QSR operations requires fractured thinking. One moment, you are handling ordering for the restaurant, and the next moment you are handling employee discipline. You have to familiarize yourself with a lot of concepts and wear many hats. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to become great at HR when your time is spent in many different business areas.
Today, we will break down seven simple things you can do to learn HR skills (even when you're in operations!)
One of the first things you can do to become an HR pro is implementing human resources best practices. HR is constantly changing, but a few ideas have stood out that make businesses better:
If you’ve been in operations for a while, you probably have created checklists for almost every aspect of your store. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) help you manage the restaurant and delegate tasks when you can’t be present.
Besides delegation, SOPs help you build confidence in your work in HR. Writing down all the steps you need to take for tasks like writing a job description or doing an annual review will save you a ton of time, especially if you don’t do a task often. It can be deflating to return to a task only to realize you forgot how to do something.
Create a list of all the HR tasks you do, and start putting together documents of the steps you take the next time you have to do it. You’ll be surprised how much time you save by taking these simple steps.
Human resources requires forward-thinking. Employees in the QSR industry are leaving or moving on to new restaurants rapidly. To keep talented employees, you have to see the bigger picture and set up a restaurant that can retain employees and grow year after year.
Take your time to work on your business and be proactive instead of reacting to things as they come to you. The best HR pros are thinking about what they can do to sustain and grow in 2022 and beyond.
If you are not fully educated in human resources, you can study and become HR certified. There are many certifications you can get from SHRM and HRCI. You can take these tests even if you don’t have a college or post-graduate degree in HR.
Taking these certifications is a time-consumptive process, but studying helps you understand more about HR processes.
Your company’s headquarters or franchise owners might help you with the process of being certified since getting one would help them too. If you are interested in learning more about human resources, it’s crucial to have a conversation with your organization's leaders. Let them know that you want to take a more active role in your company’s HR decisions. From there, you can pick the best certification for your knowledge level and create a study schedule or take classes to help you pass the test.
Before getting certified, you can still connect and learn from other HR professionals. Taking what you learn and translating it into your own organization will help you bring fresh ideas to work.
Here are a few ways to learn with other HR pros:
If you want to build your HR skills, try tracking and using HR metrics. It’s essential to get a pulse on your restaurant's cost per hire or retention rates. The easiest way to do that is to understand what goes into these metrics so you can track where things are and make decisions based on data.
Reporting these metrics to your managers and acting on the insights you get will help you be seen as an authority at work. By taking 30 minutes each week to keep track of your company, you can save the organization money and step up your status as an HR professional.
Last, if your company needs help with HR, hire an HR consultant. Working with a consultant can give you all the information you need to know:
HR consultants are not cheap, but spending a week with someone who understands HR and how to make your life easier is worth the money.
Before you hire a consultant, think about the areas of your business you want to focus on. For example, you might want help with hiring, firing, retention, benefits or any number of items. Find a consultant who can help you address these issues and take ample notes while they are at your restaurant.
With the help of one consultant, you can transform the way HR works at your restaurant.
Becoming better at human resources takes a lot of dedication. By using the seven strategies covered in this article, you should be able to go from operations to HR (or just beef up your HR process) without stressing out.
Human resources is an essential function of running a business. The best QSR operations managers understand the value of implementing HR best practices and thinking ahead. Now, it’s time to make sure that everyone is on the same page about you stepping up and leading your team to a solid HR strategy.