Why Employees Quit And What You Can Do To Keep Them

Why Employees Quit And What You Can Do To Keep Them

by | Jun 28, 2017 | Management

The restaurant industry suffers from a high employee turn-over rate. If you have worked in the industry for long, you are well aware of this, and it is probably annoying you. Constantly having to train new people is no fun. So how do you get people to stay? Well, the first step is to figure out why people are leaving, and then work on taking away those reasons. Here, in no particular order, is a list of some of those reasons.

1. Co-worker Problems

One bad apple can make life at your restaurant hard. Someone who constantly calls in sick clearly doesn’t care about the work, or is just generally incompetent reduces productivity. Additionally, relationships with co-workers is a major component in how much satisfaction people get out of work, and having good friends at the workplace is an indicator of being happy on the job.

So how do you deal with this? Well, your first step is to make sure you hire people who will fit in your restaurant. Be sure you hire people who exhibit a real passion for the work in the interview and look for a cultural fit. Once you have your team, keep an eye out for arguments between team members and try to integrate all new employees into the team as smoothly and quickly as possible. And if you have an employee whose incompetence or personal issue is affecting the team, step in quickly to fix the problem before the problem employee makes the good ones want to quit.

2. Scheduling Conflicts

Get everyone’s schedules to work is a major hassle, but it is well-worth it. A large number of restaurant employees quit because they cannot get their work schedules to mesh with their lives.

Be upfront about scheduling, and take the time to make sure people have the time off that they need. Also, post schedules as far in advance as possible. People want consistent hours: it gives them the ability to make appointments without constantly worrying about work.

3. Poor Management and Poor Relationship With (Gulp) Boss

Bad bosses and management are frequently cited as the reason people leave their jobs. Bosses and the management team are integral to everyone’s work day, and they have the ability to make an employee’s life awful.

So, quick check on your managers: are they rolling up their sleeves and getting into the work, or are they lounging around and doing as little as possible? Are they relaying important information to everyone in a timely and transparent way, or do they wait until the last possible second to mumble something about people calling in? Do they provide directions clearly and assign tasks, or are they changing their orders constantly and garbling directions?

If you see a lot of the second scenarios, it’s time to upgrade your management team. Write policies for them that promote consistency and clear communication and fire the layabouts.

Hey, no one said being the boss was easy. It is, however, easier if you develop working relationships with your employees and treat them with respect. You don’t have to be everyone’s buddy, but you have to spend a little time with everyone, providing feedback about work and supporting the cohesiveness of your team. Then you will see the management team in action and the interaction of co-workers first hand, which will give you a good handle on the situation in your restaurant.

4. No Challenge And No Opportunities

Restaurant work suffers unfairly from the stigma of being a ‘temporary’ job. The perception is that you can’t have a career in the industry. Your employees want to disprove the perception; they believe that they can have that career, and that it will use all their grace and skills, bringing them job satisfaction. Otherwise, their work is just tedious time-filling.

You can help them find job satisfaction by providing them with opportunities to try new things and stretch their skills. Encourage innovation and reward folks who excel. You can set up a suggestion box for new ideas, and give new responsibilities to people who seem to be getting bored at work. Maybe the cashier can start trying out waitressing, or the sou chef can introduce a new menu item. People just want to feel challenged at work.

The restaurant industry may suffer from high turnover, but you don’t have to. If you work on these aspects of your restaurant, you will find more employees staying for longer.

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Employee Turnover: Get Ready, It Happens — 5 Ways To Slow It Down

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If you own or manage a restaurant, according to the laws of averages, you should expect to replace almost three-quarters of your workers each year! However, you can cushion yourself against losses in productivity and profitability and reduce turnover by developing solutions based on the reasons restaurant turnover occurs.

read more

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7 Ways to Make This Summer Your Best Hiring Season Yet

7 Ways to Make This Summer Your Best Hiring Season Yet

by | Jun 13, 2017 | Management

While some people look forward to summer as a time to relax, go on vacation, and maybe hit the beaches, for many others, it’s the time to look for work. Restaurants and retailers, meanwhile, need to think about hiring some great staff. You may lose some employees over the summer. At the same time, you’re ready to gear up for what will hopefully be a busy season. How do you maximize your hiring efforts? Let’s look at 7 ways to make this summer your best hiring season yet!

1. Emphasize Job Perks

Don’t forget to mention as many benefits as possible, even if they’re not formal benefits. Flexible hours, casual dress codes, and free meals are all perks that make your job listings more appealing. This is also a chance to engage in some brand building, boasting about why it’s great to work in your store, restaurant, hotel, or other establishment.

2. Make Your Job Postings Mobile-Friendly

Keep in mind that most of your job applicants are millennials who tend to access the internet via smartphone and other mobile devices. This means that it’s crucial to make your listings and the application process as mobile-friendly as possible. People scrolling through jobs on their phones are unlikely to spend much time dealing with clunky applications made for desktops. Test your listings on mobile phones and tweak them until they’re simple for mobile users to fill out.

Or, use a job listing service like, Sirvo, that does all of that for you! Signing up and posting a job is easy, SEO and mobile-friendly.

3. Make the Application Process as Painless as Possible

Along with making your application mobile-friendly, keep it short and simple. Many employers use outdated job applications that ask lots of irrelevant questions. For example, do you really need to know the address of someone’s elementary school? Longer applications discourage applicants. You can always ask more questions at job interviews. For the application itself, focus on essentials.

4. Be Clear About Who You Need

Your hiring process will proceed more smoothly if you don’t waste time interviewing people who aren’t qualified. Make sure you specify the qualifications in your postings. For example, if you need someone with at least a year of customer service experience, mention this in your ad. If the job requires people to work weekends and holidays, don’t forget to post this.

5. Look For Strong People Skills

Soft skills, also known as people skills or emotional intelligence, are primary in the hospitality industry. These are difficult to gauge on job applications. During interviews, however, the ability to spot these skills is crucial. When you or your hiring managers interview applicants, don’t simply ask informational questions. Ask them how they’ve handled challenging situations or conflicts with customers at past jobs. The way applicants answer such questions is just as important as their actual answers. Do they respond to such inquiries with confidence and openness or are they nervous or defensive? The better you are at identifying people skills, the more success your hiring process will be.

6. Advertise for Seasonal Help

Many of the people you’re looking to hire over the summer are only looking for temporary, seasonal jobs. While this is obvious, it actually helps to specifically advertise for summer or seasonal jobs and to use these keywords in your listings. Otherwise, potential applicants might assume that you’re only looking for long-term hires. If some hires end up turning into full-time, so much the better. However, you’ll get a better response to your ads and listings if you appeal to students looking for summer jobs.

7. Recruit on Social Media

If you want to get the best possible response from your job postings, it makes sense to go where your audience is. More and more people, especially millennials, are spending large portions of their time on social media sites. You have many options, whether you list jobs on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or elsewhere. If you want to amp up your recruiting efforts, you can use paid advertising. Aside from inviting people to visit your website, you can promote job fairs. With social media, you can also recruit among your customer base. People who like your Facebook page or subscribe to your Twitter feed are excellent potential recruits.

If you don’t want to do all the heavy lifting, use an online job board that puts social front-and-center. Sirvo makes it easy for you to share your job with your network by providing share buttons on your job listing that you or your staff can easily click and share to various social networks. Or share by simply copy and pasting the job listing URL. Once pasted, the job listing will display the job title, company photo and job introduction, all of which are SEO compatible. Hooray!

Follow these tips and trick and we’re sure you’ll make this Summer hiring season the best yet! 

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If you own or manage a restaurant, according to the laws of averages, you should expect to replace almost three-quarters of your workers each year! However, you can cushion yourself against losses in productivity and profitability and reduce turnover by developing solutions based on the reasons restaurant turnover occurs.

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7 Ways To Save Food From Landfills

7 Ways To Save Food From Landfills

by | May 30, 2017 | IndiTips, Management

Food waste is a big problem. Industrialized nations waste about 222 million tons every year. In the US, we waste about 30% to 40% of the food supply, and that uneaten food goes right to landfills, where it produces methane gas and takes up space. You may also know that one restaurant can make up to 75,000 pounds of food waste in a year. Fortunately, there are steps that you can take to cut down on your restaurant’s share of the waste. Here are 7 ideas for doing just that.

1. Figure Out Your Waste Stream

The very first step in deciding what to do about reducing your waste is finding out what is getting tossed and how. You can audit your dumpster yourself if you don’t mind a mess, or you can ask your local waste collection agency to check it for you.

It is not a bad idea to walk through food processes to see where the waste starts. Some of this will be customers: the average diner leaves 17% of their meals uneaten, and half of that won’t go home in doggy bags. However, raw food scraps from cooking such as carrot tops are also a culprit. From there, you can track how much the food waste is costing you in terms of garbage rates and missed savings.

2. Get Your Ordering In Line With Your Output

No source of waste is more aggravating than raw food that has spoiled because you ordered more than you used. It is hard to estimate what you need correctly, but you can track your inventory closely, rigorously enforce the FIFO system of use, and carefully mine your ordering data information to figure out your average needs. This will cut down on your initial food outlay and the amount that goes bad.

3. Find Ways To Use Scraps And Leftovers In Your Cooking

Have your employees sort through the food leftovers and scraps for what can be reused and find ways to put it in the menu. Onion peels, carrot tops, and celery ends can go in soups. Chicken scraps can become part of stews. You can even set aside a day to feature these re-purposed scraps in inexpensive meals for families. This not only saves space in your landfill, it adds revenue to your business for very cheap.

4. Find Animals To Feed Your Leftovers To

Many states allow you to sell raw food scraps to farmers so that they can feed their livestock. Contact your local health department for the municipal regulations involved, and then call up your agricultural extension office for their suggestions. From there, you can visit local farmer markets to find people who would like your scraps. The agricultural extension will know some likely candidates, too.

5. Find Industrial Uses For Your Leftovers

Discarded grease can become biofuel, and many cities have anaerobic digestive facilities that convert organic food waste into energy. Contact your city office for ideas. In fact, many cities are passing ordinances to reward reusing leftovers, so definitely ask about their programs.

6. Create A Compost Bin

Everywhere allows people to use composted food for lawns, gardens and crops. There are many ways to create a compost bin: you can buy a classic perforated bin to put all the organic inedible stuff in and appoint a dishwasher to turn the leftovers over with a pitchfork once a week. You can get a tumbler to try your hand at anaerobic composting. You can do this in black plastic bag, too.

Once your stuff is composted, you can use it on your restaurant’s kitchen garden, pass it to employees who garden as mulch or fertilizer, give it to a local community garden, or spread it around your own personal yard.

7. Feed The Hungry

Virtually every municipality will let you give edible leftovers to charity. Do you have meals prepared ahead of time that people never order? You can get a tax deduction for giving it to your local food bank. You do have to contact the charities and ask them what they will take. They will help you how to transport the leftovers, too. If you have trouble finding a local charity to take your food, you can contact organizations such as Meal Connect and Food Donation Connection, and they can point you in the right direction.

These are just suggestions about how to do your part to conserve food. How you decide to stop food waste is up to you; just remember that every little bit counts.

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Is Teaching Butchery the Secret to Keeping Good Chefs?

Is Teaching Butchery the Secret to Keeping Good Chefs?

by | May 23, 2017 | Management

For any profession, employees need professional development. There needs to be a feeling that an organization, or in this case, the restaurant is invested in them and their growth in the culinary world. The food business is evolving, and there will always be a need for diverse skill sets and new techniques. It is fast becoming clear that while there are establishments opening up at a rapid pace, finding employees that have the right skill sets is becoming a challenge.

In order to set yourself apart from the crowd, whether as a restaurant or as an employee within a restaurant, there needs to be constant cultivation of new skills and techniques. It might not seem important to care about what other kitchens need, but thinking about what your kitchen needs – both short-term and long-term, is incredibly important.

There needs to be constant cultivation of new skills and techniques

Hiring talent that is right for you, as well as a good fit is key. This also means that there must be a sincere effort in cultivating a good work environment, and ensuring that your staff has the right tools for the job rather than opting for the cheapest tools. But the ultimate secret in keeping good chefs is to invest in them.

In the article, Why Teaching Butchery Is the Secret to Keeping Good Chefs, the author touches upon several key points that demonstrate the sheer importance of investing in chefs. The articles states that, “We try to take quite inexperienced chefs at the lowest level in the kitchen and train them in all the aspects that we do…We also like to promote from within because it’s good for the culture and good for morale to see you and your colleagues getting promoted.”

There are two important notes to take from this. Not only is there a significant amount of training provided that pushes employees out of their comfort zones, but there is also constant effort to improve overall morale. Once the push has been made to invest in employees, it is also imperative to show them real life examples and incentives of what their newly acquired skill set can bring them.

The author underscores this point, writing that “it’s also about giving someone the opportunity and showing faith in people. If we’re seen to be giving people opportunities and promoting people when we could go external, it means that they’re less likely to look elsewhere because they enjoy working with you and are able to grow and develop.”

In this article, butchery is what the restaurant is offering these inexperienced chefs. But this is just one example of how restaurants should work with their chefs to understand what their needs are, and what measures are needed for long-term, sustainable growth. This benefits both your business, and the employees and makes them feel like they are not just cogs in a machine but nurtured and cared for.

With professional development opportunities though, many establishments are afraid to take the risk. What if it is too successful and chefs end up leaving? What if there is time and resources invested but all it results in is chefs finding other opportunities?

These are certainly risks, but those are associated risks no matter what. Chefs leave restaurants for numerous reasons, most of which are difficult to predict. However,  if these professional development opportunities are not offered, perhaps chefs will get bored and decide to leave where they are challenged and cared for. Giving them the chance to acquire new skills gives them an incentive to stay and use these skills to help grow the establishment for the better.

Giving them the chance to acquire new skills gives them an incentive to stay and use these skills to help grow the establishment for the better.

Ultimately, it may seem like a risky move at first but investing in your people is the best way to show them that they are valued. Both inexperienced and experienced chefs will always benefit from cultivating new skills and directly applying them – whether it is butchery or something else.

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Making Restaurants Sustainable: Some People You Should Know

Making Restaurants Sustainable: Some People You Should Know

by | May 12, 2017 | Management

Nutrition experts predict that sustainability and plant-based protein will be the most important restaurant trends in 2017. Plant-based protein, primarily pulses, continues its popularity from 2016, which the United Nations declared the Year of the Pulse. Organics continues to trend as well. Both organics and plant-based protein are closely tied to sustainability.

Sustainability is a critical issue in our world as we anticipate almost 10 billion on the planet by 2050. How will we feed all those people without depleting our resources? We’re all concerned about it! Yet anyone who has ever owned or worked in a restaurant knows how difficult it is to maintain a “sustainable consciousness” in the current environment.

Consider, for example, disposables, a significant budget item in any place that includes carry-out or catering as part of their business model. If well-meaning operators try to move away from styrofoam to something more environmentally friendly, they can anticipate sticker-shock. On the other hand, washing real dishes isn’t automatically more sustainable. Restaurants use 5,800 gallons of water per day on average.

Or consider health department rules that require leaving the water running while a worker dries hands with a single-use towel so the towel can act as a barrier between clean hands and shutting off the faucet. Then there’s recycling that requires washing recyclables before adding them to the recycling bin. Regulations that prevent people from bringing in their own dishes to fill. Air-conditioning and heating that runs as people enter and leave.

We haven’t even gotten to the food yet! Food that has already been wasted in its path to the restaurant, culled in the fields, in grocery stores and by other handlers. Food that is rarely from local farmers. Food that travels a long way, using precious resources. City regulations that don’t allow composting vegetable waste within city limits — and who can come and pick it up to take out-of-town? Frying oil and other grease.

Most restaurants, to keep their prices down, build on a scaffold of unfairly priced food, food that relies on a farm work force that in the U.S. is 70% low-paid undocumented migrant workers, food that with current practices adds to environmental degradation without paying for restoration. Food that uses (and wastes) increasingly precious water resources.

A few leaders in the U.S. and other countries are setting off boldly in new directions. Meet some of them:

Laura Abshire, Director of Sustainability Policy and Government Affairs, National Restaurant Association. According to Laura, consumers are driving the trend toward more sustainability in restaurants. “People like local sourcing, and like knowing where their food comes from,” said Abshire. “They like knowing that they’re helping their community and that their food didn’t travel very far and hasn’t been packaged as long.” The National Restaurant Association proactively established its own environmental education program called Conserve. Information on this initiative is online at conserve.restaurant.org. The program is free and open to anyone looking for information on running a sustainable restaurant. As Laura says, “You can save a little bit on your bottom line, and you can show your customers that you really care about them and their values while also doing something good for the environment as well.”

Jack Cheney, graduate student at the University of Washington’s School of Marine and Affairs, studies Washington’s raw oyster industry, the largest in the U.S. and home to Taylor Fish Farms in operation for five generations supplying fish bars, shipping worldwide and always sustainable. Of oyster farming, Jack says, “What’s more farm to table than a raw oyster? There’s nothing that’s done to an oyster from the time it’s taken out of the water to the time it’s put on your plate at the restaurant.” Cheney talks about the positive environmental impact of oyster farming in addition to a minimal carbon footprint: “Oysters are sustainable. They’re clean for water. One oyster filters 50 gallons of water per day. It provides a wide berth of environmental benefits to the ecosystem.”

Arthur Potts Dawson, owner of acclaimed London restaurants Acorn House and Water House, opened in 2006. Potts Dawson hit the international scene in 2010 with his Ted Talk, A vision for sustainable restaurants. He “wants us to take responsibility not just for the food we eat, but how we shop for and even dispose of it.” His restaurants feature rooftop gardens, low-energy refrigerators and wormeries that turn food waste into compost, proving a sustainable approach is profitable and serving as training grounds for the next generation of green chefs.

Betsy Fink, co-founder of Millstone Farm, an incubator for community-based food systems. Betsy works with local markets and restaurants to expand local food networks. Through the Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation, she combats food waste.

Fedele Bauccio & Ernie Collins are the founders and owners of Bon Appétit Management in California. Frank and Ernie believed the restaurant industry, colleges and corporate cafeterias wanted and needed something other than what they were getting in the 1980s. What they needed was real food, freshly prepared. Their made-from-scratch food goes out to a contract market and 650 restaurants with which they work. They have been committed to health since their beginning and pioneered environmentally and socially responsible practices designed to create a more sustainable food system. In 1999, they launched Farm to Fork, widening their focus to the communities in which they operate. They have been front-runners in all the issues related to sustainability including antibiotic use in farm animals (2003), switching to rBGH-free milk (2003) and cage-free shell eggs (2005), food’s role in climate change (2007), farmworker rights(2009) and animal welfare (2012). Many nonprofit and industry groups honor Fedele’s work.

Douglas McMaster, owner and operator of The Silo in Brighton, UK, is the first zero-waste restaurant in the UK. Features he introduced in this minimalist environment include a special compost machine displayed near the entrance that will process all the restaurant’s food scraps, supplies delivered in reusable containers, ingredients mostly from local farmers and producers, flour milled on site and booze brewed in the basement. Meals come on plates made from recycled plastic and drinks in recycled jam jars. A chef and activist, McMaster says, “Choice is something which is wrong with the food industry. The places with more choice create more waste and have lower standards, that’s an absolute fact.” He offers just six daily main courses at Silo.

Ted Turner & George W. McKerrow, founders and owners of Ted’s Montana Grill, are passionately committed to Planet, Plate and People. Their motto is, “Eat Great. Do Good.” Their Sustainability Metrics are impressive. Further, they work hard to engage other restaurants in the idea of “going green.” In 2008, McKerrow and Turner visited five cities as part of a national tour, “The Green Restaurant Revolution.” Created to heighten awareness about the restaurant and hospitality industry’s environmental impact on the planet, the tour brought together industry leaders and future influencers to talk about the opportunities and challenges of going green and to stimulate conversation and ideas on solutions. More than 800 restaurateurs, hospitality leaders and culinary professionals attended five industry events. A front page USA Today article featured the company’s environmental commitment: Can restaurants go green, earn green?

What Can You Do? Every restaurant can contribute to sustainability by raising consciousness throughout its operation and paying attention to four areas:

  • Waste reduction
  • Water conservation
  • Energy efficiency
  • Renewable energy

Experiment with locally sourced and seasonal foods. Engage your customers in your effort to create a more sustainable experience. Take advantage of free resources like Conserve from the National Restaurant Association. Find out what is available in your community to assist you in your efforts. And while you’re doing all that, remember that appreciating beautiful, delicious, fresh food is the first step toward a conservation program in your restaurant.

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Marketing Tips for Your Restaurant’s Best Mother’s Day Ever

Marketing Tips for Your Restaurant’s Best Mother’s Day Ever

by | May 3, 2017 | Management

According to the National Restaurant Association, more than one-quarter of American adults celebrate Mother’s Day by dining out. This, as well as Valentine’s Day, results in one of the busiest days of the week for many restaurants. Get your share of this all-important market by following a few tried-and-true tips and convert new guests into loyal customers.

Brunch

Brunch is still the most popular meal for people who are age 65 and over. To target this audience, consider an exclusive Mother’s Day no-holds-barred brunch. What draws this crowd in? Quality often surpasses quantity and traditional items hold nostalgic memories. Consider a unique twist on the classics such as salmon with eggs benedict, lobster frittata, roasted chicken on crispy waffles, or challah French toast. Incorporate fresh herbs and edible flowers into soups and salads. While some restaurants offer an a la carte menu of favorites or a buffet, others choose prix-fixe three-course brunch specials. Choose the format your restaurant is best set up for in order to make this day a success.

Treat Mom Special

Treating mom special is what this day is all about. Consider bottomless mimosas or sparkling apple cider and don’t forget to hand out the flowers. As florists find themselves on the brink of crazy, be sure to place your order early. Your mother’s day goal: to convert first time customer’s into long-term loyal repeat guests.  To this end, consider giving out special Mother’s Day cards that offer a complimentary appetizer on their next visit.

You only get one chance at a first impression, so be sure mom and her family are pleasantly surprised when they enter your establishment. Make flowers the motif of the day and choose colors that go with your ambiance. If your design is such that most colors work well, consider classic combinations such as violets and yellows.

Kid Friendly

This holiday is a family outing so expect an over-abundance of little tykes. To help your adult guests enjoy their outing and keep the little one’s from going stir-crazy, consider a special area designated for kids. This section has little tables with paper tablecloths and massive crayons as well as etcher-sketchers, coloring books and blank cards they can color for mom. You’ll need one staff member to keep an eye on the little people’s section, but your guests will truly be impressed that you went the extra mile for them. And don’t forget a kid-friendly menu with easy finger foods such as chicken tenders, raw vegetables dipped in ranch, and anything cheesy.

Get the Word Out

Be sure to use your social media platforms to get the word out. In addition to traditional Facebook posts and twitter tweets, consider Instagram and Pinterest as ways to actually show your delectable offerings. “A picture paints a thousand words. “ —Arthur Brisbane.

Other advertising portals include Urbanspoon, Yelp, and OpenTable. YouTube is the place to post a video of kids playing in their designated area, your chef preparing a delectable item and happy customers enjoying a relaxing shared meal.

Traditional marketing methods still work, despite digital marketing’s overbearing presence. Consider making classic flyers regarding your special offerings and ask your local floral shop to display them (the one you’ve ordered your flowers from). Other display venues include office buildings, libraries, community centers, and gyms. Make sure you’ve got your specials posted out in front of your restaurant well in advance to attract passer-bys.

Make your Mother’s Day special stand out on your website and, if you don’t already know the importance of blogging in your marketing strategy, now is the time to start. Blogs are less about advertising and more about sharing valuable information. Consider a blog on the local activities your community is sponsoring for Mother’s Day.

Specials

Consider going in with a local business to create “Mother’s Day packages.” This can include a massage at the local spa or tickets to the local theater, museum, planetarium or botanical gardens. As a special offering for your mother’s day guests, and to promote another stream of income, consider branding items that your restaurant commonly uses and that people rave about, whether it’s your homemade salsa, blue cheese dressing or scented lotion you supply in your restrooms.

If you’ve been in the restaurant business for any length of time, you know the worst feeling is having your business full to overflowing and not having the necessary staff to care for your patrons. Make sure you’re prepared for a busy Mother’s Day—providing the service and quality food and ambiance your regular customers have come to expect and your new clients will come to cherish.

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If you own or manage a restaurant, according to the laws of averages, you should expect to replace almost three-quarters of your workers each year! However, you can cushion yourself against losses in productivity and profitability and reduce turnover by developing solutions based on the reasons restaurant turnover occurs.

read more

Experience Sirvo for yourself

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