The Problem with Contests
When it comes to motivating your servers, business writers suggest you hold daily contests with the winners receiving small monetary prizes. They suggest, basically, that once a day you should gather your waitstaff in the kitchen, flash a fifty dollar bill, and then tell everyone that whoever sells the most surf-and-turf plates that evening goes home with the fifty tucked inside their billfold. The logic here is everybody wants money, and so when you dangle $50 over your employees’ heads, they’ll jump however high it takes to snatch it. Well, if that sounds reasonable to you, then listen up because this is important. Contests are for chumps.
Each of your servers would certainly like the prize money, sure, but only a few of them have any real shot at winning it. They’re not oblivious. They know where they stand. As you explain the rules of your contest, your servers are going to unfocus their eyes and ask themselves whether they have a shot at placing first. Who is my competition? Which section am I in tonight? Is it even worth trying?
Your middle and bottom rung servers, the ones who—let’s be honest here—couldn’t win even if they did try, will concede right then and there. Knowing that they can’t technically lose something they don’t compete in, these servers won’t use words like “surf” or “turf” around their guests in case someone is listening. Their goal is to let everyone else know how they feel about this stupid little contest of yours.
This is a problem because these are your servers who need motivation the most.
Good Motivation is Good Empathy
There’s a big difference between giving servers an incentive and giving them motivation. An incentive is the promise of some flashy reward if an employee puts more effort into their work. This reward can be anything from fifty dollars to a promotion to something as simple as not getting yelled at. Motivation, on the other hand, comes from within. It’s something that can’t be separated from the employee—it’s his or her natural inclination towards working hard. A boss can’t prod motivation out of his worker; he can only create an environment that encourages motivation. Motivation is the boss glancing over and seeing his waitress completely engrossed and energized in her work.
Business writers will tell you people want money and that’s what motivates them. Psychologists disagree. Psychologists say that what people really want is well-being and that the best work is done by people who are happy with their jobs. Listen. You, the boss, obviously, can’t provide total happiness across your waitstaff so don’t even try. What you can do is provide your servers with certain things that’ll nudge them towards workplace contentment. Psychologists list five major areas that, when fulfilled, produce happiness in a worker. They are 1. Relevance, 2. Autonomy, 3. Purpose, 4. Financial Stability, and 5. Mastery. When one of your servers has fulfilled these five things, I promise you, he will feel motivated and do better work.
1. Relevance
With guests talking to them like they’re children, cooks yelling at them like they don’t speak a word of English, and $1 tips left on $99 checks, waiters often feel like they work thankless jobs. Yes, everyone wants to feel liked, but servers in particular crave the praise of others. I mean here’s a job whose pay depends almost solely on the worker’s likability, a job where every transaction doubles as a judgement on the worker’s character. Waiting tables can mess with the mind. So to motivate your servers and to keep their psyches healthy, you have to make sure they feel important—which, by the way, shouldn’t be hard. Your servers are important.
So Here’s How You Do It
2. Autonomy
Waiters and waitresses are some of the most individualistic people in the world. These are guys who think for themselves, who do what they want when they want to do it. Clashes in personalities do not mean differences in goals. In fact, you and your servers all have the same goal: to take care of the guests. The way everyone reaches this goal is the only real difference. You should let your servers know that you trust the decisions they make, and when a waitress succeeds, that success is her own doing, not anyone else’s.
This Is What You Give Them
3. Purpose
For-profit organizations aren’t causes that people typically rally behind. People care about ideas and the well-being of other people, not your restaurant’s bottom line. Your servers have dedicated a portion of their lives to your restaurant; if they don’t believe they’re doing meaningful work, their souls won’t feel whole.
To assure your servers that they’re impacting the world in a positive way, you have to teach them what your restaurant stands for. If you don’t already have a mission statement, writing one should be your new top priority. The mission statement should be written in clear, concise, everyday language, and it should guide the culture of your restaurant. You should post your mission statement everywhere and be able to recite it word-for-word from heart. If you need an example of a good mission statement, check out Chipotle’s:
Day after day we’re committed: to sourcing the very best ingredients we can find and preparing them by hand; to vegetables grown in healthy soil, and pork from pigs allowed to freely root and roam outdoors or in deeply bedded barns. We’re committed because we understand the connection between how food is raised and prepared and how it tastes. We do it for farmers, animals, the environment, dentists, crane operators, ribbon dancers, magicians, cartographers, and you. With every burrito we roll or bowl we fill, we’re working to cultivate a better world.
Chipotle is ranked the number one chain restaurant to work for over and over again. That’s because it doesn’t just serve food, it serves food ethically. If you want to give your workers a sense of purpose, your business must be a force of good. Get involved in your community. Support local charities. Stand for something.
4. Financial Stability
Researchers have found that in most workplaces money is not a reliable motivator of people. As long as workers make enough money to comfortably support their families, well-being becomes the more powerful motivator. However the food service industry is a little different from other workplaces. For better or worse, servers earn a majority of their income from their guests, which is a volatile way of making a paycheck. There will be some weeks or months when the tips don’t cut it. If a server is put into the position of either making 200 dollars in tips or not paying rent, he’ll become frantic and his work will suffer. You already have a duty to your workforce to assure them a livable income, but beyond that, there are a few other things that will help them out.
Try these ideas
5. Mastery
Even the most jaded restaurant employee wants to do a good job. Why? Because we’re all striving to improve ourselves. Stagnation ruins morale in your waitstaff, but if you show them that you have a stake in the progress of their careers, they’ll feel like they’re moving forward. Not only that, but a well-trained employee will benefit your restaurant better in the short-term and long-term.
Provide these things:
