Cut Staff Turnover By Taking Better Care of Your New Employees
Many restaurants lose a large percentage of newly hired employees (some as much as 30% to 50%) during their first 2 weeks of employment. As you know, employee turnover is expensive, disruptive to operations and makes the job of managing a restaurant even more of a challenge than it already is. Here are some proven ways to take better care of your new employees and have less turnover during those critical first 2 weeks: - NEVER start a new employee on a Friday or Saturday or any super busy day. In most restaurants everyone is scrambling on these days so new people get scant attention and often get thrown into what appears to be unorganized chaos. For many it's overwhelming and they don't return.
- NEVER start a new employee at the beginning of a shift. At the start of most shifts there is lots of commotion and activity. Insulate your new hires for a few days and have them come in at a slower part of the day. You'll be better able to give them the personal attention they need and deserve.
- Have a planned, organized and written orientation period outline to give to each employee. Show people you truly care about their success and have a plan for getting them familiar with your organization, how they'll be trained and become an important contributor on your team.
- Give every new employee a job description, training manual and an employee policy handbook. Good people what to work for good companies, they want to know you've got your act together and are serious about what you do. Don't give new people a bad impression by appearing unorganized and unprofessional in this area.
- As an owner or manager, personally follow up with your new people to see how they're doing. Positive attention and reinforcement from an owner or manager during the first few weeks is extremely powerful. It says "you care", "you have a personal interest in their success."
Always remember, the first exciting moments of a new job can never be recaptured. Use this to your advantage by having a well conceived system to take good care of your new employees and chances are you'll have less turnover and a happier, more productive team.
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