Five Strategies to Activate and Retain Your QSR Workers

“Turnover is the biggest problem in the [restaurant] industry,” says Jordan Boesch, founder and CEO of 7Shifts, an intuitive worker scheduling app created for restaurants. And he’s not wrong. Restaurants are leading worker turnover at a whopping 130-150%. The National Restaurant Association calculates that enterprises are losing an average of $2,000 per worker due to turnover.?

Simply take a look at Panera Bread, who loses close to 100% of its workers each year - which is considered to be on the good end of things compared to other QSRs. This shows how dire the situation really is in the food service industry.???

With turnover rates increasing rapidly, enterprises must find strategies and implement them quickly to counteract these rising numbers. So if your restaurant is steadily becoming understaffed, unprepared, and at risk of increasing costs due to turnover, we’ve compiled five different strategies to help you boost worker satisfaction and retention.??

1. Offer a Plan and Training Materials

According to a report by LinkedIn 94% of workers said they would stay with a company longer if it invested in their training. More often than not, workers are hired without any clue of exactly how or what it is they’re supposed to do. Providing your workers with training materials that outline their daily tasks along with showing them how to perform such tasks- sets them up for success. After all, when you know what you’re supposed to be doing, you’re more likely to be efficient and get your job done.?

2. Provide Proper Tools and Resources

According to Business Insider, 69% of restaurant workers are under the age of 25. These workers have spent the bulk of their lives with smart devices that give them access to answers in an instant. And if your company is not providing them with the technology they need almost immediately after signing up, you stand a significant chance of losing these workers to competitors who will offer them the tablets, applications, and more to give them resources at the click of a button.???

?3. Share Your Mission and Vision

According to the Corporate Leadership Council, highly engaged workers are 87% less likely to leave their companies and perform 20% better. When your company has a clear mission that is shared and supported by your workers, it leads to a greater worker engagement, increased performance and productivity, and unwavering loyalty.

4. Value Your Workers?

A survey from the American Psychological Association found that valued workers had better mental and physical health, were more motivated, highly engaged, and more satisfied. According to Snackmagic, 69% of workers said they would work harder if they were valued and appreciated. When employers recognize workers for their loyalty and hard work and engage with them on a regular basis, they show workers that they are not just a number. They are setting the tone for the entire employer-worker relationship and letting them know that they are valued.?

5. Integrate Your System With Fountain

According to Click Boarding, 69% of workers will remain loyal to an employer for at least three years if they have a good onboarding experience. So, instead of manually extracting your new hire data and completing each welcome kit one by one so it slowly reaches your workers in the mail - use Bluemark's automate new hire data directly from Fountain so your workers can receive a branded, personalized onboarding kit at the right time without having to bear the workload of logistics.

A Single Way To Execute These Strategies All at Once

According to Harvard Business Review companies with a standardized onboard process have 62% productivity and 50% retention amongst new hires. A single way to provide training, tools, equipment, and share your mission and vision at the right time and all at once is by delivering a branded kit filled with the necessary products to each of your worker’s doorstep immediately to kick off onboarding.?

Here’s what this could look like.?

As the QSR industry continues to rise, enterprises will experience even more challenges with worker turnover, but if it is tackled at the right time with the correct strategies, your enterprise can prevent a significant loss of revenue.?

Bluemark helps companies onboard, activate, and retain workers with kitted branded products that build worker loyalty. By integrating with our partner, Fountain, we can automatically extract your new hire data and complete all parts of the sourcing, production and fulfillment process. This way, all of your applicants are activated and put to work, as soon as possible.??