Restaurant Playbook: Training

Effective training will

• Increase short and long-term productivity
• Create strong bonds for your team
• Encourage employees to stay with you longer
• Provide growth opportunities for your best team members
• Lower costs by helping avoid accidents and waste
• Lead to smoother roll outs for new menu items or updates

Strong training experiences improves team member retention

Dedicate the time to create a training program that is welcoming, informative, and driven by the position expectations:

• Set clear goals and expectations for your team and the trainee
• Provide consistent performance feedback – formal and informal
• Engage your full team in the training process

Training is a series of learning activities completed with guidance of an expert in a role to share standards, teach techniques, and introduce new employees to a new company.

Short training periods

• Many restaurants train new employees for 2-3 days and hope that previous work experience will be enough to get them through.
• Instead, re-evaluate the length of training and extend to at least 5-7 days to set a strong foundation for your team in all skill areas.

Learning by doing only

• Many restaurants need people so quickly that they will put them right onto the line or into the dining room without training and hope they will learn by doing.
• Instead, design your training program with a wide variety of opportunities to learn – by doing, by reading, by watching, etc. This will improve the overall learning and guest experience.

Limited support or resources to learn

• Many restaurants transfer knowledge from employee to employee without writing anything down.
• Instead, start having your team write key information down to help create a training manual, guide, or even just your training checklist.

Remember, training continues beyond the first two weeks of employment even if their training schedule ends — it's an ongoing process throughout the entire time someone is employed.

Training is group effort! By designing clear team roles and responsibilities, this sets the expectations for the full team's engagement in training. A culture of learning and mentoring mindset will support your training program and improve retention.

Build a strong training team

Identify potential trainers on your team. Trainers aren’t always just your top performers! Look for team members that:

• Consistently help others
• Set the standard for your current team
• Welcome all people to team
• Follow company processes & requirements

Help them develop stronger training skills. Rather than just explaining, ask questions and quiz the new hire to help them retain the information.

Utilize the show > shadow > solo approach. For important new activities:

• The trainer should show their trainee a task
• Trainer then shadows the trainee while they complete it
• Trainee then completes it solo with trainer shadowing them

Build a stronger team with feedback

• On the fly feedback
  • Give small feedback early and often rather than waiting for the end of the day or a meeting
  • This will help the new employee get comfortable with feedback and improve quickly so they won’t build bad habits
• Positive reinforcement
  • Provide positive and constructive feedback!

Your training team is your greatest asset

• Reward continuous learning by encouraging curiosity and keeping your team engaged
• Offer constructive feedback that is honest and focused on development
• Lead by example: managers should invest in their own development first to inspire others
• Hire curious people: look for candidates that are committed to learning and growing their career. It’s difficult to fake curiosity and passion, and curious people tend to stay longer at a job

Training Tip: Engage your trainers in the process by hosting regular train-the-trainer meetings to review expectations, implement updates or changes, and allow the trainers to provide feedback on training and the quality of recent new employees.

Five ways to engage your team in the training process

1. Share the vision! Let them know what you want the training program to look like.
2. Reward your trainers! Elevate the status of their role.
3. Set the standard! Lead by example and show the team what the expectations are.
4. Include them in the process! Involve everyone with games, interactive processes, and pre-shift.
5. Ask for their feedback! Continue improving your training process.

Good training takes time and planning.

Three key actions to deliver a great training program:

1. Prepare – Set yourself and the team up for success and be ready to go when your trainee starts; have all the key documents ready to go before their first day – like schedules and manuals.
2. Check in – Everyone is responsible for a great training experience; daily, weekly, monthly check-ins make an impact and help everyone stay on track.
3. Follow through – Training is an ongoing process; check in as a new employee settles into their role and make sure it’s a good fit even after the first couple weeks

Training Tip: the trainer is just as important as the person being trained! Invest in your trainer(s) to invest in your new hires.

Design your training program for your unique needs

• Use our training program design worksheet to determine:
  • How many days of training
  • Who your trainers will be
  • Key information about the company
  • Key skill requirements for the role
• Build your training toolkit
  • Training checklist
  • Training schedule (example)
  • Training outline by day
  • Training evaluations

It’s easy to create a form, but even more important to use the systems

Follow these steps to implement something new:

• Share the why: Help the team understand your expectations and why it’s so important
• Create opportunity for questions and feedback: Hear your teams’ concerns and challenges, and update the system or help them understand
• Test it out: Pilot with one or two employees, adjust what isn’t working, and give your team a chance to see how helpful it can be
• Follow up: As you continue the new process, keep checking in and following up to ensure it’s being followed. It will become a part of your culture, but this can take some time.

The Buddy System

Starting a new job and training can be stressful for new employees. They are in a new environment and attempting to learn and re-learn. A “Buddy System” can help decrease stress and make new employees more comfortable.

A buddy is an informal source of information and a built-in friend for new employees where they can speak openly and ask questions. They are typically not a trainer or manager, but rather someone in a similar role with a similar schedule who’s welcoming and open to questions.

5 easy steps to setting up a buddy system

1. Identify people on your team in any department that are welcoming, friendly, and generally helpful. Tip: Make sure your buddy works similar shifts to your new hire during training
2. Talk with those key people about the buddy program and the expectations
3. Build the buddy into your training checklist
4. Assign a buddy for each new employee when they start
5. Introduce the buddy to the new employee on their first day

First Course NYC insight: "My buddy started to communicate with me more, and toward the end, she told me how proud she was of me. Just having someone to talk to at the end felt good."

Communicate with your team

Team communication:

• Keep the team up to date on the training and share the plan with them
• Use pre-shift meetings, buddy systems, and share training schedules

Management communication:

• All managers should know what’s happening with new employees
• Involve them in the process and hold everyone accountable to engage with new employees

Communicate with your new employee

• Feedback is essential for both your team and your new hires
  
• Start by developing your existing team with both on-the-fly feedback and formal feedback conversations
• Creating opportunities for formal feedback conversations are the best opportunities to focus on development and growth

Feedback can be difficult to receive and even hard to give. Get better at giving feedback!

• Practice makes perfect – the more you give and get feedback, the easier it gets.
• Be specific – Be clear and specific so there is no room for misinterpretation.
• Listen first – Start by listening, then ask questions. Leave the explanation for last.
• Be curious - Ask questions and find out what the other person thinks.

Mindset matters – When providing feedback, consider:

• The other person’s mindset: If a team member is upset, consider delivering the feedback the next day when they might be open to the feedback.
• Your mindset: Are you approaching this with positive intent? Is your goal to help the employee improve and become a better team member?

Opportunities for feedback during training

• Daily feedback from the trainer and supervisor on shift: check in at the beginning and the end of the shift; share quick feedback if needed during shifts.
• “Halfway” point: when the new employee is halfway through their training process, discuss what they are doing well and what they can do to improve.
• End of Training: wrap up training with feedback on how to continue to grow and improve. Discuss long-term goals and provide ongoing support.
• Training Certification Process: consider adding a certification process at the end of training to ensure the new employee has the essential skills for the role. This could be a recipe quiz, a live demo of practical culinary skills, or something customized for your business needs.

Do...share the training schedule with your trainers and your full team

Don’t...only share the training schedule with the new employee and leave others out of the loop

Do...give the new employee a buddy and resources during their training

Don’t...rely on the employee to figure out who to ask questions or what to do on their own

Do...reward your trainers for how they help you build your team

Don’t...just put a new hire with whoever is on the station/available to train