Effective management of Millennial employees in the hospitality industry is becoming increasingly important as they continue to grow as a percentage of the workforce. The task for managers is to motivate Millennials as well as reshape policies and processes to ensure they get the most out of this generation of workers.

Millennials are defined as being those born between 1976 and 2001. They have grown up in a world of great technological change. They are often negatively stereotyped as being entitled and nassistic. On the flipside they are seen as optimistic, energetic and tech-savvy.

Whatever the stereotypes, Millennials are entering the workplace with a set of different set of expectations to previous generations with implications for the hospitality industry.

Hospitality managers need to acknowledge that job-hopping is a regular occurrence for Millennials and that they need to have plans in place to keep them engaged.

During the recruitment process be upfront and set expectations around advancement within the business as well as your businesses culture.

Once hired, you improve your chances of retaining Millennial employees by encouraging their input. Seek their thoughts on ways to improve processes and grow your business. Millennials come into a business with new ideas and ways of seeing things. Harness their different perspectives and leverage their insights.

Not all employees will stay. It is therefore prudent in certain circumstances to have confidentiality agreements in place in the event that they decide to work for the competition.

If you keep take the input of Millennials seriously and keep them engaged then you maximise the chance that you will keep them for the longer term.

When first confronted with a crisis the natural reaction is to panic. The best advice though is to take a few deep breaths and try to stay calm. This puts you in a better frame of mind to make decisions. If you are panicked then you risk making the wrong calls in a rushed attempt to try and contain the issue.

While you need to remain calm you also need to act straight away. Some restaurant owners might try to bury the issue in the hope that they can ride it out. This is not the way to handle a crisis. You need to drop everything and address the issue.

The second step in managing a restaurant PR crisis is to put together initial instructions on how and if, key stakeholders should respond externally. Put together an expected timeline of when you will have further information. Communicate these instructions to the stakeholders and ask them to track initial reaction and to update you with any crucial information.

What has been the response to the crisis from the community and the media? A gauge of who has reacted and how strongly, will indicate the scope of the crisis you are facing. Is this is big issue or is it contained? How many people are talking about it? Are their people supporting you? What’s the overall sentiment?

Gauging a reaction will also help you decide where to communicate your messages.

You’ve taken a number of steps so far in handling your restaurant crisis, you should now decide upon a position that your company should take. Your work to date will make this process much easier.

The ideal strategy is to decide what people need to know. This should be your focus rather than what you might want to say. Try not to provide too much information either, just the key facts. Provide an avenue for people who want to know more information.

Regardless of what you say, ensure it’s honest and you take responsibility for solving the problem. This is irrespective of whether you’re at fault.

Hopefully this is the first and last crisis you have to deal with. However it is always valuable to assess and take on board any learning once the issue is resolved. How will you to avoid the same issue arising at some point in the future? Take a look at your response to the crisis and decide whether there is anything you would do differently next time.

Managing a crisis in your restaurant is a stressful ordeal. Once it’s over take the time to de-stress and unwind.

Any restaurant that does experience a crisis at some point will no doubt experience some reputational damage. However most restaurants are small businesses so they can respond quicker than bigger organisations. Use this and the other steps outlined above to your advantage. This will put in you in the best position to minimise the damage.

A well-planned roster underpinned by a set of guidelines that all staff are made aware of can lead to greater levels of staff engagement and retention.

Two important pillars of effective rostering are a rotating roster and an online employee-scheduling tool.

There are a number of benefits to be unlocked for the hospitality business that implements a rotating roster. The business and staff share these benefits.

A rotating roster gives the employer greater flexibility to schedule a balance between experienced and less experienced staff. This ensures that the performance of the business doesn’t drop off at any point of the day.

A rotating roster is usually perceived as being more equitable in the eyes of staff. This is because each staff member works day, mid shifts and at night.  Some shifts are better for earning tips while other shifts are perceived as being easier or harder. A rotating roster offers an even spread of shifts where no employee is perceived as being awarded the ‘better’ shifts.

A rotating roster develops more versatile employees. As each shift has its different requirements for example opening, food preparation and close, a rotating roster gives all staff exposure to the various business requirements at each time of the day. This also allows for more variation in the tasks undertaken by staff. This can lead to increase levels of job satisfaction.

In many hospitality businesses, managers and trainers primarily work day shifts. A rotating roster therefore allows for all employees to be trained during the day.

Just like the rotating roster, there are a number of business efficiencies that can be harnessed with the use of an employee-scheduling program.

An employee-scheduling tool allows role rostering to be implemented easily. Role rostering works out the allocation of shifts by responsibilities then allocates it a cost according to the pay rates of staff. Only then are the names of suitable staff added to the roster. Role rostering is the opposite of how most hospitality businesses usually roster where the requests of individuals are used as the framework. The combination of an employee-scheduling tool and role rostering ensure the needs of the business are being met and there is greater visibility and control of wage costs.

An employee-scheduling tool allows for better management of time off requests. Employees can easily log on to a central database and request their relevant leave, whether it be vacation, sick or carers leave. When building the roster these requests can be taken into account. This saves time dedicated to the inevitable back and forth when staff members receive their roster and can’t complete certain shifts. It also means staff can better manage their personal engagements.

As well as better management of time off requests an employee-scheduling tool means that there is greater visibility of staff working hours. This helps to ensure that staff get at least two days off a week. Rostering for more than 5 days per week leads to a decline in performance and burnout.

Flexibility in staff rostering is critical in the hospitality industry and you never know when you might need more staff. Employee-scheduling allows you to create new shifts instantly and staff can respond remotely.

Further to this, employee-scheduling gives workers the control to better manage the amount they want to work by taking on or declining additional shifts. The system can safe-guard against paying over-time and allow changes in the number of shifts worked by an employee when it benefits both them and the business.