Poor work ethic or poor support?

What are we missing beyond the onboarding training?

I was recently in a well known franchised burger restaurant with my daughter. The young person at the counter could barely muster the energy to ask what we wanted. They were slouched across the register, one elbow on the counter, tapping the order in with one hand.

The familiar questions that would normally be asked as part of the order process were noticeable by their absence, so I prompted the cashier instead by giving my choices anyway. It was almost comical. We ordered, sat down, and laughed about how disinterested this person seemed.

Then after a while, my daughter pointed out a table nearby that had sat uncleared for ages. Our conversation turned to how no one seems to care about customer service anymore.

I thought, “Maybe they’re short-staffed.” But no, the young server continued to walk past it multiple times, glancing but doing nothing. And it wasn’t particularly busy.

But then it dawned on me,

Have they actually been trained properly?

This might seem a cop out but hear me out!

(I think this thought came to me as I recalled emptying the dishwasher that morning with no offers of help from my adult kids)

It’s easy to criticise young staff. But we’re in a world where more young people live at home into adulthood. The household chores we were once expected to do from a young age aren’t being expected as the norm and family structure is changing. So, when they see a dirty table, does it even register as to the importance it holds to overall customer satisfaction, and that it is their job to clear it, not when they feel like it, but as soon as possible?

It should.Yes, you know that. I know that.

But do they?

I have no doubt that the company has an onboarding package. Maybe even a checklist on customer service and presentation. But what about ongoing development? Who on shift was tasked with managing that team? Who was coaching those young staff, giving real-time feedback, and modelling expectations?

Maybe it was just a slack day.

Or maybe there is something more we need to consider around improving the way we train and develop staff these days.

In small businesses, especially those that rely on young, casual workers, we often assume people know how to do the job because we gave them a few online modules to complete and got them to sign a complicated contract saying they will in return for minimum wage.

And now we want them to take initiative, use common sense, and deliver a great service to customers.

But those things are learned. And if they’re not taught at home, and we’re not teaching them at work… then where are they learning them?

If you run a business that employs young staff, I encourage you to think about how you're training the team.

• Are you clear on what good or great looks like?

• Have you built that into your training, not just at the start, but ongoing?

• Are your supervisors - often young themselves - being coached in how to manage, give feedback, and build standards for staff, often within their peer group?

• Are we avoiding providing one on one support due to time and pressures of the business, yet continually having to recruit and re-train a revolving door of casuals?

So, if you're a small business owner or employer of a large number of Gen Z I want you to consider this.

Instead of endlessly turning over staff and complaining about reliability, initiative or service, how about you start thinking about the different ways you can support your team?

Because with some simple changes to how you lead your teams you might be able to solve both problems.