Maintenance

When something is broken, fix it. That's the whole point of this week's post.

It can be hard. Budgets are demanding sometimes, quality repairmen can be hard to find. But the fact is, few things will destroy your employees' motivation faster than dealing with broken stuff. If they see you don't care enough about the business to keep it in good repair, why should they? Or worse, if they think you don't care enough about them to provide a functioning work environment, you could be facing a mutiny.

I once worked at a store where the touch screen on one of the registers would stick. You'd touch a button, and nothing would happen. You'd have to bear down, or lightly touch it. There wasn't any consistent solution to getting it to work. Once it did register the touch? Often times, it registered more than one. Instead of one junior bacon burger, you just rang up fifteen. It was an extremely frustrating situation in the middle of a lunch rush.

Management was aware of the problem, but not inclined to fix it. They were “too busy to call the help desk.” There “wasn't enough money in the budget” for a new one. They “weren't even sure” who to call to get it fixed. So the problem festered, until eventually a crew member struck the screen in frustration, cracking it. It took about two days for a tech to come out to repair it, and the full $2000 repair bill made sure no one bonused in that store for the quarter. The frustrated employee was let go, which was a huge loss to the team.

The real irony? We found out from the tech these screens go bad all the time, and had someone called the Help Desk a replacement would have been sent out, free of charge.

Or take another example, where the air condition vents were dripping water onto the floor. This was in a pizza shop, where there's a lot of flour dust around. The little water puddles, plus the dust, made for extremely messy floors. Not to mention the annoying fact that people born in America aren't used to having the ceiling drip water onto them. As the situation dragged on for weeks and weeks with no word from the company on whether or not it would be fixed, morale dragged. It grew increasingly difficult to get a decent closing mop job: “Who cares? The floors will just look like shit again thanks to the water puddles.”

It eventually took a conversation with the owner, who placed a phone call to the management company of the strip mall the store was located in. Citing the lease agreement, which clearly stated the management company's responsibility to maintain facilities, the shop's owner was able to get the problem resolved. But not before customers witnessed several irritated outbursts, and saw days of filthy floors.

It may be an expensive hassle to fix the problem, but you cannot allow a problem to perpetuate indefinitely. The longer it runs, the worse it gets and the worse the side effects get. Employees and customers know a well run operation when they see it, and they won't hesitate to leave a poorly run one.

Progressive Discipline, in a Nutshell

You've made the hire. You've set the expectation, trained the employee, ensured they have the tools to do the job. You've provided the feedback on how they're doing. And yet...they won't do it.

You're pretty sure this isn't an ability thing. They trained well, completed the task while you were closely supervising them. But now that you've left the grill in the capable hands while you work with someone else...the quality has dropped off significantly. Or maybe it's a prep issue...they can't seem to read the list no matter how many times you emphasize it.

What do you do? It seems a lil unreasonable to fire them, no? But at the same time...the work needs to be done, and done correctly. And if you have to stand there watching this employee work...then what are you paying THEM for?

This is where progressive discipline comes in. I hate the term, personally; it seems very serious and scary, tantamount to firing someone. But the logic behind gradually ramping up the consequences is sound, and when used properly can be a key weapon of choice in battling all manner of trouble.

Generally Accepted Recipe for Progressive Discipline

1: Verbal Warning

2: Written Warning

3: Consequences

The idea is that AFTER you've coached someone on the issue, you initiate progressive discipline. You don't use the process on a new employee...that's silly. You don't even use it on someone who's slipped up (to this day, I miscount things, use the wrong tool, not pay close enough attention to something...and I don't think that warrants a formal warning). You have to mark a pattern of sub par behavior that hasn't been affected by your normal coaching.

Once you've done that, you issue a formal verbal warning. Sit down in the office, step into the walk-in, take a walk outside. Take the situation out of the normal ebb and flow of the store, away from distractions. Lay down what's going on, why it's a problem, and what the employee has to do to correct the situation. Afterward, track the date and discussion somehow, in case you have to ramp up the process...you'll want to be able to cite when the verbal warning happened, and how the discussion went, in any written warning (I like the idea of having write-up forms where you can check a “Verbal Warning Only” box).

Then you wait. Hopefully, this is enough to correct the behavior. In a best-case scenario, the employee realizes you're serious about the issue and it goes away. But sometimes...that's just not going to happen, for a wide variety of reasons.

That's when a written warning comes in. You write out the situation, the fact it's been previously discussed, and what the employee needs to do to correct the situation. Have a space for their rebuttal, or any comments they want to make regarding the issue. If there's something they need you as the manager to do (change their scheduled start time to allow for the bus route, be more specific with instructions, etc) this goes in the employee comments. Clear consequences for the continued behavior as well as a timeline of events (“corrected immediately” is a popular one) should be included. Both of you sign and date the form, preferably with a witness.

If this doesn't correct the issue, you can either repeat the written warning step (appropriate if it's a relatively minor issue, or if there's been a fair amount of time before the relapse) or escalate further. This is where suspension or termination comes in. (Notice how far down the post we start talking about firing someone). If you feel there's potential with the employee and they're just blowing off the write up, take them off the schedule for a week. Especially with younger employees that sort of hit to the wallet can really make them reevaluate their behavior without sending them looking for another job. However, if this seems like something that simply isn't going to be corrected...you can terminate for cause that's been well documented.

There's probably a hundred different ways to do progressive discipline. Almost every company has their own take on the topic, and each system has it's strengths and weaknesses. But not one of them is any good unless the management team uses the system, consistently and justly. A rusty saw isn't gonna cut anything, and a machete used at random in a cornfield is just expensive.

Don't Run the Team Ragged

Your people are there to help you run the business. They aren't there to run it FOR you.

You may have the most competent assistant manager in the company. Does that mean its ok to leave them understaffed in order to free up labor dollars for you? I don't think so.

Your best closer never fails to set you up in the morning. He puts every other closer to shame with his skillful stainless steel polishing. Does that mean you work him six nights a week? Not the best idea.

Everyone has a point where they reach peak productivity. Too few hours or too little responsibility will leave your team members feeling unimportant or bored—which leads to a lack of motivation. Too many hours, shifts that are scheduled poorly (a close, a day off, followed by an open for instance), or too many duties will burn out your team and send them to the want ads. You make the big bucks because you can see when people are hitting their peak, and adjusting your operation for that moment.

It takes extra effort, but for the love of all things good in the world rotate your people. Spread out the workload. Develop your less experienced people so they're able to handle more of the load. It ties into the Always Hiring mentality...just as you constantly need to reseed your labor pool, you have to tend the people who are already there.

As tempting as it might be to lean on a competent or even gifted team, you're hurting yourself and the company in the long run. They'll notice your short hours, your light workload, and it'll breed resentment. Use your team, by all means: no one should work themselves to death when they have the ability to keep a healthy balance.

But balance means staying in the loop, keeping productive, and not taking advantage of your subordinates.

Hiring

If you run a QSR restaurant you are always hiring. You're always taking applications, you're always interviewing, you're always wracking your brain to find enough hours to train and keep a new hire.

Why? Because if you ever start thinking, “Hey, I'm fully staffed!” then you'll be caught flatfooted when your best register guy decides to start skimming from the till. Or you won't have a backup when your primary closer gets in a car wreck. Or maybe that family your predecessor hired all at the same time, the backbone of your schedule, will decide to start playing games and demanding special treatment...and you'll have to give in, because you have no one in place to take over. It's a pain in the neck to fit training, interviewing, and those extra hours into the schedule...but just remember the last time you had to do all that while you were short staffed. Which is the best option?

But for the love of all things good and happy, don't just hire anyone. The whole advantage to thinking ahead and hiring BEFORE there's a crisis is you get to hire for personality. You can take your time, review the application, ask questions about the last couple jobs, the employment gaps. Talk to the person about who they are. You can think about whether or not they fit with your current team, if they'd complement the people you already have (or hope to have). Set 'em up for a second interview to get another impression. You have time, so take an extra couple days to make the right call.

If you don't have a subordinate manager or shift supervisor to help with hiring, fix that. Start developing them to spot good applicants. Teach them the questions to ask when handing over the application. Make sure your people know the staffing goals...what hours are you hiring for? What positions? Pay, benefits? If you're the only person who can answer these questions you're setting yourself up to get burned out, or to miss good people who don't want a run around (yes, “Come back at 3 to ask these basic questions” is a run around).

Above all, be persistent. Review staffing efforts at your manager meetings. Even when it's not a priority, make it clear that hiring hasn't dropped completely off the table. You have to get the right people on your team, and if you can't do that if you aren't looking. Turn over is a fact of life in the QSR industry, and while you can take steps to minimize it...the only defense is to be prepared for it.

You are always hiring. Period. Make it your mantra, and instill it down the chain of command.

Consistency is Key

Consistency is one of the quickest ways to make or break your restaurant. A lack of consistency—whether in policy, direction, or quality—will make your customers not know what to expect, your employees insecure, and your P&L number fly all over the spectrum from week to week. Being consistent, however, is how you generate a loyal following of customers, employees who are confident in their work, and stable financials.

As tempting as it can be to play favorites and make exceptions, it's generally a bad idea. The rules are there for a reason, and breaking them can have unforeseen results. Yeah, you know Janet is under a lot of stress right now, so you wink at her calling off once in a while. But Louis notices Janet not getting in trouble, and now he's starting to call off regularly. When you try and call Louis on the issue, he throws Janet's special treatment in your face.  Now what do you do?

Same thing with work duties. If nightly inventory is an issue only once in a while (instead of nightly, as the name suggests), or if stocking cups before lunch rush happens only if certain people are on duty it creates random fluctuations in service and control. If there's a set of duties that needs to be done regularly, it needs to be done regularly. You can't just let someone off the hook (including yourself) if they aren't in the mood.

Of course, there's a standard disclaimer. You're the officer in charge, the lead on the ground, the person with the answers. You know when to make exceptions, so make them when it's appropriate. It's assinine to fire someone because they've been throwing up for three days but can't afford to go get a doctor's note. It's unreasonable to expect a manager who worked an open-to-close shift to do a detailed inventory count. Just don't make exceptions the rule.

Because the rules, the policies, the procedures are there for a reason...if they aren't serving a useful purpose anymore, they should be changed once and for all instead of leaving people not knowing what to expect.

Define Success

You can't get where you're going unless you KNOW where you're going. This is a key element in leadership—most of the books of the subject call it “vision.” Having the picture in your mind of what success means. Visualizing the landmark that lets you know you've arrived. Knowing what that is (and being able to communicate it to your team) will be the difference between greatness and mediocrity.

That being said, what the vision is happens as important as simply having one. I've been involved with many different organizations that all defined success differently. I've worked for companies where the sole goal was to make money for the owner. I've worked for companies where client satisfaction is the only thing that matters. I've worked for companies where the vision was broad—“We want to be the best in all areas”—and narrow: “How low were controllable costs this week?”

If you're a manager working for the company, it should be pretty easy to determine what the grand vision is. Your supervisor will probably tell you outright what's important. If not, the numbers you report to the office wants every week is a good indicator. The PNL or Key Business Items sheets are usually long and full of varied (and important) information...so pay attention to the items your District Manager asks follow up questions about. If you're always asked, “Why is your food cost such and such?” but never, “What are you doing to improve sales over last year?” then you've got a good idea where to focus.

If you own the place it's a little trickier: You have to decide what's ultimately important. You should have figured this out before opening the doors, really, but if you haven't give it some thought. Is superior customer service your key to success? Incredible food? Cleanest bathrooms in town? Is sales per labor hour your key metric? Cost per burger?

Once you know how your success is defined, you can plan on how to achieve it. If you feel that having the best customer service in town is your goal, you can hire friendly peppy people and based performance reviews on that. If cost per pizza is your key metric, you know to watch portioning.

You also know what can get a little less attention. If you feel that delicious food or fast service is more valuable to your customers than a smiling face, then you can hire a skilled person who isn't a “people person.”  You can clean the lobby once or twice a day instead of every hour.  You can spend more on the ingredients and less on the decor.

The point is, know where you're going. Then, you can decide (in a million small ways) the best route to get there.