There was a time when you could hire an employee, teach them how to prepare a few staple dishes that appeared on your restaurant's menu, and turn a decent profit. Those days are past. Today, if you want to enjoy both a pleasant work environment and see a solid profit at the end of each week, commit yourself to turning your restaurant into a high-impact learning organization.
High-Impact Learning Means Seriously Investing in Employee Training
Your employees are the key to your restaurant's success. You already know that, which is why you devote so much time to finding and hiring bright, smart, employees to fill positions in both your kitchen and on your waitstaff. Making sure that each of those employees receives proper training is the best way to make sure your team is a cohesive unit. The benefits businesses observe after they've committed themselves to use high-impact training to improve employee training include:
- Greater employee loyalty
- A decrease in the cost of employee training
- Improved employee morale
- Employees are better able to adapt to changes in routine and emergencies
- Higher profit margins
- A decrease in food waste
The only regret restaurant owners have after they become a high-impact learning organization is that they didn't do so sooner.
High-Impact Learning Results in Better Employee Retainment
One of the biggest challenges restaurants currently face is how to keep employees. All aspects of the foodservice industry, from the best 5-star establishments to fast food franchises report that they struggle to build a solid employee base because a large portion of the people they hire seem to disappear after working just a few weeks.
Restaurant employees respond well to high-impact learning because each training session provides the employee with an opportunity to grow and challenge themselves. It also allows you to easily move employees from one spot to another, which drastically reduces the type of scheduling conflicts that results in reliable employees becoming burned out. A good example of a high-impact learning program that keeps employees engaged is one that teaches them the skills needed to cook, clean up, wait tables. Ideally, the training program should be geared to providing employees with an opportunity to move into a management position.
Even seasonal restaurants report that by using higher-learning training methods, they've observed that more of their employees return during the busy season.
The ways your restaurant benefits from high-impact learning and improved employee engagement include:
- Reducing recruitment costs
- Reducing scheduling conflicts
- Higher employee retention
- Better customer service
Customers Respond Well to High-Impact Learning Organizations
Even though high-impact learning methods are designed to help you resolve employee problems, it won't take long for you to see a difference in your customer base. Since your employees are better trained and happier than ever before, they're better equipped to deal with your customers' needs. The end result is that your customers enjoy better-prepared food and improved service. Not only does this lead to the customer spending more money while they're at your restaurant, but it also means that they're going to dine out at your restaurant more frequently, and will recommend it to everyone they know.
Check out our eBook, Learn, Communicate & Measure: How to Future-Proof Your Learning Ecosystem, and learn more about how committing yourself to becoming a high-impact learning organization will improve your relationship with employees and lead to an increase in your profit margins.
