Restaurants need to stay fully staffed with well-trained employees to produce a great customer service experience. There is turnover in any business, and restaurants are no exception. So, how can you maintain a fully trained team?
While the answer to this question is complicated, there are simple steps you can take to lower employee turnover and improve training at the same time.
One simple step is to create and use effective job aids in your daily operations. This begs the question to be answered: What are typical job aids and how do they work?
Restaurant Job Aids for Training
What are job aids?
Job aids are quick and simple reminders of how to solve problems in day to day restaurant operations. They are often simple cards that need to be in the right place at the right time.
One example would be cards that are carried around by Servers to help them answer questions about the menu. “Server cards” seem like a simple step, but they enhance the customer experience, and support team members feel better about their job.
In short, job aids are a way to communicate quick and easy solutions to problems, like recent menu changes, that have already been worked out by restaurant management.
What ingredients are in the new Moroccan Soup? Can I substitute one side item for another? Do you have any dairy-free dishes? All of these are simple questions that customers will ask at some point.
Rather than relying on a server’s judgment, why not create a job aid for training to answer simple questions quickly. Although some of these questions may have been addressed in the new restaurant employee training manual, the aids reinforce and enhance your training process.
Tips for Job Aids
Every restaurant has its unique needs. Nevertheless, we have a couple of tips to get you off on the right foot in creating job aids:
- Use color images to show your team the food item you are talking about.
- Create job aids for various parts of the restaurant team. You may need aids to help back of house personnel know how to create and plate new dishes. Think about laminating these cards or taking other steps to make them water-resistant.
- Keep job aids simple. They need to be referred to quickly and read easily. Avoid using huge amounts of text.
- Make sure management enforces the use of job aids. They won’t do any good if they aren’t in the right place at the right time!
If you need help with job aids or would like to put in place a web to print system for your group of restaurants, give the professionals at The Print Authority a call. They have decades of experience printing and distributing for the hospitality industry. Contact us today!
