Retaining your hourly employees is essential to the success of your restaurant. This blog post will discuss some of the best ways for improving hourly employee retention and introduce you to HourWork, a platform that can help you find and retain the best hourly employees for your business.
Hourly Employee Retention: Why It’s Important
The fast-food industry is one of the most competitive industries regarding employee retention. With high turnover rates and low wages, keeping your hourly employees happy and engaged can be challenging. However, it’s essential to retain the maximum amount of hourly workers. Research shows:
- The cost of employee turnover is high.
- A high turnover rate can negatively impact your restaurant’s reputation, work environment, and customer service levels.
- Employee retention is directly linked to profitability. Increasing employee retention by just a few percentage points can massively increase profits.
How To Retain Hourly Employees
Now that we’ve discussed the importance of employee retention, let’s look at some of the best strategies to retain employees.
Hire the Right People
Employee retention in the fast-food industry starts with hiring the right people. You want to look for applicants who have the necessary skills and experience for the job. But you also want to find people who are a good fit for your company culture.
When you’re screening candidates, pay attention to their attitudes and personalities. If they seem like a bad fit for your restaurant, it’s likely that they will not stay long. Diversity and inclusion are also important factors to consider when hiring. A diverse workforce is more engaged and productive.
Provide Competitive Wages
One of the most important things you can do to retain your hourly employees is to offer competitive wages. In the fast-food industry, wages are often low. However, you can set your restaurant apart by offering higher salaries than the competition. This will show your employees that you value their work and appreciate their contribution to your business.
Offer Employee Discounts
Many hourly workers are motivated by employee discounts. By offering a discount on food and merchandise, you can show your employees that you appreciate them.
Offer Training and Development Opportunities
One of the best ways to retain your hourly employees is to provide training and opportunities for career development. By investing in your employees’ development, you can show them that you are committed to their growth. Most hourly workers are open to opportunities to advance their careers and become salaried employees. By offering training and development, you can give your employees the chance to do that.
Promote From Within
By giving your employees opportunities to advance their careers, you can show them that you are invested in their future. Internal recruitment also saves time and money because you don’t have to advertise or interview external candidates.
Offer Flexible Scheduling
Offering flexible days and times is another great way to retain your hourly employees. By offering flexible schedules, you can accommodate your employees’ schedules and commitments. This will show your employees that you are willing to work with them to create a plan that works for both parties.
Communicate Expectations
One of the most important things you can do to retain your hourly employees is to communicate expectations. Setting clear expectations creates higher employee retention because employees don’t feel confused or frustrated. When expectations are clear, employees know exactly what is expected of them and can be successful in their roles.
Show Appreciation
By showing appreciation for your employees’ work, you demonstrate to them that you value their contribution to your business. Additionally, appreciation can help to increase morale and loyalty among your staff.
Respect Work-Life Balance
Another important retention strategy is to respect your employees’ work-life balance. Many hourly workers have other commitments outside of work, such as school or family, and this impacts the number of hours that they are available. By respecting their work-life balance, you can show your employees that you are committed to their well-being.
Prioritize Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction comes when employees feel like they are doing meaningful work and are appreciated for their contribution. When employees are satisfied with their job, they are more likely to stay with your company.
Create a Healthy Company Culture
Another important retention strategy is to create a healthy company culture. You can do this by fostering employee engagement, making time for team-building activities, and always being willing to listen to employee complaints or feedback.
Offer Health Benefits
Offering health benefits is a smart move for employers of hourly workers. Better health benefits increase employee satisfaction because employees know that they will be taken care of if they or their family members get sick.
Check In With New Hourly Workers
If you want to keep your hourly employees, it’s essential to check in with them regularly. You can get feedback on how they’re doing and what they need from you. Regular check-ins show your employees that you are invested in their success. HourWork enables automated check-ins from mobile devices that don’t slow your business down.
Run Regular Pulse Surveys
Pulse surveys are a great way to get employee feedback regularly. By running pulse surveys, you can collect employee feedback on various topics, such as job satisfaction, company culture, and retention. Additionally, pulse surveys help you identify any issues that may be causing employee dissatisfaction.
Conduct Exit Interviews
Another great retention strategy is to conduct exit interviews. Exit interviews can help you understand why employees are leaving and what you can do to improve employee retention. Additionally, exit interviews allow employees to give feedback on their experience with your company and bolster hourly employee retention.
Use an Hourly Employee Retention Platform Like HourWork
You’re tired of dealing with hiring and retaining hourly workers. Every time you find a good hourly worker, they leave for another job. Your hourly employee retention strategies just aren’t working.
HourWork is the perfect solution for finding and retaining quality hourly workers. We help you attract and retain workers by re-engaging the people you already know, and we help you keep employees by figuring out what matters most to them. Our automated check-ins make it easy to build employee loyalty and slow turnover rates.
HourWork makes hiring and retaining hourly workers simple and easy — something that every franchise needs to be successful. With our help, you’ll be able to focus on running your business without constantly worrying about finding a new hourly workforce.
How Does it Work?
HourWork is a SaaS recruitment and retention platform for quick-serve restaurant (QSR) franchise owners.
HourWork enables employers to dramatically improve applicant flow, eliminate retention challenges, and match the demand for labor with workers who have certified skill sets in specific areas and are available to work.
HourWork mitigates the root cause of hiring and retention woes for hourly employers today: Miscommunication.
Get Started with HourWork
If you struggle to find and keep quality employees, HourWork is the solution. We offer a recruitment and retention platform that empowers employers to match the demand for labor with workers who have certified skill sets in specific areas. This eliminates the need for employers to struggle with hiring and retaining hourly employees.
With HourWork, you also increase the number of applicants for vacant positions and eliminate the miscommunication challenges that impact employee retention. Plus, our platform is easy to use, so you can get started right away.
Currently focused on solving applicant flow and retention challenges for QSR franchisees, HourWork has experienced explosive growth, adding 4,000 franchise locations to the platform in 2021 for a total of over 5,000 locations.
This represents 5.3 million hourly workers on the platform.
HourWork’s franchisee customers represent some of the largest multi-unit operators across iconic QSR brands such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Dominos, Wendy’s, White Castle, and many others.
Get in touch with us today to discuss your hiring and retention needs and schedule a demo to see the real power of HourWork.