Best Practices
A Few Simple, Proven Ways to Motivate Your Staff
In a recent thread on our Member Only discussion forum one of our members asked for advice on the best way to start an employee of the month program. A few members gave her ideas on some different and possibly more effective ways to motive her staff.
One began like this, "Employee of the month has little to no value. You'll always have that one person who doesn't agree and will start a smear campaign against that person. It only creates a negative culture."
"We use what we call a "WOW" card. We've printed up a little card that says 'WOW' on the front, inside it has a space to explain what the person did that was great. It also has a tear-off portion that you can fill in the name of the person who the card is for and a place for the person that submitted it. The tear-off goes into a jar and every month we add up who has the most WOW cards and they get a prize. Then we randomly pick a card and the person that submits a card gets a chance at a prize."
"We trade other businesses and restaurants for prizes. We've had young employees who get a card and they cherish it. We've even had an employee give one to a customer."
"It is based on the 'Ten Coins' concept. You start each day with 10 coins in one pocket. Each time you give a compliment to someone you transfer a coin to your other pocket. Your goal is to get all 10 coins transferred each day. It creates a healthy, positive environment in your restaurant!"
Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Another member described the employee motivation program used by Pal's Sudden Service, a 25-unit quick-service drive-thru that won the Malcolm Baldrige award for excellence. "They have a program called "Caught doing good" in which they post, on a bulletin board, notes written by both managers and staff peers whenever they catch another employee doing something that aligns with their mission statement or does something exceptional to enhance the guest experience.
It's much more effective than an employee of the month award because it provides instant recognition for a "specific" action or achievement as opposed to the more general and less frequent employee of the month award.
What is your restaurant doing to reward your people for doing something outstanding?
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How to Execute an Effective Employee Motivation Program
Techniques to create a fun environment in your restaurant with incentive plans that energize the staff, keep them focused, and encourage them to do their best. Here's some ideas to reward high performance, build sales and boost your bottom line.
