, operators can significantly reduce their risk of noncompliance as well as more efficiently manage their business.