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Employee problems almost always arise because the person doing the hiring is missing one simple piece of the puzzle. Family.

You may ask what in the world does Family have to do with hiring a crew? The truth is your crew is your Family. They are your restaurant Family and if you want a well trained and hard working crew you must understand that aspect of hiring.

From day one a new employee must understand that the real boss, in this organization, is the customer. If one person on this team drops the ball our customer could fire each of us. You must stress that fact, to your crew, every day.

A strong training program is the key to having a great crew. You should sit down for an hour or so and write a training program. Wow! You say. How can I do that? It's simple and it will solve many of your problems. This is how you do it.

A strong training program is only a list of things that you think are critical for creating a happy customer. You should break these critical items into categories such as wait staff, cooks, cashier and so on.

After your restaurant has been opened for a while you'll learn who your strong employees are. Let's take a look at your very best waitress for example. Make a list of each strong quality of this waitress. What things do you like about them? Example, she is never late for work, she smiles constantly, she dresses perfectly, she is very helpful and attentive toward your customers, she is fast and efficient, she is very organized, she has neat and clean work habits, she keeps the coffee pot full with fresh coffee. Now make a list of the things you do not like about this waitress. Her boyfriend hangs around your restaurant, she doesn't fold the napkins the way that you like, when she takes her break she takes far too long. Add to this list anything that you deem important be it positive or negative. Take the negative items, such as, her boyfriend hangs around your restaurant, and turn that into an employee rule, or a positive. No visitors while on duty.

Now, if you were to combine these two lists, you should have your perfect waitress and a perfect training program for any new waitresses in your restaurants future.

Continue this process for each area of your restaurant until you have covered every position. These are things you want each of your employees to learn and how you want each employee to act. Never settle for less.