Make the Most of Resources, Culture to Build and Keep Good Teams

As 2022 began, a persistent shortage of labor continued to be a key challenge for BURGER KING® franchisees and their teams, who’ve hoped for improvement after nearly two years of suffering from the business complications of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

While COVID-19 infections rates have ebbed and flowed since March 2020, the difficulties that franchisees and businesses have had finding, hiring and retaining team members have been constant. Not limited to the restaurant or hospitality industries, the trend in the nation’s labor rate even earned a nickname in 2021: the Great Resignation.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that restaurants added 108,000 new workers in January 2022, the leading industry for job creation in the nation. The bump means the industry employed 11.4 million people after the start of 2022, but that figure is still 1 million lower than pre-pandemic levels. A November survey by the National Restaurant Association found that 77% of operators said their restaurants did not have enough employees to meet customer demand, and franchisees will tell you that they continue to struggle to find the personnel they need.

“Labor has been extremely challenging,” said Matt Herridge, a franchisee with Charton Management with eight BK® restaurants in Ohio and West Virginia. “It seemed to become exponentially more difficult to find employees throughout 2021. 2022 has improved slightly following significant wage increases and bonusing opportunities for all employees.”

Government data shows that more than 20 million people quit their jobs in the second half of last year. Some did so for reasons related to the ongoing pandemic, ranging from fears of illness to child care difficulties. But there are other, deeper factors at work, with labor statistics indicating that many people are choosing to drop out of the labor force, at least temporarily, to reassess their goals or to seek wholesale changes in their occupations.

Whether the difficulty finding and keeping workers is due to short-term factors or longer-term, deeper shifts in the labor market, the turmoil continues to affect restaurant operations. Even in the last few months, some restaurants have pared back menus and trimmed hours of operation because they don’t have the teams to support previous levels of service. The tight labor supply also creates problems beyond the in-restaurant experience. A shortage of drivers in the trucking industry and laborers in other industries disrupts the supply chain for food and restaurant supplies, putting additional stressors on operations.

by SEAN IRELAND

It adds up to a big headache for leaders of BURGER KING restaurants, who must often scramble to fill shifts for people who don’t show up, asking other team members to fill in, stay longer or come in earlier. That stress can lead current team members to join the Great Resignation, worsening an already difficult situation. 7shifts, a team management software company with products designed for restaurants, reports that only 23% of restaurant openings for cooks and line cooks have applications, 37% of manager postings have applications and 56% of bartender postings have applications. That’s a lot of openings without candidates to fill them.

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Hiring was a challenge even before the pandemic, said José Cil, CEO of BK parent company Restaurant Brands International. Speaking to investors on a conference call in late January, as reported in Restaurant Business Online, Cil said, “We believe that this is going to continue to be a challenge and a responsibility for us in this industry, and that’s why we’re focused on a long-term approach to creating the right environment in our business for our franchisees and for their team members to be able to drive good, strong staffing levels as well as retention.” According to the story, Cil said the brand is simplifying menus, reducing ingredients and automating more in the restaurant to make operations simpler for team members, cutting some of the workload.

At the individual store level, the environment requires hiring managers to maximize candidate pools, respond quickly to people who express interest in openings and offer more to close the deal and keep new team members on board. Charton Management uses JobLure. “It is our in-house text-to-apply solution that allows managers to immediately communicate with applicants via text, setting up interviews within minutes of receiving a brief application,” Herridge said. “It has significantly increased the number of applications and hires we have versus online services alone.”

Even that is not always enough when the field in the labor market is tilted toward job seekers. “It seems as if there is generally less follow-though by prospective employees,” Herridge said. “Many do not show up for interviews and many more leave abruptly than in the past.” The company is considering using radio advertising and has banners up at every restaurant advertising its starting wage as additional lures to prospective employees.

Other franchisees are also working on adding new wrinkles to their recruitment efforts. At Syed Restaurants Enterprises, with 19 BK restaurants in New York, “We believe our team members are our most important resource, and our success depends upon creating and retaining a staff capable of delivering an exceptional guest experience to every guest, every time,” said franchisee Amir Syed. “Like everyone else, staff at all company levels is by far the No. 1 issue facing our organization. We’re still working on a silver bullet to resolve this.”

The company has established a dedicated central resource for assessing applications. No applications are taken at the restaurants to relieve stress on store personnel. All applications are submitted online, and managers receive information on the best candidates for interviews. Syed Restaurants Enterprises is also using in-store advertising and marketing for openings, recruitment service Snagajob.com and quarterly job fairs with local community outreach programs.

Once a new team member has been hired, the battle is only half over. Keeping teams engaged and satisfied with their jobs is just as important, if not more, given the cost of hiring and training new employees. “Employees resign for many reasons. Many are recruited away with small bumps in wage or because they want to be with friends,” Herridge said.

“We try to make working in our restaurants fun and encourage our managers to create a culture where employees feel that they are needed and missed if they aren’t there while knowing that they will be treated as valuable,” he added. “Culture is very important for retention and somewhat for attraction. Friends bring friends, and the real culture will be noted quickly despite all the best slogans or purpose statements.” To encourage people to stay, Charton Management also offers employees $2 per hour for every payroll period if they show up for every scheduled shift during that period.

Culture is also an important facet of retention efforts for Syed Restaurants Enterprises. The company has an app for messaging, scheduling and recognition. Each restaurant has its own feed, but there is also a companywide communication option that is active when an employee receives praise from a guest or a restaurant is celebrating an achievement so that everyone in the organization sees the good news. The company also offers monthly store bonuses based on OPS and profitability metrics with qualifying restaurants receiving funds to split with the team, and there are quarterly company meetings to further highlight achievements and emphasize culture.

Building a good team-based restaurant culture can make all the difference in the world, and the culture is made up of many different pieces. Compensation plays a role, but so does feeling appreciated, opportunities for personal and professional growth, and working with and feeling like part of a good team. Companies that emphasize these aspects while also focusing on recruitment and retention best practices will likely be the most successful in this difficult labor environment.

“Each employee wants something different,” Herridge said. “Taking the time to get to know what motivates each employee and talking to them about their goals should be common across all, however.”

“The success of our organization is and will always be based on developing great teams that focus on delivering a great guest experience each and every day,” Syed said. “We try and provide them the tools, resources, visibility and leadership to run profitable restaurants while also celebrating the success and great achievements of our team members.” n