Are Your Compensation Strategies
new year resolutions are about imagining a new world in a future time, and that’s why this is the perfect time to discuss one of the most integral parts of any working restaurant: staff. The traditional model has been to pay your kitchen by the hour depending on what they do, let waitstaff earn their living on tips, and maybe pay a hostess by the hour as well if you get too busy. But as any restaurateur knows, high turnover rates are a constant problem in restau- rants. you’re always going to have young people who are just “passing through” the restau- rant industry as they look for the right time to start their careers, but in general managing and dealing with staff turnover takes up a lot of time and resources.
The worst part about turnover is that service suffers. And as any restaurateur will tell you, ser- vice probably suffers before that employee walks out the door. having employees who are not engaged in the long term interest of any company causes service and productivity to decline.
for these reasons some restaurants have begun to rethink their compensation plans. The best kind of compensation is the kind that motivates the employee to bring their priorities in line with the priorities and goals of the restaurant. These strategies are different depending on whether you’re talking about front of house or Back of house employees.
Front oF House:
salary your waitstaff. Tips are so ingrained into the psyche of the res- taurant industry that it feels weird to even suggest another compensation model. And the initial knee-jerk reaction is to wonder how in the world a restaurant could afford the payroll for a salaried staff. on the other hand, european restaurants have run with salaried servers for years.
The interesting thing about salaried servers is that their priorities com- pletely change. When you are paid on tips, your two primary goals are to up selling and table turnover, which don’t exactly jive with the restaurant’s goal of providing top notch service every time.
salaried servers, on the other hand, feel no such pressure to turn and burn. They are free to maximize customer experience and stimulate an increase of loyal and repeat customer attendance. Typically a flat rate service charge is added to the bill that goes directly into payroll. A smart restaurant owner would also include bonuses and incentives for top sell- ing salary servers.
The best part about the salary method is that you enable and encourage career servers. Turnover is almost non-existent because you provide a stable income for your employees. The savings on new staff training and the ability to maintain a consistently high level of service can offset in- creased payroll costs.
58
Tundra Specialties
888.594.4183
Creative Enough?
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60