Making the Grade: Reward Student Employees

It’s a fact of restaurant life that a large number of employees are working their way through school. So why not use their academic goals to enhance your service and sales goals? The Making the Grade incentive is a good place to start. Here’s all you need to do:

• If you don’t know already, find out which of your employees are going to school — high school, trade school, college, anything.
• Meet with your student/employees and propose a bonus of $0.25 for every hour worked during the semester — provided they maintain a specific GPA.
• Draw up an agreement for those who want to participate and have each person sign it.
• At the end of the semester, present student/employees with their bonus checks and certificates of achievement — and do it with some fanfare at an all-staff meeting. Consider making the checks payable to the school they attend (or plan to attend in the case of high schoolers heading off to college).

Excerpted from Playing Games at Work: 52 Best Incentives, Contests and Rewards for the Hospitality Industry. Click here to read more.