Please read the guidelines properly as this is my final exam
1 Running head: EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT 17 EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Student’s name California State University East Bay Tables of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………3 Literature Review …………………………………………………………..3 A Draw to the Restaurant Business …………………………………4 Employee Engagement ……………………………………………..5 Unhappy Employees ………………………………………………..6 Methods …………………………………………………………………….7 Findings …………………………………………………………………….8 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………….10 Recommendations …………………………………………………………..11 Appendix ……………………………………………………………………13 Introduction Though there are roughly 9.5 million people that work in the restaurant industry, it is no secret that turnover within the industry is higher. Rather than attempting to figure out a solution, many businesses continue to waste time and money on training new employees. In attempts to dive deeper into the topic of employee engagement and satisfaction in the restaurant industry, it was essential to put together three strong research questions that would promote the gathering of related information. The three research questions behind the research are: Are restaurant employees overworked? What prompts restaurant employees to work in the industry? What factors encourage restaurant employees to go to work every day? The purpose of this is to break down employee engagement and satisfaction to shine light on what interests applicants to enter the industry, and what encourages them to stay. Research and findings will further touch on employees being overworked to uncover whether this has an effect on employee turnover. This data analysis is being conducted in attempts to reduce employee turnover, specifically in the restaurant industry, by increasing employee engagement and satisfaction. This information is the key to helping a restaurant keep an employee and decrease employee turnover. It will benefit the employer’s recruitment process by figuring out what motivates an employee to join the industry while strengthening relationships with current employees in order to retain workers. By providing information on why employees leave, this information will help the restaurant management put together strong programs to increase satisfaction. By increasing satisfaction and engagement, employees will not only stay longer, but will act as strong employees, leading to the production of happier guests. Looking at the bigger picture, this information can be used by the organization to increase sales and reduce training costs. Literature Review It is no surprise that employee satisfaction is important to a workplace. This becomes increasingly true when employees are working directly with guests at all times, such as in the restaurant industry. In order to build off of this general knowledge, questions begin to arise regarding the motivations of employees at any given workplace and what brought the employee to that employer in the first place. Employee satisfaction and engagement can be greatly affected in a negative way when workers are overly stressed and feel overwhelmed and not appreciated. A Draw to the Restaurant Business Though many people see the restaurant industry as a place of employment that hires mostly students, 58% of restaurant staff are above the age of 25 and 12% of these employees are at least 55 years old (The Aspen Institute, 2013). Age is a factor that determines where a person will work, along with personal life and specific stage in career (Dermody, Young & Taylor, 2004). Thus, age is one of the factors that attract employees to the restaurant industry, though most employees name various other reasons for being drawn in. A study done in a densely populated city in South-Eastern United States highlights this data. For both Independent Restaurants and Chain Restaurants, the leading cause of attraction was money. Employees rank monetary incentives as the most important characteristics. The relationship between coworkers and the management team fall below money. The people an employee work with and around have a large effect on the employees’ interest in employment. In relation, the type of guests and their attitudes was noted as another reason, along with reputation of the restaurant, and flexibility in schedules (source 4). Entry-level work in the restaurant industry often times does not require formal training or education, thus making it an intriguing option for those with limited experiences. Additionally, many restaurant positions are part-time and are great for those who are looking of this type of work (The Aspen Institution, 2013). The flexibility to work minimal hours can be a great incentive for potential employees. Employee Engagement What motivates an employee to accept a job is often different from what motivates an employee to continue employment at a business. Though these reasons overlap, overall effects on the atmosphere are what keep people at a job. Motivations in the workplace include: relationship with co-workers, professional atmosphere, money, comfort and flexibility (Dermody et al., 2004). Employees want to come to work to a place where they can express happiness. They want to feel as though their employment compliments their lifestyles rather than taking it over. In order to ensure employee engagement, the employer must work hard to dedicate special time and energy to each member of the staff. The importance of this is often overlooked, leading to high employee turnover. This idea of focusing on employees is often referred to as internal marketing and has been linked to employee satisfaction. Important tricks of internal marketing include training and reward programs. Employees who are provided training so that they can better understand their roles and feel comfortable are likely to be happier at work. The same is true for employees who are given the opportunity to apply themselves to reward or recognition programs; whether this be gift cards for employees who have their name positively mentioned in a review, or a free meal given to the server with the top sales for the week, it allows employees to work toward a goal that will ultimately benefit that employee. In general, people are motivated by money, so there is no question about why this method works (Choi & Joung, 2017). Simply the length of employment has been found to lead to satisfaction amongst employees. Employees with experience at the same location reportedly are happier about their social status at work, the strong relationship they have with managers, as well as other employees, and the acknowledgment that they receive (Vondrasek, 2000). As previously noted, each and every employee is different and has different motivations, thus one single motivational program cannot be put into place to ensure satisfaction to all employees. Unhappy Employees Unfortunately, not all restaurant employees are happy, despite work put in by upper management. Restaurant employees leave their job for a handful of reasons, including, but not limited to: problems with co-workers or management, the want or need for a better or higher paying job, schedule conflicts and failure to be promoted (Dermody et al., 2004). Some of these reasons are inevitable and cannot be stopped. For example, some employees will change their geographical locations for personal reasons that are in no way a reflection on the restaurant. In order to reduce the turnover rate as much as possible, it is important for managers to dedicate time to focus on internal marketing, as mentioned above. Turnover rates in the restaurant industry do not end at entry-level staff, but rather extend to management as well. These higher-level employees face stressful situations on a day-to-day basis, work long hours and are expected to perform to a specific standard. This constant stress can build up and begin to drain a restaurant manager causing a feeling of burnout, which leads to even bigger problems at work and home. An employee who is experiencing burnout can have negative effects to their health. Eventually this becomes too much and can leave to employee turnover. Employee satisfaction is a great reflection on a business, specifically in the restaurant industry. It can show how dedicated management is to the growth of their employees and is often a good indicator of how well employees perform within a company. Though some reasons overlap, most individuals are drawn to employment for one reason, and stay for another. It is important for businesses to address both of these reasons, because recruiting new employees is just as important and keeping current employees. Stress from long hours and high pressure can drain restaurant managers and lead to high turnover. The benefits of having satisfied workers are endless. Methods To perform this data collection, I visited the Pacific Catch restaurant on March 16th, 2019. Pacific Catch is a West Coast Fish House with many locations around the Bay Area, though I only visited the Dublin location. Prior to visiting on site, I had been in contact with the general manager in order to get her permission to collect data and to set up a time to do so. For my specific research topic, I needed to collect data from the employees at Pacific Catch, rather than the guests. The staff at Pacific Catch identify with various ages and ethnicities, though there is a fairly high Hispanic population. Between the morning shift and evening shit, there are roughly 45 employees working throughout the day at the location, and my goal was to receive surveys 25 surveys. I understood that all employees were busy at work, so I did my best to not be a disturbance. The process of collecting data took one business day. I performed onsite data collection and was able to drop my surveys off in the morning and pick them up later in the evening. When I dropped the initial surveys off, I was available to explain the procedure to the employees and answer any questions. I followed the same steps when I came back to touch base with the evening staff. I asked employees fill out the survey when they had a little bit of downtime, though not all employees found themselves with this downtime. I was able to receive 21 completed surveys out of the 25 that I passed out. The survey that I composed was 16 questions long with various types of questions, including open-ended, mark all that apply and rating. Employees were asked questions about their time and position with the company, as well as previous experience. Additional questions collected information on how much they work and how they feel about various aspects of the nature and culture of the workplace. I stayed away from the demographic questions, because I was more interested in the employee’s views of the company and culture based on their position and seniority. By surveying employees, rather than guests, I found the process to be smoother with less issues. I had the full support of the general manager, who was helpful in getting the staff to fill out the surveys. The general manager was great in collecting surveys from employees when they were done. I had no issues with employees that did not want to be of assistance and found the culture to be lively and friendly, likely explaining why I had a great experience throughout the data collection process. The only potential obstacle was the change in general manager right before I had planned on collecting data, but luckily the new general manager was just as kind