Motivating Interest: Help Employees Achieve Career Goals (Restaurants USA, February 1997)

February 1997 issue

Motivating Interest: Help Employees Achieve Career Goals

Restaurants USA magazine's final issue was published in September 2002 but these archived articles remain available for our readers' convenience.

Restaurants USA, February 1997

A motivated staff equals happier customers, higher profits, and less turnover.
By Phillip M. Perry

Imagine the benefits of a staff that goes that extra mile for your restaurant. Motivated employees with positive attitudes have superior work habits — which translates into happier customers and fatter profits for your bottom line.
And the alternative? A lethargic staff that irritates customers, disenchanted workers who leave for greener pastures, and the need to constantly hire and train new employees.

"Top managers realize that in a tight labor market, it's cheaper to concentrate on retention than to live with high turnover," says Don Schackne, president of Personnel Management and Administration Associates of Delaware, Ohio. "When an employee walks out the back door, you lose all your invested training dollars and productivity. Starting over with a new employee is very expensive — and creates morale problems."

Is the solution to simply boost salaries? Not in the long run, say personnel-management experts. "Paying more money isn't the answer," says Schackne. "You may steal a few employees from the competition that way, but you can raise your cost of doing business to a level that cannot be passed on to your customers." With tighter profit margins, businesses are unable to motivate by fattening their workers' wallets.

Experts say the secret of motivation is to build your employees' human potential. "Effective management of employees has the purpose of helping individuals achieve to their maximum abilities, resiliently and independently," says Peter A. Spevak, director of the Center for Applied Motivation in Rockville, Maryland. "This results in an activated, responsible work force that through its efforts provides meaning, as well as income, for each employee and for the business."

There are a number of specific steps you can take to bring about that profitable situation. Although not all of the following methods will fit every workplace, at least one or two will enhance yours — because no matter what the business, the same basic rules apply when staff and management get together.

The sum of the whole...

Sometimes managers act as though employees have nothing to do with the ultimate success of the restaurant, yet they expect the employees to contribute to the operation's welfare.

One of the most elementary methods of motivating staff is to relate employees' goals to those of the restaurant. Unless employees feel that they are vital partners in the success of the business, they will not perform to their peak abilities, nor will they seek out additional ways to become more productive. But operators must take specific steps to get employees to work in harmony with the restaurant's goals.

First, inform employees of the ultimate goal of the restaurant: to make a good profit. Share the actual numbers. Let employees know how much profit the restaurant has to clear to be successful and explain how the actions of each employee contribute to that profit.

Then immediately move on to illustrate why a more profitable restaurant is in the interests of the employee. Show how a fatter bottom line could lead to increases in salaries and bonuses, as well as create insurance against layoffs. Describe your plan for sharing part of increased profits with everyone.

This two-step effort will help employees see how their personal goals and rewards are tied in with those of the restaurant — which is a much better approach than telling the employees that the ultimate goal of the business is to serve the customer. While good service does often lead to better profits, it is not the ultimate goal of the restaurant. In the end, make sure everyone's eye is on the same target — the bottom line.

...is equal to its parts

Once the employees have a solid understanding of the restaurant's business goal, make sure each one understands how individual tasks help the operation achieve greater profit. For example, when diners' needs are anticipated — when refills, condiments and extra napkins appear magically, for example — the image of the restaurant is enhanced and repeat business is more likely.

And better business can add up to better wages for the employee. But most employees need more than the knowledge that they will be rewarded monetarily to be motivated to help the restaurant succeed. Staff members also need to know that their work is seen as worthwhile, that it creates value. Establish a regular program of providing performance feedback to each employee. Keep an eye open for actions that reflect excellence or that show that the employee is going beyond the defined parameters of the job to do better work — and then praise the employee for that work.

There are a few guidelines operators should keep in mind when praising employees. First, be specific. Don't just say that the employee is doing a great job. Identify a specific task that was performed well, and then tell the employee how pleased you were that particular actions were taken, such as when a worker voluntarily stays after his or her shift ends to help set up for the evening rush.

Second, provide the feedback in a structured way. Meet with each employee privately on a regular basis and discuss what you consider to be especially good accomplishments. Such a thoughtful review will motivate the employee more than spontaneous expressions of appreciation at the work site.

The long haul

Those techniques for motivating employees to relate the business goal of making a profit to their individual goals of earning more money and attaining greater self-worth can be considered short-term thinking. There are even more effective ways to motivate staff, but the steps require more of an investment on the part of the employer and employee. Those long-term techniques include the following:

Provide career counseling during individual meetings with employees. Communicate to employees that you are concerned with their long-term career goals and that the work they are doing at your business will help them achieve their goals.

Request feedback from employees on how they think the restaurant can provide them with better opportunities for advancing toward their career goals. Encourage employees to suggest ways in which they can further their skills while assisting the operation toward greater profits. Can their work be performed in a better way, perhaps more productively, or can some tasks be delegated to newer or lower-level employees?

Encourage employees to take continuing-education courses and to read books that will help them acquire more skills. You will probably have to make some sort of investment, so you might want to set a minimum budget to make sure everyone participates and a maximum budget to keep costs from getting out of line.

Sharing is caring

Every worker should know what specific tasks are accomplished by other members of the staff, so teach each employee what the others do. Only by knowing what others are doing will the employee realize how individual actions contribute toward a functioning, profitable restaurant.

Next, you should involve employees in brainstorming to improve the restaurant. If all of those methods for motivation are in place, then you are ready to move to a higher level by getting your employees involved in planning for greater business success. Your work force will become a powerhouse that others will find hard to beat.

"With the tighter labor market, employers are starting to realize they better listen to their employees," says Don Schackne. "How do they feel about the place? The management style?"

Hold regular staff meetings during which employees discuss steps the restaurant can take to become more profitable. How can tasks be changed so that work becomes more productive? What new areas can the restaurant explore? What problems are likely to arise, and what can the staff do to avoid them or to lessen their effects? What are customers saying about the good and bad points of the restaurant?

In addition to regular face-to-face meetings with staff, you can offer written surveys to be filled out anonymously, points out Schackne. That encourages people to open up.

Once you decide which areas of the restaurant need work, set goals. The trick is to choose goals that are clearly defined. If you are discussing profits, then make a certain net-income number the goal — and be sure the goals are achievable. Avoid the two most common problems in setting goals: creating too many goals and scheduling insufficient time to achieve those goals.

What's my motivation?

Once the goals are in place, get employees involved in motivating other staff members. Ask employees what steps management can take to motivate everyone to do a better job. You may be surprised at the answers.

To get regular input, hold twice-yearly reviews with each employee to ask for their feedback and to set specific goals for him or her to achieve. If there is no particular area that needs work, suggest a generic motivator — for example, "Find two ways to increase the productivity of your job over the next six months." During those reviews, also go over the specific goals from the last review and see which ones the employee managed to achieve. Discuss those that were not attained and make plans for reaching them over the next six months.

Operators should constantly experiment with new ways to motivate employees. Always be on the lookout for new techniques that will get employees working with you to create a valuable restaurant that outperforms the competition and keeps raking in profits year after year.

There are a number of new techniques many businesses have been trying recently that you may want to think about adopting in your own workplace to create a more motivated work force. Offering flexible work hours is one example. Employees are given longer weekends or greater latitude when scheduling vacation time. The idea is to boost morale and productivity. A related technique is to allow employees to "buy" and "sell" vacation days with their co-workers.

Other employers are developing award programs for performance in areas such as sales and safety. In that method, employees accumulate points for performance. When they collect a certain number of points, they receive a reward — usually a gift item that costs from $10 to $100.

Although incentives are good motivational tools, they are not miracle workers. The programs have to be structured correctly. That means keeping a record of points earned by each employee and providing everyone with a written report of their points on a regular basis. Also, awards should be items that employees would not normally purchase on their own.

But no matter how many prizes employees receive, a staff that is unhappy in other areas will still be unmotivated. Gifts should be awarded only in addition to policies that emphasize employees' involvement in decision making and goal setting — the cornerstones of employee motivation.

Maxims for Motivation
Here are some tips for creating a happy and hardworking staff.

1. Relate employees' goals to those of the restaurant.
2. Provide direct feedback.
3. Offer career counseling.
4. Teach employees what their co-workers do.
5. Involve employees in the business planning for the operation.
6. Get employees' ideas for motivating staff members.
7. Consistently update your motivational techniques.

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Phillip M. Perry writes for Restaurants USA from New York City.