Getting creative with restaurant staff training
In this two-part series, readers will learn that training restaurant workers doesn't have to be boring or time consuming. In part-one, we look at Burger King's "training videos" with Snoop Dogg and Charo. In part-two, we go over the lessons learned from BK's videos and how bars and restaurants can improve their own internal staff training.
Part 1: VIDEO: Snoop Dogg Trains Burger King Employees to Make Hot Dogs
Part 2: Four lessons from Snoop Dogg's restaurant training videos
The Snoop Dogg/Charo Burger King videos are definitely entertaining. There's no questioning that.
In fact, we've toyed with the idea that these training videos are really just a well choreographed dance by BK's marketing team. Wouldn't surprise us at all if BK had planned to release these "training videos" to the public all along as a way of promoting their new hot dogs... sorry, "grilled dogs."
Because, honestly, how flippin' hard is it to make a hot dog?
But for the sake of argument and this post, let's work off the assumption that the videos are actually training videos meant for internal BK purposes. Why this type of training video? The reason is pretty simple, according to Code and Theory, the company that produced the BK training videos.
“It was an untraditional approach, but employees are one of a brand’s most valuable assets, and they are there in front of you.”
Training is important to keeping your staff's skills sharp and helps with talent retention, so if you're already training your workers you need to look into it.
But I can't afford celeb training videos!
A legit concern. The average independent restaurant owner isn't going to have the budget to hire the likes of Snoop Dogg and Charo (maybe Kanye West?). So what can managers and operators do?
Make training fun. The common theme between Charo and Snoop Dogg is that the videos are fun. They're entertaining. They're not a dull, static Power Point slide presentation, but an engaging piece and follows a lot of video best practices.
If you don't do training videos (and that's 100% fine), look for other ways you still make it interesting for your employees.
Make is short. Time is money and no one wants to sit around for a multi-hour long training session unless it's absolutely necessary. A lot of times, trainers feel the need to fill up an entire hour for the sake of filling up a whole hour. Both BK hot dog training videos are under two-minutes long and have an energy that keeps the viewer (aka your employees) watching. If your training only needs to be a few minutes long, let it be just a few minutes long. Don't expand it to make it "feel worth it" to yourself and your employees.
Short training videos like this also makes it easier for your employees to watch and learn whenever they can. At home. On the train. During breaks. Flexibility is always appreciated.
Think outside the box. What resonates with us is that Baer described the Dogg/Charo training videos as "an untraditional approach." That's a perfect way of looking at what Burger King is doing. When you're planning training sessions for your staff look for different ways of teaching them. Maybe you turn it into some sort of game or contest. Maybe it's in the form of a comic book or a song. The ideas are endless once you unchain yourself from traditional forms of training.
Training is important. Large corporations tend to have the reputation of not caring about their employees, so if a big fast food restaurant chain like Burger King thinks that their staff are their most valuable asset, you should, too. Find out what your staff's weak spots are and figure out you can address them. Your employees will appreciate that you're looking out for them and are helping them improve. At the same time you get a boon to the service you're providing your customers.
How does your restaurant deal with staff training? Let us know in the comment section below.