By now, we have all had at least one experience going to a store or restaurant and deciding not to go back after seeing few masks or lack of sanitization between customers. COVID-19 safety and sanitation procedures affect where guests are spending money, with more than three-quarters of Americans saying they had not yet returned to dine in and wanted to see more hygiene procedures and staff wearing PPE before they would.
What do you do when trying to protect employees and customers, and protection requires clear, consistent application of changing guidelines? It only takes one person to spark an outbreak that could lead to reclosure and damage to your reputation. Yet compliance is harder than ever with the added pressure of trying to remember new procedures and menu items, stressed customers, and lower staffing.
Employees need support, and the good news is you can solve these challenges in a way that not only helps you manage COVID-19 risk but also sets you up for future success.
1. Combat Cognitive Overload
Employees are dealing with more than ever in the workplace. Shifts are short staffed, many restaurants have changed menus, almost everyone has new procedures for pickup and delivery, and safety processes are frequently re-evaluated and revamped. It’s no wonder why many restaurant employees are struggling.
According to eLearning Industry, three things directly affect cognitive load. “The first is the abundance of decision-making opportunities. The second is distractions or training interruptions we must contend with. The last is the constant need to manage every moment of our day in order to maximize efficiency. All of this culminates in stress that prevents our minds from assimilating information effectively.”
Too many decisions, distractions and interruptions, and a need to maximize efficiency. Sound familiar? Instead of asking every employee to perfectly remember health recommendations that changed last week and may change again next week, provide memory aids through your digital platforms that are easily accessible to every employee. This way workers aren’t trying to find the latest printout or remember what their manager told them.
With a digital assessment and communication platform, every location has the most up-to-date guidelines in an easily accessible format. Employees perform better with one less variable in the mix, and your risk goes down.
2. Consistently Reinforce Health & Safety Standards with Self-Assessments
Lack of adherence to safety standards is a bit of a contagion in and of itself. When employees see one another with a mask on their chin or only sanitizing high-touch surfaces half as often as they should, it can create a snowball effect where others also begin being more lax with COVID-19 standards.
One of the best ways restaurants can mitigate the chance that one or two employees could create greater risk exposure is through digital self-assessments, everything from daily employee checklists to location assessments. Every restaurant has assessments like this, but if they’re still being done with pen and paper, you have major potential for risk.
Paper assessments have a habit of ending up in a corner collecting dust, or are sent into regional to be included in a spreadsheet, showing information 2-4 weeks behind. Not exactly helpful in the moment.
Instead, collecting assessments digitally creates a culture of accountability and visibility. It’s easier to see and reinforce good choices, or offer guidance for poor ones, when you have a real-time look at your business from self-assessments conducted multiple times a day.