Creating a powerful Employee Experience

Great employees expect, and deserve, all the tools they need to be successful. Make sure you provide it to them.

Raise a glass to creating a powerful experience for all of your employees.

What is the Employee Experience?

Simply put, the employee experience is what all of your staff experience as members of your team. It starts at the recruiting and hiring stages and continues throughout their time with you. It sets the tone regarding what kind of operator you are and what you expect from your team.

“An employees motivation is a direct result of the interactions with his or her manager.” Dr. Bob Nelson

Why does it matter?

Your employee experience begins as soon as a prospective new team member comes into contact with your brand. Whether it is viewing your job posting, meeting a team member at a party or visiting your restaurant as a customer, you have a big opportunity to set the tone and let them know what a position with your restaurant will be like. Make those first impressions powerful, professional and positive and you will attract top talent. Consider the steps below...

• Design your job postings in a unique and appealing way. Define the expectations, outline the role and, most importantly, present a task for new candidates to complete. I like hiring platforms that provide screening tools like personality assessments and skills questionaries. Good team members will rise to the challenge, plus it sets the tone that you take hiring seriously.

• Make your interviews meaningful. Stay away from questions that can be answered with a "yes" or "no". Instead, ask questions that give you clues to what having this person on your team will be like. "Tell me about a time you had to assist a fellow team member who was struggling. What was the situation and what did you do?" The answer will tell you a bit about their willingness to chip in, lead and be a true team player.

• Make their first day memorable. Simple things like calling you new employee the day before to welcome them, introducing them to their co-workers, giving them a tour, introduce them to their trainer/mentor, provide them with a "welcome packet" complete with a card signed by the owner or General Manager. "Wow!" Here, it is also important to have their training organized in a way so nothing falls through the cracks. Make sure they have the tools and knowledge to do their job to the best of their ability!

• Check in with them at the end of their first shift...what went well? I suggest doing that for their first 3 - 5 training shifts. A simple "What can I do for you?" goes a long way. Schedule their 30 day check in and be sure to monitor their performance and offer words of encouragement and coaching in real time.

There are more steps you can add to create a meaningful first few days that set your new team member up for being a contributing part of your team. The benefits of such a well thought out and executed Employee Journey will be high productivity, low turnover and most importantly, great employees will seek you out and want to join your team. Good people want to learn, grow and be challenges. Make sure the time they spend in your employment is good time and that they feel their decision to join your team was a good one.