Five secrets to motivating your millennial restaurant staff

DUBAI – Dubai sees the opening and closure of many restaurants every year, and while some venues may impress the eye or palette, if service standards are not up to par there’s an undeniable flaw. A key component to keeping the doors of a restaurant open is creating and managing a strong team and no remarkable business strategy will ever become a reality if a restaurant’s staff aren’t motivated and equipped.

Motivating a young team to embrace service culture and operational processes requires a sense of empathy and leadership, and the organizations that promote dignity and process ownership, spend more time opening new doors rather than closing shop, considers Gabrielle F. Mather, CEO & Founder of leading UAE-based restaurant firms Restaurant Secrets Inc. and Cornerstone 61 Consultancy.

Looking at vital ways in which restauranteurs can motivate millennial restaurant staff, Gabrielle shares five key areas to consider.

1) Promote passion with purpose

Be a hands-on leader, share a vision your people can adopt. Be passionate every day about what you do and why. Commit to giving your people a healthy company culture so that a positive DNA runs through the work family that spends more time with you than with their own. Millennials are passionate about things when they are motivated. In a world of instant self-gratification, sometimes their passion can die before its fueled. Be an inspiration, share achievement stories, offer one-to-one mentorship and watch their passion find purposeful channels to be excellent.

2) Provide a variety of on-going trainings

The millennial love learning new things, multi-tasking and exploring. With an attention span that is active and seeking new stimulation, keep trainings interesting and varied. F&B owners make the mistake of sticking to just F&B related trainings. I suggest mixing these up with life skills, some inspiring short Ted Talks kind of topics. Introduce them to success stories from the industry and outside. Keep your trainings focused on personal human development not just F&B skills. When millennials gain confidence and are highly motivated, they adapt their learnings and natural talents into every-day tasks. That’s when you get the best out of them.

3) Be clear about expectations

Nobody is a mind reader. Expecting young millennials to be constantly pro-active and initiate tasks that have not been explained and trained, is fighting a losing battle. Yes, there exist people who are extremely switched on, mindful and self-motivated, and if you have those already on your team, you are one step ahead of your competition. Let’s be realistic, our job as leaders is to inspire our teams to grow and learn. Being clear of your expectations, role modelling outcomes, especially the values we uphold, gets results with young impressionable teams.

4) Reward exceptionally for exceptional performances and attitudes

Remember that people commit to a task for the pay cheque and their passion to a cause. Your team typically works 10 hours to feed their families. They will only work to be remarkable all of those 10 hours with joy and passion if they feel appreciated and find dignity in what they do.

An entrepreneur understands the thrill of ‘ownership’ of a business. All humans are built to thrive on a sense of ownership of their accomplishments. Not only is this F&B industry a business of serving people who may forget to say thank you, it’s also the industry where the most millennials are employed. Have a reward or incentive program that encourages high performers. It’s a win-win for all when talent is retained. Don’t let that star be pulled out by competition, because that’s exactly what will happen when they shine. Let your people confidently shine and provide them with good reasons to give the best years of their career to an organization that nurtures, teaches and rewards.

5) Restaurant success is a result of teamwork and synergy

Surprise, surprise, the ‘connected yet most disconnected’ generation thrives on teamwork.

An excellent brand is stewarded by its proud and caring owners. That’s our responsibility as entrepreneurs and owners. Stewardship mentality leads to a sense of responsibility and accountability, and that in turns creates the ‘buddy’ culture. I have seen teams stay in a tiring job because they just love going to work and enjoy the time they spend together as a team. Guests feel the energy of an effective team and choose to spend their time and money in an environment where people who make the place make them feel happy and special. Only a happy, synergistic, operationally effective team can deliver that.

Restaurant Secrets Inc.

Restaurant Secrets Inc. (RSI) is a team of expert Restaurant Consultants & Business Incubators in the UAE that has served over 300 brands since its inception in 2001. The ISO 9001 certified firm provides full solution F&B incubation in-house. Nothing is outsourced at RSI. This unique business set up ensures synergistic results as teams work together to develop all elements of a restaurant including concept development, menu engineering, feasibility studies, business plans, layouts & interior design, branding & marketing, talent requisition, franchise development, pre- and post-opening operational support and more. To name a few, some of RSI’s most significant projects recently include Montauk Boutique Café, Colt, Roti Rollers, La Serre Bistro & Boulangerie, Clinton’s Baking Street, So Tea, OPSO, Mitts & Trays, and The Loft at Dubai Opera.

© Press Release 2021