In this conversation, Liam and Alex discuss the importance of effective training and onboarding in the restaurant industry. They highlight the consequences of poor onboarding, such as high turnover, poor staff morale, and burnout.
Alex shares his insights on what makes a good training plan, emphasising the need for clear expectations, ongoing support, and collaboration between trainers and management. They also discuss the flexibility of training plans and the importance of identifying and utilising the strengths of different trainers.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:26 Alex's Background and Role
05:42 Principles of a Good Training Plan
09:09 Flexibility in Training
13:12 Importance of Specialist Roles
21:58 Building a Great Culture and Team
22:47 Conclusion
Alex's previous appearance.
Alex's training templates on Pilla.
Alex's Linkedin profile.
Click here to learn about Play It Green
This podcast is produced by Pilla - Create your operational playbook so work always gets done.
In this conversation, Liam and Alex discuss the importance of effective training and onboarding in the restaurant industry. They highlight the consequences of poor onboarding, such as high turnover, poor staff morale, and burnout.
Alex shares his insights on what makes a good training plan, emphasising the need for clear expectations, ongoing support, and collaboration between trainers and management. They also discuss the flexibility of training plans and the importance of identifying and utilising the strengths of different trainers.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:26 Alex's Background and Role
05:42 Principles of a Good Training Plan
09:09 Flexibility in Training
13:12 Importance of Specialist Roles
21:58 Building a Great Culture and Team
22:47 Conclusion
Alex's previous appearance.
Alex's training templates on Pilla.
Alex's Linkedin profile.
Click here to learn about Play It Green
This podcast is produced by Pilla - Create your operational playbook so work always gets done.
Awesome, and we've got Alex. Thank you very much for being here, mate. Lovely to welcome you back again. You're welcome. Thanks very much for having me. So you've been on a few times now, or this is the third time you've been on, which we're lucky to have you. We'll put the links to the previous episodes in the show notes for people, but for people who've not listened to those and not familiar with it, with those, could you just give us sort of 60 seconds on who you are and what you do, please? Yes, absolutely. I'll try and keep it similar to the last one. I have been working in restaurants for many years, roughly 15 years, I think. Basically worked every front of house position going all the way from entry level, bussing tables, washing pots. all the way up to now running teams, helping to run restaurants. I'm not a restaurant owner, I am employed. I just work for other people at the minute. But yeah, just helping run the teams. Currently involved in a couple of turnarounds, which is nice. And yeah, kind of during the day, that's the day job, and now evenings for me have turned to helping other people do the same, same kind of thing. So, like I said before, I think COVID has created this influx of new managers who have been promoted. more off the back of a shortage of staff rather than actually being quite ready for the role. So I'm just trying to fill that gap of helping those guys achieve all the KPIs that they've got no idea what they mean. And yeah, just trying to fill that gap and hopefully prevent a few closures that we see every day. Yeah, absolutely. And we're gonna talk about that a little bit today because I do agree with you completely that there's been a lot of early, you know, premature but necessary, I'd say. hires and promotions over the last couple of years. So people who are not ready to go into management positions we're seeing all the time are actually being put into management positions because there's basically no other choice. There's a massive labor shortage and I think it's really compacted in that middle section. So I think you're absolutely right about that. What we're talking about today is training and sort of entry to middle level positions such as like a bartender or a busser or a... general catering assistant for example and it's worth saying as well that we've got some fantastic templates which you've kindly contributed to Pillar so if you're a Pillar user or if you're not a Pillar user then go and check out the link in the show notes because that will take you to the templates page and we've got one, two, three, we've got four great training plans which are completely complete 15 day training plans for some of these roles created by Alex. and they're absolutely brilliant and you can use them for free inside Pillar. So we're not going to go into the details of each role. What we're going to do instead today is we're going to talk about some of the principles which kind of underpin good training and like, um, and that type of thing. So let's just qualify the problem a little bit more. What happens? What are the consequences of a poor on board? Um, poor retention. Um, there was a report done by, uh, this is pineapple recently that said that the restaurant industry as part of the kind of hospitality sector has got the worst 12 week turnover and it was around about a third of all people that join restaurants leave within the first three months. I think a lot of that comes down to a lack of training, a lack of support, a lack of coaching, a lack of kind of ongoing mentorship and almost being expected to hit the floor running even though for many people it's the first job they've ever had. They've got no idea how in the world of work works, let alone specifically a restaurant business and all the kind of nuances and kind of quirks that come with those. So yeah, high turnover, poor staff morale, burnout is a massive one at the moment for us. And there's obviously a bit of a mental health pandemic going on, which I don't think a lack of support really helps with. So yeah, just giving people the right start, the right foundation. And from a business perspective as well, I think it almost tarnishes the reputation of the business. If you know someone who's gone and worked somewhere and they lasted three weeks and said, it's rubbish, the management don't help you, the induction was, there's the fire exit. If it goes off, run. You're not gonna wanna go and work there. And when someone goes, oh, how was it? I've just applied for a job. And they're just gonna say, don't take it, because it's horrible. So you end up with a much, much smaller pool to choose from in terms of recruitment. You end up with people who kind of are almost desperate for the roles and are there. to hide and do the bare minimum and they just need the money and they don't really care that much they just want to turn up. Which there's almost elements of good to that. But yeah it's really all round just affects the business. Your customers feel it, your staff feel it. If you've got a really good team of A players on board and you bring people in and you don't support them and they don't know what they're doing your A players will soon get fed up with that and also go elsewhere which tends to be to competition. comparison to having a higher employee chair where people leave within the first three months because of a poor onboarding is that they get a poor onboarding and they stay and then they have a really negative impact on your business over the next 12 months because they don't know what they're doing. So, you know, either way, whether they stay or whether they go, it's equally as bad, to be honest with you, isn't it? So we'll keep this, I think this is gonna be a fairly short one because I want people to just kind of get some principles of good training. So lay out for us what What makes a good training plan for you for these types of roles? Training plan for me is all about setting the expectation on both sides. So this is what we expect from you and this is what you can expect from us. And making sure that those two actually align. And then it's all about taking them through every single thing that they would need to do in a week. making sure that they feel comfortable doing it, they feel confident doing it. And if there are any weaker areas, it's about giving ongoing support. So for me, a training plan shouldn't end after for the ones that I use generally about three weeks long, or for a part-time staff, 15 working days, but it shouldn't end there. After day 15, it should be, right, these are the weaker areas, or actually you've smashed that, these are the next steps to get you to the next level. Um, and it should just be ongoing continuous and really supportive. Yeah, a hundred percent. So the way you've structured yours, I think is great because you, you've basically got the whole 15 days and then you've got exactly what is the outcome. Of the day of each day, but then you've got basically tasks throughout the day. So you've got something that happens pre-service, you've got what we're focusing on during service, you've got like a post-service kind of, um, catch up or debrief if you like and then we've got like an outcome for the whole day and we've even got a bit of a handover on there as well about who may be taking over the next day and I think too often businesses don't have that much detail in plan they may even say oh well day one will have floor training day two will have bartender but they won't actually lay out what's happening pre-service service so have you always done it like that or is this something that you've learned over time? No, definitely not. I was guilty kind of in my early days, my first management job of you get somebody in and you go, right, hop on the till with me or hop on the coffee machine with me or let's have a go and it's very much throw them in the deep end. You're just opening yourself up to different anxieties and overwhelm and people getting really stressed out and having a negative experience. Whereas if you take the time and make sure, for example, they're coming in the door and it's calm. Like you're not getting them in three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon when you're five deep at the bar. But actually you're getting them at eight in the morning where everyone's currently having a bit of coffee and just pottering about, setting up for the day. It's about setting the tone, I think, right from day one. And from the first minute they enter the building of like, this is what you can expect from us. And it should be relaxed in my opinion, because I think you get more out of people when they're relaxed. But yeah, the detail. is come from the more opportunities you give people feedback or the more opportunities you create to give people feedback and set the expectations, the more opportunities there are to kind of course correct and tweak the progress. Whereas if you go, this is what I expect on day one, and then you assess it on day 15, like they might have started day one and gone off in completely the wrong direction or have misunderstood your instruction. Whereas if you sit down at the end of the day, you can say, oh, okay. we misunderstood that tomorrow we're gonna go for this. Whereas at day 15 you can think, oh you've completely failed that because the instruction wasn't clear or because I thought it was but you misunderstood it. But in those situations it all comes down to communication. I think communication is the make or break of any business. So the training plan is all about communicating expectations. Yeah, and to be honest one of the things I really love about the way that your plan has translated onto Pillar is. I don't have to use this in pillar. You know, you can, you can take this plan that Alex has got, which you can get in the link and then you can use this and you know, you can just print it out if you wanted to, but I would, I would have a way of, um, basically leaving minutes on the day and communicating and collaborating with people. So what we're able to do in pillar, which is great is we can actually like. Leave comments on the actual day of the training day and say, for example, of Joey was great at bartender. He needs to work on his cocktail. um, theory knowledge for a couple of days, you can tag people and et cetera. So you basically got like a paper trail going right across the whole training. And like I say, you could do that on a clipboard if you're, if you were at old school and you, and you wanted to just write on it, but my, my two pennies worth here would be document the training all the way through and, and make sure you know exactly what's going on and make sure everybody who's in the training team knows what's happened on day two, three, four, and they've got a way of kind of like keeping up with it. Yeah, absolutely. And I completely agree because, I mean, Pillars is gonna be a fantastic tool for doing so, by having, like I said, everybody able to access it, collaborate with it. But it's not gonna be, in my opinion, it shouldn't be anyway, the same person doing the same training every single day. So you'd probably have somebody on the bar side of things who's got the most patience and knowledge when it comes to cocktails and that kind of thing. You'd have somebody on the floor who really excels in that area. if you're giving some kind of basic kitchen pass training or something like that, you'd have whoever is the best at controlling that one. Um, not necessarily the best at the job, but the best at communicating the job. Um, so I mean your top salesperson might not necessarily be your best trainer because all they care about is let's go make some money. Um, so yeah, it's super people. That is an absolutely super point, which I don't think many people would think about, you know, it's kind of like what we were talking about early when we were saying, you know, The best bartender is not the bar manager because you just get thrust into these positions, but you might not be the best bar manager. You might just be the best bartender. And it's similar to say, and it's exactly the same in the sense that your best bar trainer might not be your best bartender. It's okay to just be the best bartender. And then it's completely different skills trying to teach somebody something that you can do well. Yeah, I completely agree. Yeah, because the set of skills that you need, like I said, to be a bartender. and the speed and the organization and the cleanliness and all those kind of the customer service and the facing bits aren't necessarily patience, empathy. Being able to explain the same thing in five or six different ways until somebody understands it with a customer, you go, what do you want, mate? Okay, cool, that's 10 pounds. Like it's a completely different skill set being able to train somebody. So yeah, identifying those people early on. And like you said, if someone wants to be the best bartender, then amazing. Like there are some phenomenal bartenders around. who have been doing it for years and will continue to do that for years because they just love it. And I'll be honest, I wish I was one of those people. Life would be so much easier and simpler if I didn't kind of have my grand visions, if I was just happy doing what I love doing. Well, we need those people. Our business doesn't work and everybody wants promotions at the same time. We need those people who want to be specialists in a certain thing because otherwise, you know, you've just got this funnel where there's like... or sort of a career path, if you like, and there's less and less positions as you go up the funnel. And if you've got everybody move up the funnel at once, you're gonna start chaining people because they're gonna have to go and find positions elsewhere. So if you've got somebody in your business who is just obsessed with being a bartender, to use this example, just keep holding them. That is a fantastic asset there. Yeah, they provide stability for me, which is probably the key word in that one. It's giving your business a stable foundation. in which to build kind of the rest from. So if you've got those people that you do want to progress, knowing that you've got somebody there to hold the fort and kind of do the groundwork, whilst you take these people and put them through the training they need, is so important. But if you take that person out of the mix and go, I'm gonna train you, and then that department falls to pieces, then that's, yeah, you need those people to prevent that from happening. So let's try and identify some more principles then, because I think this would be really good for anybody who's trying to build their own template out. So I think what we've covered so far is, get people in, sort of maybe at the start of the week, or certainly when it's quieter, so you can spend some quality time with them. Identify who your best trainers are, I think that's a really, really important one. And then get those people to train the things that they know about, so don't have the same person training. training somebody over the course of like two to three weeks, split it, split it up. And that's also nice because they get to meet different people in the team as well, I guess. Plan, write everything down that you're going to do. Don't be reactive about training or be proactive about your training and make sure everything's, you know, strategical and make sure you split days up into sections. And then as you're going through documents as well. make notes about how the training has gone with the person. What else have we got? It's I think collaboration between the management team and the different trainers as well because I think that like it's all comes back to communication documenting but certain trainers might look for different attributes or different skills and they might be able to provide a different view for example if you've got your general manager or an assistant manager. has a little bit more experience generally to draw on than someone who's kind of training on the bar or training on the floor they might just have a couple of years and just be really good with people and it's that constant communication to say like okay you've told me how they're doing so far but there's no you've not mentioned trying to XYZ so tomorrow when you've got this person with you let's kind of try and focus on that a little bit so it's also really good development for the trainers which I think is something that people miss a lot of the time when they're training, because it's very much all about that one person. But as a management team, it should be about both of them, your trainer and your trainee. So kind of using it as an opportunity to train both essentially, is what we'd be doing. How would you approach the flexibility of the training onboarding plan? So let's say I was a new starter, and day two I was on the bar for the first time, let's say I'd never done that before, day three I was supposed to go and I was post suspect with the host, but I was just really struggling with day two. You know, I just, for some reason it just didn't take to me. Would you, would you, I know it depends on the person, but generally speaking, would you sort of get me back on the bar day, day three again, or would you stick to the plan and get me, get me, and then maybe come back next week? What would you, what would you think? I think it would depend on the individual. Um, if it's something that maybe they've. smashed a massive bottle of champagne behind the bar and someone's fallen over and hurt themselves and it's been an absolute catastrophe. I'd probably take them out of that environment for a little while but if it's just a case of they've struggled to learn a couple of basics of I know free pouring or something like that something that is just a skill that just needs repetition then yeah absolutely like leave them there for an extra day, extra couple of days whatever they need. The training plan it's I've set it with the time limit but it's just more of an indication of how long on average are probably expected to take. But if someone's coming in with loads of experience, they're gonna probably whiz through most of the points faster and be more confident with it. Whereas somebody who is coming in and it's maybe their first job or they've not done it before, it might take them twice as long to get the hang of everything. So whilst I've kind of put day one to day 15, it's more just as a structure of after you've completed the plan and it should take roughly this long. It's more about making sure the person's got the confidence and the resources and the training that they need rather than you've got 15 days, now go. Yeah, exactly. So to state the obvious, it's like if you're an experienced bartender, you might not need 15 days. And also if you're brand new, you're not gonna get fired on day 16 if you haven't picked it up. Yeah, of course, yeah. And I think that the most important page of it and my favorite page is the last one where it's the continuous, what are we gonna do next? What are the weaker areas? What are the strengths? What are the areas that we can keep developing? And kind of that making that ongoing support plan and that ongoing training plan Because people have strengths and weaknesses. I do I'm sure you do everyone does So there are going to be bits in there that they don't necessarily nail the first time whether it's systems or whether it's the customer service bit, maybe they're concentrating too hard on what they're actually doing, they're forgetting to talk to the person that's across the bar from them or sat at the table. They might have their head in the iPad thinking, ah, I'm getting really stressed now, I can't remember where all the buttons are. So, and then they forget, and then that rubs off on your table, so it'll be giving them the extra time with the iPad, giving them the extra time, here's a couple of lines you can use in your back pocket for when things get a bit awkward, make a joke of it, here's a couple of jokes I use, and that kind of thing. So making it really supportive, but yeah, pages is the ongoing bit because that could just go on forever. Yeah exactly so just talk to me about that then so we've got to day 15 or whatever day we finished and I think a lot of people would just say my training's finished now maybe we'll do cocktail training once a year once the menu changes or whatever but what should we be how should we structure is a better way put on it I guess somebody's ongoing CPD training you know what should we do? I think having regular one-to-ones with people is kind of where that starts. So if you reach the end of this plan, you kind of sit down on day 15, you go over absolutely everything they've done, strengths, weaknesses, the bits they enjoy, the bits they don't enjoy, which I think are important, bits they're really good at, the bits that maybe they do need a bit extra support, and just create that training plan for the next two weeks, for the next month, of yes, you are now part of service almost, it's not, you're not an extra. However, there are still people on hand. and to have been here for six months, they have been here for six years, who are going to be supporting you. And almost kind of buddying them up with somebody would be my recommendation, it's what I like to do. If you've got enough people, because some restaurants are really small and you don't necessarily have that capability in the team. But it's just ensuring that they've got that continuous support. But then after four weeks, after six weeks, after two weeks, it may be sit down again, have a one-to-one, and just go through that list again and just reassess. So things that's like, I always start them off with like, how are you doing? Like, how are things? How are you finding it? What are the positives of your experience so far? What are the negatives so far? Which gives us the feedback to adjust the plans, to adjust how we do things, how we run shifts. But then it's, what are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What can we develop? But then what are your goals? Kind of what are you looking to take from us as a team, us as an employer, us as a business? How, and then how can we help you to get to them? all the best businesses develop their teams. And even if it's you almost develop them out the door to the next chapter of their life, then great. Like you should be, because it's just giving you so much. It builds your reputation as somebody who's prepared to invest in people, which is amazing. And all the players want that. If you want to attract good people that develop people, it's absolutely crucial. It means you've got some really positive experiences with the people that are coming through the door and ultimately exiting two years later or wherever that timeframe might be. But then it also gives you and your team that extra experience as training, as coaching, as mentoring, and develops all your skills of listening, your compassion, your patience, all the important stuff. All the soft stuff to be fair that people I think underestimate but are really important. I've forgotten the question but it's all about having that ongoing, whether you coach them up to be in your business or whether you coach them up to that next chapter. kind of finding out what their goal is and supporting them can only be a good thing. There's no hard feelings, there's no negativity, it's just these guys did a great job with me, I'm really grateful, shout about it to all their friends, which is just, yeah, it's just helping everybody to build and raise everybody up. All the best answers, by the way, always, always have the sentence in them. I've forgotten the question. Yeah. They're always, they're always the best answers. This is like my favorite topic is how to like build a great culture and how to build a great team and how to make everybody feel included and welcome and happy and all that kind of stuff. And yeah, I just get lost. Yeah. Absolutely. No, listen, I'm going to leave it there because there's loads of really bite size actionable stuff that people can take away from this. So I'll remind the listeners again. go into the show notes and click the links to check out the great training onboarding plans, which Alex has contributed. You can either use them for free inside Pillar, or you can just copy and paste them and use them offline either way. You'd also find Alex's LinkedIn bio as well. So if anyone's got any questions, I'm sure Alex won't mind if you reach out and ask those on LinkedIn as well. And yeah, for me, Alex, that was superb. Really, really useful. So thank you for your time. Thank you very much as well. I appreciate that and can I just say as well? I think what you guys are doing with pillar is amazing I don't think I've actually said that to you before after a few conversations, but I think it's going to be a real asset to the industry and having something that just encompasses almost every important aspect of the business in one place for free at a time when times are hard for a lot of restaurants is going to be incredible. So yeah, huge respect for what you are doing. Cheers, thanks buddy. Alright, see you soon mate. You're welcome. See you later, thank you.