Losing dependable team members can be increasingly painful. The loss is felt throughout the entire team from owners, to management, to the servers and support staff filling the gaps as best they can. Quantifying the value of continuity and employee morale at restaurants is an abstract measure at best, but there is data that suggests that employers spend up to 400% of an employee’s salary in turnover costs to fill the position.
This varies by industry, but restaurants are absolutely not immune to this challenge. Recruiting, onboarding, training, scheduling, and supervising new employees are all part of back filling a position.
Additionally, that new employee’s performance level whether at the same, above, or below that of the person replaced may not be evident until 4-6 weeks after they start. That is how long it take for an employee to acclimate and become really productive.
This all puts into perspective how crucial the employee experience is. Retaining the best team members really is the most profitable thing a restaurant can do.
Keeping Restaurant Staff Happy Doesn’t Take A Lot Of Time
The prevailing sentiment is that building morale among staff requires a lot of dedicated hand-holding and one-on-one conversations.
This is not the case, though. Instead, addressing a lack of transparency and a lack of objective feedback can change the rate of employee turnover in restaurants. When people don’t know what’s going on, and when they feel like they’re being judged by superficial measures, it causes anxiety. They don’t know what the real story is, and they don’t have clear, constructive feedback on what success looks like.
Axial was built to help us combat these issues inside restaurants, and no single thing has had a better return on investment. This product encourages better conversations between service staff and managers because there’s actual data that forms the basis of their discussions.
Sharing data has been the game-changer for restaurant staff who previously could only grade their performance based on tips and customer feedback.
Axial streamlines the collection, reporting, and visualization of existing restaurant data. The app gives employees convenient access to this information in a format that helps them understand their own performance relative to the team.
It is still important and beneficial for restaurant managers to check in with their staff on a regular basis, but with Axial the increasing pressure and anxiety are alleviated and conversations made more productive when restaurant staff no longer feel like they’re in the dark.
