As both minimum wage and employee turnover increase, it’s important to take stock of your team. Are they happy in their positions? Are they seasonal? Will they be graduating and looking for a new job soon? Do you regularly argue with them about time off, poor scheduling, or lack of benefits?

According to the National Restaurant Association, the restaurant employee turnover rate in 2014 was 66.3%. When more than half of your staff could potentially leave in a year’s time, it’s time for you to start being proactive and begin to think about how to make your business the exception to the norm.

Beat the High Cost of Turnover

You may look at that statistic from the NRA and think, “That’s not my restaurant.” Even if you’re lucky enough to have a lower restaurant employee turnover rate, what percentage is really acceptable? Are you okay with half of your employees quitting each year? What about 30%? If you believe in the value of your company, you’ll aim to make that number as low as possible each year.

Thinking realistically here, you know most of your employees won’t become lifers. It’s just the nature of the business. However, you also know that the process of finding and onboarding new employees can take a toll on the business:

• It can be very time-consuming for those involved in the online recruitment process.
• It can take the team’s focus off of sales and service while they focus on onboarding training.
• It can lead to a decrease in morale as the rest of the team adjusts to yet another trusted coworker and friend being replaced by someone new.
• It may result in a decrease in revenue as new employee learning curves or your lack of time to focus on the business get in the way of the guest experience.

Remember: Bringing on new employees affects everyone. You can’t afford the associated costs that come with high turnover in the hospitality industry, so it may be time to consider a new staffing plan. With applicant screening, digital training, mobile forms and more, your staffing worries may become a thing of the past.

Benefits of Paperless Reports: Digital Forms, Mobile Training & Online Recruitment

There are a lot of avenues to consider when tackling the reduction in employee turnover. One such route to consider is moving to paperless employment applications.

Anyone who has ever had to manage paper applications can tell you they lead to a plethora of issues. Take a moment though to imagine a world with an online application management system:

• Less clutter around your office—no more paper to lose, write on or pay for.
• Easy transfer of applicant information across all locations.
• Real-time information or an instant notification when someone applies to a position.
• Ability to screen applicants with online recruitment before they even enter your restaurant.
• Better organization and tracking of applications—all records automatically reside in your cloud or restaurant software—available on any mobile, tablet, or computer.
• A broader (online) audience reached for better staffing.
• Easier filtering through of applications with mobile forms, digital forms, and digital staffing.
• Increased productivity—less interviews to conduct, less onboarding training needed.

End Results:

Your goal in the online recruitment process isn’t to see as many people as possible and then to pick the best option out of the litter. You want to be able to filter through all the muck before you take the time to interview, hire, and train a new recruit. Your time is valuable and you want to hire the right person, not just someone looking for a temporary “gig” or for another random job to fill their resume. You want a dedicated employee who believes in your restaurant brand and mission, and wants to use their talents and energies to help make that a reality. Digital training, digital staffing, and digital forms are making this all possible and easily achievable.

If you want to put your restaurant on the right track with a solid hiring strategy, look to an online application system like our Free Applicant Tracking System to get started. For more information on Better Chains call (310). 935.0123.