Create sustainable change in your staff behaviours

If your organisation is striving for an engaged workforce, there are several main elements to consider when preparing your strategy: 

     1. Leadership 

Direct managers possibly have the biggest influence on employee happiness and receiving praise from a line manager is one of the most important sources of motivation. This relationship is crucial. 

     2. Communication 

Good managers communicate with their teams openly, honestly and regularly and who also genuinely request and listen to employee feedback. 

     3. Culture 

A positive company culture is what makes employees come to work every day and is also directly related to profitability. 

     4. Reward and recognition 

An employee recognition and rewards system is known to increase productivity, and enables employees to identify and link good behaviour and performance to rewards. 

     5. Professional and personal growth 

Growth happens on the job, but also in the form of courses, conferences and reading materials. It’s critical to offer growth opportunities to employees to keep them engaged. 

     6. Accountability and performance 

Leaders also need to be coaches to provide timely praise and criticism whenever appropriate to foster positive results and desired behaviours in teams. 

     7. Vision and values 

Employees are more engaged when they identify with your company's values and the bigger picture, and they’re more likely to go the extra mile to contribute to that purpose when they feel part of that vision. 

     8. Corporate social responsibility 

Employee engagement is higher where they are proud of how their organisation has contributed to the local community, worthy causes, and to making the world a better place. 

As we’ve already touched upon, the range of different regulations we must meet as hospitality operators is quite extensive, but we’ll outline some of the main areas here: 

Alcohol licensing 

In many countries, including the UK, premises that sell alcohol must have a licence to do so. What’s more, they must also have always at least one employee on duty who is a personal licence holder. 

Food safety 

Businesses of all kinds must make sure they provide safe conditions for their teams and their guests. As hospitality is largely based on food and drink, food safety in hospitality, it's vital to implement a food safety management system to avoid contamination, food poisoning or allergic reactions among guests. Faulty temperatures on fridges, cold rooms or display cabinets can often result in food poisoning, or food waste, so having robust operational checks in place is critical to avoid undesirable incidents, fines or damage to your business reputation. Paper-based procedures systems often fall short and are excessively time-consuming when you’re short-staffed, which is why multi-site restaurant brands are increasingly turning to digital compliance management systems 

GDRP and data 

We process a huge amount of data in our daily transactions with customers, suppliers and also, employee payments. So, it’s essential to comply with data protection laws with every order, payment and invoice. This also applies to our marketing efforts, for example, when we request personal data to promote our goods and services. Read more about data compliance in restaurants here. 

Consumer protection and trade descriptions 

Like all businesses, hospitality operators must not mislead customers when describing their goods or services, including advertising, menu pricing or labelling information. So, when a restaurant advertises a specific dish, it must ensure that it is correctly described, that the photo matches the real thing, the price is correct, and that the customer will receive the same standards of food and service across all the company’s restaurants. This isn’t an easy thing to guarantee, so digital solutions are much more efficient in helping you achieve this to protect your business from legal action, your brand reputation and gain customer loyalty. 

Read our complete guide for more in-depth information and guidance on all the different elements in hospitality compliance for multi-site businesses.