The 3 most common mistakes when onboarding new team members

I remember it well, my first day in the hospitality industry. I was suddenly responsible for quite a bit of money and in such a ’ On a terrace it is best to see some people fumbling with a tray. Now I was quite resolutely sent to the terrace and so much information was shared during the first day that little of it stuck with all those new impressions. Even then I thought: there is another way, right?

To create a good hospitality team ë It is useful to invest in a clear and strict induction schedule. Then new team members can start well prepared and, with the high turnover rate of team members in the hospitality industry, the time pressure is not at the expense of your new acquisition. Various studies have shown that the quality of onboarding matters. Companies with professional onboarding see almost twice as much progress in employee engagement and retention as organizations with limited onboarding. Nowadays, good onboarding is increasingly seen as an indispensable part of your organization, yet there are a number of mistakes that are often made when onboarding new team members.

1. An overload of information:  

Don't overwhelm a new team member with all the information on é é one day. There are already enough impressions to remember and process, it does not pay to give too much information while absorbing. It is much more important to provide the right information at the right time. Ask yourself when the new information is important for a new team member.

2. Copy an existing edit format ë ren:

ë Running from a standard internet familiarization schedule and quickly adapting it to your own catering business is a missed opportunity. You can copy a concept, the interior or the menu ë run from someone else, but it's hard to take on someone else's team spirit. There is of course nothing wrong with looking at how others approach the onboarding of new staff, but if you want to distinguish yourself from the competition, think carefully about what makes your business so special. Consider the example that the familiarization process in a breakfast bar is very different than in a disco.

3. Speeding up the onboarding process:

Unfortunately, it also happens that the onboarding process is slowed down due to a lack of time, or worse: it becomes ü not seen as something worth having at all. Be aware though: what may be a piece of cake for you, can be new and very exciting for your new colleague.

What can you do to train team members well? The most important part to get the induction process off to a good start is a handbook. If you cannot properly articulate what you want to say, it is impossible to convey this well to someone else. In addition, this also immediately entails a clear structure for onboarding when a new person with final responsibility is appointed. To make a good handbook there are some basic rules to follow:

KISS (Keep it simple, stupid)

We've all seen them pass by, 15 page ’ s counting printed matter with silly terms about the hospitality concept and complicated house rules. Of course, your employees are not going to read this in advance and learn it by heart, because who wants that? To keep attention, it is best to spread different topics over different manuals.

Identity:

This is the perfect opportunity to capture the identity, culture or vision. So use the tone of voice that suits your company. People excel faster in a place where they feel comfortable. By recording this in the structure and acting consistently on this, you will subsequently notice that you attract people much more quickly who feel comfortable here and who leave less quickly. Nice right?

Accessible:

The time of printing and A4 ’ handing out tickets is a bit behind us. It is important that people can always find the manual easily. Make sure that the manual can be consulted digitally at a certain location.

All things considered, you can say that there are almost only positive effects if you draw up a good and clear induction schedule. Not only does it increase productivity, but it also means your team members stay longer. As icing on the cake, it also seems that companies with a good onboarding process can take better care of their guests and thus achieve higher customer satisfaction.

Don't you want to fall into the above pitfalls? Then know that you can digitally train your new team members with ease, even before the first day has started! We are happy to help you and are happy to give you tips on how to make your onboarding process as easy and effective as possible.