Question

You are the Director of Operations for a regional restaurant group. You oversee four varied properties and are responsible for the hiring and management of 12 salaried managers and over 100 hourly employees. Your hourly employees include waitstaff and bartenders, cooks and food preparation staff, and housekeeping/maintenance workers. You feel as though your restaurant group is a desirable employer, offering employees flexible work hours, a strong employer brand, and the opportunity for career advancement. However, you’ve noticed that you have an annual turnover rate of around 55% among your waitstaff and bartenders which is expensive and results in lost productivity. After investigating turnover patterns in greater detail, you realize that half of your waitstaff and bartenders leave before 90 days of employment. This early turnover suggests that your restaurant group’s onboarding process could be improved. Your boss, the owner and CEO of the restaurant group, has asked you to examine your current socialization process and highlight four weaknesses. She has also asked you to recommend four ways to improve the onboarding and socialization process for your waitstaff and bartenders. Remember that socialization aims to achieve effective person-job and person-organization matches by focusing on the long haul through increasing employee role clarity, enhancing self-efficacy, and fostering social acceptance. You discover that there is no set process for onboarding new waitstaff and bartenders, so you ask around and see what your current employees have experienced. The common themes are as follows. Current employees were hired and paired with an experience employee who acted as their "trainer" for the first week on the job. After that week, they were scheduled for shifts just like a more seasoned employee. If they had questions while working, they were encouraged to fake it in front of customers and have whispered side conversations with other employees in order to figure things out. There was not much opportunity for management (i.e., you) to spend time with your new hires because you were at different locations and never got the chance to talk to new hires after their interviews. You try to meet with each employee after 30 days of employment to see how they’re adjusting, but that can be hard given your schedule. There is a new employee handbook, a copy of which is kept in the manager’s office at all times, but very few employees have read it much less received a copy of it. The one thing that stands out to you is that there does seem to be an opportunity for social acceptance when employees hang out together after closing. During these times, new employees are able to relax and ask questions and bond with the veteran waitstaff and bartenders. However, not all new employees are still working at close nor do they all want to hang out until 1 am. Thus, not all employees have the same opportunities to build relationships with their coworkers. Assignment: To earn full credit for this assignment, you need to:

Identify four weaknesses in the current onboarding/socialization process of your restaurant group. Explain why they are weaknesses._____

Answer 1

The onboarding process for new waitstaff and bartenders lacks a formal program, proper training materials, effective channels for questions, and inclusive socialization opportunities. Improving these areas could reduce high turnover rates and enhance productivity.

Step-by-step explanation:

Identified Weaknesses in the Onboarding/Socialization Process

The first weakness in the current onboarding process is the lack of a structured program. The practice of pairing new hires with experienced employees for only a week before treating them as seasoned staff is insufficient for comprehensive onboarding and socialization. The second weakness is a lack of proper training materials as new employees are not provided with their own copy of the employee handbook. Thirdly, the suggestion to 'fake it' in front of customers undermines the employees' self-efficacy and could lead to a negative impression upon customers. Lastly, the informal social acceptance methods, such as hanging out after closing hours, are not inclusive and don't provide equal opportunities for all new hires to integrate socially.

Solutions to these weaknesses could include developing a formal and comprehensive onboarding program, ensuring new hires receive and are familiarized with training materials like the employee handbook, establishing official channels for questions and learning during shifts that don't involve 'faking it,' and creating structured socialization opportunities during work hours to ensure equal participation among new hires.

By addressing these weaknesses and implementing these solutions, the restaurant group could significantly reduce its turnover rates, leading to decreased hiring costs and improved productivity.