If you are like many businesses in the food services industry, food service staffing is one of your top challenges. Do you find yourself asking on a monthly or even weekly basis, “why is it so hard to retain employees?” Rest assured you are not alone. The problem is, you can’t really let it rest. You must have high quality employees for your business, or else it will not survive let alone thrive!
Let’s take a closer look at some of the top problems in retaining staffing for your food service business and what you can do about it:
Food Service Staffing Turnover: Here One Day, Gone the Next
Do you feel like you are continually hiring employees only to see them leave after you have put in the time and effort to train them for their jobs? Unfortunately, high turnover rate is a common factor for nearly all businesses in the food service industry. The National Restaurant Association found in a survey of restaurants that the turnover rate for full-service restaurants has grown from 78% to 107% in the last ten years.
The survey revealed that the causes for the high turnover included:
- Lower than desired pay and benefit
- Few advancement opportunities
- Not enough recognition for high performance
- Employee conflicts between staff and management
Training: Giving Your Staff the Tools They Need to Succeed
Without enough dependable staff to fulfill shifts, it becomes very challenging for businesses to train new staff sufficiently. And, the result is a team that struggles to work efficiently during busy times. As a result, service isn’t up to par for customers. This is not a recipe for business growth.
Yet, food service industry experts state right training of new employees is an effective way to promote a productive staff. And a productive staff facilitates lower turnover rates. However, the vicious cycle of being understaffed, not covering shifts appropriately and not providing training often serves as a roadblock for businesses.
Scheduling and Pay: Promoting and Rewarding Productivity
Do you pay your employees the same across the board? Or, do you have a system in place to reward your most product employees with higher pay? When productive employees know they are receiving the same compensation as those who are under-performing, it’s easy for them to lose their motivation and drive, or to look for work opportunities elsewhere. So, rewarding those employees who are doing their jobs well can make a positive impact on employee morale. High employee morale leads to retention of the best staff members.
A Plus Is the Solution to Your Food Service Staffing Challenges
If you’ve found your business is struggling to retain productive, dependable food service staffing, the solution is simpler than you think. While you may not be able to solve all of the problems with turnover, training, scheduling and pay, you can find the kind of hard-working, qualified staff members you need to fill your open positions.
At A Plus Staffing, we are proud to be your number one solution. Let us get to know your food service business and what your needs are, so we can help you to find the right candidates to keep your business running like a well-oiled machine month after month. Contact our food service recruitment team now to get started.