No matter what industry you're in, you've most likely witnessed a fairly significant decrease in turnover during the past 18 months. This is hardly surprising news, given that employees typically grow extremely resistant to change during turbulent times.

Last September, Accenture surveyed employed middle managers to find out how many would be open to making a job change. Nearly half (46 percent) of respondents said that making a change right now was just too risky. Further, only 13 percent of respondents said they were actively looking for a new job - a decrease from 30 percent in 2005, when the survey was last conducted. And that was in September when things undoubtedly looked brighter than they do today.

One of the biggest risks an employer can take in today's climate - especially if you're in an industry that often has trouble attracting talent or faces ongoing labor shortages - is to avoid developing a plan for how you're going to hang on to your employees when things get better.

First, don't assume that your estimation of employee satisfaction is necessarily accurate. According to Salary.com's fourth annual 2008/2009 Employee Satisfaction and Retention Survey, today's employers often overestimate the "degree of extremely satisfied employees nearly 2 to 1."

More specifically, respondents estimated that 77 percent of their employees were at least "somewhat satisfied," yet only 65 percent of employees reported this level of satisfaction with their jobs.

All this points to challenges down the road. Because the majority of employers believe they don't have to think about turnover right now, they are doing less to address employee concerns than they do when times are better. However, failing to address internal issues could turn out to be far more costly in the long run because when things do improve you may find that some of your best and brightest jump at new opportunities.



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Also known as 360 degree feedback...most people would automatically say 'no' - but let's think about that for a few minutes.

Organizations select people for all sorts of things. They select new hires, they select for internal promotion, leadership/management roles, and key project management. They also select those who will get the biggest raises, those who will get development opportunities, those who are 'fast tracked' on a succession plan and those who will receive part ownership or stock options and stock.

WOW. There are a lot of processes that should include some sort of serious thought in an employee's career that are well beyond the hiring stage. And, many of those have more than a ripple effect within the organization.

So, why are these things left as decisions to be made 'on the fly' or by the select few for a 'select few'? If you consider the positive and negative impact, as well as the financial impact, of all of these decisions, should there not be a program that allows for consistency? Better still, wouldn't you, as an employee, like to think you had overcome a meaningful hurdle in a race where all employees had access to the game and knew the rules?

Right about now you are thinking - whoa....that's either a big job or a lot of money! Not really. First I would suggest that the money you save from time wasting politics, poor criteria or poor decision making without something in place, would more than adequately cover a consultant's time. Then I would tell you that the sooner an organization does this in its growth stages, the easier, and by far, less costly, it is.

Companies that understand their core values and the behaviours consistent with those values are able to build these into every people process in place. Select for those behaviours and reward those behaviours - and voila! You have a culture. I worked with a management team that had to turn an organization around from red to black, change the mindset, add a benefits plan, re-do policies, change some people and increase staff by 50 within 2 years. The long story short, we did it and the key was hiring, and rewarding, for the right technical skills and behavioural skills. Then weaving those skills into every "selection point criteria" we noted above. Promotion, internal project teams, the biggest raises, development opportunities, 'fast trackers' for the succession plan and those who received part ownership in stock options and stock. The latter was by far the most creative!

Everyone knew the rules of the game and understood the process. For every selection point, we referenced their job performance and the results of their 360 feedback - from reception to C Suite. It was a thing of beauty and that organization just hummed! Oh - and why do I say "the sooner the better"? Because a change like this in mid to large size established companies would take far more than 2 years and cost much, much more; turning a juggernaut around, as it were. And success, real success, without top down commitment, can be illusive.

Gay J. Miller, V.P. The PartnerFirm Inc. Human Resources Consulting Division

Our goal is to strengthen leadership and ready an organization for growth. We have created a unique Multi-Rater on-line feedback tool for leaders and have created some unique ways to incorporate results into key Human Resources programs.

We believe leadership has the single largest impact on the success of a any company. The unique programs and tools designed or delivered by The PartnerFirm, are always focused on strengthening leadership and organization capabilities. We support small organizations without HR and in larger organizations we partner with the Executive and HR Teams to develop and deliver programs. From policy development to strategic planning and leadership development - we have the experience.



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Recession weary fast casual restaurant managers are doing everything possible to lower costs and attract (and keep) customers in tumultuous times. The sad fact is that some fast-casual restaurants will drop out of the race. But, savvy restaurant operators know that those who continue to operate will be the ones who can accurately track and forecast their major costs - both inventory expenses, and labor costs. Even in the best economic periods, fast casual operations with lean expenses will profit more than a cost laden competitor.

There is a silver lining: recessions are a great time to improve operation processes - both to save money and to give yourself the time to focus on strategies that will keep your restaurant afloat through trying times.

Depending on the concept, payroll is one of the largest two expenses for your business - the other costly item in your budget will be inventory. And you probably spend hours creating careful staff schedules to ensure that you have the coverage you need at peak time without overspending the payroll budget.

Scheduling employees in the fast casual restaurant industry is never easy. Managers must juggle employees' availability and skill sets, part-time employees (each with their own set of scheduling requests), accrued PTO, multiple shifts, training sessions and/or employee meetings, and sometimes even worry about insurance or labor laws concerning employees who are minors, or staff who drive or serve liquor. You communicate the completed schedule to all the staff, field never ending inquiries about next week's schedule (or worse, scramble to fill a missed shift), deal with late time-off or shift-swap requests, and unexpected illnesses.

And then you must update the schedule and communicate the updated schedule to the employees. Again. And again.

It's tedious and time-consuming, and very important. Over-staffing costs you money. Under-staffing costs you customers.

Luckily, there is a cost-effective and time-saving solution: Online employee scheduling and labor management software. Good labor management software will cut your employee scheduling time from hours to minutes.

And in both profitable and challenging economic times, the ability to manage schedules at one or many locations, schedule those with stronger skills into high volume shifts, and monitor and forecast your labor expenses makes labor management software not just a time-saver but an instant budget booster. In fact, this type of software can increase restaurant profits by 3-5%.

Add in the ability to integrate easily with restaurant Point of Sale (POS) and payroll systems, employee reminders of upcoming schedules, staff notifications for schedule changes by email or text message (and the resultant drop in late or absent employees), and the ability to focus your managerial energies on the urgent manager duties facing a fast casual restaurant manager on any given day (rather than mind-numbing scheduling minutia), you'll find that the time saved in the first week alone pays for the investment in labor management software.



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