Staffing

The pandemic-era pizza workplace: 4 ways to help employees, business thrive

Pizza restaurant employees have big concerns working during the pandemic, but operators can really help quell their worries with a few simple moves. (Photo: iStock)

October 1, 2020 by Chad Halvorson — Chief Experience Officer, When I Work

It's no secret that consumer concern about safety while eating out is our new reality, and pizza restaurant operators are doing everything they can to bring customers in and keep them coming back. It follows, then, that retaining your employees during a time when they, too, are feeling exposed, burned out and possibly at risk due to the pandemic, is just as critical.

Here are four effective, practical ways to help ensure that your employees feel safe and well cared for when they show up for their shifts.

Contactless time clocks

One of the most common places employees congregate at the workplace is at the time clock. Every hourly worker must stop there at least twice each shift and touch the same device everyone else touches. But that device can be a breeding ground for spreading germs.

The good news is that switching from a traditional time clock to a contactless or personal time clock is an easy, effective way to reduce employee exposure to COVID-19 and other microscopic pathogens.

The fastest way to eliminate a centralized time clock is to replace it with a mobile time clock app that employees install on their phones. This allows workers to clock in and out from their personal devices.

An added plus with these apps is that they also use geofencing to ensure employees only clock in and out while they're on restaurant premises. This Bring-Your-Own-Device, or BYOD approach can also avert early clock-ins, reduce buddy-punching and provide better labor reporting.

Self-scheduling

Many employees — especially those in foodservice — report they feel they have lost control over many aspects of their lives during the pandemic. Restaurant employers can help their team members regain some control and confidence by letting them set their work schedules.

This practice — known as flexible self-scheduling — first gained popularity in the health-care industry. It allows managers to define scheduling needs based on customer demand, while empowering employees to select, trade and fill shifts themselves.

Flexible self-scheduling allows managers to create schedules faster and more easily, while giving hourly employees more control over their work lives. The best part is, if you're using the aforementioned BYOD for other back-of-house operations, you can also use it to implement a flexible self-scheduling application.

Assisted contact tracing

Contact tracing is an important step in slowing the spread of COVID-19. But, for restaurants that run teams in shifts, it can require some significant detective work to accomplish, since employees' shifts overlap. As a result, figuring out which employees were in contact with others and who those employees were can quickly become murky.

But, if you can easily audit your scheduling data, that problem goes away because the mobile technology used to create flexible shift schedules, can also be used to trace employee contact. With this capability, if an employee becomes ill, operators can search through the previous 14 days of work schedules to discover the identities of everyone that individual had contact with.

After learning that an employee has been diagnosed with COVID-19, operators must act quickly to identify and notify any potentially exposed coworkers. This capability not only helps employees feel safer -- since they can get tested if exposed -- but helps reduce the risk that additional employees will be exposed to the virus.

What's more, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, these actions fall under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's general duty requirement to provide a safe workplace, so there are legal ramifications to be considered, as well.

Honest, ongoing communication

Perhaps the most effective way to help your employees feel safe and reduce their anxiety is through continual, transparent communication. Be open with employees about what you do and do not know, as well as giving them a clear sense of the big picture and keeping them confident that you are seeking answers to the topics that are not clear.

The subject of your communication with employees doesn't have to be earth-shattering in nature. It should, however, provide a sense of overall stability organizationally. And remember that regular dispersal of accurate information to workers puts a cog in the rumor mill and reduces speculation about what may or may not be happening.

A recent Gallup poll revealed that what employees need the most from their employers right now is trust, a sense of stability, compassion and hope. Employees are watching to see if you are honest and if your decisions are proving valid.

Therefore, keep in mind:

• Be mindful of what you say: Be cautious about speaking negatively about others who do things differently than you.
• Provide reasons for policies: Arbitrary rules that don't seem to have solid reasoning behind them make employees distrust your judgment. Explain policy changes, whether they stem from success or failure.
• Show compassion: Regularly check in with each employee, giving them a chance to privately express how they might be struggling. Seek ways that you can help quell the psychological fears eating at them. Compassion reassures employees they aren't disposable, that they matter, and that they can come to you with concerns without fear of a negative outcome.

Putting employees first has always been good business practice. But if you don't or haven't been working to adapt this mentality, this is an ideal time to change your ways. After all, when employees feel their or their families' health and wellbeing is at risk won't perform to the best of their abilities. In fact, they may disengage or quit altogether.

Any restaurant leader who embraces an employee-first approach, will not only retain the best workers, but become an employer of choice in their area and industry.