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Why you should give your hourly workers these 3 things
Snagajob's 2019 State of the Hourly Worker Report identified three takeaways franchise and restaurant leaders can use to retain and manage today's hourly workers.
December 27, 2019
By Mathieu Stevenson, Snagajob CEO
Hiring, training and retaining workers is one of the largest challenges in the fast casual industry. With 3.7 million fast food employees working in the U.S. alone with annual turnover often exceeding 100%, it is increasingly important for employers to meet the growing needs of this workforce.
To understand what hourly workers are seeking, Snagajob conducted its 2019 State of the Hourly Worker Report. The report identified three takeaways franchise and restaurant leaders can use to retain and manage today's hourly workers.
1. A pathway to a career
The attitude around hourly work is changing. No longer are employees viewing shift-based jobs simply for their flexibility and pay checks. Instead, today's workers want to take on more responsibility, train to learn new tasks and meaningfully advance their careers.
Of the 2,000 workers surveyed in our report, the opportunity for career growth was cited as the second most popular benefit that would convince these employees to stay longer. In fact, 18 % of workers said they believed receiving more responsibilities would be a great way to recognize their hard work and accomplishments.
Career growth is something a majority of workers want from their jobs, but aren't actually getting on a regular basis. Extensive training, additional responsibilities and earned promotions are all ways you can show employees you're invested in them, which is why 90 % of managers are promoted from within at Chipotle. Even better, this helps to bolster your workforce with extensively trained workers who can then manage and train the newer staff.
As a starting point, be clear with your workers what opportunities are available to them at the beginning of their employment, and further, how they can reach these goals. From there, managers should schedule regular check-ins to ascertain progress and provide feedback, while also learning what they can do to better support these individuals through training, and, if it's deserved, increased responsibilities.
2. Benefits
Beyond benefits like paid vacation and sick days, hourly workers also cited a desire to receive flexible hours, health insurance and transportation reimbursement. However, up until recently, the norm has been to offer these benefits to full-time employees working traditional 9-5 jobs.
Increasingly, fast casual restaurants are realizing the enormous opportunity, as industry-leader Starbucks knows just how important benefits are when attracting new hires. Both part-time and full-time employees are offered healthcare options, assistance with continuing education and flexible scheduling.
If you haven't already, consider what benefits you can offer to your employees. Even small benefits (e.g. transportation reimbursement) will make you a more attractive employer, and incentivize your current employees to stay around past the holiday rush and other attractive periods for hourly work. In doing so, you will not only retain short-term talent, but build a reputation for giving employees the necessary resources to improve themselves, both within the workplace and beyond.
3. Good relationships
Across all generations of hourly workers, one consistent factor expressed by employees was that coworkers had the biggest influence on their job satisfaction. Up to 62% of baby boomers felt this way, while 57% of Gen Z shared these sentiments. It's clear that relationships are a major factor in the workplace and managers should continuously work to implement a team-based culture that emphasizes connection and mutual growth.
Further, 37% of surveyed workers found their job via referral or personal recruitment from someone who already worked there. Employees who like their coworkers are happier and more likely to act as recruiters, while also helping to train new employees and stick with a job longer.
Fortunately, there are tangible steps that owners and managers can take to foster better relationships in the workforce. Something as simple as setting up daily and weekly meetings helps to build a more cohesive team, and fun activities outside of work are always appreciated as a respite from the daily on-the-job responsibilities.
Why you should give them what they want: Satisfied employees guarantee a better customer experience
Estimates are that the cost of delivering a poor customer experience for just one day can result in $1,000 in lost sales over the course of the next year. By better meeting employees' needs, you can meaningfully improve not only the atmosphere of your restaurant or franchise, but also deliver a better customer experience and drive higher sales.
With this in mind, it's important to view these changing paradigms for employee training and engagement as a positive opportunity. By taking small, incremental steps, you can effect real change to increase your bottom line, boost customer service, and overall create a more rewarding workplace.
