Everyone loves to eat fast food, but finding staff to work at fast food restaurants is not so easy. Quick service restaurants (QSR) – more commonly known as fast food establishments – exist on nearly every corner of major (and smaller) cities in the world. With over 540,000 fast food businesses globally, there is no shortage of opportunities for consumers to benefit from the fast service, cheap prices, and consistent menus that characterize quick service restaurants.
Mainstays of the QSR industry include Burger King, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and the like – places with menus that look the same no matter where in the world they are located. Despite the growing popularity of QSR restaurants, recent reports show employee recruitment and retention at the top of the list of challenges faced by restaurant operators. The QSR industry as a whole has a 6.1% employee turnover rate, higher than the 4.9% average across all industries.
In this blog, we’ll explore why retaining staff at quick service restaurants is so challenging and how the right training can significantly boost employee satisfaction, performance, and retention. At the end of this post, you’ll find a QSR Training Template to help you get started.
Main Challenges in Retaining Staff at Quick Service Restaurants
Like most businesses, any fast food restaurant is only as good as the service it provides to its customers. And, even if the expectations may be lower at a QSR than they would be at a 5-star gourmet restaurant, customers do expect a certain level of treatment. The challenge for quick service restaurant operators is to find and hire employees who are able and willing to provide service that meets standards. This is a challenge for a number of reasons, including:
- Demanding Work Environment – the QSR industry is known for paying low wages, while still requiring long and often irregular hours. There can also be intense customer interactions that are difficult for staff to handle.
- Physical and Mental Strain – being on one’s feet for many hours makes QSR work physically demanding, and dealing with pushy or difficult customers adds to the mental strain. The combination of physical and mental demands can lead to fast burnout that pushes employees to quit.
- Employee Characteristics – many QSR employees are teenagers or people seeking part-time or seasonal hours and don’t intend to work long-term. They may, therefore, lack the commitment to improve their skills or provide top quality service, knowing they will be leaving shortly.
The Results of High Staff Turnover at Quick Service Restaurants
Given the above circumstances, quick service restaurant operators are constantly faced with employees leaving, which interrupts their daily workflow. Operational efficiency, customer service, and overall profitability are all impacted by high staff turnover.
Because there is a constant outflow and inflow of staff, it is hard to maintain a consistent level of service. Things can’t run smoothly in a work environment characterized by instability and continuous change. When operations aren’t moving efficiently, customer service is impacted as food is served slower and with more errors.
Inefficient operations and poor customer service are an unfortunate combination that leads to lower profitability. The costs involved in constantly hiring new people are higher than just the costs of advertising job positions and paying new salaries. By not having long-standing and well-trained employees, customer service will always be below par, leading to fewer happy customers and lower revenues.
How Employee Training Can Impact Staff Retention at Quick Service Restaurants
There are many ways to improve employee retention, such as increasing salaries, offering additional benefits, providing a flexible schedule, etc. A paycheck and other benefits is not enough to attract and retain employees, however. Today’s employees are looking for fulfillment, growth opportunities, and job satisfaction.
Happy and satisfied employees are loyal employees who provide better service to customers, improving the restaurant’s reputation and bottom line. By properly training employees, QSR operators will see an increase in staff retention for the following reasons:
- Consistency – training sessions ensure that the employer and all employees are on the same page when it comes to goals and expectations. All staff share the same knowledge and learn how to operate according to regulations and standards.
- Preparedness – relevant staff can be given additional training tailored specifically for their roles, enabling them to fulfill their responsibilities appropriately.
- Confidence – successful training sessions instill confidence in employees, making them feel qualified and able to conduct their jobs in the best way.
- Commitment – focusing on the importance of training demonstrates a restaurant owner or operator’s commitment to the learning and growth of their employees.
An emphasis on a solid employee training program boosts employee morale and job satisfaction, leading to hire retention rates.
QSR Employee Training Best Practices
There are many elements that go into an employee training program, but not all are created equal. When a quick service restaurant operator decides to invest in their employees and develop a training program, there are best practices to keep in mind in order to get the best outcome:
- Timing – there’s no reason to wait for training to start on the first day. Orientation and onboarding can and should start a day or two before so that employees can begin to learn about the restaurant and what is expected of them before they start to get hands-on experience.
- Medium – in-person, frontal-style training sessions are necessary for some topics and can be beneficial, but they should be combined with virtual lessons and short videos that employees can watch and absorb on their own time. This is especially important as the majority of potential QSR employees are Gen Z – a generation known for a short attention span and a preference for Tik Tok style content.
- Content – whether in-person or online, make sure the training modules cover all of the essentials including restaurant-specific information like the menu and operational procedures, customer service and other soft skills, compliance and safety, and the use of any technological tools required for the job.
- Transparency – maintain full transparency about policies, especially those related to scheduling and requesting time off.
- Feedback – provide feedback to employees throughout the training period, but also request feedback from them and adapt the training accordingly.
Start Training and Retaining Your QSR Employees
90% of employees say that their experience as an employee has a direct impact on the experience that they provide for customers. The better and more positive and engaging work culture and atmosphere that employers provide for their employees, the better outcomes they will see.
Bites is redefining digital training in the workplace, enabling you to create bite-sized learning content to drive employee engagement. You can record new videos or compile a playlist of existing videos to teach new and existing hires needed skills. Bites also offer an interactive learning cycle where learners can share their questions, opinions, and experiences. You also get top-notch analytics to help you monitor learners’ progress.
We’ve made it easy for you and have created a QSR training template that you can customize for your business. Click here to download your template!