Hey everyone,
Just a few facts about me and the business I manage:
I have been the General Manager for 18 months at a locally owned coffeehouse/café in Moscow, ID. The population is primarily students for the majority of the year, with a marked decrease in business during Summer and the Winter/Spring breaks. I have many years experience as a barista, and have spent most of those hours training at various coffeeshops in my past.
The problem I am running up against is motivating a staff of mostly students who, in four years or less, will move out of Moscow, as they moved there to go to school. This is a problem because I only have one or two people on staff who look at coffee as not just a job to get and keep while going to University, where the rest go through the motions to get through their 6-7 hour shift (if that) and get out. I am not finding issue with the occasional honest mistakes real people make, but with the recurring breakdowns in task completion during the day. I work over 40hrs/weekly behind the counter, and in the building, and try to take at least one whole day off during the weekend for my own sanity.
We are BUSY during the school year. Weekends are hectic and I staff accordingly so we don't get buried during peak hours, but these last two weeks, I stop in to check on things, and notice that:
Certain food items are not made/prepped
pastry case not stocked
deliveries still sitting around hours after the drop
general messiness/shop unkempt
I like to have staff meetings, but my one issue is that hours are from 6:30AM-11:00PM daily. For everyone to get the talking to, I have to close early, or cycle a barista or two out of the meeting to run the counter while I repeat myself.
I use email, I use text, phone calls, written messages in the store, one-on-ones, but for some reason, I find myself repeating these same sentences:
When this item comes in, we do this with it...
When this item is not put away properly, we are throwing money away....
etc..
the issue is that more than half of the staff has been at this shop for over 2 years. It should be second nature to them, right? How do I motivate members of this crew to get their act together without heavy-handed threats. Recently I had to fire an employee because of their lack of respect for my direction, inability to improve attitude, and tardiness. This is the first time I have had to do this, and I would rather keep the people who DO work hard, but I'm considering putting more 'senior' members of our staff on probation.
Any help?
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