Transform the Employee Experience with a Next-Level Training Program
Good employees are hard to find. They’re even harder to retain. That’s especially true for the still recovering hospitality industry. According to the National Restaurant Association’s 2021 Mid Year Update, 75% of operators said recruiting and retaining employees was the top challenge facing their business. On the last day of June 2021, restaurant and accommodation job openings more than doubled their January 2021 number, according to Job Openings and Labor Turnover data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics as reported in the 2021 Mid Year Update.
What can you do to combat this ongoing cycle? Industry experts who spoke at the September CHART 100 Hospitality Training Conference answered this question in myriad ways. They offered insight on addressing employees’ mental health needs, creating skilled, cohesive teams, and helping branch managers become more effective leaders.
For us, no matter what session we attended, CHART speakers honed in on a common thread:
To attract and retain workers in a competitive landscape, hospitality trainers need to re-imagine and revolutionize employee training and engagement programs.
Here’s how to do just that.
Welcome New Employees With Engaging (and Useful) Onboarding Tools
You only get one chance to make a good first impression. In the past, the onus for that initial impression was on your new employees. You expected them to wow you and prove their mettle. Now, the balance of power has shifted. In today’s landscape, if you don’t create a positive onboarding experience for new staff members, they simply won’t come back — and you desperately need them to come back!
We know you spend enormous time working with what you have and trying to get your workforce engaged. We also know you probably spend equal time thinking about how much smoother onboarding could go with the right tool; how much better communication would be around protocol updates if you didn’t have to email or call or slack different groups; and we understand moving the needle on any kind of training program, especially after the last 18 months, takes buy-in, approvals and lots and lots of conversations. So here’s some info on exactly what you’d get by moving to an adaptive, mobile and (not just for the workforce but for you, the admins too!) user-friendly platform that centralizes content and guides employees (from executives to front line) down the training paths they need most.
What a First Day Could Look Like with a Mobile-First Learning Experience Tool
Think about your current program and imagine how different a first day would look if you offered a new employee access to an easy-to-use mobile app the moment they started training.
A short welcome video thanking them for joining the team
Their manager’s name and phone number
Instructions for reporting to the first day of work (where to go, how early to arrive)
Where (and how) to clock in
Starting pay rate and paycheck frequency
Their upcoming schedule and a place to enter their availability — as well as instructions for how to request off or call in sick
Basic operations tips and tricks (like where to stand to be out of the way, how to mute your mic, and proper order taking procedures)
Answers to frequently asked questions
A list of perks they can take advantage of as an employee
Once on-site and officially clocked in, your new hire is able to view prompts and suggestions to help them navigate their first day. A push notification reminds them of a Limited Time Offer so they’re not caught off guard when a customer asks about it. In slow moments, your new hire is able to swipe through helpful resources like your House Rules Tip Sheet. On their break, they read about your brand guidelines and review brand-friendly greetings for the drive thru and dine-in areas. As your new hire clocks out at the end of the day, they receive a celebratory badge for completing their first shift.
What a difference the right tool makes. Of course, an app can’t — and won’t — replace one-on-one training and learning opportunities. It’s absolutely crucial for general managers and shift supervisors to pay close attention to all new hires throughout the training process. Still, the right tools can supplement what the general manager says and quickly fill in knowledge gaps to help employees acclimate to their new role.
In this scenario, it’s not at all hard to imagine that your new recruit will come back for day two — and with good in-person management, they’ll likely feel supported, stay more engaged, and retaining them will be less of a question.
Reinforce Your Brand Promise and House Rules with Just-in-Time Performance Support
Your customers love your brand. They’re loyal — and they keep coming back for more. However, one bad experience can damage their perception of your business. That’s why employees need to understand what it takes to deliver your brand promise to customers with every interaction and every order.
To make your employees consistent ambassadors of your brand, it’s time to invest in their experience just as thoughtfully as you invest in the customer experience. After all, when your employees believe in and love your brand — and understand the why of your brand guidelines — they’ll be better equipped to deliver a consistent experience to your customers.
To be effective, employees need to receive ongoing training regarding what it takes to fulfill your brand guidelines each and every day.
A Better Employee Experience Starts With Better Training
The days of shakey VHS tapes and dilapidated desktop computers as modes of training are (almost) entirely behind us. Despite the medium, the goal has always been pretty simple: outline policies and procedures in order to protect the company from legal liability. These videos give some practical information, like how to clean a fryer or how to hand a customer a cup of hot coffee without spilling it all over them. However, the tone of the videos reflect what we call a “red ocean” mindset — meaning the training’s purpose is to protect against bad things happening. Reduce risk, liability, etc. Maintain the status quo and just keep your head down.
If we want to create a truly engaging employee experience, we need to shift to a “blue ocean” mindset — one that is focused on growth and possibility. This mindset transforms training from something that almost solely benefits the company to something that equally benefits the employee.
This shift requires us to equip employees — and ourselves — with the right tools to enable on-the-go, mobile-first learning.
What Modern, Employee-Focused Training Looks Like
In a blue ocean, growth-oriented training program, the goal is to provide employees with practical, just-in-time performance support that gives them confidence, extends their skills, adapts with their evolving needs, and inspires them to grow with your brand. Even better? An adaptive mobile platform provides all this support at their fingertips and allows them to self-regulate their own learning.
Let’s think about a specific way this evolution might help the company and the employee. Something that nearly everyone has noticed during the pandemic is a decrease in quality control. Due to frequent turnover and service disruptions, employees often aren’t up to speed on the basic elements of, say, crafting that new LTO signature chicken sandwich or preparing that perfectly comfortable bed.
With a modern, mobile-friendly training platform it’s easy to give employees access to quick tutorials, videos, and tip sheets in the flow of work to ensure they’re making products according to your brand guidelines. This eliminates the need for employees to ask for help and allows them to troubleshoot, then solve their own problems. For workers reticent to ask questions, and an overtaxed system, self-directed learning is vitally important.
What to evaluate among the different platforms talking the adaptive training talk, is in the details. Are the platforms you’re looking at actually saying anything or are they just throwing a lot of tech speak on some impressive creative work? To tell the difference, it helps to know what you’re looking for.
For mobile-first adaptive training, you, the organization you work for and your valuable employee all need the same thing: organized, easy to understand dashboards that personalize the content for each user while also notifying absolutely everyone of important information. This isn’t an email blast on a back-of-house computer anymore, this is on the floor, in the hands of your GM, your shift supervisor, the location’s tablets and devices.
The Right Tools Help Employees Imagine Their Future and Grow With Your Brand
We know you are competing for employees more so than customers right now, and we’re here to help you change that. We understand that you are finding ways to create a stellar employee experience that leads to better retention; inspiring good employees to stay and grow within your company. An adaptive platform that meets your workforce where they are in the field and where they are in their learning path is the right tool to move your organization ahead. SparkLearn is here to ensure you present a positive onboarding experience and help you establish a practical, self-directed learning paradigm that easily dovetails with your ongoing training programs.
Over time, employees can access additional learning materials that not only help them do their current job more effectively, but provide upskill knowledge and paths for advancement within your organization, so retention becomes less of an issue as more employees find career growth opportunities at their pace, in a familiar environment. Those things set your organization up to provide meaningful advancement opportunities to your workforce.
When employees feel valued and have a deep sense of belonging — and when they feel competent, capable, and skilled — they are more likely to pursue opportunities for growth and imagine a future for themselves with your organization.
Before you can achieve any of this, you need the right tools. To succeed in an increasingly competitive staffing environment, it’s time to invest in a mobile-first solution; for the benefit of your workforce, for their retention and for your bottom line.
Interested in doing digital learning differently? Just reach out — we’re committed to helping you, help your workforce, succeed.
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