How to improve employee performance in a restaurant

Proper employee motivation and workflow organization play a pivotal part in running a successful restaurant. Neglecting these facts can decrease the quality of customer service and increase the chance of employee turnover.

There is a number of tried and tested measures as well as some modern solutions that allow to keep all of your staff members and greatly boost worker productivity. Today we will explain how to improve employee performance in a restaurant.

Improve work performance with work schedule tips

Workforce scheduling is one of the most, if not the most, important parts of running a restaurant and improving work performance. Most managers make the mistake of creating a huge spreadsheet timetable with all of the employee and workdays data, neglecting experienced senior workers and the busiest days of the week.

First and foremost you should have a clear vision of what are the busiest days of the week for your restaurant and how many workers they require. For example, if you have a football game coming up on a Thursday, its best to make room for some extra workers. The same thing goes for Fridays, holidays such as Valentine's Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Whatever the next week holds, your business has to be prepared for it.

Of course, it is vital that your customers get a top class service during those crucial days. As such, a restaurant’s top employees have to be assigned the most important shifts. This kind of approach shows that management values their hard work while serving as a form of free advertisement for your business. It is a great way to increase employee motivation.

While employing your top performers is a must, you shouldn’t outright forget about newly hired workers.  Sooner or later they will have to replace their senior colleagues. These employees should gradually gain experience of working during the busiest days of the week. Let all of them try out the routine one by one. This will be a great boost for their moral and sense of teamwork.

Sudden schedule changes hinder employee performance

No business is safe from abrupt work schedule changes. Managers can’t have a single one happen without direct approval. This is done to ensure that none of the staff members works overtime or slacks off, which greatly improves staff performance.

The best way to keep track of everything going on with the company schedule is by utilizing timetable building tools. Due to their simplicity, these software tools are widely used by members of the restaurant industry. They allow managers to have the latest information about the staff schedule, worker shifts, etc., as it is stored in a single solution.

Employees can make suggestions to the schedule’s structure and receive notifications about any changes in its structure. For example, if he is needed to replace a sick or an absent colleague. Employers get all of the information concerning these events, as well as about other operations with the working schedule.

Increase employee motivation the right way

Providing workers with a chance of making an additional income is one of the most effective ways of motivating employee performance. We suggest using a rotating schedule for the most profitable restaurant shifts. For example, on a Friday night.

Both experienced and inexperienced workers have to be given a fair shot at making more money. This concerns all workers: from managers to dishwashers. That way you will kill two birds with one stone: keep old employees in good shape and offer a chance for recently hired workers to show their skills at the highest level of performance.

The latter will have an opportunity to better fit in with other colleagues and create close professional relationships within the staff. A manager should hold a meeting about these schedule changes at least several weeks before they come into force. This is the best way of avoiding any complications in the future and improve work performance.

Improve productivity with new technology solutions

Technology has boosted many industries over the past years and the restaurant business is not too far behind. Modern hardware allows to quickly send orders to the kitchen while counting the total payment. Before your employees start using these systems, it is best to train them audio and video tutorials.

This way it will be faster for employees to master these new systems. Another good way to make training easier is to make a few pretend orders and payments using the system, before rolling it out in everyday customer service. Otherwise, they will have no idea how to operate the new equipment.

Listening to suggestions is a good motivational boost

A good restaurant manager has to keep an eye on problematic problems in workforce organization and make necessary changes. Maybe employees have to make a long journey to get to the fridge or feel cramped in their kitchen space.

Because of this, it is vital to listen to what your employees have to say. They will work harder when they feel appreciation from their employers. This way you won’t simply improve staff productivity, but also decrease the chance of worker turnover.

Keeping your staff motivated isn’t as hard as it looks. Try using the aforementioned rules and see for yourself.