3 Major Influences on Employee Performance

There are literally thousands of theories and studies presented to explain why restaurant employees behave the way they do, especially when it comes to negative performance. Some blame depressing work environments, under appreciation of employees, or even failures on the part of the public education system.

The truth is, however, that there are only three main factors that cause employees to perform poorly: they either do not know how to do the job properly, they are unable to do the job properly, or they do not care about doing the job properly.

Don’t Know

If an employee does not know how to do carry out their tasks as expected, it simply means that they lack the proper instruction or have forgotten their training and need a refresher. There is no shame in needing additional training throughout a career, so management must be willing to provide this training when needed.

Sometimes new employees receive inadequate training when they first start, due to short staffing or ignorant superiors. Other times new practices must be implemented and some key staff members miss out on the training. Occasionally, instructions for tasks that are not regularly undertaken may be forgotten. In any case, training is not a one-time activity, but rather something that should be ongoing and frequently reevaluated for efficiency and accuracy. Management should take care to ensure that all employees receive adequate, consistent training that reflects the evolving needs of the restaurant.

Can’t Do It

Even with proper training, employees may be unable to complete their tasks well due to various circumstances that are out of their control. Whether employees lack the proper tools, the organization of the kitchen or dining room creates obstacles, or staffing issues complicate the workload, employees may find it difficult or impossible to do their jobs to their best of their abilities. Again, the responsibility falls to management to ensure that employees have the proper tools and are set up for success as much as possible.

Of course, employees should also be able to communicate with their superiors in order to notify management of whatever problems they might be having. These types of issues can easily be prevented and quickly remedied by management when they occur, so productivity need not suffer long.

Don’t Care

Unfortunately, there is one perspective affecting employee behavior that management can do very little about. If an employee simply does not care about his job and is not invested in the outcome of his endeavors at work, then it is unlikely that any amount of training or well established working environments will help him be a productive member of the staff.

In these circumstances, when the employee refuses to modify his behavior, it is best to let him go and invest in training a new hire who is ready to put in the needed time and effort in the company. The little bit of extra effort that it takes to train a new person is well worth it to have an employee who cares about the success of the company.

Tags: employee performance, negative influences, Restaurant Management Group, Restaurant Receiverships, Restaurant Turnaround Management, training