Motivate Your Employees and Increase Morale

Being a restaurant manager is hard enough when your staff is fired up and running on all cylinders. But what about those times when morale is a little down, or business has slacked off? How can a restaurant manager motivate their employees to rally? Here's three quick techniques you can put in to practice that will help you become the restaurant manager everyone wants to work for.

Tips to Motivate Your Employees

Don't be afraid to "get a little dirty".
Get out of the office. Be "hands on". Bus a few tables. Hop on the line every now and then. Check in with the dishwashers and help run a few racks. Just because you're the restaurant manager, that doesn't give you a free pass to hide in the office all day. You'd be surprised how many times I've bussed an empty table rather than tracking down the server or busser responsible for that duty, only to find three or four other employees immediately offer to help or take over. The ripple effect also causes host/hostesses to wipe glass and brass, bartenders to polish glasses, etc.

Don't be afraid to work alongside your employees. They will respect you for it and work harder for you if they see you "in the trenches" with them.

Recognize your employees.
You are the restaurant manager and your employees work for you. How much do you appreciate the job they do? If a guest comments that they had a wonderful time to you on their way out the door, pay attention to who the server was and let them know what the customer had to say. Did the food runner help clean up a server spill? Thank them for doing so.

Your employees do little things every day that are above or outside of their normal job descriptions. Thoughtful acknowledgment of their actions from the restaurant manager will go a long ways towards motivating them to keep pitching in.

Ask questions.
Don't be afraid to ask your employees questions and encourage feedback and input. Just because you are the restaurant manager doesn't automatically crown you "king know-it-all". Depending on how long you've been a restaurant manager, it's probably been a while since you waited tables for eight-hours straight, or spent an entire evening in the dish pit. Keep in touch with your employees and solicit feedback on how their jobs are going. 
Ask them for input on how to improve operations. Yes, you're likely to get a an extensive wish list of expensive items that are not in the budget. But you're also likely to get a few gems that you haven't thought of. Maybe the coffee maker would be better "over there". If you strike upon a good idea with an employee, enlist their resources to implement it. If Suzy suggested a more efficient place for the coffee maker, give her ownership of the operation. You'll be surprised how well employees respond if given "ownership" over their situation.

These are just a few techniques that you, the restaurant manager, can use to motivate employees. Try putting these in practice for a week and see what results your employees respond with.

How do you motivate your employees - we'd love to hear from you below.