Labour turnover and its impact on customer service and success of restaurants in London
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By :
Mary Brown
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Introduction
There is no doubt that employees are regarded as investments within any given company, more so in the restaurant industry. This is because restaurants need to dedicate substantial portions of their time and finances in the process of recruiting employees, inducing them into the organisation, training them, maintaining them in their respective positions and also motivating them to produce more for the company. Consequently, when companies register high labour turnover, then all the latter issues have to be revisited and this may end up taking up their precious resources. (Denvir & McMahon, 2002) Labour turnover is a big negative for companies and industries alike. The legitimacy of this latter statement will be examined in relation to restaurants in London and their effects on customer service and overall success.
Research objectives
The major objectives of this research are:
1) To examine the effects of high labour turnover on restaurant customer service
2) To examine the effect of high labour turnover on the level of employee productivity
3) To examine the effect of high labour turnover on operating efficiency
The issue of customer service is quite important in the restaurant business because the latter is a merger between services and food provisions.These are all issues that can be related to labour turnover.
Literature review
A lot of work has centred on the causes of labour turnover but few of them have been focusing on the impacts of this turnover on restaurant success.
Other employees may choose to leave their places of employment as a direct consequence of role related issues. In this regard, there are some major factors that must be considered;
• Role ambiguity
• Poor consensus on job functions
• Lack of information on how to perform certain roles
• Ambiguous performance evaluation
• Expectation from restaurant colleagues and restaurant supervisors have not been clarified
• Minimal information on job related skills
• Too much pressure related to the role (Cantrell, N. & Sarabakhsh, 2001)
All the latter issues are likely to make employees in restaurants less satisfied with their overall careers or their job as they are. However, the latter mentioned factors are more important in determining high employee turnover than the former mentioned ones. (Mc Bey, 2002)
Methodology
It should be noted that training may either be a formal or informal process.
In close association with this is the nature of the job position. In the restaurant business, certain positions may not require too much expertise and may therefore accommodate high turnover. These positions are largely junior level ones. However, when the vacant positions involve a managerial post, then it may be difficult to meet consumer expectation in the same manner as the previous employee. Additionally, certain positions are so technical and may even be tied to the organisation under consideration. For instance, when a chef departs from a restaurant, then the human resource team may find it exceedingly difficult to get a replacement who prepares the restaurant’s signature meals the way the precious employee did. Consequently, operational efficiency will be minimise and so will overall restaurant success. (Iversion & Deery, 2004)
When employees leave certain restaurants, some of them may choose to follow a totally different career path away from the hospitality or restaurant industry. However, some employees may opt to join other restaurants that may still be located in London. This means that while one restaurant is losing a substantial asset, another one is gaining it by employing someone from their competitor’s firm. This means that the personal costs associated with high labour turnover are likely to make a restaurant lose its competitive edge.
There are certain restaurants that my chose to hire temporary staff to cover a vacant position while they continue to do intense recruitment practices. This is usually the case when the restaurant believes in sound recruitment strategies. The cost of hiring temporary staff is quite diverse and may minimise operating efficiency within that restaurant. This drastically minimises their success as an organisation.
Restaurants have to suffer adverse effects brought about by indirect costs whenever employees depart from the organisation. These effects are usually heightened if the numbers are high. A substantial number of investigations have shown that when employees leave restaurants, then the remaining ones are likely to be demoralised. Most of them may begin feeling insecure about their own fate within the organisation. This means that they may assume that they are next in line. Furthermore, others may have grown accustomed to their colleagues and may feel that work cannot get done without them. (Abassi & Hollman, 2000)
In cases where restaurants fail to get enough replacements to substitute those who had left, then the remaining work has to be done by existing employees. This puts too much pressure on them and most of them may not offer good quality customer services as they did before. Additionally, others may not handle all their tasks well and this diminishes the restaurants’ competiveness.
The issue of organisational memory is important in any line of work more so in the restaurant business. Many restaurant patrons usually look forward to meeting the same chef or the same waitress when having their meals. This is because these faces are usually linked to the overall dining experience within that restaurant. If clients keep meeting new faces, then chances are that they may not be satisfied with that opportunity.
Conclusion
Labour turnover affects restaurants both indirectly and directly. Direct costs are incurred during recruitment, replacement, selection, management time and hiring temporary staff. The indirect costs are; low employee morale, higher pressure on the job, high costs of learning, poor restaurant service quality and lastly high organisational memory.
Bibliography
Abassi, S. & Hollman, K. (2000): Turnover: the real bottom line; Journal of Public Personnel Management, 2, 3, 42
Cantrell, N. & Sarabakhsh, M. (2001): Correlates of non-institutional foodservice turnover; FIU Hosp. Rev. pp.52-9
Denvir, A, & McMahon, F. (2002): Labour turnover in London hotels and the cost effectiveness of preventative measures; International Journal of Hospitality Management, 11, 2, 143-54
Dyke, T. & Strick, S. (2003): Recruitment, selection and retention of managers in the hotel and restaurant industry, FIU Hosp, no. 12, p 34
Iversion, R. & Deery, M. (2004): Turnover culture in the hospitality industry, Human resource management journal, 7, 4, 71-82
Malone, R. (2003): Job search modes and employee turnover, Career Development international, 5, 110, 442
Mc Bey, K. (2002): Examining sources of influence on labour turnover in the part time context, Leadership Organisational Development journal, 3, 3, 28
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Author Resource:-
Author is associated with ResearchPapers247.Com which is a global Research Papers and Term Papers Writing Company. If you would like help in Research Papers and Term Paper Help you can visit ResearchPapers247.Com> and superiorpapers.us> or superiorwriters.com>
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