We’re just going to say it: turnover rates in hospitality are crazy high. On average, 6% of hospitality staff leave their jobs each month. It’s a shame, because there are incredible career opportunities in the industry — but that’s just the way it is.
But one of the ways to combat this challenge?
Creating a structured and effective onboarding process.
Why? Because 70% of employees who have an exceptional onboarding experience say they have the best possible job. They’re also 2.6x more likely to be extremely satisfied with the workplace, and therefore more likely to stay.
In other words: if you want to retain your existing restaurant workforce, effective onboarding is the place to start.
In this article, we’ll walk you through how to build a successful onboarding process for your restaurant staff. But first, let’s delve a little deeper into the impact of staff turnover.
Introduce Nory as a transformative tool in optimising the onboarding process for restaurant staff.
Understanding the impact of staff turnover in restaurants
The biggest impact of high turnover is cost. The average employer spends £3,000 and 27.5 days hiring a new worker when an old one leaves. That’s time and money that could be better spent helping your restaurant succeed.
On top of the financial impact, high turnover makes it even harder for hospitality businesses to find skilled employees.
It’s no secret that there’s a labour shortage in the industry at the moment. UKHospitality found 132,000 vacancies in the industry, and 70% of restaurant operators say they don’t have enough workers to support demand — and they don’t expect a reprieve anytime soon.
This means that when an employee leaves, it’s even harder to fill their role.
Hot tip 🔥 Want to tackle the labour shortage head-on? Find out how technology could be the missing piece of the puzzle!
What are the contributing factors to staff turnover?
So what are some of the reasons restaurant employees are up and leaving?
Let’s find out:
- Inadequate onboarding. Poor onboarding can be one of the main reasons people leave their jobs. A study from Paychex found that 50% of new hires plan to quit soon if they’re onboarding experience fails to meet their expectations.
- Lack of training. 80% of people who feel undertrained as a result of poor onboarding, plan to leave their role. Put yourself in their shoes for a second — are you likely to stay in a job where you’re thrown in the deep end with little training or support? Probably not.
- Low engagement. With strong purpose and engagement, employees are more likely to stay. And that means with low engagement? They’re more likely to start looking elsewhere.
- Minimal growth opportunities. If there’s a lack of career development, employees may move to another restaurant that offers the opportunities they’re looking for. In fact, a McKinsey survey found that a lack of career development and advancement was the most common reason for quitting a job.
How to build an effective restaurant onboarding process in 5 steps
Now, let’s walk through some of the steps you can follow to create a successful onboarding process for your new hires.
1. Set clear expectations
When onboarding new hires, clarity is key. This involves clearly communicating the following:
- Job roles and responsibilities. Explain exactly what their role involves, including their responsibilities and daily duties. On top of this, clarify what other roles are for, too. This helps new hires understand the hierarchy within the restaurant, and who they can go to with certain queries.
- Behavioural standards. How are employees expected to represent your restaurant when they’re working? How do they interact with diners, and how do they raise concerns or queries with other members of staff? All of this information tells new hires how to interact at work and ensure that everyone’s on the same page.
- Performance expectations. Show new hires how you’ll measure performance and what metrics they’re expected to hit. Clarifying this early on gives them focus and determination right from the offset.
The better they understand their roles and what’s expected of them, the better they can perform. And when they perform well, they’re probably getting a high level of satisfaction from their role — which can increase retention.
2. Prioritise cultural integration
Restaurant onboarding goes beyond clarifying job roles and setting expectations. Sure, those things are important — but so is cultural integration.
Cultural integration involves incorporating new hires smoothly into your work environment. And in the fast-paced environment of a restaurant, where teamwork and efficiency are essential, cultural alignment is key to success.
Plus, a positive company culture can increase retention. By fostering a sense of belonging, new employees are more likely to feel valued and motivated — which can enhance retention and improve performance.
So how do you incorporate cultural integration into your onboarding process?
- Outline your cultural values. Start by introducing new hires to your restaurant’s mission, values, and unique culture from day one. Paint a clear picture of who you are as a business and how you create a positive work environment for your restaurant staff.
Real-life example 👀 Griolladh is an Irish quick service restaurant (QSR) that specialises in customisable toasties. The growing franchise works hard to create a fun and positive culture across all locations — even when things get busy. Based on Indeed reviews, employees say that their work culture creates:
- A clear sense of purpose
- An inclusive work environment
- A supportive environment
Find out how Griolladh grew their restaurant franchise by 3x with Nory!
- Run team-building activities. Help employees feel part of the company culture by running team-building activities. This could be something as simple as an icebreaker, like two truths and one lie (where employees share three facts and team members have to guess which one is the lie). Or you could keep it closer to home and run a tasting session of the new menu.
Side note: If team-building activities sound too formal for your restaurant culture, plan informal gatherings instead — like a trip to the local pub. This allows new employees to interact with their colleagues in a more relaxed and less professional setting. 😎
3. Use digital onboarding
Digital onboarding is one of the most effective ways to onboard new hires. Here’s why:
- Streamline onboarding for new hires. New hires can access everything they need in a central location. This means they don’t have to flick back and forth between different documents, because it’s all in one place. It creates a much simpler and more efficient onboarding experience.
- Monitor onboarding progress. With technology, you can instantly see how far along new hires are in the onboarding process. If there are any roadblocks or queries, you can address them in real time to support new hires as much as possible.
- Update onboarding docs and process. When everything is digital, it’s much easier for you to update information. In a matter of clicks, you can update documentation, amend the onboarding process, and even personalise the process based on who you’re onboarding. With manual onboarding, it’s much harder to do this. You have to update documents by hand — and let’s face it, who has time for that?!
So what digital platforms can you use to onboard new restaurant hires?
We might be biased, but we think Nory is your best option.
Use our restaurant operating system to seamlessly onboard, engage, and reward your employees. Streamline the onboarding paperwork, take care of the administrative aspects, and ensure that all new hires are onboarded as efficiently as possible.
You can even use mobile-first onboarding, making it as easy as possible for new hires to onboard in whatever format they prefer.
New hires can then 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.
4. Provide sufficient training
Training new restaurant staff sets them up for success right from the get-go. It ensures that they’re confident and competent in their roles, which improves their overall experience and increases long-term retention.
There are a couple of ways to deliver onboarding training:
- Hands-on training. Depending on the role, you may want to provide hands-on training to show employees what their role involves on a day-to-day basis. A waiter, for example, might benefit from shadowing another team member to understand the layout of the restaurant, how the point-of-sale system works, and so on. It’s the same for chefs — they’ll benefit from seeing where ingredients are stored, what equipment you have, and how the kitchen operates.
- Virtual training. Some training can be delivered online before employees even step in the door. Things like health and safety procedures, customer service expectations, and operational processes are a few examples.
Some food for thought 🤔 How does training work if you operate a franchise and have multiple locations?
Centralising all of your training material is a good place to start. With everything in one location, every franchise can access the same training documentation, videos, and resources from any location.
And bonus points: Ensuring that every franchise uses the same training information increases consistency, which is one of the core pillars of running a successful franchise!
5. Measure the success of your onboarding efforts
The final step involves measuring the performance of your onboarding efforts. This will tell you what you’re doing well and what you can improve to enhance the onboarding experience.
But to effectively measure onboarding success, you need goals in place. Otherwise, you’re not really comparing your results to anything.
So take a step back to the start of your onboarding process, and let’s put some metrics in place. We suggest using the SMART goals framework to ensure your metrics are clear, specific, and measurable.
For example:
- Achieve a 90% onboarding satisfaction rate from new hires by the end of the year.
- Increase employee retention for new hires by 50% within the next six months by refining the onboarding process.
Hot tip 🔥 Use Nory’s workforce management features to monitor and measure the success of your onboarding. Our feedback mechanisms allow employees to share their honest feedback about the onboarding process. Plus, you can track turnover and retention rates to pinpoint areas of improvement in your onboarding process.
Are new hires leaving because they don’t feel adequately trained? Or because they don’t align with the company culture? Nory will help you figure this out so you can improve your onboarding process and boost retention rates. 💪
Onboard new restaurant hires successfully with Nory
Successful onboarding isn’t easy. There’s a lot of ground to cover — but the better it is, the higher chance you have of creating a motivated workforce that sticks around for the long haul.
We can help you create an effective and streamlined onboarding experience. And even better? You can easily track its performance. If things aren’t going to plan, you can instantly make changes to increase employee satisfaction and boost those retention rates!
FAQs about restaurant staff turnover
What is the employee turnover in the restaurant industry?
Studies vary on what the turnover rate is for restaurants, but we know that it’s pretty high. A lot of roles in hospitality are typically perceived as pretty transient, even though there are lots of opportunities for growth and career development.
What is a reasonable staff turnover rate?
For the restaurant sector, a reasonable turnover rate of 20-30% is generally considered normal. However, this figure varies depending on the type of restaurant you’re running, how many employees you have, and so on. There’s no single turnover rate that’s reasonable for every restaurant.
How can effective onboarding reduce restaurant staff turnover?
Effective onboarding is a great first step in boosting retention. Why? Because it ensures new hires feel prepared, supported, and integrated into the team.
You provide them with comprehensive training and clear communication of job expectations so they know exactly what to expect. This means they can perform their job better, which increases job satisfaction and (hopefully) increases retention.
