 Hello Aces, welcome back to module five, lesson number four, keeping your best staff from leaving you. In this lesson, you're gonna learn the six steps to keep your best staff, so then that way you can reduce your turnover and have a great business that runs automatically without the need of you. In this lesson, we're gonna cover the six steps to retaining your all-star team. In the link below, download the template and follow along. First step is to make sure you have fair pay and scheduling. Everyone has bills to pay. Make sure that your manager or whomever is responsible of scheduling do not play favorites because when there are favorites that are played, that means that you're dividing your team into different groups. The ones that are in favor of the manager will get shifted more and the ones that are not in favor with them would have a different types of treatment and that in turn forces the good people that would leave, right? So especially in the food and beverage industry since they don't follow the traditional salary or the nine to five lifestyle, fair scheduling goes a long, long way. Believe it or not, that extra dollar or that extra shift allows you to retain your staff very, very well because everyone once again has bills to pay. Second up is to have work-life balance, especially in this industry. Yes, a lot of people needs that commitment and they work really off hours. So for example, whenever there are holidays, the people that are in the industry will be working the holidays, serving the vast majority of the other people who have days off and which is the reason why work-life balance is even more important because these employees, they have their families as well. They wanna enjoy their days off as well. So that's the reason why I consider giving them consecutive days off so then that way they can plan out their lives easier with their loved ones is really, really important. So then that way they can retain back of parts of their lives. The happier your staff are, the more satisfaction that they get from their job and the more ownership in the longer they'll stay with you because they feel like that you're working with them. Having work-life balance is really, really important. And once again, if within their own relationships they're struggling, they'll bring that back to work and as a consequence, your customers will feel that this person is a little bit off and that's the reason why we wanna make sure that we work with our employees as much as possible by giving them opportunity of having a work-life balance. Third up is professional development. This is something that a lot of restaurantiers do not invest in, mainly because it feels like, hey, you know what, I'm spending an extra 100, 200 bucks or even 300 bucks on a serve-save certificate or whatever the case may be. However, knowing the fact that turnover can easily cost you thousands of dollars, professional development is really a drop in the bucket. Training staff increases retention and cultivates a commitment because when you are committing to your staff and their education and their professional development, they in turn feel that, hey, you know what, you're committing to me, I'll commit to you because you're helping me out. It also increases the confidence for them to make the right decision. It increases their ability and their skillset so in that way, whatever they've learned, they can come back to your organization, your restaurant and to execute for you to help you manage your team better, to help you manage your restaurant better. So invest in them and then long-term, they'll pay you back in dividends. And also it shows you're interested in their future and you'll get way more buy-in from them. It's a small price to pay for loyal staff who cares about your business because the more turnover, equals more time and money training and looking for new staff. You get way more qualified and educated staff by you putting them through professional development. Once again, even though it's a few hundred bucks for professional development, it is well worth it when you truly do care and when you truly invest in their future, they're gonna be able to bring back whatever they've learned back to you. Incentives and rewards, step number four, everyone wants to feel good and valued just because you praise them, just because you tell them how great they are and you give them opportunity and you give them a work-life balance. Those are all really great stuff, feel good stuff, but nothing really, really tangible and which is the reason why having incentives and rewards goes a long way as well. When you combine these two things, your employees will feel very, very satisfied working at your place and then that way, you can retain them as loyal employees. Now, what do you mean by incentives and rewards? If, for example, they do a great job in showing that increases, so when, for example, they hit a certain milestone or a certain quota, then you can incentivize to give them an extra $100 in bonus or commission or whatever the case may be. Having and figuring out a system that works for you and also encourages your staff to win with you as well and to actually put in that extra effort gives you this win-win situation and which is the reason why incentives are a great, great way of retaining talent. Another thing about rewards is that if you truly value your staff, then going into the office or going to your restaurant and slipping them an extra $20 or $50 and just tell them that you appreciate them goes a long way as well. Number five is empowerment. Empower them to make decisions by themselves because at the end of the day, you're not gonna be always at the restaurant or you don't want to be always at the restaurant and you want them to be able to feel that they have everything it takes in order for them to run the business. And if you never empower them and if you never let go and you're never gonna trust them or give them the tools to feel that they are in charge, then they will never be able to live up to that position which is the reason why a lot of mom and pop shop, they suffer from this. They suffer from being needing to work in their business 12 hours a day, 24 seven, right? And they always complain about the fact that why am I always in here? Basically, this is a glorified job for me that I have to work in this restaurant experience. And we hear a lot of these nightmare experiences and that's the reason why we don't wanna create that environment for you. We wanna empower our staff so then that way they can take care of the business for us. So then it becomes a choice for us whether we wanna go into work or not, okay? Give them a $10 rule. For example, with 720 Suites, our ice cream shop, we used to have a $10 rule. What does that mean? It means that anything below a $10 value, they have the opportunity and they have the ability to decide what to do with it. So for example, if a kid and a mother comes in to order two cups of ice cream and when we hand it to them, the kid goes outside, he trips and he drops the ice cream. Automatically, it becomes our responsibility. I feel if I'm there, I would give them a free ice cream because I want them to have a pleasant experience. I don't really care for that $2, $3 cost that we had or lost in sale, but because of the way we treated them, in turn, they'll come back again as a loyal customers or they'll spread the story to their friends and family and in turn, this acts as a marketing cost. This is something that I would do. However, if it's my staff, I would empower them and give them a $10 rule. And what that means is that if the cost is less than $10, they can have the right and they have the freedom to decide what they want to do with it. So for them, hey, you know what, it's under $10. I can give a free ice cream to this person because it's justified, because it makes for a greater customer experience. And this allows them to make the decision and grow their confidence. And as the days go on, we can increase that limit depending on how trustworthy they are and how you see them use this $10 power that they have. And as they grow more and more confident and that the behaviors that they're doing are being supplemented with a praise and that they're doing the right thing, that it's justified, then you have much more trust in them. And one day you can allow them to run the whole shop with for you without you being there. It shows that you trust them and that goes a long, long way because of the fact that they feel, oh, my boss trusts me and he's not micromanaging me and he's not pinching me. And that acts as a really great way to incentivize them to have that happiness and fulfillment to work for you. Gives ownership and accountability because it increases their buy-in. Last up is to care. Remember your staff is human too, okay? They aren't just some person off the street and you need to make sure you care for them, ask them how their day is, ask them how their weekend is and truly care and not just ask for the sake of asking but be fully invested in what is it that they're doing in their personal life and that is what truly caring is. Spend that 10, 15 minutes just having chats with them to understand what is going on and when you have that personal relationship with them it becomes much less transactional. It becomes a relationship that you've bonded with them and that in turn allows you and allows them to have much more buy-in, much more accountability and much less turnover. Treat them like family and this is something that I truly, truly believe in because they are the one that are building the dream with you and this is basically an example of how I treat my team like family. This is my wedding in Thailand in 2016 and these three people or actually there's four of my staff that's in here with my high school friends, with my family and at the end of the day I definitely do try my best to do what I say and preach what my theories are and as a result we're able to grow into a seven location international chain which recently got acquired and I'm just sharing this with you because it has worked for me. So now it's your turn to train and retain your All-Star team. Create your own ultimate training handbook and print out the top six ways to retain your staff as a reminder for you constantly so then that way you can continue to preach and continue to make sure that you close the gap between what you say and what you truly do. What you've learned today is the six steps to retain your All-Star staff and to make sure that you reduce your turnover. In the next module we're gonna be talking about how to create your broadcast station to keep your loyal fans engaged. In the next module everything we talk about would be about your customers so make sure you guys tune in. I'll see you guys in the next lesson.