Have you found yourself a victim of the latest round of resignations? It has been an uphill battle for businesses both large and small. No company seems to be exempt from the “great resignation.” When you started your company or took a promotion to manager you may have envisioned an environment where you would establish roots, build a career. But having a revolving door of employees and customers has made it challenging to keep things afloat. So how can restaurant operators protect their business amid the great resignation? It starts by pinpointing problem areas.
Here are three areas where things often go unchecked.
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Repetitive Tasks
Recent research by Zenput found that, on average, daily operational and safety tasks in restaurants, supermarkets, and convenience stores take anywhere from 11–14 minutes each to complete. With tasks like cleaning being performed multiple times a day, the time adds up quickly. Before you know it 7-9 hours a day are consumed with repetitive tasks. And unfortunately, many operators are less than confident these tasks are being completed correctly, or on time. Identify the tasks that are repetitive, mundane and take the energy out of your employees. These tasks that are tedious and manual could possibly be done faster, more efficiently, or even eliminated. Consider streamlining or automating these tasks. Your employees will thank you for making their job easier and you will accomplish more with fewer people and less effort.
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Productivity Tools
It is vital to identify error-prone tasks. These are often tasks completed with pen and paper. Short-staffed or not, teams still have to maintain operations at the same quality of standards. Consider providing your team the ability to be as productive as possible. Consider integrating tools and apps to ease the workflow. By having your employees use digital tools and apps to complete pen and paper tasks you can reduce the possibility of burnout while keeping operations running smoothly. And at the same time, you are attracting a new generation of employees, who as digital natives will seamlessly ease into their new role.
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Customer Satisfaction
In an industry that is all about service, customer satisfaction must be factored into the equation. When talking about doing more with less you need to start by asking: what tasks get set aside when the staff get busy? It is important to know if tasks get delayed, not performed properly, or ignored completely. Gain visibility into the operations of your business; get your hands dirty. Or maybe schedule a meeting with your boss; make known the tasks that are inhibiting the effectiveness of your job, and ultimately their business. The goal is to focus on higher-value work, like interacting with customers. By understanding what services are suffering, you will more frequently meet or even surpass customer satisfaction. You will be able to keep consistency within the service which will aid your employees and bring customers back through the doors time and time again.
