If you’ve ever been part of the whirlwind that is restaurant hiring, you know the drill. Mountains of paperwork, inconsistent training sessions, and the not-so-small task of turning your fresh-faced hires into confident team players.
Enter employee onboarding software — the hero you didn’t know your restaurant needed. 🥳
This technology helps you navigate the chaos with ease, offering a structured and welcoming experience for new hires while streamlining things in the back office. But how exactly does it work? Is onboarding software worth the hassle of integrating a new system into your existing operation? We all know that managing change is easier said than done.
Yes, and we explain why in this article. Stick around to find out how employee onboarding software can enhance your operations.
What is restaurant employee onboarding software?
Restaurant onboarding software streamlines and simplifies the process of integrating new hires into a restaurant’s team.
It automates and centralises the key steps in onboarding, ensuring that new employees receive a structured and organised introduction to their roles. And while it’s doing all of this, it also reduces the administrative burden on managers. Result. 💪
Why good onboarding is essential for restaurants
A disorganised onboarding process can quickly snowball into:
- High employee turnover. 63% of workers consider leaving their roles within two years if they’re not thriving in their positions. Effective onboarding prevents this from happening, boosting retention rates. With strong purpose and engagement, employees are also more likely to stay in their roles.
- Poor team dynamics. If employees don’t fully understand how to perform their job effectively, it can cause conflict and inefficiencies among team members.
- Frustrated managers. Without effective onboarding, managers will find it tricky to manage employees who don’t have a full understanding of their role and responsibilities.
- A bad customer experience. When restaurant staff don’t know the proper policies and processes, it can lead to a bad dining experience for customers.
But when onboarding is done right? It’s a game-changer.
It sets the tone for new hires, boosting their confidence by giving them all the training, resources, and information they need to do their job effectively. It sets them up for success right from the get-go.
And when your employees know how to do their jobs well, they deliver a better and more efficient service. Customers receive a top-quality dining experience, and you cut costs with efficient operations. It’s a win-win!
How onboarding software simplifies restaurant hiring
Let’s take a look at some of the ways onboarding software enhances the hiring and onboarding process.
Automate paperwork and document collection
Imagine never having to chase signatures or sort through stacks of forms again. 🙏
Well, that’s what happens with onboarding software.
Onboarding software handles all the administration of hiring and onboarding new employees. From collecting tax forms, obtaining contract signatures, and sharing your employee handbook — it digitises onboarding tasks from start to finish.
This means less paper, fewer errors, and more time to focus on what matters — like increasing your bottom line.
Provide a positive new hire experience
Providing a smooth and positive onboarding experience is a great way to set new hires up for success. And as mentioned, when employees have a good onboarding experience, they’re more likely to stick around (which is a great way to combat the ongoing labour shortage).
Let’s look at some of the specific onboarding features that enhance the employee experience:
- Personalise onboarding paths. Front of house, back of house, or somewhere in between — onboarding software lets you tailor the process to suit each role. For example, front-of-house staff can access customer service training, while kitchen staff receive role-specific resources. This approach eliminates irrelevant steps, reduces frustration, and helps new hires feel confident and supported from day one.
- Offer easy access to training materials and resources. 80% of people who feel under-trained as a result of a poor employee onboarding experience plan to leave their role. Prevent this from happening by providing easy access to all training materials with onboarding software. It’s a one-stop shop for everything your new team members need to succeed, from training videos to safety protocols.
- Make it easy to track onboarding tasks. Nothing says “welcome to the team” like a checklist that actually works. Onboarding software ensures both managers and new hires stay on top of tasks, from submitting documents to completing training.
Food for thought 👀 AI-powered systems enhance the employee experience even further. With Nory, for example, you can create demand-based schedules based on predicted customer sales. The schedules align with employee availability and ensure there are enough people on the roster to cover busy periods, making shifts less stressful for restaurant staff.
Improve team communication and organisation
From scheduling shifts to sending updates, onboarding software acts as a hub for seamless communication.
Take a look at Nory as an example. With our restaurant management software, operators can seamlessly onboard, engage, and reward your employees. Streamline the onboarding paperwork, take care of the administrative aspects, and ensure that you onboard new hires as efficiently as possible. 👏
New hires can also use Nory to access all their HR data in one place. They can register for payments, manage benefits, swap shifts, and receive tips through the system.
Sounds too good to be true, right? We promise it’s not. Take a look at some of our success stories to see for yourself.
Hot tip 🔥 Use Nory’s mobile-first onboarding to make it as easy as possible for new hires to onboard in their preferred format.
Nory success story 🥳 Find out how Roasting Plant Coffee reduced cost of labour by 18% in just two months of working with Nory.
“I can see where our general managers are saving a huge amount of time making their rotas. It frees up their time to focus on other crucial aspects of their role.” – Kallie Kocourek, Vice President of the UK Market.
Ensure compliance
When it comes to hiring and onboarding, using employee onboarding software can help you meet the necessary requirements you have to follow as an employer. For example, HR compliance or healthy and safety regulations.
It’s tricky to keep on top of all these requirements, especially when you’re trying to run a successful and profitable restaurant operation.
But the good news? Employee onboarding software can help! Here’s how:
- Store health and safety requirements in a central location. Restaurants don’t just need great food; they need safe practices. Onboarding software standardises health and safety training, ensuring every hire knows the drill and helping you stay compliant with regulations.
- Secure sensitive data. Employee records, salaries, and contracts are all securely stored and easy to access. Whether it’s for an audit or your peace of mind, having everything in one place is a win.
Food for thought 👀 Security features vary from platform to platform. When choosing an onboarding system. Be sure to review their data security practices to ensure private information is protected.
At Nory, for example, we use industry-leading security measures (including encryption, secure data storage, and role-based access control) to protect sensitive information. Our privacy policy has the full details.
Save time and reduce stress
Why spend hours on repetitive tasks when software can do it for you? By automating the nitty-gritty of onboarding, managers can reduce their manual load and focus on keeping operations running smoothly.
And with less manual and administrative tasks on their workload, they have more mental capacity to perform jobs without feeling overworked.
Food for thought 👀 Employee onboarding software is also ideal for scaling quickly during busy seasons. When the holiday rush hits, you don’t have time to reinvent the wheel. Use the software to easily bring on temporary or seasonal staff without cutting corners on training.
Use Nory to hire, onboard, and manage your workforce
Onboarding software isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s a game-changing tool for streamlining processes, improving communication, and creating a welcoming environment for new hires.
So, why not make your life easier? Explore Nory’s workforce management features and see how we can help you transform your restaurant onboarding process.
