Solving Churn: How AI-powered Simulation Training Can Help Increase Employee Retention

Hospitality is largely focused on providing service to its customers, but what if we make service start with the employer? With the right attention to instituting effective training programs, you can create career pathways for your team members and pave the way towards stronger managers. With better leadership development, you provide a supportive work environment and could see improved employee retention leading to a better customer experience.

I entered the hospitality industry as a server at a popular restaurant chain in Boston; only what I thought would be a temporary endeavor. I enjoyed the job, and after proving myself over time, I was offered the opportunity to move up in the ranks. While this growth was exciting, the support to get there was where I saw training to be the weakest. A massive binder of calculations, procedures and recipes, a period of shadowing a GM, and then I was given the keys to run the store. While I felt prepared for those task-oriented duties, I lacked much needed training with soft skills, particularly navigating team member and customer interactions. Fast forward to today, and we see that the need for interpersonal skill development remains high across the industry.

Tactical vs. Soft Skills

It's typical for hourly staff to earn promotions based on their skill at their current position, and it's great that managers recognize talent and encourage promotion from within. However, it's a big transition to go from working with your peers to managing them. All too often, management training focuses on specific skills, such as operational costs, staffing and scheduling, inventory, ordering and receiving, site cleanliness and maintenance – with the focus predominantly on procedural training, there is a significant gap in developing the soft skills needed to navigate this transition and set them up for success. This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) and simulation-based training is creating a huge opportunity for impact. No longer left to the traditional methods of learning of manuals, on-the-floor shadowing, and trial by fire, hospitality leaders can now develop essential knowledge and skills in an immersive experience where they can practice dialogues and response time, in a fail-safe environment.

86 the Churn

It has commonly been reported that a primary reason employees leave their job in this industry is related to management. With a better development strategy and training format, organizations can build better leaders who can handle a variety of shift challenges, including people management, leading to a healthier working environment. All employees benefit from these changes, and you can see increased retention from new hires to leaders. New hires feel supported through onboarding and good mentorship and are less likely to churn in those critical first few weeks and veteran employees appreciate the opportunity to develop, ability to foster functioning work environments, and continue their careers.

Show 'em The Receipts

And the benefits don't stop with the welfare of the employee, there are opportunities for creating operational impacts with this attention to development. In a recent article from Restaurant Dive, industry experts share: "Creating employee retention and development strategies that work at scale...the return on investment could be key to a restaurant's success, as employees that leave during their first 90 days on the job account for 12% to 15% of labor costs at casual restaurants, and that portion rises to 22% for limited-service restaurants." Eatery chain, Snooze CEO David Birzon goes on to say, "It really is about leadership and development, and people want to feel like they work in a place where they're moving forward."

Upskilling the Industry

This industry is all about service. If we focus on training solutions that offer an immersive environment to appropriately prepare management with the soft skills needed to meet the demands of the job, the ripple effects will be felt throughout the organization. With this confidence and support from the business, team members feel invested in and are likely to continue their career path with the company. This has a massive impact when you think about retention at scale. Giving your employees the chance to develop in a fail-safe environment allows them the chance to build confidence before hitting the floor and ultimately provide better customer service to meet any situation that comes along.