How to keep a waiter who is resigning
The waiter is one of the fastest-moving personnel in the hotel. Especially at present, most hotels can only guarantee one waiter for each service position at most. Quality is often greatly affected. After careful analysis, we divided the excellent waiters who resigned into two categories, one was those who sincerely resigned, and the other was those who planned to resign, accounting for about 30% and 70% respectively. The latter accounted for a large proportion. If the hotel can respond in a timely and reasonable manner, it can still effectively retain these people.
01
Listen to the voice of the waiter immediately
About 70% of resigned waiters do not really want to resign, especially when excellent waiters have not been rewarded or promoted for a long time, resigning is only a means of evaluating the hotel’s importance to itself and its development prospects. If the hotel does not respond in time, it will strengthen its determination to resign, resulting in the loss of excellent waiters. Therefore, the general manager (executive general manager) should respond immediately after receiving the news. It is best to arrange a time to talk with the waiter within a day or two to understand the real reason for his resignation.
There are no more than two reasons for the resignation of the waiter, one is the waiter’s own factors, and the other is external factors. After the general manager (executive general manager) learns the reasons for the resignation of the waiter through heart-to-heart talks, he must carefully analyze, find out the countermeasures, and treat them specially.
When talking with the waiter, be sure to be approachable and approachable, not condescending. Because the waiter who proposed to resign will have a psychological “fear” towards the hotel, worrying that the hotel will impose harsh conditions, or even withhold this month’s salary, etc., and will deliberately flatter without revealing the real reason for resignation. Therefore, the general manager (executive general manager) should not directly ask her the reason for her resignation, future plans, treatment and position of the new target unit, but sincerely express the importance the hotel attaches to her and hopes that she can stay. This may have the effect of weakening their determination to resign. Conversely, if the hotel does not care about the resigned waiter, the waiter will often receive hints that “the hotel doesn’t value me, and I will have nothing to do if I stay”, and they will be determined to resign and turn into a sincerely resigned waiter .
Of course, among the waiters who offered to resign, some resigned sincerely, and even found new jobs. The possibility of retaining this part of people is extremely small, but it is better for the hotel to retain sincerely than to ignore the effect. First, the reason for his resignation can be grasped, which is convenient for the hotel to adjust in time. Second, it can stabilize their psychology, continue to do a good job before resignation, and spread the hotel’s good management reputation after resignation. The third hotel can also arrange personnel to take over the work in time, understand the customer information it has, and reduce losses.
02
Privately help resolve self-factors
Regarding their own factors, resigning waiters often express reasons such as “too much work pressure, feeling physically and mentally exhausted”, “there is an elderly person at home, and children need to be taken care of”, “the hotel is too far away from home, and it is too inconvenient to go to work”. Solving these problems cannot rely on conventional methods such as raising wages. It is best for the general manager (executive general manager) to intervene in a personal way to help him analyze the reasons.
For example, there used to be a waiter in our hotel who worked very hard, but during the National Day, the hotel’s business was very good, the rooms were full, and the restaurant turned over several tables every day. Resign.
When I received the resignation report, the hotel had just received a new order. There was a large tour group going to visit the Yungang Grottoes, and they had a buffet at the hotel at noon. At that time I was busy deploying chefs, servers, and preparing a large cafeteria. But I immediately put down the work at hand and asked her to go to the meeting room to understand the reason. After more than two hours of communication, she finally revealed the real reason for her resignation. I made adjustments based on this and immediately assigned a new waiter to work with him, which could not only reduce his labor intensity, but also train new waiters. In addition, people have a desire to express themselves. Letting her work as a teacher can not only increase the fun and divert attention, but also make her feel her value. Working with fun will naturally reduce the pressure.
03
Appropriately increase treatment to deal with external factors
There are two external factors. One is the hotel factors, such as fewer hotel staff, high labor intensity, low wages, poor accommodation conditions, etc. The hotel must immediately make adjustments to meet most of the requirements of the staff. But for the “low wages”, the hotel can’t agree immediately, otherwise let’s not talk about whether the resigned waiters will repeat the same tricks after they have tasted the sweetness. In any case, the waiters cannot be allowed to develop the habit of asking the hotel to improve their treatment on the grounds of resignation. The second is the peer factor, which mostly appears in excellent waiters, and many peers will come to “poach people”. The magic weapon for “successful poaching” is mostly to improve the salary, promote the position, and provide a better environment. At this time, the general manager (executive general manager) will help him analyze whether the benefits after resignation will be realized, how long it will take to get familiar with the work in the new position, what development prospects the hotel can provide for him, the advantages of staying in the hotel, etc., waiter They will make comparisons and decide whether to stay or leave.
04
Resignation information confidential to solve the “face” problem
The purpose of the hotel to retain the waiters is to successfully retain them, so it is necessary to consider the problem more from their perspective.
In addition to caring about the hotel’s opinion of themselves, the waiters will also pay attention to the comments of their colleagues, so no matter what, we must leave enough room for the waiter who resigns, and let as few people as possible know the news of his resignation. It is easy to be ignored, but it adds fuel to the flames of firm confidence in the waiter’s resignation.
There are two reasons for keeping the resignation confidential: First, for the waiters who do not really want to resign, resigning does not mean that they do not like the service work, but that they cannot satisfy the status quo. As long as this problem is solved, they can continue to work. There is also a lot of room for maneuver. If all the colleagues know the news, but I have not left, it is easy to arouse the suspicion of the colleagues and fall into rumors. The waiter had to leave because of “face”, which caused the hotel to fail to retain people. Second, other waiters may base their guesses on the “agreement” reached between the hotel and the waiter who offered to resign out of thin air, thinking that the hotel is too “stingy”, knowing that the waiter’s working ability does not increase the salary, and the trust in the hotel declines , will naturally think of myself, and even have the idea that “resignation can measure one’s own value”, which is not good for management. If the practice of “resignation and salary increase” is formed again, it will do more harm to the hotel.
05
Lower manpower cost to retain waiters
It is self-evident that the resignation of an excellent waiter will bring losses to the hotel. Most of them have worked in the hotel for a long time, and have acquired proficient service skills. They are familiar with various services and products of the hotel. Efforts have come to naught, and human and material resources need to be invested in training an excellent waiter again.
Excellent waiters often have a strong relationship with many old customers, and they are able to provide personalized services to old customers, which is very popular. It is difficult for the waiters who take over their jobs to get started in a short period of time, and there is also a need for a running-in process with old customers. Many old customers think that after the staff they are familiar with leave, the hotel service quality will decline, and they will feel disappointed, and they will not want to spend in the hotel. . The hotel will lose some old customers as a result.
Most of the resigned waiters are eager to start work after they arrive at their new positions. They are bound to use the customer resources they have mastered in the previous hotel to recommend new hotels to old customers, and part of the old customers of the original hotel will be divided. In this way, the hotel loses not only the waiters, but more importantly, the old customer resources.
Therefore, the hotel has nothing to lose by retaining the waiters who resigned, let alone lose face. If the excellent waiters are successfully retained, not only can the labor cost be reduced, but other losses will also be smaller.