Server Training Videos Save Time & Increase Productivity

Server training often falls on those with the highest tenure in the restaurant including longstanding employees and managers. Unfortunately, this results in lost time and productivity from some of the restaurant’s most important staff members, but if training is done right the outcome can be disastrous for the dining room. Server training videos can improve restaurant wait staff excellence without drawing against the already slim resources that a restaurant manager has to work with.

Recent research has found that 68% of restaurants are still using a shared employee handbook for essential training despite amazing advances in technology which make video-based training more engaging, insightful, and effective. In fact, only 19% of restaurants are actively using online training for their teams! However, those that are utilizing digital training technologies, including server training videos and online training programs for restaurants are not only saving themselves time, they’re increasing productivity and improving training outcomes, too!

Downfalls to Traditional Server Training Programs

If you’re one of the more than 80% of restaurants that are using other forms of training outside of digital, online-based options, you’re probably thinking, “I’ve been training like this for years, and it gets the job done!” But does it really? 

Traditional server training programs, including the use of training manuals and side-by-side training with management or top-tenured restaurant staff have several major pitfalls. For instance:

• Training in a busy restaurant atmosphere often results in hastily moving training along too quickly and as a result, the newly hired employee doesn’t truly digest what they’re learning.
• One-on-one training means there is no real consistency. Different staff train in different ways and often train on scenarios as they arise in real-time meaning each new employ receives different styles and types of training.
• Time spent by management or top employees training means those employees have less time to do their own work.
• 14% of U.S. adults have “below basic” reading skills – in other words, 32 million adults probably can’t read the manual you provide! And 29% only have “basic” reading skills. Relying on your new employee to read a manual in a job that is primarily service-oriented is an underservice to those employees.

Of course there are likely many other problems that come along with the decision to train via a training manual or to provide the in-person, “throw them in the fire,” sort of training that most restaurants still utilize today. Training must go beyond a couple of nights shadowing during a busy service and expecting that the server will read an outdated training manual left in the employee breakroom. It’s 2022, restaurants can do better! Restaurants should do better!

Server Training Videos Solve Training Problems

A lack of quality training can certainly present many challenges to restaurants, especially in regards to customer satisfaction and safety. Proper training ensures that your newly hired employee has the knowledge required to perform essential roles and duties while at work. But proper training goes beyond just that. It also ensures that your workers can maximize their productivity, increase customer satisfaction, and improve employee confidence for stronger employee retention and lower turnover rates.

Server training videos support wait staff without drawing on management resources or those resources of other members of the restaurant’s team. In fact, many restaurants are finding that professionally filmed server training videos have the power to entirely replace their existing “traditional” training programs such that each time a new wait staff employee is hired, training can immediately begin without any impact on management time or productivity.

Server training videos have the following benefits for the employee:

• Improved Retention of Training Details – Each new employee is already expected to learn an overwhelming amount of specific detail about the restaurant, safety, menu items, and various other topics. Presenting all of this information in a crash course over just a couple of dinner services is bound to result in a lack of retention, but server training videos present information in microlearning experiences that are easily digestible & which the employee can go back to refresh on at any time.
• Improved Employee Engagement – Ask anyone if they would prefer to read a manual or to engage in a video or interactive experience online and 90% will choose video. Videos improve engagement keeping your restaurant employees interested in the training material and scenarios-based interactive training videos can further improve engagement & reinforcement of data.
• Training for Any Learning Style – Not only can 19% of the U.S. adult population not read up to par, many have specific learning-related disabilities that prevent them from gaining the maximum value from traditional training via a manual. Server training videos reach those with a variety of different learning styles and allow employees to learn at their own pace so that they can truly grasp and fully understand the information that is being taught.

Server training videos also have the following benefits for the manager:

• Reduced Employee Turnover – In an industry that has long been plagued by incredibly high turnover rates that near 75% on average, video training programs reduce lost time, money & productivity spent training employees that later leave. A single upfront investment in server training videos provide customized training that can be used over and over by the restaurant without further added costs or expenses.
• Reduced Loss of Time – In an already busy restaurant where it can be potentially challenging to carve out the time to provide training to newly hired employees, server training videos have the potential to completely eliminate the need to create lengthy training schedules, provide one-on-one shadowing, or coordinate group training with a trainer. Training videos are easily accessed by the employee, anytime, anywhere and without any interruption to management.
• Reduced Loss of Productivity – Whether management or a top tenured employee is providing the training, the loss of productivity that occurs with in-person shadowing in your restaurant simply cannot be overlooked. Server training videos can dramatically cut back on loss of productivity that occurs with each new hire as most, if not all, training can be provided by video without interruption in the day-to-day routines of other staff or management.

As you can see, server training videos save time and increase productivity for restaurant staff and management. Are you ready to put professional server training videos to work for your team? Beverly Boy Productions can help you produce custom server training videos that will save you time and money while increasing staff productivity, too!