How to Retain the Younger Workers of Today
By Tracy Yandow
The younger workers of today are known as “job hoppers” because they hop from one job to the next without regard for the previous employer. While it is next to impossible to keep this from happening at all, there are some strategies you can use to limit the amount of job-hopping going on at your restaurant.
Try to incorporate these simple strategies into your day-to-day operations:
Ask for their opinions. Studies prove over and over that you can reduce turnover just by genuinely soliciting opinions and being known as the boss that “listens” to them.
Give them some room. Once your employees are properly trained on their job function, let out the leash and give them some room to do their job. Instead of hovering, use periodic performance evaluations to evaluate how your employees are doing, as suggested in the training program restaurant expert David Scott Peters and I developed.
Face-to-face contact. Employees put a high value on face time with the boss. Seek opinions and provide feedback.
Short-term incentives. Unlike baby boomers of the past that were looking for careers with 401K and long-term incentive programs, this younger generation is from the NOW era. Try implementing short-term incentives such as performance-based monetary incentives and team contests.
All of the strategies above, minus the short-term incentives, are things you can add today without incurring any additional cost and actually save you money. Remember, retention is the key to building your business and the hiring pool is filled with younger employees for the restaurant industry.
Tracy Yandow is the founder and chief instructional designer for The Manual Solution, a professional documentation writing, instructional design service and partner in product. The Manual Solution provides a wide range of documentation and operational solutions to companies across the nation. Tracy partnered with David Scott Peters, restaurant expert, to produce restaurant specific training manuals for full service and quick service restaurants. Find out more at www.manualsolution.com.
