I attended a funeral the other day where one of the speakers spoke about the good qualities of the deceased ... all the good things they did ... how loving they were ... all about their charitable attributes, etc. ... and then they stated: "I never got to tell this person how I really felt about him." There was a remorse because they didn't have the opportunity to tell the deceased. Well, now it is too late. My advice to you is, "Don't wait."

This same analogy is true with your employees. Don't wait to recognize and reward your employees. You can prevent a large percentage of your employees from "leaving" if you show appreciation for their work and efforts. While they are working for you. This section is going to give you many ideas on how you can recognize and appreciate your employees. This is an important part of your restaurant marketing with your employees. Put them in the right fram-of-mind.

You need to focus on "Catching your employees doing things right!" This can be a restaurant marketing competitive advantage if you do it effectively. The other day, I bought some flowers for my wife for our anniversary. Another person made the comment: "Well, what did you do wrong?" This is the problem with many people. They only give recognition to people when they've done something wrong. We need to catch employees doing things right and recognize them at the time.

This is true in your personal life as well as in your restaurant life. Have you ever "lost an employee" and didn't realize how valuable they are to you until AFTER they had given their notice?

Wouldn't it be a great idea to setup a "Recognition/Reward Culture" within your restaurant to ensure that employees "feel" appreciated and recognized for performing their best. This is what is done at a great restaurant and it will allow you to attract, hire and retain the SuperStar employees in your market area. Remember, it is people (SuperStar employees) that will increase your sales and profits through your restaurant marketing.

The goal of this management approach is to develop your employees and to reward them for increasing your sales and profits. When the management team builds a "trust" relationship with the employee and the employee "bonds" with your company, you will have a much better opportunity of increasing your sales and generating long-term profits.

One of the things that is expressed by many foodservice operators, "Doesn't this cost a lot of money?" My standard response is "Don't trip over dollars to pick up pennies!" This is a fundamental belief. Do not create a problem in your mind about cost. Correct hiring and training principles are an investment and they show big dividends. You will actually show big returns in two ways.

1. Increased sales and profits, as well as 2. reduced costs in hiring, training and employee turnover.

These restaurant marketing principles and practices have "created" increased sales, profits and an employee retention increase for many companies. Throughout the years, through trial and error, we have perfected the system especially for you is an opportunity for you to learn the process and procedures of hiring, training, motivating and keeping very high performance employees.

Focus on a restaurant marketing system and process that ensures that your employees will do what YOU want, simply by rewarding them with what THEY want. Use an open-entry/open-exit training program with results-orientated compensation mingled with many employee Recognition/Reward Programs. Focus on the positive and eliminates the negative. When you focus on the positive and reward employees for the positive things they do ... you will get more of it.