You Can’t Motivate Your Way Out of a Training Problem

3 Min Read By Brian Driscoll and Monique Hayward

Most restaurant owners don’t have a motivation problem. They have a repetition problem.New hires come in eager. Managers explain how things work. Standards are clear, at least at first. But a few weeks in, the cracks start to show. Guest situations are handled inconsistently. Servers freeze under pressure. Managers step in to smooth things over again…and again…and again.

With restaurant turnover rates exceeding 75 percent, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the team an operator starts the year with is rarely the team still standing at the end. As staff cycles through, managers find themselves repeating the same coaching, correcting the same behaviors, and reinforcing the same standards, often without the time or tools to make those lessons stick.

Over time, training shifts from building confidence to constant correction. What looks like a people problem is usually something else entirely.

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