I’ve maintained my love of the restaurant experience as a frequent diner. My background has instilled in me an understanding, appreciation and immense respect for the owner/operators and chefs that put their creativity and reputation on the line every day.
Today’s environment is so much more competitive and challenging. Back in the day, an infrequent visit from a food critic could make or break a restaurant. Nowadays, every guest is a food critic with a potential world-wide audience.
So it’s more important than ever for restaurant operators to think carefully about how they attract, train, and retain A Players for their team. The consistency and qualitymbers that can provide
In the last blog post, I made the case that millennials and all ‘Modern Learners’ benefit from an evolved approach to recruiting, training, and retaining top quality talent.
Gone are the days when you can ask your new employees to sit in a training session for 3+ hours, or ask them to watch a video, and expect them to be fully engaged and interested in the experience. Modern learners are an inquisitive bunch, they are used to using YouTube and Google for instant answers, on their phone, immediately.
The way we deliver information and training should capitalize on the way your team members use their devices in every other area of their lives.
In my last blog post, I provided a brief overview of QSR’s use of online learning, and the benefits they achieved. For perspective, just think about what the technology environment looked like just 10 years ago. Connectivity (especially WiFi) was nowhere near as powerful and omnipresent as it is to today. Streaming video was in its infancy. Today, no-one would tolerate the ‘loading’, ‘buffering’ and start-stop video experiences of 2008. As far as devices, there was no tablet which offered a similar experience to a desktop or laptop. So those pioneering QSR’s had a lot of hurdles to overcome. Due to limitations of ‘wired’ internet connectivity, most employees had to experience online learning from a desktop, hardwired to an internet port. What restaurant (especially QSRs) has space to devote to a learning room where a desktop PC could be located? The back office was not a desirable option. Many of these organizations resulted in finding space in broom closets or other unlikely places. Why? Because the results were worth the logistical challenges.
Fast forward to today’s situation. We now have very fast and reliable inter-connectivity with the world, with high fidelity, TV quality viewing, on a device that fits in our back pocket. Today’s independent restaurant operator has the capability to deliver high quality, effective and engaging learning experiences to every employee- 24/7. We now have the opportunity to level playing field. In the ‘battle’ to attract and retain top quality talent, this is a critical paradigm shift and game changer.
My mission is to help independent and multi-unit restaurant operators take advantage of this powerful opportunity. How? By providing cost effective, easy to implement online learning solutions, that were reserved for Fortune 500 organizations, just a few short years ago.
In future blog posts, I will outline the options availabve with current online learning technologies, and the trends to watch and take advantage of both now and in the near future.
In them meantime, maybe ask yourself, Are you ready for the online learning evolution?
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