Employee turnover in the hospitality industry hovers around 74 percent, making staffing a perennial challenge for operators. While employee compensation and benefits are important to attracting staff, they may not have as much power as more human elements of employee retention. That came through during a panel discussion at the National Restaurant Association Show earlier this year, where restaurant operators with higher-than-average retention rates spoke about how they find and keep talent. As Foodservice Director reported about the discussion, operators emphasized the importance of figuring out your message before recruiting, having a people-first mentality, and offering a clear career path. Operators who do this know and understand their brand purpose and message before hiring, ensure employees know what the business stands for, and illustrate how each employee’s role contributes to that message. They lift up the team over the individual, taking politics out of the equation by supporting each person’s value to the team. They also prioritize hiring from within and showing each person a roadmap of where the job can lead.
In a recent podcast, Ed Daugherty, executive campus chef/regional director of dining at the University of Tulsa, demonstrated how he uses all of these approaches – and has achieved 71 percent employee retention as a result. During a multi-part candidate interview process, he focuses on the organization’s core values and on finding candidates who possess related traits: friendliness, teachability, and a “willingness to do the next right thing” over cooking skills, for example. As soon as an employee is hired, they are wrapped in the message that they belong there – through pre-shift huddles, promotion of employee wins, the sharing of staff ideas and feedback with management, the celebration of employee milestones, and the use of multiple communication channels to share ideas and promote staff successes. Each month, managers nominate employees of the month for a random gift drawing and must explain why the person is valuable to the team. Their comments are shared with the employee whether they win or not – and winners come from across the larger foodservice operation at the university, highlighting roles and opportunities that employees can consider in their longer-term career plan.

Labor is a perennial challenge for restaurant operators, but it can be made a bit more manageable when a business can retain its managers. One-third of restaurant managers quit in their first year on the job, according to research from TDn2K, and the consequences are especially difficult on a restaurant’s finances and culture. Replacing managers – particularly general managers – tends to cost restaurants far more in lost productivity than it does to replace other roles. What’s more, their absence has a domino effect on the remaining team members, who may lack the direction and structure the manager provided to help run the business. You can take steps to slow the revolving door when it comes to these key members of your team. Toast suggests screening manager candidates carefully to find the best match for your culture and team for the long term, not being tempted to fill a position quickly with someone who you haven’t considered carefully through interviews and reference checks. You might even split the role into two roles to improve your chances of retaining institutional knowledge if one person were to leave. Then take steps to invest in their success. A recent global survey of middle managers conducted by McKinsey & Company found that only 20 percent of middle managers feel that their organizations let them be successful people managers, while 42 percent either don’t receive any support or are uncertain if they do. How does your turnover rate for your managers compare to that of other staff? Providing fair compensation is important to helping managers feel supported, though just as critical are noticing signs of burnout, providing sufficient time off, and giving them space to share feedback and concerns openly.