Recognize The Hard Work From Your Food Truck Staff

When your food truck employees do something beyond your expectations, you want to reward them. After all, everyone knows that rewarding employees is the best way to keep them motivated, right? Well, not entirely. A recent study showed that a third of companies that only provide recognition for good work have lower turnover than companies that don’t. These employers don’t even give employees physical or monetary rewards; they just recognize the hard work from their employees and in return their employees give back loyalty.

4 Tips To Better Recognize The Hard Work From Your Food Truck Staff

Earned Recognition

If you recognize your food truck staff members before they’ve actually accomplished something, it takes away from the “reward” aspect of the whole thing. If recognition is given at random – it will quickly lose its effectiveness. The rarer the recognition, the better; assuming that recognition is tied directly to their performance.

How You Deliver Recognition

As food truck owners learn over time, some employees love attention. To them, being recognized in front of the truck staff is exactly what they need. For those that are more introverted, public recognition is a horrific experience. So, before you tell someone what a great job they’ve done, tailor your praise to the person. Not only will it be more genuine, but it builds morale in the exact way you want it to. Employees will be more encouraged to perform at increasingly higher levels when you understand their needs.

Give Specific and Clear Recognition

What you say is at least as important as how you say it. “Good job” is pretty generic and usually doesn’t come off as heartfelt. Be very specific. For example, assume an employee helped you get through a rush that you thought would never end. It’s not enough to say “good job.” A better way to praise the employee might be “thank you for working so hard to get us through that rush. I couldn’t have done it on my own and I really appreciate it.” Do you see how much more emotional, and detailed that “thank you” was? It’s not something you see on a greeting card. It’s personal and meaningful.

Involve Others In Team Building

You can’t force other employees to congratulate your best-performing employee, but you can create a culture where recognition and praise is the norm. How? For starters, bring in other successful food truck owners in your area to give talks at meetings so that employees can be inspired by top motivational speakers. When food truck employees’ morale is high, and they’re immersed in a positive working environment, even your most cynical staff will start to come around to the idea that recognition is the norm in a mobile food business – at least in your food truck.

Another idea is to ask employees, during your morning meetings, to share examples of when they noticed a co-worker going above and beyond. Finally, designate a public white board at your commissary as a “wall of recognition” where employees can anonymously praise other employees for hard work. Treat it seriously and don’t allow the board to be used sarcastically.

The Bottom Line

Use these strategies to provide your food truck employees with the recognition they deserve and at the same time earn the loyalty that comes with it.

How do you recognize the hard work your employees provide to your food food truck business? Share your thoughts on this topic in the comment section, our food truck forum or social media. Facebook | Twitter