What are some good ideas to make a fast food restaurant a fun place to work?

Question

Hi I'm a restaurant manager and my crew is mainly high school students and some LEGAL immigrants.I always thank them for specific things they do well, try to help them when they are buried in work and try to listen and address any concerns they have.But unfortunately, I do not handle the schedule and have no control over how many workers I can have on a shift and it gets very hectic at times. So my crew is often overworked. I also have a fantastic crew that gives their best every day, and most of them do an awesome job.

Do you have some ideas that I can use to make my crew feel appreciated and to make the place a fun place to work? Our work is busy, so I can do very little to control the volume of business.

As a new manager, I want my crew to realize just how important they are to making our business a success and also because they are great people to work with.

So how can I show them just how much I appreciate them.

(I can't give them raises every time they do a good job

Answer 1

You sound like a great boss, thats make work fun anyway!
My previous job was one where they made us feel appreciated almost everyday, really, just by saying hi everyday, calling us by name, I loved it. I really felt like they were glad I was there. Happy managers make happy employees. Friendships were encouraged. My boss didn't sweat my small mistakes, she knew it was the big picture that mattered and that I was always doing my best.
I in turn, learned from my small mistakes, and took responibility for the big picture. I know you can't give raises frequently, but good pay is important. Celebrating birthdays and holidays boosts moral.
Be professional so they know they are working for a good company with a future.

Answer 2

Your hands are tied. If you cannot put more people on the schedule or give them raises and the work is busy then they are going to get overwhelmed. That is one reason why fast food places have such a high turnover rate.

I worked at one place where the manager had the philosophy of never skimp on labor. He made sure that there were always plenty of people working. We had times when there were 20 employees working at once. The store would bring in usually at least $3000 a day. The record (might have gone up since I worked there) as a $7000 day. We worked in the most popular fast food place in town. The customers always came back because they knew they were not going to have to wait forever. Also, the employees who worked there stayed there for a long time. That was beneficial because you had less screw ups and had to spend less time teaching people how to do things. Another reason why the customers came back. We usually had a few times thru the day when the line at drive thru wrapped halfway around the building. However, the people in line spent at most 10 minutes waiting. (The secret there was that we went outside to take the orders). By having enough people to do the work, we made sure that it was done correctly. It also left room for people to have some pride in their work. If they are rushed because they have too much work to do then they do a sloppy job.

One final thing that worked great there was that the people who had to take care of the back, that was their only job. If you were assigned to take care of the back then you only had to wait on customers in the most extreme cases. That allowed the people in the back to take care of the work needed. They kept the food prepped in the freezer and the steam tables. No running out of mashed potatoes in the middle of a rush. Also, these people had a radio back there and each person would bring in their own CDs and play them. That was the position every person wanted to have.

Telling people that they are doing a good job is good and it will make them feel better, but if the work is too hectic then that will only go so far.

Answer 3

Make a recognition board. Every time someone does a great job, put something up about them on the board for all to see. Also, maybe you could organize some out of work activities, like crew bowling, or a movie night or something. Even the smallest sign of recognition is helpful for workers' attitudes and I really commend you for realizing that, I kind of wish you were my manager..lol.