Designing a strong restaurant culture proves to make a restaurant more profitable and successful. People identify with brands and businesses that resonate with them and that have identifiers that make them different from their competitors. Anyone can own a restaurant and just do the basics: serve food, but having a restaurant culture with identifiable values helps not only your customers feel more connected, but your employees. We’re going to focus on employees for this blog because retaining employees is important. Values give employees a sense of purpose and the sense that they’re working for a larger purpose and this has become very popular among millennials entering the workforce.
Differentiation
Identifying values that make your restaurant unique sustain culture, and culture is what drives a business and promotes those values further. Values should come from leadership and be consistent with your brand. If values aren’t set in stone from the top, employees will set those values for you, which doesn’t typically work because they get miscommunicated.
Little Things
The little things DO count. Having the necessary equipment and materials to get the job done is very important to employees. Employees shouldn’t have their materials shorted and little things, such as having a sufficient amount of pens, towels, etc, are essential in running your restaurant. Employees feel neglected and less important and respected when you can’t even provide them with the basics that help them do their job. This can lead to a toxic work environment and a culture where employees feel disrespected and unable to approach management. Management needs to be consistent with its messages and values and follow through on these promises.
The work environment and culture can easily become toxic and be detrimental to your restaurant. Clearly communicating your values and brand identity to your employees makes for an overall better work experience and more successful business.
