It’s hard enough getting and retaining the right staff for your hotel, bar or restaurant: it’s another job keeping them engaged and motivated, particularly at your busiest times. Make it a little easier by looking at these 7 steps you can use to keep your team on track this year:

1. Create realistic expectations during recruitment and selection; don’t oversell things that can’t be delivered in your organisation.

2. Keep your promises to your employees: if they were informed in their interview that every Monday morning they will get a meeting with their line manager – try to stick to it.

3. Communicate EVERYTHING that is relevant to them: anything that affects the team will affect their performance and their engagement – particularly if they feel that they were kept in the dark on key decisions; so tell them as soon as it is feasible.

4. Talk to your team regularly to maintain communication – focus groups, employee surveys, feedback sessions 1-on-1, appraisals.

5. Don’t underestimate the need for a thorough induction process; it can make or break an employee’s opinion of the company and future development.

6. Have a look at work performance: is anything slipping compared to their normal working pattern? Maybe someone has an issue that they are not comfortable talking to their line manager about, and someone else needs to investigate?

7. Arrange social events: even just popping down the pub or to the park for a picnic will help to improve broken relationships; worst case scenario, you will see who continuously does not attend and approach them about their feelings for the company.

summary: How to keep your hotel, bar or restaurant staff engaged and motivated in 2015.
keywords: FGHR, Frances Gillespie, Fran Gillespie, Frances Gillespie HR, HR, Staff, Team, Staff team, retaining staff, motivated, engaged, organisation, hospitalilty, restaurants, bars, hotels