How Training Can Help You Keep Your Star Employees

For some restaurant workers, serving is a summer job. But what if your new hires show promise and you want to keep them year-round? 

Enticing staff to stay isn’t just about offering them a good wage or creating a fun workplace environment. Those things do matter, of course, but equally-important is continual training and development. 

Employers who nurture their team members by providing them with learning opportunities are sending a message - you’re not just here to wait tables, you’re here because I have confidence in your abilities and believe you have untapped potential. That kind of encouragement is a powerful motivator, especially for younger workers who are just starting their foodservice careers.

Overcoming staff shortages

Keeping your restaurant open means keeping your restaurant staffed, and that’s tough to do in the current economic climate. A recent report from Stats Canada shows that the hospitality sector has been one of the hardest hit by staff shortages, with the job vacancy rate reaching 11.9% this year.

While you’re waiting to find new workers, why not train the ones you have? Research shows that investing in skill development leads to greater employee satisfaction, boosts staff morale, and improves retention.

It’s also a big win for your business, giving you more capable staff in the short-term and also increasing the chances that they’ll move up the promotional ladder at your company - providing a pool of future managers or supervisors. 

Many employers hold off on training, fearing it’s a wasted investment. Why train up staff when they’ll probably take those skills somewhere else? This is a common misconception but it doesn’t hold true in practice - studies show that training actually increases employee loyalty. 

Train them well, and your superstar staff will want to put their new skills to work in your own restaurant, improving their career prospects and the quality of your service. It’s a win, win!

Fun, fast and effective online training 

Another widespread misconception about training is that it’s disruptive to the work day. In busy times such as summer or the festive season, the last thing under-pressure managers need is staff with their head in a book rather than waiting on tables or helping in the kitchen.

With the right course and the right trainer, on-the-job learning doesn’t have to be a hassle.

FoodSafetyMarket offers online training courses, delivered from virtual classrooms, so they can be completed anywhere, any time. 

Whether getting their WHMIS Certification, taking the nationally-accredited Managing Food Safety course, or brushing up on their workskills, trainees don’t have to worry about rigid schedules. They can log in, go at their own pace, and get back to work without missing a beat.

FoodSafetyMarket’s extensive virtual catalog also includes microlearning courses for quick and effective training that delivers information in short video snippets. These cover a wide range of topics from leadership skills to compliance essentials and help round out training for employees at all levels.

Done as part of a wider focus on employee wellbeing, training can be a powerful tool for employers looking to create a highly-skilled and productive workforce. 

Your restaurant team is more than just a group of workers, they’re the ones helping to keep your business afloat during these tough times. Reward them with more than a pay cheque and your top performers will stick around in good times and bad. Or, as Richard Branson says, “Train people so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”