Keeping service industry employees engaged and committed to their roles can decrease turnover, increase profits and positively affect customer satisfaction. When employees feel like they’re a part of a team, they are more likely to take pride in their work and display interest in aligning with company goals. Here are four ways to jumpstart your efforts:
Simplify employee scheduling. Creating work-life balance can be challenging. Employees appreciate the opportunity to provide shift preferences and availability. Although you might not be able to grant all requests, exercise understanding. To centralize and provide structure for this process, think about updating your tech to automate scheduling from both your end and your employees’. Those programs allow for streamlined communication among managers and employees, as well as other administrative benefits.
Assign roles and positions. Service-related businesses offer many different types of jobs. Establishing scope for roles and providing ongoing cross-training shows employees you value their contributions and want to see them advance.
Encourage growth. Many employees strive to move up the industry ladder. When managers promote from within, they design a rewarding, positive atmosphere to which employees gravitate.
Seek feedback. Ask employees to share compelling customer responses. When management institutes an open-door communication standard, employees feel more comfortable relaying positive and negative guest comments, as well as their own observations. When you receive enough feedback to identify trends, thank the employees that helped you get to that point.
Not to be confused with Discovery Channel’s shark week, this weeklong celebration is all about the art of Charcuterie. Masters of the craft from Colt & Gray, The Nickel, The Plimoth, and Vesta Dipping Grill will be serving special charcuterie offerings made in-house, sourced from local farms and suppliers. And all you need to do to get in on the action is mention Charc Week when making a reservation (or four). Also part of the event is the official Charc Week tasting party, which will be held on Thursday evening at the Taxi Event Space where each chef will showcase their wares, alongside craft beer and spirits. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased here.
This soon-to-open whiskey and bar/clothing boutique located in Denver will be holding open call interviews for the following positions: baristas, barbers, bartenders, managers, retail specialists, stylists and all hospitality positions. Be sure to bring resumes, referrals and full body picture to the interview. For more information, email [email protected].
The event features a Nationally Sanctioned BBQ Event by the Kansas City BBQ Society, live entertainment, beer gardens, great food, boat rides and much more! Fri. 5-11pm & Sat. 10am-11pm. Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for kids (ages 3-12).
You can never have too much wine! Not to mention live music and food. All of which will be available at the Colorado Wine Festival. Twenty-five Colorado wineries will be pouring tastings of their wines and selling bottles. Vendors and food booths will also be stationed throughout the event. Tickets are $30, available online here until June 4th, and at the festival gates until 4pm, which include admission to wine tasting and a Colorado Wine Festival wine glass.
Denver’s First-ever Drink Pink Vino International Rosé Wine Festival held at the Omni Interlocken Hotel. Celebrity hosts will include Top Chef Season 5 Winner Hosea Rosenberg of Blackbelly Market, Madeleine de Jean (aka Madame Champagne) and Barrie Lynn, The Cheese Impresario. General admission tickets are $65, or you can go VIP for $95 and go an hour earlier plus enjoy a Raw Bar and Rosé Champagne Reception.
Music, brews, and chili in Snowmass Village? Yes, please. Get down with a grand beer tasting featuring 25+ microbreweries, International Chili Society tastings, and live concerts from 15 musicians not to mention on-site camping if that’s your thing. If not, there are also lodging deals available! Tickets (including 1-day passes) range from $55-275 and can be purchased here.
Join the celebration of the ever-booming Boulder creative scene! Drinks, entertainment including music by Captain Planet and DJ Ivy, and hashtags (#boulderblockparty) will be provided. Tickets are $10 and all proceeds will benefit the Emergency Family Assistance Association (EFAA) of Boulder to help families who have nowhere else to turn meet their basic needs. RSVP here to reserve tickets.
Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design is hosting this first-ever event featuring food trucks, pop up boutiques, and fresh produce. Discover local artists and vendors selling their handmade goods and flavorful eats.
The event kicks off on Thursday, June 18, with an evening of live music. The BBQ Challenge will run Friday, June 19 from 11:00am to 9:00pm and Saturday, June 20 from 10:00am to 6:00pm. Approximately 70 BBQers will compete for a variety of awards. Other BBQ favorites include Chef Demonstrations presented on the Viking Stage; Pig Races; a Whiskey Tour (advance registration required); and a variety of musical entertainment.
For an entire weekend, this real town turns upside down to pay tribute to gold fields and mining, exploration and adventure, brothels and saloons, booms and busts. Be sure to try your hand at gold panning with the Gold Prospectors of Colorado during their Colorado Gold Panning Championships and check out the Outhouse Races on Sunday, June 21st on Ridge St. Kids entertainment includes face painting, bounce house, strolling characters and more.
The Showcase is a celebration of our state’s vibrant music scene, featuring Flume as well as the Black Angels, MisterWives and over 100 more of the best bands and artists from Colorado and beyond on a dozen stages in Denver’s Golden Triangle neighborhood. Tickets start at $30 and are on sale here.
Now one of the largest pride celebrations in the U.S., Denver PrideFest turns 40 this year! Honoring community, family, heritage, and culture in the form of an enormous party at Denver’s Civic Center Park, this two day festival is free for all, so come join the fun!
An afternoon of food, drink and fun in “Colorado’s Home,” the Governor’s Residence at the Boettcher Mansion. Enjoy tastes of the Colorado Brewers Guild member’s masterfully crafted beer paired with the culinary creations of the chefs of the Colorado Chefs Association while wandering the rooms and gardens of the mansion. The proceeds raised from tickets will benefit the Governor’s Residence Preservation Fund, an inclusive, non-partisan 501(c)3 dedicated to preserving the historic Governor’s Residence at the Boettcher Mansion. Tickets are available here for $80, or go VIP for $200 to start an hour early, receive a VIP gift bag, and more.
A master collection of Denver’s best Tacosmiths all in one place on Saturday from 12-9pm and Sunday from 12-8pm, Denver Glitter Dome. Tickets range from $5-60, available online here.
What drives behavior? Daniel Pink, authoritative career analyst, explores this question in his bestselling book “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”, on which he based his illuminating Ted talk “The Puzzle of Motivation”. The highlights are…
“There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does.”
Said by Daniel Pink, this statement points to the fact that, while scientific research has demonstrated that intrinsic motivators, such as the desire to learn and feel fulfilled in general, are much more powerful than their counterparts, the current business operating system is built around extrinsic motivators, rewarding top performers and ignoring the rest.
So, what does “science know”?
The carrot-and-stick motivation scheme typical in most organizations, in which performance is incentivized with rewards, usually monetary bonuses, leads to increased performance ONLY when the tasks involved require mechanical skills.
When the tasks involved require rudimentary cognitive skills, the carrot-and-stick scheme is not only ineffective, but also DETRIMENTAL, leading to poorer performance.
Humans have an “inherent tendency to seek out novelty and challenges, to extend and exercise their capabilities,” which comprises the ”third drive”– the joy of the task itself.
The conclusion: extrinsic factors, such as material rewards, do not carry enough motivational weight to increase job performance when critical and creative thinking are required. Instead, intrinsic factors that contribute to how much we enjoy our jobs, are what drives performance in these instances.
A novel approach
Based on the notion of the “third drive”, Pink suggests a revised motivation scheme focused on three intrinsic factors that are vital to feeling fulfilled in the workplace.
They are:
Autonomy: permit employees to direct their own work lives by providing a few freedoms such as how and when a project is completed. Give guidance, but avoid micromanaging, and focus on output rather than schedule.
Mastery: provide employees with opportunities to develop and improve skills in areas that interest them so that boredom is not a possibility. However, include clear goals and feedback in order to support this form of professional growth, and ease anxieties about the learning curve.
Purpose: allow employees to fulfill their natural desires to contribute to a greater cause by emphasizing the organization’s overarching goals, not just profit goals, and ensuring that each and every individual understands his or her role in accomplishing these goals.
And about the $$$: pay employees enough so that the issue of money is off of the table, and work is at the forefront.
At the heart of the issue: the drive to work hard stems from the opportunity for personal growth. Provide this to your employees instead of the proverbial carrot-and-stick, and top-notch job performance will be a given.
How do you or your business provide autonomy, mastery, and purpose, as well as other factors contributing to intrinsic motivation?
Here’s a short film (funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign) that investigates exactly how difficult it is for servers to earn a living on tipped minimum wage, which is currently $2.13 per hour for tipped employees. In the 18-minute documentary, several servers go on the record to describe how their wages hover just above the poverty line, how restaurant industry lobbyists have appealed to Congress to keep wages low, and how tipped wages are closely tied to gender politics. Go, watch the film above.
