Staff retention in the bar and liquor trade

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Human Resources Staff retention

A reason to stay Retaining staff can be an uphill battle in the bar and restaurant industry. Liquor Canada explores ways to help you keep your staff from going to your competition

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igh turnover is a reality of the hospitality, bar and restaurant industry. Service staff is often students who work part time to pay for tuition and need a flexible schedule. Beyond that, what makes an employee want to stay? When Lisa Navarra, manager of associate experience at Montana’s spoke with her company’s staff across the country, 98 per cent told her they were looking for “that extra pat on the back, that extra thank you for doing a job well done, rather than any type of monetary gift.” Montana’s implemented an online employee incentive program, care of I Love Rewards, to help make that happen. While incentive programs may be traditionally used for driving sales, Montana’s appealed to I Love Rewards to standardize its reward and recognition of employees across the board at all locations. The online incentive program allows Montana’s employees to collect points for ‘doing a great job’ at work and then redeem them for merchandise and experiential gifts. How it works The idea is simple. Management determines the core values and behaviours they want to reward and recognize. Then, when a manager sees an employee demonstrating that behaviour, he or she publicly recognizes the employee by giving him or her a ‘caught in the act’ card in front of his or her peers. The numbers

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on the back of the card can be inputted to a specially designed website. Each card is the equivalent of $10 (in points) that the employee can immediately redeem for merchandise or collect and save for a larger item from the I Love Rewards catalogue. Matt Lewis-Strauch, I Love Rewards business development manager handling the Cara Operations account, says that by offering employees something tangible, it has a lasting effect. He suggests employers should put aside one per cent of an employee’s salary for merchandise incentives

rather than just cash-based incentives. That way, employees can associate that merchandise, like an iPod for instance, with the employee recognition they get from their workplace. Because their employees are 15 to 24 and computer savvy, they enjoy the convenience of the medium. The catalogue is geared towards generation Y, and is comprised of Apple products, music downloads, gift cards and experiential gifts. The flexibility to redeem right away or collect points and redeem for a larger gift is also appealing to the younger demographic. So far, Montana’s


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