Gamify your onboarding and management process

Do you remember your first restaurant onboarding experience? If it was anything like mine, you were probably thrown into the deep end. In my 20 years of experience as a restaurant owner and operator, I can tell you confidently that the greatest expense I ever overcame was employee retention. Mastering the art of onboarding and employee engagement did more to scale my profitability than almost anything else. Today we’re run through the tactics, tools, and strategies I used to create the happiest and most productive team in Los Angeles.

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The secret sauce in all of this is the transformative power of gamification in making the onboarding and educational processes as engaging and effective as possible. But it wasn’t always this way for me. Here’s a list of my top three mistakes.

Common onboarding mistakes

Lack of Engagement: Simply handing new hires a stack of documents and a brief tour of the restaurant is not enough. In the early days, we failed to immerse them in the restaurant’s culture and values.

Overwhelming Information: We bombarded new employees with too much information at once, causing overwhelm and leading to retention issues.

Neglecting Feedback: We did a terrible job of seeking feedback from new hires during the onboarding process. We missed critical opportunities for improvement and engagement​.

Gamified onboarding best practices

Creating an engaged team required us to do one of the most difficult things in the world: make learning fun. Over the course of more than a decade, we refined this process to perfection. Below are the key drivers of those processes:

• Engaging introductions: Replace traditional emails with interactive onboarding videos. This can leave a positive first impression and showcase your commitment to a fun work environment​.
• Storytelling: Use work-related storylines and real life stories to build a connection with new hires. Stories can make the orientation process more engaging and memorable. Give them a glimpse into the people they’ll be impacting by working in your restaurant.
• Interactive learning: Encourage collaboration among new hires by grouping them for role-specific challenges. Organize trivia sessions to foster interaction and engagement​​. We took this as far as having our dishwashers memorize the allergens for every dish on the menu.
• Clear goals and milestones: More than anything, your employees need to know what winning looks like and if they’re on the right track. Use progress bars and task checklists to give new hires the visibility they need. Celebrate milestones to reinforce learning​.
• Personalized welcome: Create a welcoming atmosphere with personalized welcome posters and packages. We used to ask prospective employees “What is one indulgence that costs less than $20?” On their first day of work, they found that indulgence in their employee locker waiting for them. This small gesture can have a big impact on making new employees feel valued​.
• Mentorship: Assign a mentor to each new hire to provide support and guidance. This helps build a support network and ensures standards are taught and upheld.
• Continuous learning: Offer professional development opportunities and reward employees for completing training milestones. As an example, we taught our cooks to bartend and our bartenders how to cook.
• Performance incentives: Gamify staff performance with bonuses for achieving key performance indicators. This can boost motivation and engagement among employees​.

Implementing gamification in management

Now, how can we use gamification to continue to educate and engage our teams? Below are my most powerful tools:

• Feedback mechanisms: Implement systems to collect feedback from employees regularly and use this data to measure satisfaction and identify areas for improvement​​.
• Recognition programs: Establish recognition programs like Employee of the Month to highlight top performers. Use a leaderboard to foster competition and motivate staff​​.
• Skill development: Encourage employees to learn new skills and cross-train in different areas of the restaurant. This not only enhances their capabilities but also keeps them engaged and motivated​.
• Team building: Organize team-building activities and challenges to foster a sense of camaraderie and teamwork. This can lead to a more cohesive and productive team​​.

Putting it all together

By gamifying your restaurant’s onboarding and management processes, you can create a more engaging and rewarding work environment. If that’s not motivation enough, understand that doing this will scale employee retention, saving you tens of thousands of dollars every single year. Additionally, you’ll be fostering a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration. A happy and engaged team is crucial for the success and profitability of your restaurant.

Click below to download our Onboarding Gamification Checklist, providing you with a breakdown on how to implement these tools.

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