Restaurants are one of the hardest businesses to run successfully and the failure rates are very high. There are a lot of different reasons that a restaurant might fail, some of them more obvious than others. It goes without saying that if the food and the service aren’t up to scratch, you’re not going to get very far. The location is important as well because, even if you serve amazing food, you’re not going to get many customers if you’re in the middle of nowhere. But there are other issues that you might not have considered before, especially those relating to your HR department. It’s easy to forget about these details because you’re so focused on the food, but HR is a very important part of any business. If you’re struggling and you can’t work out why it might be down to some of these HR issues.
High Staff Turnover
Overall staff turnover in the restaurant industry is around 73 percent, which is a massive problem. A good restaurant runs like a well-oiled machine and everybody has to be working efficiently together. When you’ve got long term employees that know exactly what their role is and how it relates to the rest of the staff, it’s easier to keep things running smoothly. But if you’ve got a high staff turnover and you’re constantly introducing new employees into the mix, things are going to grind to a halt. Sometimes, staff are going to leave and there isn’t much you can do about it, but if it’s happening a lot then you’ve got a big problem. If you want to reduce staff turnover, you need to pay extra attention to your hiring process and make sure that you’re picking people that are a good fit for the business. You also need to make sure that you’re paying competitive wages and creating a positive work environment for people.
Complex Payroll
The payroll in a restaurant is a lot more difficult to manage than other businesses. You’ve got a lot of different staff members on different pay rates and people aren’t always working the same hours each week. If you’ve got a particularly high number of bookings mid-week, for example, you might have to call in extra waiting staff and change people’s hours around. You’ve also got to consider tips on top of that as well. If you don’t have that much experience with accounting, it can be hard to stay on top of your payroll. That means people’s wages might be wrong or you may make mistakes when filing taxes, which can lead to fines. It’s always a good idea to use HR tools by ELMO Software to help you manage your payroll. You can’t afford to make mistakes when it comes to people’s wages because that can contribute to high staff turnover.
Employee Disputes
A kitchen is a very heated environment, it just goes with the territory. Most people are fine with that but in some cases, it can lead to disputes, especially if you’ve got a particularly difficult employee. If you don’t know how to deal with those disputes effectively, the kitchen isn’t going to run smoothly and those personal issues will get in the way of work.
Even if your food is amazing and you’ve got the best customer service, these HR issues could still kill your restaurant business.
