Labor shortages are unfortunately something that has become somewhat of a norm in various industries over the past few years. Everywhere we go, wait times are longer or the goods we want to buy are not available. The implications of the current labor shortage can be seen nearly every day. The foodservice industry specifically has seen a great decline in the staff they are able to retain. Diners see this with longer wait times, smaller menus, and increased prices, but let’s take a look behind the scenes.
Foodservice directors are finding it very difficult to maintain a full staff. When a position is open, it takes months to find staff which leaves the current staff making up for the gaps. Being able to function amidst a nationwide labor shortage has its challenges as diners, guests, students, and patients still are expecting to receive the same level of service and quality food. Although your team is smaller right now, the same amount of work needs to be done. Deliveries need to be put into their home in the storage room and transporting food supplies to the kitchen for meal prep still needs to happen. At the end of the day, your small staff can get by, but ultimately they are pushing themselves to a limit that will soon be reached.
Having employees get to a point where they can no longer physically and mentally work in the foodservice industry is a point we don’t want you to be reached. While the labor shortage will continue to impact the foodservice industry, we have gathered some ideas for you to consider implementing to help make your employees time at work both enjoyable and safe, and also for it to be such a great work environment that your company culture is recognized as being one of the best. Being known for having a great company culture can have great impacts on your hiring process. Below we will dive into some ideas to help reduce the impacts the labor shortage is having on your foodservice operations.
1: Build a Strong Work Culture
When your employees enjoy their work, they share that with their friends and family. Word-of-mouth marketing can be one of the most powerful types of marketing as a positive word-of-mouth review can send your business to success while a bad review can have many negative effects. When you treat your staff well, the community knows it and in return will want to support your business more and even consider working for you.
In an employee starved industry, people looking for jobs have the ultimate say on where they want to work. Being known as a great employer will increase your likelihood of receiving more applications which will lead to more interviews and eventually to great hires. Building your work culture all starts with management. Offering flexibility and positive reinforcement are just two of the many ways to create a good relationship with your staff.
Another aspect of work culture is safety. No one wants to work for a company that pushes their employees to the breaking point and has them do work that is unsafe. Ensuring your operations, kitchen, and dining space offer equipment that is safe for employees to use is very important. In the foodservice industry, there are lots of heavy items that need to be moved around ranging from canned food to bringing heavy dirty dishes to the back-of-the-house from the dining space. Safety paired with an enjoyable work environment can help encourage job applicants to seek out your business.
2: Offer Impressive Benefits
While company culture is one aspect that helps retain staff, offering great benefits helps get people in the door for interviews. When looking for new jobs, the first thing you look at on a posting is the general description and the quick list of bulleted benefits. While some foodservice operations are not designed to offer full-time salaried benefits like health insurance and retirement savings plans, there are many other benefits you can offer your part time staff. Consider offering employee discounts, wellness benefits, flexible schedule benefits, training and professional development opportunities.
With all of this in mind, it is also so important to pay your employees a competitive wage. That may sound like a very obvious statement to make, but at the end of the day, job applicants want a job that will be able to sustain their living expenses. Wage paired with impressive benefits can really help attract and retain employees so consider evaluating your current benefits and then take some time to brainstorm how you could add more benefits to the package.
3: Increase the Use of Technology
Within the foodservice industry, there are many tasks that have now been able to be replaced by automated technology. For example, Open Table is a service many restaurants use that allow guests to make reservations online without having to call and talk to a restaurant staff member. Reducing the amount of time a hostess is on the phone taking reservations is an easy swap to bring back time to your smaller staff.
Another new technological advance in the foodservice industry is the use of wireless payment systems. Instead of staff having to come to the table to get a form of payment, take the card back to the register to process the payment, and then bring the card back to the guests, they can simply do take the payment right at the table, process the payment, and print a receipt within less than a minute. This is yet another way to reduce the time it takes staff to complete a task. With the current labor shortage, when the time it takes to complete a task is reduced, this brings back time to increase productivity and efficiency.
Investing in your employees and company culture is so important in the labor starved foodservice industry. Offering benefits while introducing new technologies can help increase operational efficiency. Efficiency also comes with equipment that works with you, and not against you. With Lakeside’s new motorized cart, you can move more heavy loads with less staff all while reducing operator strain from transporting heavy loads. This new foodservice cart helps increase labor efficiency to help combat labor shortages.
With limited employees, the last thing you need is to lose a staff member that needs to take two weeks off to recover from a work related injury. Your foodservice equipment sets the stage for successful and safe operations for diners, guests, patients, students, or whoever else walks through your doors. Talk with a Lakeside cart expert to discover equipment solutions!