Article
Could Cross-Training Be Your Secret Weapon Against Labor Shortages?
Widespread industry labor shortages don't have to mean getting "in the weeds" the next time one of your employees is injured on the clock, quits, or calls out at the last minute. When your employees are cross-trained, you can skate through these incidents and others that would have once caused significant problems that can bring down a shift, disappoint customers, and hurt sales.
A New Labor Model
"Cross training is one of the single most important things I stress to all clients [to implement]," says Suzannah 'Suzi' Gerber, a food and beverage industry consultant and executive director of the restaurant and product development consulting firm Haven Foods. "The model of individual stations is largely outdated, and as we increasingly have a stretched-thin workforce in the food industry, having versatile staff is the key to lean scheduling while maintaining the guest experience."
Employee cross-training has its benefits; but not every employee is a good candidate for training for a new role. In this article, we explore best practices for staff cross-training and -- perhaps more importantly -- what not to do and why.
When there's a last-minute call-out or injury that would otherwise leave you short-staffed, cross-training provides a smarter option. You can reassign someone else on the shift to cover the missing person, then divide that person's duties among other workers.
When a labor shortage is covered, scheduled employees won't feel as burdened, and morale will be better. Shift workers will be able to provide a higher level of service, despite working with one fewer person, and you may be able to avoid a correlating revenue loss that would otherwise accompany working short-staffed.
Learning Objectives:
By the time you've finished reading this article, you should be able to:
- Describe the benefits of cross-training staff in terms of both your operational efficiency and your employees' morale.
- Explain why staff cross-training is often overlooked by busy independent restaurants.
- List several staff cross-training best practices and caveats.
In addition to helping you handle unexpected shortages, like call-outs due to illness, cross-training can reduce the impact of industry labor shortages. When your workers can staff multiple roles, filling a position after someone quits becomes less critical. Odds are, there's already someone on the schedule who can help out -- which means you can take your time in hiring the right person for the role without performance, morale, or customer experience suffering.
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