ommunication in the
hospitality industry
can be like a giant
game of “Operator.”
Servers and frontline employees gather
feedback, but by the time it reaches upper management,
it is unrecognizable. Or, worse, it never gets
there at all.
Technomic Information Services, a Chicago-based
foodservice research and consulting firm, collected
data from surveys and personal interviews of restaurant
employees to help address that problem and
bridge the gap between the workforce and executives.
The study’s findings, presented in The Voice of the
Employee, highlight the rich resources available to
managers who truly listen to their workers, as well as
the inadequacies of systems that ignore the firsthand
experience of employees closest to the point of service.
Technomic’s presentation recommends methods,
organizational structures, and policies to help manage
relationships with employees and to
leverage their knowledge and expertise.
A strength of the Technomic study is
that it draws commonality from many
levels of service applicable to hotels—
classified within two broader groups as
limited-service restaurants and full-service
restaurants—and creates an
overview of the mindset.
It shows that success can be distilled
down to three basic tenets applicable
across the entire range of individual
personalities, service disciplines,
and job descriptions.
Technomic supports its conclusions
with video clips of focus groups where
workers voice their concerns and
beliefs. The closely edited segments represent the
majority opinion of workers. The employees represent
the wide spectrum of service styles—from
McDonald’s workers and Starbucks baristi to family-dining
chain staff and fine-dining servers—and the
similarities of their ideas and expectations. The varied
ages, ethnicities, and degrees of expressiveness of
individuals subtly reinforce the notion that a large
number of frontline personnel have come to these
conclusions because of the necessity and success of
a “we’re all in this together” mentality.
GIVE US THE TOOLS
The overriding theme from the front-of-the-house
employee interviews is the employees’ desire to serve
people and have the tools to do it well. All else stems
from that elemental concept. The key to making
workers confident brand ambassadors is to provide
them with the knowledge and training they require to
perform their tasks consistently and professionally.
Molding them into confident and satisfied brand
ambassadors calls for an investment of commitment
and respect from management, both on the floor and
within the human resources manual.
Technomic presents the wisdom gleaned from
front-of-the-house surveys as the “Employee Brand
Ambassador Support Structure,” a one-size-fits-all
Golden Rule for unit operators and managers. The
study separates the intertwined issues of job satisfaction
and employee-management relations into
three areas of importance:
1. Respect
2. Communication
3. Personal Growth
1 RESPECT:
Acknowledge a Good Job
In a position where respect is imperiled constantly
through negative public interaction, front-of-the-house
employees should not carry the additional burden of
disrespect from management or co-workers.
Interestingly, the study reveals the large problem of
disrespect by omission, i.e., the failure of management
to properly acknowledge a job well done.
Incentives, both monetary and non-monetary,
work with varying effectiveness depending on the
characteristics of the business. Non-monetary recognition, however, can often cost the company
nothing but thoughtful effort. For example, bestowing
decision-making authority as often as is appropriate
conveys confidence in employee judgment, which
raises workers’ sense of respect and empowerment
and instills a reciprocal desire to uphold that trust.
Respect within the work environment entails countless
relationships and interactions that might be
reduced to two ideas: 1) Everybody follows the rules,
and 2) Everybody pulls his own weight.
The de facto semi-autonomy of foodservice workers
requires a workplace structured so that all rules are
clear and enforced with consistency. Special attention
to employee dynamics maintains a service equilibrium
essential to providing the desired guest experience.
Staffing balance should be the goal of managers when
hiring. The best way to achieve this is to ask situational
questions during the interview process, such as, “How
would you handle [a common situation]?”
A satisfied service team that works well together
finds ways to solve problems and hold each other
accountable for substandard performance. Managers
who perform poorly are not exempt. Employees expect
supervisors to possess good people skills, avoid micromanaging,
be visible, support their efforts, and be willing
“to get their hands dirty.”
2 COMMUNICATION:
Avoid the Mystery
Frontline managers are the first link in communication
with servers. Communication pervades every
aspect of service, but here the topic is specifically
limited to the dialogue between labor and management.
Even beyond the pressures of daily service,
miscommunication and absence of communication
between employees and managers are cited as the
greatest front-of-the-house stressors. From the outset,
company values, service concepts, accountability,
and all expectations should be clarified. The goal
is to avoid the “sense of mystery” that employees find
so nerve wracking.
Workers also want communication, to hear their
personal status, to fine-tune or correct their performance,
and to know someone is listening to their suggestions,
concerns, and feedback.
3 PERSONAL GROWTH:
Train Me!
The idea of fine-tuning continues into the area of
personal growth. Another huge area of stress for
employees is beginning a shift without the information
needed to serve patrons to the fullest. Being properly
trained is essential for being comfortable in a service
position, for achieving a sense of fulfillment, and for
workers to provide the greatest customer satisfaction.
Deficiencies in product knowledge were named
by employees as primary contributors to job stress. To
address this, hoteliers should devise effective and
flexible training programs, both initial and ongoing, if
they hope to develop their employees as brand
ambassadors to ensure the success of their food and
beverage outlets.
Voice of the Employee examines the wide-ranging
thoughts and concerns of an even wider-ranging
front-of-the-house service force and teases out the
fundamental threads of ideas that recur throughout.
By concentrating on those threads, Technomic has
been able to weave patterns that can be further studied
across the industry. The final result will be a fabric
of knowledge and management tools that may be
implemented to fully utilize the expertise of front-of-the-
house employees.
Denny Lewis is a frequent contributor to HOTEL F&B.
