There’s one aspect of the hiring process that employers often overlook. It’s the fact that many new hires in restaurants absolutely dread training sessions.
Being holed up in a room, taking in hours of canned material - it just seems like a necessary evil. Moreover, much of the material is never retained. That’s the problem in establishments with specialized “signature” protocol for cleanliness, customer service, and food presentation.
A day or two of video training just isn’t bringing the results all parties would best benefit from. To fix this, many restaurants are instituting micro learning for all hires. Micro learning involves tackling smaller, bite-sized pieces of information at will, so employees are learning at their own pace and really absorbing the information.
If review on a specific topic is required, they don’t need to ask a manager to cue the video again. This type of learning is often mobile, so employees can quickly view a piece on, for instance, table settings. In a matter of minutes, they can begin putting what’s still fresh in their minds into action.
This results in fewer errors, naturally, but also actually saves in labor costs. More seasoned employees enjoy fewer disruptions when a new team member has access to the answers they need.
It’s also a way to get a cohesive brand message across. Restaurants who value uniformity in quality and presentation may find that consistent review and open access to learning tools levels out any discrepancies in service. Therefore, a desirable customer experience is noted more reliably across the board. After all, many managers can tell who set that table or who plated that sandwich without actually seeing it occur.
In addition to the obvious benefits of learning the right skills, micro learning helps shape attitudes and influence future trainings. It lets employees take responsibility for their skills and performance. It helps employers and employees identify strengths, so micro learning tools can be further optimized for that particular location. In this way, it takes the modern phenomena of crowdsourcing into the workplace.
Finally, despite the ability to make service more standardized, micro learning respects individuality. Everyone has default preferences when it comes to learning, and many employees are not at their best when left to verbal explanations.
When training is visually descriptive, interactive, independently accessible, and completely on-message for the restaurant, all employees can more easily recognize their place on the team.
