Operations

4 ways to serve up great employee experiences

Restaurants win on employee experience, which naturally leads to improved customer experiences.

Provided

July 5, 2023 by Lindsay Petrovic — Vice President, Product Management, NCR Voyix

The National Restaurant Association's (NRA) Restaurant Business Conditions Survey revealed 62% of restaurants were understaffed during most of 2022. But things are looking up as the foodservice workforce is projected to grow by 500,000 jobs this year.

This shift in the industry has increased pressure on QSRs to recruit and retain the right team by enhancing the employee experience and making proper training and technology critical. Employees are five times more likely to quit within the first 90 days due to lack of training and not feeling prepared for the role. Further, nearly 40% of restaurant teams are not properly trained to use the technology they need to perform well at work — a source of added on-the-job frustration.

Restaurants win on employee experience, which naturally leads to improved customer experiences. Happy employees create happy customers. Here are four ways you can ensure you are setting your team up for success.

Train to retain

Employees need hands-on training to feel confident in their jobs. Turn them loose too early, the likelier they will make more mistakes, become dissatisfied and find greener pastures elsewhere. In fact, more than 60% of frontline employees say lack of training is the reason they left a restaurant. Insufficiently trained employees will have a harder time upselling and generating better profits or ensuring the right order goes to the right diner. On the flip side, those with guidance and knowledge are more self-reliant and make for better employees.

You want to make sure your restaurant staff won't be tempted to job hunt once they're hired. And you won't be alone, according to thatstate-of-the-industry report from the National Restaurant Association, which found that 75% of restaurant operators report planning to devote more resources to recruiting and retaining employees.

Take the initiative to make strategic shifts in your processes — implement easy-to-use intuitive technology to streamline onboarding and improve employee satisfaction, freeing them up to turn more tables and earn more tips. This sets employees up for success, saves you time and, in the end, reduces turnover.

Reduce stress to improve customer experience

A 2023 survey from The Workforce Institute at UKG found that 40% of employees are "often" or "always" stressed about work. Stressed employees are slower to complete tasks, and in turn, quicker to ignore customers.

Customers are noticing the difference. A 2022 Yelp study found that customers mentioned short staffing three times more often in their reviews than the year prior and mentions of long wait times rose 23%. These negative customer experiences result in fewer repeat customers and more bad reviews, ultimately jeopardizing a restaurant's long-term success.

By investing in better restaurant technology, operators and managers can better support their staff with well-managed schedules, smart ordering and organized storage. Scheduling software that accounts for historically busy times, a point-of-sale system that synchronizes with inventory and specific workstations can make a huge difference. Technology enhances the employee experience and can increase operational efficiency — benefits that can trickle down to improve the customer experience.

Step out of the legacy trap

For years, many restaurants have handled scheduling processes manually using pen and paper. Instead of wasting valuable time creating employee schedule sheets, leverage modern technology that can help free up managers' valuable time, prevent scheduling errors, identify employee availability more accurately and save money.

Scheduling software can also align staffing with sales by storing real-time labor data and linking to your POS software to integrate sales data. It lets you see fluctuations in your sales volume, allowing you to make smarter staffing decisions — like scheduling more employees during peak business hours and fewer during down times.

Even better, scheduling software and restaurant scheduling apps have overtime alerts that will notify your restaurant manager when a team member is about to hit overtime hours, allowing you to keep your budget in check.

Have back-up support

Restaurant-specific solution providers who supply support when you need it will help simplify operations and improve the uptime of your technology. This allows your staff to focus on customers rather than troubleshooting tech.

In fact, some providers will even offer advisory services that help solve complex challenges. This includes everything from enabling more efficient operations to designing and optimizing digital customer and employee experiences.

The bottom line is restaurant employees won't stick around if they have subpar experiences, such as inadequate training or technology that's out of touch with the times. Customer experience is crucial to any restaurant's success, yet it cannot happen without creating great employee experiences.

Former Xerox Chairman and Board Director Anne Mulcahy sums the importance of employee experience up nicely: "Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person — not just an employee — are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability."

About Lindsay Petrovic

---

Lindsay Petrovic is vice president of Restaurant Product Marketing at NCR Voyix. In this role, she focuses on cloud-based, customer solutions that transform, run and connect restaurants’ technology platforms.

Connect with Lindsay: