FROM TURNOVER TO TEAMWORK

Hardcover, 180 pages, 6"x9"
Copyright 1994
Published by John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY
75.00

AUTHOR'S SUMMARY:
From Turnover to Teamwork is about how to keep the good workers once you have them. More to the point, it is about how do you run your organization in such a way that people want to hang out with you! People stick around because they want to. People leave because they don't want to stay. Turnover and teamwork are not "things" -- they are very predictable consequences of the working climate in an organization. The better you understand how the process works, the more successful a manager you will become.

DUST JACKET COPY:
"How many people didn't show up for work today?"

If you regularly find yourself asking questions like this, your restaurant may be headed for serious trouble. High turnover is the plague of the foodservice industry but it is only a symptom of the real problem. Don't panic - From Turnover to Teamwork is here to help. This book offers fresh insights into the root causes of why people leave and why they stay. It is full of practical, common-sense solutions that will encourage your best workers to be part of the team and turn occasional guests into loyal regulars. It will help you see to deal more effectively with your most common staff-related issues and concerns, including:

• improving the effectiveness of your training program
• coping with discipline problems
• salary structure, wages and benefits
• encouraging excellence: recognition, bonuses and other incentives
• performance reviews
• creating and maintaining rapport between staff and management

You have seen it yourself. When a restaurant offers seamless service, personal attention, efficiency and camaraderie among the staff, it is a combination that keeps you coming back again and again for the pure pleasure of the experience. On the other hand, when half the staff seems new and inexperienced and the other half seems to have one foot out the door, the odds of repeat patronage are not very promising. High turnover is more than just an expensive nuisance; it has a negative impact on every aspect of your restaurant: its reputation, its service and its bottom line.

From Turnover to Teamwork takes an hands-on, common sense approach to a problem familiar to anyone who has ever owned or managed a restaurant or other service-oriented business. Bill Marvin, "The Restaurant Doctor," shares some simple insights into the underlying causes of why people perform poorly and walk out as well as what might cause the very same people to be loyal, contributing members of your team. When he managed the foodservice department at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, application of these principals enabled him to cut turnover from 300% to 25% in just six months while doubling athlete patronage at the same time.

The simple wisdom in his approach may surprise you. He points out common management practices that may be doing more harm than good. He gives specific suggestions on how to hang on to good workers and create a team that is happier, more productive, and fiercely loyal to your business. He demonstrates effective ways to cope with important issues such as training, salary and wages, bonuses and other incentives, performance reviews, discipline, and staff/management rapport. He suggests personnel policies and resources for retention will help you avoid misunderstandings with your staff and find reliable advice quickly when problems emerge.

Taken to heart, this book can help you to communicate with your crew more effectively - to understand what motivates them and to be sure that they understand your expectations of them. It can help you see ways to develop staff loyalty without spending a fortune, how to make your training more effective, and how to resolve disputes without lingering hard feelings. Most of all, From Turnover to Teamwork can help you tap your own innate human relations skills to create a business climate that both encourages your good people to stay and makes your patrons want to come back for more.

COMMENTS FROM THE PROS:

Here is what some industry professionals are saying about From Turnover to Teamwork:

"Bill Marvin's book is chock full of practical, "Whack on the side of the head", make sense ideas on how to improve employee retention and productivity. If you use only one idea from his book in your business, you will have more than earned back the price you paid for it."
-- Michael Brandson, Vice President McGuffey's Restaurants, Asheville, NC

"Dr. Bill's philosophies articulate clear guidelines for practical improvements that have resulted in real increases in our customer service and profitability."
-- Randy Rayburn, Owner Sunset Grill, Nashville, TN

"Bill Marvin once again turns conventional wisdom upside down and replaces it with common sense. It presents an exciting model of management for the new century and should be required reading for any serious business manager or owner."
-- Robert Kausen, President Life Education, Inc., Trinity Center, CA

"Marvin has done it again! The idea that turnover and teamwork are only symptoms of the climate in the organization is an eye-opening concept. It reinforces my belief that there are no bad people, only bad systems."
-- Frank Henderson, Training Director Azteca Mexican Restaurants, Seattle, WA

FROM TURNOVER TO TEAMWORK
How to Build and Retain a Customer-Oriented Foodservice Staff

CONTENTS

Preface
What are the real costs of turnover?

PART 1 - PONDER THE PROBLEM

1. Understand Why Workers Leave
What is your staff looking for? Why do they leave? What issues do you need to address to be successful at staff retention in the 90's? How can you find out how people really feel about working for your company? What is the most productive approach when you identify a problem area?

2. Think in Terms of Retention
Who are the people who stay? What causes turnover? How do you measure retention? What is turnover and what isn't? When is turnover healthy? How can you use retention to improve management and supervisory performance? How to keep score?

PART 2 - RECOGNIZE THE ROOTS

3. Improve Your Understanding of People
What makes people tick? Why do people act the way they do and what can you do about it? What is the real difference between being a cop and being a coach? What five aspects about people do you need to understand to improve your effectiveness as a leader?

4. Respect the Power of Climate
How can you establish a company culture where outstanding performance is the rule rather than the exception? What are the symptoms of insecure thinking? How can you approach management in a way that makes you part of the solution rather than part of the problem?

PART 3 - BUILD THE BRIDGE

5. Get a Good Start
What are the elements of a successful staff orientation program? How can you set one up? Why can the orientation period determine your turnover rate? How can you be sure you have a good match? How can you structure the introductory period to work for both you and your staff?

6. Put it in Writing
What do you need in the way of manuals? Where do you need them and where do they hurt you? How do you go about finding the time to create them? What should a staff manual and a human resources manual contain?

7. Eliminate Inequities
What simple changes in the structure of your benefit program can give you a better handle on costs while increasing your retention rate? How do you structure benefits to encourage morale and retention while keeping your costs under control?

8. Create a Sense of Motion
What is the effect of training on turnover? How can you improve your training effectiveness without spending a lot more time at it? What are the elements of an effective training program? Who should train...and who should not? How can you keep your staff interested in training?

9. Show Your Appreciation
What is the relationship between reward and behavior? How do you most effectively recognize outstanding effort and progress toward a goal? What sort of reward systems actually discourage peak performance and what can you do about it? Why is a bonus better than a raise?

10. Provide Timely Feedback
How can you be sure that everyone in the operation is "on the same page?" What is the role of communication in staff retention? How do you keep your staff informed of their progress? Who should be involved and how often should it happen? How can you give direction without preaching?

PART 4 - DEVELOP THE TEAM

11. Share the Power
What communication vehicles can you use to pass the word? How can you share responsibility without losing control?

12. Share the Wealth
How can you really get your crew involved in your success? How can you create a workable profit-sharing plan, even if you are not making a profit?

13. Other Teambuilding Tips
What are some other proven ideas to help your crew identify more closely with your company and each other?

PART 5 - TAKE THE TEMPERATURE

14. Evaluate Your Retention Climate
What sort of climate are you creating in your company?

Glossary

Resources for Retention

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK:

Preface
Learning is finding out what you already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you. You are all learners, doers, teachers. -- Richard Bach

This book is about people, why they do what they do and what you can do about it. These subjects are discussed in terms of turnover and retention but the implications go far beyond just keeping good employees once you have found them. The book also examines how to create a working environment that will encourage your best people to remain with your organization, work together easily and deliver exceptional service to your guests. The advantage of such an environment is that the same climate that causes your staff to want to stay will also cause your guests to want to come back more often.

In my experience, most people like to learn. They do not always like to be taught! So the purpose of this book is not to try to teach you anything. That approach would assume that you don't know any of this material (you probably know more than you think!) and that I somehow have access to "secret information" (I probably know less than you think.) I hope you will find that many of the ideas in the following pages are already in place in varying degrees in your operation. After all, if you were doing everything wrong, you probably would not even be in business!

One of my former teachers once commented that life seems to be a series of things to handle. That observation is certainly true of foodservice. In fact, there are so many things to handle that it is easy for managers to become overwhelmed. Living "in the weeds" is nobody's idea of a good time!

Putting in more hours is not the answer, either. If you are not getting the results you want, it is certainly not for lack of effort. Hospitality managers are no doubt among the hardest-working people on the planet! If hard work alone solved problems or made money, we would all be incredibly relaxed, spectacularly successful and unspeakably rich.

So what happened? Why are so many operators working harder and daily facing more problems, not the least of which is trying to keep the sort of staff needed to deliver a memorable dining experience to their guests? This book will offer some insights into the elements that influence the retention rate in foodservice or, for that matter, any business enterprise. What you learn from it and what you do with the knowledge is up to you.

Turn Over Is Not The Problem
Turnover is just a symptom of the problem. The underlying causes of turnover in your operation are probably not what you think they are. If you knew the real cause of the problem, you would already be on top of it. Don't think you are alone in this predicament; we all have blind spots.

The real reasons your good people leave can probably be traced to one of your blind spots. This book will shine some light into a few dark corners. It will help you understand why the things that are working well are happening that way, which means that if they get off track, you will be better able to bring them back into line. You may also start to understand why some things may not be working, despite your best efforts.

Most of this material is based on my own experiences in "the real world." For example, when I managed the foodservice department of the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, these approaches cut turnover from 300 percent to 25 percent in six months, increased staff productivity and doubled athlete patronage. Operators who have applied these principals to a variety of hospitality formats report similar results. This is common-sense material that I regularly present in management seminars across North America.