Improving the employee experience can be extremely beneficial to restaurant owners. Providing opportunities for staff development is one of the best ways to do so. By equipping your staff with the proper tools and skills, they can guarantee a quality dining experience for your customers.
Upskilling your restaurant staff can also increase employee retention, preventing you from spending more resources on hiring and training new employees. This is because investing in your restaurant staff’s growth lets them know that they are an important part of your business.
Ready to start reaping these benefits? Here’s more on how you can upskill your employees.
Regular performance review
These reviews are essential for giving your upskilling program a definite structure and direction. They help you create a training plan tailored to your employee’s strengths and weaknesses.
Start by giving them constructive feedback on their performance within a given time period, like the past quarter or month. You can easily structure your feedback with the help of POS systems that record how many tables an employees has served, how long their working hours are, and how much they have contributed to the amount total of bills. Afterward, talk with your staff about how they want to improve moving forward. You can then use this feedback to create an upskilling plan that factors in your employees’ strengths and goals.
One-on-one mentoring
In an industry where the best start from the bottom, mentorships are an effective and intimate way of preparing staff to take on higher positions. Out of 10 employees holding managerial positions in restaurants, 9 started out with an entry-level job. Seeing as entry-level workers stay at restaurants to move up the ladder, prioritizing mentoring for career development can improve staff retention by as much as 20%. That’s because it immerses employees in their line of work, encouraging them to stay and keep learning.
For a mentoring program to be effective, it is crucial for mentees to be mentored by individuals that will help them towards their desired path. For instance, mentees who would like to be head chefs should be trained by a current head chef for optimal results. For mentees who wish to focus on making sauces, a saucier is a more appropriate mentor.
Online courses
An alternative upskilling method is to utilize short online courses. Employees may find this option more convenient as they can be accessed anywhere and anytime. These courses can cover the fundamentals of the skills employees want to learn. Others can serve as refreshers on safety topics like food contamination and food safety hazards.
Your employees can also take short courses to learn advanced skills, such as communicating to sell or handling customer complaints. A lot of sources are available online. For example, EdApp and TalentLMS are paid learning management systems that specifically caters to training and staff learning needs. You can also find a list of free courses on learning platforms like Coursera and Alison.
Restaurant staff development is a financial investment that’s worth considering. With the methods above, you can maximize the benefits it has to offer.
