If you run a restaurant, you already have a hundred things to worry about every day. However, an underlying concern you should pay more attention to is employee retention. While staff shake-ups happen, and it’s true that people will come and go, there are a lot of benefits to keeping the same employees.
Financial Benefits
Some of the biggest benefits for employee retention are financial in nature.
- The Work Opportunity Tax Credit gives your business tax breaks if you hire and keep certain kinds of employees (military veterans, food stamps recipients, and others who typically have barriers to employment).
- Training new staff is a big investment. Estimates say that replacing an employee can cost as much as half again that person’s salary as they adjust to the job, learn your company’s systems, etc. It’s much more cost effective to keep employees who can do the job than it is to take new people, and shape them to fit that role.
- A shrinking labor force means finding suitable employees can be quite difficult. If you are unable to replace employees who leave in a timely manner you could be leaving potential revenue on the table.
Additional Benefits
Not all the benefits of employee retention as obvious at first. However, they’re no less beneficial for your restaurant.
- Employee retention typically leads to higher morale. When your staff isn’t worried that they’ll lose their jobs, or that come Monday they’ll have to work with a whole new batch of trainees, that creates a sense of stability, and that is very important for your employees’ state of mind. It also helps you provide a steady, universal experience for your customers, since your staff will be able to work together more smoothly if they’re used to each other. This keeps your productivity up, since everyone knows their job, and what’s expected of them.
- Employee retention helps you increase recruitment efforts when you do need to find new staff members. If you have a reputation for retention, then people who are looking for a job that gives them a steady, stable environment are going to be the ones filling out applications.
- Companies with engaged employees outperform those with disengaged employees by 202 percent. Companies with high engagement will also tend to see higher employee retention. Prioritizing your employees and helping them engage with their work really can make you money!
With the competition getting tougher every day for restaurants, it’s important to grab any edge you can find. One of the best advantages you can have, though, is a team you can trust to work together, and do the job right.
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