Eight Tips to Encourage Staff Loyalty

Staggered and extended working hours, poorly valued work, low wages and difficult working conditions. The catering industry still suffers from a negative image. While mainstream programs such as Top Chef have gradually restored the image of the profession, restaurants still have a lot of trouble recruiting and especially retaining their teams. However, a leader is nothing if he/she is not surrounded by a good team. From the sous chef in the kitchen to the hotel manager to servers and dishwashers, everyone plays a key role in the smooth running of service.

During a day at the Marsan restaurant in Paris organised by chef-owner Hélène Darroze, the Michelin Guide and S.Pellegrino, French chefs who recently won their first Michelin star met to discuss, among other things, the loyalty of their teams.

What are the solutions to retaining as many staff as possible? Is a pay rise the key to all problems? Darroze exchanged notes with young chefs/restaurateurs from all over France –Victor Mercier (FIEF, Paris), Charles Coulombeau (La Maison dans le Parc, Nancy), Matthias Marc (Substance, Paris ), Tom Meyer (Granite, Paris) and Matthieu Pasgrimaud (Le 1825, Beaupréau) – to provide solutions but also to learn from others. Here were the key takeaways from the event.

Salary review

Some waitstaff and chefs enjoy a generous monthly salary, but less so when paid hourly. In catering, it is not uncommon for employees to work 80-hour weeks, including hours that aren't accounted for on payslips. If restaurants are managed on the relationship between their turnover and fixed costs, Hélène Darroze has put in place a system that could inspire others. "We now operate a bonus system. If our targets are met or even exceeded, I increase the salary from one month to the next," she said. The chef also organises small internal competitions to motivate her teams.

Explain the value of things

In his new Granite restaurant in Paris, Tom Meyer has his own way of motivating his teams in order to retain them: explaining the economic value of things. During his training, the young chef explained, he rarely had access to the accounts of the establishments for which he worked, and therefore did not always realise the impact of poor service on the turnover of a restaurant. "Before, if the establishment was not full, the teams rejoiced thinking that they were going to finish early. Today, if a table is empty, they know how much it can weigh on the cashflow and go all out to fill the room. It also helps them better understand their salaries," said Meyer.

More kindness

Salary alone is not enough to retain staff. According to Darroze, kindness is also essential. "In my kitchen, I don't want one word louder than the other. There's no point in shouting! If we want our customers to be happy, the team has to be."

Include teams in the creative process

"I think it's essential to feed the team's hunger, in every sense of the word," said the multi-starred Darroze. "Integrating teams into the creative process allows them to feel more involved and therefore easier to retain them." From the dining room to the kitchen, "you have to make them understand that each link is important."

Be honest when recruiting

As Matthieu Pasgrimaud pointed out, people who apply to work in catering are not always aware of the reality of the job. Thus, the young chef advocates transparency and honesty when recruiting. "You must always tell the truth about the hours, the evening work, the weekends, the fact of being up all day." Working conditions are known but sometimes forgotten by the candidates influenced by cooking progammes that don't always reflect reality, he said.

Create a link between the kitchen and the dining room

If kitchen professions are increasingly valued or even glorified, front of house staff are often still overlooked by customers, even sometimes by chefs. However, the server is a key element of a restaurant. It is he/she who will explain the chef's vision, the ingredients and the techniques used in the dining room. Mirko Benzo, director of the restaurant Hélène Darroze at the Connaught in London, called on restaurateurs to create more links between the kitchen and the dining room, to promote all teams.

Getting cooks out of their kitchens?

Victor Mercier, recently named Young Chef of the Year by the Michelin Guide, made an observation: if it is difficult to recruit in the kitchen, it is even more complicated to retain service teams in the dining room. To make up for this, the young chef queried whether to get cooks out into the dining room more frequently. “Cooking is a more attractive profession, so I think why not make the chefs more versatile to make up for the lack of staff in the dining room?”, he asked. If the chef already does this in his restaurant FIEF, Aurélien Largeau of La Rotonde in Biarritz explained that during his years spent at La Maison d'à Côté by Christophe Hay, the cooks regularly came out of the kitchen (open to the dining room) to support waiters – a way to strengthen ties between teams while promoting all trades.

Provide comfort to staff

Finally, when a restaurant can, Hélène Darroze suggests providing a little comfort to the teams in order to promote their wellbeing. Thus, the chef explained that she has set up a rest room where staff can chill out between services. "We put washing machines there to save them time. There is also a masseuse who comes once every two weeks." In some remote restaurants, it can sometimes be useful to offer accommodation to the teams in order to make their life easier.

And you, what are your solutions for retaining your staff?