Boot Camp - Training

"Discipline is simply the art of making the soldiers fear their officers more than their enemy."
- Helvetius

With almost a million individual restaurants in the US, the restaurant industry remains one of the number one employers of individuals outside the US government. The majority of these individuals are trained within their own stores, including managers / owners. In fact, 80% of all restaurant owners started off their career in entry level positions. Training is the most critical aspect of a restaurant. It will reflect and resonate in all areas of who / what your restaurant will be. The first thing that I tell people during their initial training period is that training does not stop. It is ongoing. This is critical for you to understand. Our restaurant is a wheel in motion. Our guests will always have options of places to go to. We will always have the opportunity to continue to impress them. It is because of all of these moments of opportunity that we must continue to improve, to train our staff and ourselves. The moment we become comfortable and complacent is the moment that we have begun to lose the war within our own restaurant.

Now, it would be impossible to produce a simple article telling you what or how to train all of your staff members since the amount of diversity of restaurants and jobs are endless. However, it is completely possible to produce some guidelines and bring attention to certain pitfalls to avoid.

So, we've managed to interview and hire individuals for the jobs within your restaurant. Now comes the tricky part - making sure they can live up to the goals you have set for them. Think about that statement: "live up to the goals you have set for them." Too many times in this industry I've seen the bar lowered to accommodate the individuals that we've hired instead of releasing them. Why? You don't want to hurt their feelings? You feel that the job isn't brain surgery so they don't have to be too perfect? You don't like to interview people so you don't want to replace the person? You don't like confrontation? How about loss of sales? Or, increased costs? Wasted man-hours? Higher turnover? Loss of guests? Poor reputation? Any of those sound appealing? The moment you decide to lower YOUR bar, YOUR standards you've thrown in the towel and have begun losing the war within your own restaurant. It is your plan, your guidance, and your goals that should be the compass that dictates your training.

So, you will need to define all of the different jobs within your restaurant. This will include everything from a host to a dishwasher, from a clerk to a server, from a bartender to a grill cook, from a bathroom attendant to a prep cook. Whatever the roles are for your restaurant you must define their function. In the process you need to set your standards and your goals for each area. This will help to dictate the training for each of these jobs. Once you have this established the real game can begin: consistency!

It is imperative that for the first stages of training you are consistent. I highly recommend having a structured training process for at least the first week of employment. Obviously, this time will be modified depending on the job and the role that you have set for it. You must be consistent. Train each new hire exactly the same way and with the same level of enthusiasm. If you use trainers, then they must be consistent as well. Consistency will ensure that you are setting the proper tone to every individual that you bring on board.

Enthusiasm. You better have it! If you don't, then how do you expect your staff too. They have to believe in what you believe in. If you go into it with a monotone, drab feel, then that is what you will get from your staff. And let me tell you, there's no successful monotone, drab restaurants out there. They just don't make it. ENTHUSIASM! PASSION! This drives a restaurant. After all, that's why we do it. You need to ensure that your trainers have it, as well. Motivate them. Reward them for their training. It will come back to you tenfold. And, monitor them. You need to ensure and monitor that your trainers have CONSISTENCY and ENTHUSIASM!

Training manuals outlining what you expect, requirements, and job specifications will help with your consistency. Following up with your trainees throughout their training via interviews, tests, and performance observations (reiterating your goals and enthusiasm) will help to ensure that you're being consistent.

Compensating your trainers and rewarding your trainees for success in testing or goals will help to keep them enthusiastic and motivated. And, you can do this a lot of different ways. Perhaps you pay your trainers a little more while they're training. Maybe you work out some other prizes like movie passes, theatre passes, gift certificates / cards, etc. Any of these things that may cost you a little up front will lead to better sales for you down the road. Your employees are some of the best forms of advertisement that you can possess. When you hire new people and they're working with senior people they are up close and personal with this advertisement. This can be a positive thing or a negative thing. Either way it will come back to you tenfold in one of those two ways. I suggest you keep the consistency and enthusiasm up.