Engage and Empower your Team

Introduction

As mentioned in previous editions, it is my aim to add value and shed light on different aspects that will help you grow your business, and achieve your aims. In this edition we will cover:

1. Reward & engagement
2. Training

Human resources and team empowerment are the backbones of any organisation. Thus, efforts are put in place to improve their skills and knowledge continuously. Moreover, make them perform in the right environment that encourages constant development. Although, in this edition, we will elaborate further on how to improve their training; see; see below another article by our training specialist, JJ van Delsen , yet another part of the equation requires our attention and consideration: reward and engagement.

Different ways to reward and engage your hardworking team members

Customer-facing is essential for acquisition, retention, loyalty, and growth in quick-service restaurants and other food outlets. It is crucial to create a culture and environment that differentiates you from the competition. Sometimes, it requires lots of energy and discipline to maintain positivity in front of different customers and manage their requirements professionally. Improve our team resilience, mental health and wellbeing against any physical or emotional challenge they may face. As a result, this will lead to team retention, customer loyalty and profitability. There are many ways to do that. Here few ideas are relevant to QSR and other food-related outlets.?Book your free discovery call now .

Idea #1 – Celebrate Your Employees Birthdays

There are several ways to do this. Firstly, you can send them a birthday card, with your and the management wishes for an awesome birthday. Moreover, you can celebrate a team member's birthday.

Alternatively, you can hold a monthly celebration for all the birthdays in a single month, much more practical, I imagine ??. Then, you can either bake or purchase a cake and put it in the break room. Moreover, inform everyone that it's the person's birthday. Plus, you can even add a gift as a token of appreciation. Moreover, this is an excellent team-building activity and gives your staff something to look forward to regularly.

Idea #2 – Give Concert Tickets

Incorporate this fantastic employee reward with goal setting, as an encouragement, and uplifting performance. For instance, you can reward employees who have the highest attendance with free concert tickets. Restaurant staff members are infamous for calling in sick and being late. However, it is crucial that you define properly the basis you are going to identify the winners. The chosen concert should be from a list that matches their preference.?

Idea #3 – Match their Tips

For a high-stakes competition, reward your employees by matching the winner's tips for a particular day. On this day, you can offer to reward them by giving them an equivalent of the day's tips. Moreover, this is an excellent way to reward your restaurant employees, especially if you get bartenders and servers to provide outstanding customer service. Since this is quite costly, you don't want to do this regularly. The good idea is to do it once every month.

Idea #4 – Treat them With Branded Swag Bags

Many brands have taken this on board. Trying to make themselves part of their employees day in life. In addition, this is a swell idea for recruits, where they receive a starter kit that includes a bag/basket filled with branded products such as fleece jackets, aprons, masks, hats, pins, and T-shirts. In addition, this will make them part of the group, feel welcomed, but it is also an excellent marketing strategy. You can even give smaller-sized swag bags to your employees during the holidays or some time during the year. For instance, if any of your employees had to work with an adamant customer, or if they had to work many busy shifts, give them swag bags.

Moreover, this can include a small bag with movie tickets, gift cards, gym vouchers, or chocolates. However, this should be part of your marketing budget. Keep in mind that happy employees result in satisfied customers.

Idea #5 – Host Parties for Your Team

Everyone loves free food and a little treat, don't you? ???Thus, make time for a team party several times during the year. I remember we held a weekly breakfast every Thursday. We used to discuss marketing issues, in a relaxed manner, before having a couple of formal updates on the marketing calendar and new initiatives. For instance, you can close a little early on a weekday when there's low traffic—order food for your employees from another QSR or restaurant to prepare food for themselves.

Moreover, your customers will surely understand provided you give them sufficient notice and upload such efforts. The golden rule states that you need to treat your employees the same way you treat your customers. This way, they get to talk to and know each other in a relaxed, friendly environment and connect. The objective is to get creative and appreciate your team members. Celebrate the work they do and make sure to enjoy them. You can use such events as PR campaigns to show your appreciation and let the world know how proud you are of the team members.

Idea #6 – Name An Item After an All-Rounded Employee

Another way to reward your restaurant employees is to name a drink or dish after them. Then, do a contest, where they come up with a menu item. In addition, this will encourage team involvement and will assist your research and development in many ways. For example, you can choose the one that best fits the month's marketing theme and reward the top three winners. Moreover, you can use it as part of the LTOs menu (Limited Time Offers) to test out! Maybe it will be worth adding it to the main menu at a later time.?

Idea #7 – Allow them to Go Live on Social Media

Working with global brands might be against their corporate guidelines. Yet, it is worth considering specific employees as brand ambassadors who can create social media buzz. For example, you can let the employee go live on Facebook or Instagram and take viewers on a behind-the-scenes tour of your restaurant. Live feeds have proven to be six times more engaging and effective than posted video content and authentic.?

Idea #8 – Give Them Flexibility

Define the game's rules, your expectations, the dos and don'ts, then give them the flexibility to manage things within. A little autonomy goes a long way when you reward your restaurant employees. For instance, you can allow a responsible member to decide their next week or shift schedule, which increases the involvement of dedicated members' participation and encourages engagement and team alignment. Plus, they will be excited about choosing the days or nights they work for the next week.

Idea #9 – Host An Awards Night

It would be fantastic to help them nurture their talents in sports, music, arts, drama, magic, singing individually or as a team. Arrange for an annual party, where they can compete and display their talents. There are loads of Talent tv shows that you can take ideas from and improvise. You can arrange for a blended interactive in-person and virtual event to engage all team members across geographies. Besides, this will ascertain your culture of leadership and innovation across different verticals.

Moreover, this is excellent for yearly staff parties, where you can present employees with superlatives that range from silly to high praise. Give medals or trophies to reward your employees in various categories.?That will engage everyone and ensure they have a fantastic time engraved in their memories forever. In addition, you can combine Ideas #9 & #5 if that is easier to plan and manage.

In summary

There are ample creative ways to reward your employees, which is definitely worth the time and effort. It increases their morale and improves your bottom line. Of course, your employees might be the ones winning the prizes, but eventually, this is a win-win situation for all stakeholders. If you want to explore what suits your own business, please get in touch.?Book a time, and let us help you grow your business further. ?

Above, I list a few ideas on engaging and rewarding your employees. In the following article, Jan Jilis van Delsen has kindly contributed to empowering your team members through training.

Training delivery strategy to achieve your training goals, by?Jan Jilis van Delsen , CEO of Associated Learning, a specialist learning solutions company.

In the previous edition of this newsletter, we explored the three key elements to improve your training and lower your costs.

Today, we look at how to deliver the proper training for your situation.

Consider these four scenarios. From a training perspective, these are very different situations and need specific solutions.

1- Frontline staff taking orders and working at the till

In many cases, this could be a significant learning barrier. The team is multitasking, learning the workflow, operating the till coached by their manager, taking orders and trying to upsell.?

2- Kitchen staff trying to understand how to operate equipment on the go

They downloaded the company branded app on their mobile phone as part of their induction. Within the app, they scan the barcode on the oven to quickly see the specific instructions on setting the right temperature and cooking time.

3- Restaurant and HQ managers trained in management techniques

They learn in a social environment, share experiences, and ask the group and the instructor questions—online theory learning, enriched with relevant scenarios and access to their coach.

4- Staff that needs to show compliance with the law, such as food safety.

Before they are allowed to work, they need to show the dated and verified food safety certificate stored in their e-portfolio. The company can demonstrate to an environmental health inspector that they are fully compliant with the law at any time. You can also prove compliance with your insurance company and pay lower premiums.

• Full-service training providers who can cover all the above scenarios are still hard to find. Ask your training providers the following questions:
• How would you handle training my staff in the above scenarios?
• What is your experience in the following training delivery modalities? (Classroom, V-ILT, Blended, Online)
• The purpose of designing an online training delivery (Often, it is intended for delivery via a computer screen, not on mobile, which will impact the training negatively)
• How do you impact my learners, so they change their behaviour and lower my risk of accidents?

It would be best to look for training companies who understand that the joint working of people and technology can lead to effective learning solutions. Online learning gives you the scalability and consistency of your message. Instructors (people) can see the question mark in your eyes and respond accordingly. Besides, this makes blended learning a great solution in many situations.

Keep in mind, though; often, the business pressures the training team to deliver at the lowest cost possible. Unfortunately, this leads to the training manager purchasing cheap food safety courses that do not change behaviour. Inspectors know this and will not accept your "certificate of compliance".

It is your responsibility to deliver quality training to your staff. It will pay itself back!

Next time we will explore what infrastructure your company needs to deliver a successful training programme. As always, we welcome your comments, and we will respond to them in the following edition.?

Thank you

#leadership #qsr #marketing #motivation #change #businesscoach #training

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