Pizza Today _ January 23 - 16

BUILDING BLOCKS N I C K B OG A C Z
more rewarding for all parties involved.
Exploring new strategies
After settling on better contest prizes,
such as 70-inch TVs and 3-night cabin
stays at a ski resort, the next challenge
was implementing eff ective communication
strategies that reminded employees
of the value their hard work contributed
to the company's growth and success, and
of Caliente's philosophy of rewarding our
team's achievements along every step in
the company's journey.
Two methods I've used to promote
Eff ective Ways to Incentivize
and Reward Your Team
" Show me the incentive and I will show
you the outcome. "
- Charlie Munger
In the restaurant industry, employers
are constantly talking about how
diffi cult it is to hire and retain good
employees. My philosophy is, when it
comes to staffi ng your restaurants, you
need to look within fi rst.
Often, employers worry more about
hiring new employees than they do
about retaining their current employees.
In the middle of the COVID-19
pandemic, when hiring became more
diffi cult, everywhere I turned, I saw
companies off ering hiring bonuses to
new employees. Sure, growing the team
is always important, but do employers
pause to think about how emphasizing
the value of new talent aff ects morale
and confi dence among their company's
existing team?
I've talked in previous articles about
the off erings Caliente has built into our
company to encourage employee retention,
such as holiday parties, giveaways
and health benefi ts. In this column, I
want to highlight another strategy for
incentivizing your team that diff ers from
traditional employee off erings.
What's not working?
Over the years, Caliente has hosted
employee contests that are often lots of
fun, but in the end, have resulted in me
rewarding someone for selling only fi ve
or six special promotions in a month.
I used to bang my head against a wall
trying to fi gure out why the contests
weren't yielding the results I'd hoped for.
I realized a few things. First, the prize
wasn't very enticing. Sure, a $50 gift card
was nice in the short term, but it wasn't
moving the needle for employee sales
eff orts. I thought to myself, if I only
have $50 a month to allocate to prizes,
how can I get the best contest prize for
employees that will encourage them to
make more sales? After exploring several
alternatives, I landed on a new contest
system, and the results have been much
employee contests internally include
creating and maintaining an active
company-wide group message chain and
pasting contest fl yers next to employee
schedules in each restaurant.
No matter what method you use to
spread the word about employee contests
and incentives, it's critical that you communicate
exactly what you're aiming to
accomplish, and why it will yield positive,
measurable results for your company.
Fostering competition and camaraderie
At
Caliente, we've found that updating
a 'leader board' every week is an eff ective
way to keep team members engaged and
active throughout the employee contests
and instill some healthy competition
among coworkers.
Keeping your team engaged may seem
diffi cult at times. But if your company
culture and brand is strong, your
employees will want to do what it takes
to contribute to the company's growth
- they just need to be reminded that
they're important assets to the team, and
that their talent and success matters.
Now that we've discussed some ways
to incentivize your team, next month,
we'll talk about getting employees to
show up to work on time, and how to kill
bad habits in your restaurant.
NICK BOGACZ is the founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh. Instagram: @caliente_pizza
16 / PIZZATODAY.COM / JANUARY 2023

http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM

Pizza Today _ January 23

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pizza Today _ January 23