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Inside The Four Walls Of The Restaurant

Foodservice organizations are at risk. Inside the four walls of a restaurant, employee behaviors that are counter-productive can result in potential lawsuits, lost customers, higher turnover and decreased profitability. The existence of these risks is not new news. But valid research measuring the prevalence and patterns of counter-productive behaviors is new news. The BHI research investigation of counter-productive behaviors also produced valuable insights about ways to reduce the risks for foodservice organizations.

Groundbreaking Rersearch

In 2002, BHI started a groundbreaking research study into the on-the-job behaviors of restaurant employees. Specifically, the study was designed to catalogue and track employee behaviors that are counter-productive, i.e., destructive to fellow team members and the organization. In addition to understanding the frequency and breadth of these costly behaviors, BHI wanted to gather the information necessary to accurately predict, prior to employment, those individuals who have a high probability of counterproductivity. Through focus groups with restaurant executives and employees, BHI identified 8 areas of counter-productive behaviors that warranted an indepth investigation:

Cash theft
Product theft
Alcohol/drug abuse
Sexual harassment
Anti-diversity
Disrespect for others
Unreliability
Food violations

The results of the investigation are alarming to those companies who participated in the research program. Significant destructive acts are occurring in their restaurants on a regular basis but appear to reach visibility only when these counter-productive acts are formally reported by restaurant employees or by customers. Usually, the reported behaviors result in an investigation or lawsuit, the termination of the employee for cause, and a loss of customers. Low levels of cash and product theft occur so regularly that most restaurant companies ignore it and assume it is part of the cost of doing business. One HR executive expressed concern that if their company tried hard to prevent the normal occurrence of product theft (food & drink), it would result in low employee morale and/or acts of retaliation (more theft or sabotage). An accurate accounting of the cost of all these counter-productive behaviors is impossible, but retail estimates of the loss totals billions of dollars. Several restaurant companies in our research program estimate that they are losing 2-3% of their revenues because of these destructive employee behaviors. Given the annual profit margin of the restaurant industry, a reduction of only ½ of all these losses could result in a 10-20% increase in bottom line profits, a potentially huge number for the entire industry.

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