At DiRoNA confab, staff retention is top of mind

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 6, 2006 by Jack Hayes

ATLANTA -- Feeling the sting of a growing crisis in staff and manager retention, fine-dining operators at the recent 2006 Distinguished Restaurants of North America, or DiRoNA, Educational Conference here heard a familiar warning from many industry peers: keeping employees takes an emotional commitment.

The "marry your people or lose them" message emerged as a unified theme in opening-day conference events, including a state-of-the-industry keynote address by National Restaurant Association chief executive Steven C. Anderson; a panel discussion on training led by author and wine expert Ronn Weigand; and a luncheon question and answer period led by industry legend Richard Melman.

Briefing some 200 conference attendees on the status of NRA-backed legislation for immigration reform, Anderson reminded operators that staffing problems would worsen unless a reform package were soon adopted that allowed foreign guest workers and provided a path to citizenship for employed but undocumented workers.

"Recruitment and retention are the biggest issues in fine dining today, and the industry overall is going to need another 1.9 million people in the next seven years," Anderson said. However, he added, the problem could be alleviated by increasing the labor force.

The complexity of fine dining's retention issue is magnified by the fact that turnover relates directly to every restaurant's service level and service perception, according to DiRoNA speakers, panelists and attendees.

Celebrated dining critic and author John Mariani, a DiRoNA panelist who spoke about service as a reflection of good or poor staff training, reminded the group that New York-based restaurateur Danny Meyer talks more about service--called 'hospitality"--than he does food or ambience in his just-released book "Setting the Table."

"Hospitality is the foundation of my business philosophy," wrote Meyer, who operates Union Square Cafe, Tabla, Gramercy Tavern and other highly rated Manhattan concepts. "It is present when something happens for you and absent when something happens to you. Virtually nothing else is important."

Similarly, DiRoNA's 2006 credo recognized that the emotional bond made by operators who can teach hospitality to their employees transforms those employees into people who make endearing connections with guests who, in turn, become customers for life.

Training panel moderator Weigand retold a Ritz-Carlton Buckhead housekeeping employee's account, first shared earlier during the conference, that "every day, every Ritz-Carlton employee receives a 20-minute training and motivation session."

Kevin Schwartz, grand sommelier at the Grove Park Inn Resort in Asheville, N.C., said a three-year-old "dialogue-based" training and service initiative has cut turnover and lifted guest counts and revenues to new records. "It's our bond with employees that helps them feel committed," he said.

"Connecting to staff is an individual thing, because every server has a personality," said DiRoNA panelist Nick Palassis, operations director at Charleston, S.C.-based Palas Hospitality and president of Grill 225 in that city. "But the most important part of training begins with motivation, which you have to screen for in the hiring interview."

Food and beverage operations veteran and current training consultant Andy Stangenberg criticized programs that teach job skills but forget to train managers and employees how to bond emotionally.

"We're forgetting to teach managers and servers how to be listeners, how to engage with guests and generally how to have fun on the floor," Stangenberg said. "When employees begin saying, 'Yes, that makes sense,' we know they're motivated and that customers are going to feel it."

Monterey, Calif.-based chef-restaurateur Bert Cutino recalled turning two complaints about tough steaks on opening night at his former Butcher Shop in Carmel, Calif., into gifts by demanding that his meat supplier hand-deliver two "replacement" steaks to each customer's home.

"That was about going the extra mile," Cutino said. "Not only the two guests but the staff was deeply touched. Those customers will never forget the experience, and we've seen that same level of commitment mirrored by our servers who had also felt its impact."

Atlanta-based restaurateur Tom Catherall, founder of six-unit Here to Serve Restaurants, said he and operations director David Abes meet with new employees to learn their individual stories.

"We ask simple yet evocative questions like, 'Who's your favorite cartoon character?' and 'What's it like in the place where you're from?' so we can keep their stories with their faces," Catherall said. "We don't want to hire robots--we want personalities."

"We love getting call parties [when guests ask for a server by name]," Abes said. "That really says what our group Here to Serve is about. New staff members say we speak more to them in a single week than previous employers did the whole time they worked for them."

DiRoNA Hall of Fame honoree Richard Melman, founder and chairman of Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, which owns more than 70 restaurants nationwide, brought the emotional bonding message home by urging operators to treat employees as if they were customers.