6 reasons why poor employee performance is your fault
Managing a working restaurant is hard. It’s even harder for a res- taurant manager when poor em- ployee performance contributes to the general stress of the job. Worse yet, it only takes one mistake by an employee to trigger a long night of damage control.
It’s only natural that managers ex-
pect and demand a lot from their staff. All too often, however, those expectations aren’t met. Despite all the shortcomings the staff might have, poor performance is usually a symptom of poor management.
THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S YOUR FAULT. Here’s why:
1. YOU DON’T cOMPLIMENT YOUR STAFF ENOUGH. Oh, they sure hear it from you up, down, left and right when they screw up. They get detailed feedback about exactly what they did wrong, why it was wrong and how it should never happen again.
And no, “good job” isn’t enough. Detailed positive feedback is an important way to keep your staff motivated and engaged. It also makes your negative feedback more effective, because when someone is used to hearing good things from you they pay attention when you have a bone to pick. A constant stream of negativity just causes your staff to tune you out.
2. YOU MIcROMANAGE. A common mistake made by manag- ers everywhere is to combat lagging employee performance by personally making sure every detail is done right. Unfortunately, this only makes the problem worse.
When you take responsibility away from your staff they check out mentally – you’re just going to double-check everything they do anyway – and that means your job gets harder and harder while performance continues to plummet.
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2012 management resolutions
Clean up your restroom
There’s no denying it: customers are judging you by your bathroom. If it’s shabby or dirty then they wonder if other places they can’t see (like the kitchen) looks the same. Send a strong message when your customers visit the restroom: show them the tight ship you run by taking care of the details behind the bathroom door.
make you more money
Anybody can write down an order and bring out drinks and food at the appropriate times. It takes a true server to be able to connect with customers and recommend a bottle of wine or sell a few specials. Ongoing training will not only help your servers raise check averages but will also turn them into money machines for your business as well.
paid sick days
the National Restaurant Association may lobby against them, but paid sick days for your employees are worth far more than they cost. here’s why: when one worker comes in sick they will inevitably contaminate something in the kitchen, and before you know it the rest of the staff is sick and then customers get sick. retaining good, reliable staff is certainly worth the effort, and perks like a couple paid sick days will help you retain the best.
Stay open all night
Urban areas are increasingly becoming 24/7, which means hungry customers are peering into your dark windows late at night. If you run a late kitchen with a skeleton crew you can generate some great extra business by capturing the late crowd, especially on weekends. Pare down your menu to high-margin munchies, find a couple reliable people to work the late shift, turn up the house music and watch your restaurant work for you while you sleep.
888.594.4183 hand out 31
Stop serving dishes that don't sell
It can be easy to fall into the trap of adding more and more variety to your menu just for the sake of variety. The problem is, if a dish isn’t moving then it’s costing you money to buy those ingredients and store them. Go through your sales numbers regularly and ax anything that isn’t turning over quickly enough. Printing new menus is a much less expensive effort.
45 Train employees to
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