How Employee Development Reduces Turnover

Sponsored by HotSchedules.

With high industry-wide turnover rates and stiff competition for employees, restaurant leaders know it’s crucial to retain talent. While many brands are improving tools and environments in order to keep workers engaged, they neglect one of the most crucial pieces of the retention puzzle: employee development.

It makes sense that some leaders are reluctant to invest in employees given such low industry retention rates, but for the majority of workers, a lack of career development ultimately makes them seek other employment opportunities. For this year’s Workplace Learning survey, LinkedIn found that 94 percent of employees would stay longer at companies if employers invested in their learning and development. Additionally, Gallup found that 45 percent of millennials say professional or career development is “very important” to them.

Though many brands already have systems in place to assess performance, such as annual reviews, HotSchedules learning and development product consultant Angie Hubert says this isn’t enough. “Today’s workforce wants more than just annual performance reviews—they want opportunities to grow the skills that will further their careers,” she says. “As elevating employee engagement and increasing retention become larger concerns, brands need to think about how they can provide development opportunities and clearly communicated career paths to their teams.”

“Today’s workforce wants more than just annual performance reviews—they want opportunities to grow the skills that will further their careers."
- Angie Hubert, learning and development product consultant at HotSchedules.

Creating a company-wide focus on training and development means establishing goals both for the organization and for individual employees. For example, Hubert says employee performance metrics can tie into the company’s strategic plan to help align training with organizational goals, but personalized goals can help keep employees engaged while improving business results.

“Working with your employees to establish their personalized goals—and to communicate them—can be a motivating factor,” Hubert says. “When your manager knows exactly what they have to achieve to help the business and further their career, they are more likely to perform.”

Yet it’s just as crucial that organizations implement tools that help employees achieve these goals. An effective way to do this is to give employees access to digital learning platforms like Hotschedules’ LMS powered by Schoo X to not only train workers and keep them engaged in learning, but also help the organization keep track of training and identify high-potential team members. This platform, for example, features a mobile app that can be used like YouTube to access training content, making it easy for employees to use. It also tracks performance, employee skill levels, time spent training, KPI reporting, and goals for the organization, as well as those on the personal level all in a single platform. Managers can also track performance and provide feedback anytime.

Using this platform, Hubert says some brands, such as Atlanta-based quick-service restaurant, Krystal, have already seen impressive results.

“The platform’s highly customizable and easy-to-use interface has helped the Krystal team train employees and manage their career paths. By using SchooX to bolster its focus on its people, Krystal has seen a 30 percent reduction in turnover. And by using the platform to train employees on product consistency, the brand has also realized a 5 percent boost in overall customer satisfaction scores.”

By helping employees achieve their personal goals, restaurants earn more than lower turnover rates—they can also make their businesses more effective. “People want to come to work each day and feel fulfilled by making a significant impact,” Hubert says. “The more you know, the more you do.”