Training & Return On Investment: How to Quantify?
- An Actual Case in Point
- Does training in the restaurant industry yield a ROI?
- Identify variables, to measure the success of training
in your operations?
- Gain more respect for your training department and
approval for a healthier budgets.
- Unifying training throughout operations so that everyone
"talks" the same language.
Does training yield a Return On Investment? A question that
plagued me for a very long time during my earlier years in training
as a Training Manager for a restaurant chain. If the performance
of a trainee was substandard, it was chalked up as a lack of
training, improper training or poor training standards or all
of the above. On the other hand, when the trainee performed well
the endeavors and diligence of the training team, were not even
whispered. And the worst part of the equation; during emergency
situations Training Department was on top of the list to suffer
budget cuts.
During this time it became quite clear that training in the
restaurant world had the status of an orphaned child, conveniently
used as a scapegoat to hide the inadequate and incorrect decisions
made by the operations team. It was ironical to me however, that
I was promoted to a Training Manager based on my superior results
as General Manager, which I achieved through the adherence of
strong training programs and systems. Later, I was promoted to
a District Manager, where I continued to develop and implement
training programs and systems. This led to a promotion to a Director
of Training. I received congratulations and lots of blessings
for taking on the position of a chief orphaned child being prepared
to be tied to a whipping post.
However, my belief and passion for training only made me steadfast
and determined to show the entire company that quality results
based training is the backbone of operations to generate impressive
cash flow. Therefore, I developed training programs, systems
and practices that would generate measurable results. As a result,
I began to look for areas, factors and variables that would be
tangibly impacted by training. Yes, the obvious ones; reduction
in turnover of management and non-management staffs, reduction
in cost per hire were staring me in the face. However, those
were not the only ones that would appease my sense of contribution
to the company. It was then I started researching other methods
and luckily, computer technology was on my side.
I worked very closely with the computer technologists to generate
various reports and make comparisons. Restaurants, Districts
and Regions were compared based on where conscientious efforts
were put forth on training compared to where they were neglected
or only maintained sub-standards. Different variables used to
measure the success of training were:
- Guest Check Averages - based on suggestive selling (selected
items)
- Tracking items sold per Server -based on weekly promotions
Sales per labor hour - to measure productivity
- Food cost - here I used a specific report that eventually
became known as the Variance Report.
- Employee morale - based on customer (using guest comment
cards) and management feedback (using an objective survey).
Using some of these comparisons (excluding the more intricate
mathematical equations) the return on investment of the training
budget was clearly delineated at a senior staff meeting and an
overwhelming success was finally acknowledged.
However, I still found that one important factor was missing
by my own standards; the operations team was not truly aware
of the teachings of the Training Department. Yes they had a good
understanding of the training programs, but the specifics were
missing. The operations team and the training department were
not speaking the same language on an ongoing basis. To address
this issue a schedule was designed to conduct seminars and workshops
to bridge that gap.
One small example. I have seen that many companies will teach
Problem Solving Models, with each company having their own variation.
But when the operations team has a decision to make or a problem
to solve, it is amazing how many people make decisions with total
disregard to what the company teaches in their Problem Solving
Models, and those models go out of the window only to be replaced
by hasty decisions without the due thought required. If problem
solving is done that way then, unfortunately problems will keep
on happening causing the operations team to be busy in putting
out fires. That may be acceptable to some companies, but this
writer believes that let's not just keep putting out fires, let's
work from a position of strength and planning on a solid foundation
for growth and prosperity.
In today's market where various soft wares can generate interesting
reports, it is very easy to calculate the success of training
programs and therefore the approval of the training budgets.
And the training budget must have a separate line, not just under
the umbrella of the operations budget, if we are to truly adopt
the orphaned child.
It is very encouraging for me to see that that training is
more readily accepted today in the foodservice and hospitality
industries and the results are astounding. Therefore, I find
various companies understanding the importance of training and
getting on the bandwagon to develop and implement training programs.
But I am sad to say that there is still one major weakness that
still painfully exists; the gap between the operations team
and the training specialists.
Many companies have impressive training programs in their
household, through workshops, seminars, various manuals, internet
computer based training, etc. But the operations people are not
always aware and they don't always abide by them. Bridge that
gap and the results will be beyond imagination. At the same time
a common company culture will prevail. One such company that
has grown beyond it's imagination using this prescript is McDonald's,
while simultaneously setting an industry standard.
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