Is your restaurant staff unmotivated? Are they lacking in productivity?

If you’re an owner or manager, running a restaurant is hectic. And if you’re not careful, before long your employees will suffer because of all the commotion, stress, or neglect.

We’ve been in the restaurant industry for over a decade now, and we’ve seen highly productive and motivated teams kill it. We’ve also seen complete trainwrecks.

Our best advice when getting the most out of your team:

Make sure they take their breaks, don’t harass them via text on their days off, and show them the relevance between what they do and how that positively affects the rest of the team as well as the guest experience.

Continue reading for more tips to help your team win and stay motivated

The State of Restaurants & Their Employees (2022-2023)

Source: 7shifts

Despite life slowly returning to some sense of normality, the restaurant landscape is going to show some of the same problems that were present prior to the pandemic, such as:

Low wages.
High turnover.
Lack of diversity and leaders.
The need to recruit and retain capable talent.

What does this mean for your restaurant?

Staff is leaving the hospitality industry in droves.

They are underpaid, tipping causes a lot of confusion and inequity, and frankly, they are unappreciated.

The best restaurants retain staff by paying them above market, modeling the activation of benefits (flex time isn’t helpful if they don’t feel like they can take time off), and showing them respect.

Your people are the only thing more important than your food, and if you don’t treat them as such, they have too many options to work elsewhere. Pay them well, treat them well, make them feel respected, and voila, they stick around.

If you’re worried about margins, charge more for your food. Everyone everywhere has heard about “supply chain issues” and “inflation,” so many of your guests are expecting to pay a little more, especially for a unique experience.

How Do You Keep Your Employees Motivated?

Our best advice: Make sure they take their breaks, don’t harass them via text on their days off, and show them the relevance between what they do and how that positively affects the rest of the team as well as the guest experience.

Those things and a living wage will keep people on your team.

Of course, there are some other things you can do too.

Below are seven tips for keeping your employees motivated. Some of these seem to be forgotten.

1. Set Up Rotas

One of the most important aspects of the restaurant industry is knowledge of the bigger picture. Every team needs to know what shifts they are working and with plenty of notice.

Make sure they take their breaks, don’t harass them via text on their days off, and show them the relevance between what they do and how that positively affects the rest of the team as well as the guest experience. It's important to recognize that the restaurant industry can be a grueling one, so allowing employees to organize themselves and plan their life around work by setting up rotas can mean a lot in terms of morale.

2. Focus on the Team Effort

As cliche as this is, reminding people that a restaurant is a team effort will ensure a tighter ship. We must remember that teamwork is about communication. From the front-of-house staff to the waiting team and the chef and the sous-chef, everybody needs to operate with the knowledge of the bigger picture, which can only be done with valiant communication.

3. Focus on Satisfaction

The morale within the restaurant industry is understandably low. The pandemic has made people less inclined to visit restaurants. Focusing on the experience, as much as the food itself, will go a long way to bring back punters, but also ensure they are happy ones.

4. Comply With Good Work Practices

As an employer and a supervisor, leaders need to adopt positive attitudes toward fulfilling their responsibilities. Creating an environment where employees can fulfill their duties effectively and efficiently comes from the very top.

5. Incentivize Your Staff

A common component, but a very prudent one. Small incentives are an amazing way to motivate staff. It can also stimulate some healthy competition.

For example, if there is a drink that is not selling well, an incentive could be to reward the first team member who sells a specific number of drinks. It may be difficult to give cash away as a reward, but a complimentary meal or a store voucher might be more suitable.

6. Do More Cross-Training

Another component of recognizing the bigger picture is about making sure everybody understands different roles within the business. Having a waiter shadow the sous-chef or having the sous-chef carry food to tables increases that sense of perspective. Sharing roles helps employees to appreciate other roles, which will strengthen teamwork and raise motivation levels.

7. Dealing With “Presenteeism”

Opposite to absenteeism, presenteeism is something very commonly experienced by waiting staff, where they are present, but not focused. There could be a number of reasons why this happens, for example, chronic issues like long-term stress or burnout.

If a staff member is not present, this could highlight that something is not quite right. Tackling this issue is difficult because you may need to ascertain if there are deeper issues or if the individual requires more training. Having one-on-one meetings, recognizing accomplishment, and offering constructive criticism are three areas that could help.

How Do Restaurants Train New Employees?

Training is a journey and should never really stop.

Here’s how we’d do it:

Start them at the dishwasher, move them to the bus station, show them how to host an expo, then give them opportunities to do more, such as serve guests.

Expect them to spend several weeks at each station until they’ve nailed it. Employees who are thoroughly onboarded will stick around to do great things if they are given the opportunity.

Below are some other ideas within other departments.

Orientation

Every restaurant is unique and even someone with experience in a prior restaurant is not oriented within the environment. Focusing on best practices, values, philosophy and the layout of the facility is the most important aspect of training new employees.

Guidance and Observation

Training restaurant staff does not just involve orientation and specific instructions. Guidance and observation will guarantee new employees are practicing what they have learned. Providing more effective services to the customers will eliminate time wastage.

Training Staff With the Latest Technology

Technology will make the entire approach easier. Presently, there's a lot more online training for restaurant staff than ever, but customers are savvier to technology, which means the staff needs to diversify their customer services to meet the customer needs.

Within a restaurant, there is more than just a point-of-sale system. Nowadays, customers can place orders via apps or request delivery to their location. When it comes to submitting orders, technology has made a big impact in most areas. Teaching your staff to use the latest technology is essential because it helps to improve how your staff will interact with customers and helps them to resolve more critical issues.

Your team shouldn’t spend time fixing common tech issues like the printer not working, the wifi going down, and menu item updates. Outsource them to our team at Science On Call. We offer 24/7 tech support for restaurants.

Book a 30-min discovery call with us here and learn if outsourcing your tech is right for you.

Push the Easy Button and Outsource Your Tech

Restaurants are dependent on technology to run their business. But when the internet goes out, or their POS system causes issues, it disrupts operations, devours potential revenue, and leaves customers upset.

Outsource your restaurant tech to Science On Call. We guarantee that your restaurant technology tension will be eliminated in 30 days, or you will owe us nothing.

Our 24-hour technical support with one number to call is there for any of your tech issues.

We will resolve tech problems fast, free up your time & bandwidth, and keep customers happy.

Click here to learn more about our services. Book your free discovery call with us to see if it makes sense.

How to Get the Most From Your Restaurant Staff (+ Forgotten Training Methods)