Luckily for many restaurant managers, online training has streamlined important training tasks. You can now use your learning management system to assign, track, and report on training at the touch of a button. Your restaurant employees can take training courses at any time, and owners rest easy knowing every employee is receiving a consistent message. So, does that mean you’re off the hook for face-to-face meetings? Absolutely not. The success of online learning is dependent on effective in-person training meetings. You can’t have one without the other.
How to Conduct Employee Training Meetings
You’re probably really good at holding a quick pre-shift meeting to go over specials, back-of-house issues, incentives, and sales goals. But what about longer training sessions – are you running those as effectively as you could be? Take a look at these tips to improve your employee training meetings.
- Make the most of your training time by creating a meeting environment that encourages everyone to participate.
- Keep distractions to a minimum. Don’t hold meetings in high-traffic areas in your restaurant. And don’t hold them facing windows.
- Don’t use what little training time you have to drone on about dress codes, policies and procedures. That’s why most managers and staffers hate training meetings and why most sessions fail to communicate any valuable skills employees can use on the floor. Nothing lasts as long as a box of cereal you don’t like and a training session you can’t stand.
- Keep them short – no more than 90 minutes, once a month. Any longer is a waste of time – and employees will resent it.
- Have an agenda with three or four items to be covered. Stick to it, with a plan to record, manage, and act on off-topics issues that come up.
- Create dialogue, not monologue. Use this opportunity to exchange ideas, test skills and solicit feedback.
- Be sure all training is performance-based: The focus should always be on what the employee will be able to do as a result of the training.
- Leave time in the schedule for team members to report on their progress and problems. Give them time to celebrate successes and hash out solutions when necessary.
Restaurant Training Online
Remember, training meetings should complement your online learning courses. Click here to take a look at the learning library offered by Service That Sells!
