The quick service restaurant (QSR) industry is characterized by its fast-paced work environment, and unfortunately, its high employee turnover rates. Industry metrics report turnover rates as high as 130%.
This is why industry leaders are increasingly looking for ideas for employee engagement that work so that they can decrease employee turnover rates. This approach has been shown to increase efficiency, foster employee satisfaction and can ultimately help establishments see higher revenue.
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement is not the same thing as job satisfaction or employee satisfaction, though both of these things can be impacted by employee engagement.
According to Forbes, employee engagement is “the emotional commitment an employee has to an organization and its goals”. It is how your employees feel about your QSR and the work they do there.
A positively-engaged employee feels motivated and takes an active role at work. A disengaged employee, on the other hand, may come across as apathetic toward their work. The right employee engagement ideas will help engender that sentiment in your workforce. Let’s see how.
Why do you need ideas for employee engagement in your QSR?
You need ideas for employee engagement because it plays a critical role in a business’s potential to be successful. This is especially true in the QSR industry where employee motivation and efficiency can make or break operations.
Below are some of the reasons positive employee engagement is so important.
The best employee engagement ideas increase productivity and performance
If you can engage your QSR staff with the right employee engagement ideas, you’ll note an uptick in your efficiency levels. In fact, there’s proof that engaged employees are more likely to contribute to the success of an operation. Their high levels of involvement and dedication to success often help businesses outperform competitors, especially when it comes to reported earnings.
Engagement Ideas that work will improve employee retention
Employee retention is critical in the QSR industry because it significantly reduces costs associated with onboarding and training processes.
Using different ways to engage your employees will result in staff that is much more likely to hold their position than disengaged employees. This makes it possible to keep operations moving quickly and makes it that much easier to find in-house leaders and managers you can trust.
The right staff engagement Ideas boost employee morale
When employees feel that their work is appreciated and valued, it can have a positive effect on their overall morale and motivation levels. When morale is high, employees are more likely to be productive, creative, and innovative. This can help with problem-solving and can change the general atmosphere of your back-of-house environment.
Workforce engagement improves customer satisfaction tooI
Customer service is a make-or-break for QSR, which is why employee engagement is so important! Positively engaged employees tend to lead to increased customer satisfaction. High spirits and devotion to solving problems can translate into positive interactions that make customers feel valued.
It makes your customers happy, boosts revenue and strengthens the reputation of your QSR. In a world filled with competing fast dining options, it’s important to make your establishment the one customers can depend on for a positive experience. As a result, which ideas for employee engagement you rely on could very well end up determining your QSR’s immediate future.
With employee engagement initiatives you get innovation
Since employees who are positively engaged with a company also tend to become invested in the success of their coworkers and establishment, they are often more likely to propose ideas that can streamline processes and keep things efficient.
Building a strong workplace environment that rewards and supports leaders not only benefits your employees, but it benefits you, too!
Employee engagement activities are tougher to implement in the QSR environment
Fostering employee engagement in the fast-paced and often hectic environment of the QSR presents a set of unique challenges.
With a scarce opportunity to pull your staff into long involved meetings and added barriers to consistent one-on-one communication, building a culture of support and providing tools for success can feel impossible.
These challenges, however, should not discourage you from striving to boost employee engagement. It is an especially important part of QSR operations, namely because of the very challenges that make it difficult to achieve, and luckily, new solutions can make things easier than they seem.
Digital signage is a solution that is easy to implement and can transform the way employees of your QSR engage with their work. A robust software solution, like UPshow SHIFT, makes it easy to recognize, educate and motivate your employees with a simple screen. Here’s what UPshow can do for you QSR employees.
The QSR experience and employee engagement: What should it look like in your QSR
Training quizzes as employee engagement programs
Training and educating your QSR staff can feel like a challenge. Scheduling the perfect time between shifts and staggering meetings almost makes the process feel like more of a hassle than a help. Luckily, you can reap the benefits of learning with some upgraded deployment methods.
UPshow makes it easy to create, share and display employee learning material, like quizzes, on your BOH screens. These materials can be linked to QR codes that make it easy to transform display content into mobile-friendly landing pages. This not only engrains important information in your staff, but it can make learning more accessible and exciting, too!
It makes employee training far more flexible and effective, and it eliminates the need of stopping operations for a quick training refresher.
Pushing workforce engagement and sales through friendly competition
Motivating your employees by stoking the flames of competition can encourage ambition and extra effort. UPshow SHIFT can help your QSR drive sales by integrating with your point of sale (POS) system. It helps you track inventory and sales metrics that you can use to encourage revenue-generating behavior. Best of all, these metrics stay updated in real-time with almost no maintenance on your end. That’s right, it's all just plug and play!
It makes it easy to encourage staff to promote seasonal items, limited menu offers or upsell using promotions. Create monthly shift competitions or reward your highest-selling staff member while keeping everyone accountable to the numbers on the screens.
Make customer service a priority
You can remind your staff that customer service is a priority at your QSR by creating, sharing, and displaying customer service surveys on your screen.
QR code technology makes it easy for guests to access surveys right from their phones, and you can share results as they populate with your BOH staff. You can even share recent reviews from social media platforms! Celebrating high-quality service and reminding your employees of the importance of customer satisfaction can reframe their approach to their work.
Recognize top talent on your digital displays
Did you know that employee recognition can significantly reduce feelings of burnout in employees?
This is especially important in a fast-paced and high-intensity QSR environment that keeps employees on their feet and moving. Sharing screens that recognize your employees is an easy way to thank them for their hard work and efforts. UPshow makes it easy to create and customize a display for each of your employees with Canva integration, and robust scheduling features make it possible for you to keep screens current for each changing shift.
Create opportunities for feedback from employees
Employees thrive when they feel heard. You can ensure that your employees feel like their input is taken into account with frequent surveys and feedback forms. This makes it easy for leadership to address pain points and work out challenges in your employees’ work processes.
Create mobile-friendly feedback forms that can be shared throughout your QSR with UPshow.
Make training accessible with display content
Scheduling digital displays is a whole lot easier than scheduling staggered shift meetings!
UPshow makes it easy to share content across all of your shifts with advanced scheduling features. It ensures that no one on your team misses out, and keeps messaging and information sharing amongst staff clear and consistent. This makes it that much easier to cut out miscommunication!
Create an atmosphere of support and collaboration with team engagement activities
Recognition amongst peers is an easy way to create a collaborative workplace culture and build strong teams. Create opportunities for employees to give shout-outs to their coworkers on the screens in your QSR, or to vote on in-house initiatives. Feeling invested in what your workplace has to offer is an important part of facilitating lasting relationships with QSR employees.
Deploy multiple ideas for employee engagement in fast-paced QSR environments with UPshow
Whether you’re using UPshow to train employees on new SOPs or connecting it to your POS systems to foster friendly competition, UPshow Shift is the perfect tool to increase employee engagement in the fast-paced environment of your QSR. Start your free trial today to see what UPshow can do for you!
