How do you reduce high staff turnover in the food and beverage industry? Improve your customer
experience with these tips.
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I’ve written on this topic before and it is one of so much significance to the hospitality industry that it’s most likely a topic I will return to again. Why? Because customers and clients hate staff turnover! Customers come to your establishment for several reasons, the least of which is consistent service. Staff turnover gives them anything but.

Turnover is a cycle and one that I don’t always believe is the fault of the job market, economy, location or many of the other causes we suggest it is. Turnover makes your establishment far less attractive, and customers usually demonstrate their dissatisfaction by not returning. Inconsistent service continues to spiral out of control and in the end slows you down completely, leaving the remaining staff and managers ill-tempered and burnt out. This is NOT a recipe for success in business.

There are no easy answers to staff turnover, but here are four things that can help mitigate the problem:

• One, you need to attract more suitable applicants in the recruiting phase.
• Two, in order to select better candidates you need to become a better interviewer. Who controls the interview, you or the candidate? Do you use the same questions for all applicants or do you just wing it when it comes time to interview an applicant?
• Three, become a better leader – there, I said it! Would you want to work for you? Think about it. You need to create a respectful work place where employees want to stay. This isn’t just me speaking: many surveys covering years of research place the number one reason for leaving as a lack of effective and respectful management or supervision. Wages, benefits and everything else fall far down the list if this first criterion is met.
• Four, don’t set people up to fail! It takes a special kind of person to excel in the F&B business, identify what a quality applicant looks like for your establishment and go out and find them. Just hiring warm bodies to fill vacancies doesn’t cut it, sets people up for failure and destroys the morale of your establishment. When current employees see you using the “warm-body” approach to hiring they may wonder what criteria you used to hire them.

What would your establishment look like if you use one of these, or all four?