By Noah Rue, Contributor
There’s no getting around it. The labor shortage in the hospitality industry is real and it is likely affecting your restaurant in one way or another. The COVID-19 pandemic changed life as we know it and it led many people to think deeper about their lives and what is most important. During that mental journey, many restaurant workers realized that they weren't getting a fair shake, so they decided to quit their jobs and look for something new. Now, here we are in the middle of the “great resignation.”
However, although things look bleak, your restaurant doesn’t have to miss a step during this employee shortage. Improving your overall employment offer & benefits is definitely one way to go, but that may not always be enough to keep people staying in your employ. Instead, business owners may need to change how they lead and coach their employees. Let’s look at the situation and how your management staff can make a difference.
Why You Need to Make a Change
It can be easy for many restaurant owners to assume that the employee shortage will naturally resolve itself over time. After all, people need money to live, right? They do, but it isn’t only about their paycheck.
For many, they want a better overall work environment that includes higher wages, better benefits, and room to grow and be promoted to different positions throughout your restaurant’s enterprise. While COVID-19 brought these concerns into the limelight, many employees felt this way even before the pandemic.
Restaurant owners need to change their management styles and provide better benefits now because if you fail to adapt, then you may never solve your staffing issues, and that could force you to reduce your hours of operation, which could lead to shrinking profit margins. Not to mention the cost of turnover is insane. On top of that, longer wait times and unsatisfied customers could lead to damaging reviews and a hit to your reputation that could be hard to come back from.
Before we get into the management side of things, you may need to tackle the biggest elephant in the room, and that is the salary you pay your employees. Consider raising the hourly rate to be competitive with the top companies in your industry.
Take a close look at your budget and see what you can cut to give your employees a better quality of life. Renegotiate with your vendors, shrink your menu, or cut down on utility costs and transfer those funds to employee salaries. If you can combine a good pay rate with benefits like health insurance and paid time off, then you will have a great package that will pique the interest of potential employees.
Active Listening
Once you get those employees in the door, you need to keep them there with good management practices. Regardless of the industry, the key to being a good manager is to actively listen to your employee’s concerns and act upon them. You need to have an open-door policy where employees know that they can come to you at any time, express their concerns, and have confidence that you will take action.
When you are onboarding your employees, don’t only talk but also listen and ask what they hope to achieve in this job. If they are happy to start in a waiter position, but they want to work their way up to a supervisory role, then take the time to lay out a roadmap for how they can get there and make sure there are achievable goals along the way, so they know what needs to be done. If that employee talks to their friends and tells them this place actually wants them to succeed, then they may refer those friends to work for you as well.
Another reason that many people won’t return to a restaurant position is that they weren’t given any flexibility for their shifts. To remedy this, managers should check in with their employees regularly and ask if their current schedule is working for them or if they need any tweaks. Also, consider the option of split shifts where employees can work in the morning, leave and take care of errands or family issues, and then return later that night.
You may find investing in scheduling technology, like putting your schedule in the cloud, a useful route as it allows your staff to swap and trade shifts without management delaying the process.
By encouraging a work-life balance in this manner, you will have employees who know that their company truly cares, and they will show their appreciation in their work.
How to Improve Your Own Skills
To avoid a loss of labor, managers need to continue to work on and hone their skills so they can provide the best work environment for their staff, and the best way to improve is to practice every day as you lead your team. For instance, a major skill that is necessary for a successful team is trust, and you can cultivate trust with your team by getting to know them on a personal level.
Before meetings and during slow periods, ask them how their life is going and share some things about yourself as well. That way, the employee will see themselves as less of a nameless cog in the machine and instead a valued individual. They’ll be more likely to stay.
Another necessary skill is the ability to motivate your team, and you can work on that ability while you give your status updates to the team. Don’t only tell them what they did well or what was wrong, but try to tell them how their efforts are helping the restaurant. For instance, if the wait staff sold more lunch specials and the company can now buy new uniforms, tell them so they know they made a difference.
If you are looking to make major adjustments to your management style, then you may consider going back to school and obtaining your MBA (Master’s in Business Administration). The classes that make up an MBA program are incredibly beneficial to managers because they provide real-life examples of situations that could occur and advice on how to handle them. The best part about higher education is that much of it can be done online, so you don't have to quit the restaurant to improve your skills.
As you can see, there are many ways that you can retain your top talent and help your restaurant survive the great resignation. By treating your staff like the great workers they are, you will inspire them to stay and do their best work.
