Private: Smart rewards, this is how to keep employees engaged for a longer period of time

The number of zzp chefs is exploding, Ron Blaauw promises applicants a "house and a moped" in addition to a job. The departure of kitchen staff is a national problem, as Koninklijke Horeca Nederland also reported today in De Gelderlander endorses. The labor market is tighter than ever. And it will stay that way for the time being. Eight tips to get and keep good staff.

Bringing in good staff with great benefits, opportunities for advancement and attention to the person is important. If you then want to keep them for a long time in exchange for all those nice agreements, it is not unwise to make a few restrictive agreements that prevent anyone from quitting just like that. Recruiting good staff is one thing, keeping good people requires at least as much commitment.

Setting appointments

There are several ways to reward employees. This can be done with financial incentives, but also by investing in training, flexible working hours or sports. Please note: for all the financial options mentioned below, it is important that they are clearly recorded to avoid discussion. This can be done by including the agreements in the employment contract, in a supplement to an employment contract (addendum) or in a separate agreement. In most cases, a notary is not needed for this. Eight tips for getting and keeping good staff.

1. Wage increase

The most obvious form of financial reward. Keep in mind that this also affects taxes, social security contributions and pension contributions. For the employee, a higher salary sometimes entails the loss of certain allowances for rent, healthcare and childcare.

2. Bonus Scheme

A bonus arrangement is often linked to personal development goals and targets. The advantage of a bonus arrangement is that employees can help determine which activities receive extra attention. This way you take personal interests and specialties into account.

3. Profit Sharing Scheme

This involves agreeing that employees will receive a percentage of the profit when they achieve a positive result. The profit share is not paid out if the profit is less than a predetermined amount. To prevent employees from leaving halfway through the year, it is possible to impose conditions on the profit share. For example, an employee must have worked at least nine full calendar months to qualify for the profit share.

4. A stock appreciation right (SAR).

The essence of a SAR is that the employee is given a right of action on the value development associated with a share in the company. Suppose an employee receives a SAR corresponding to 1 percent of the shares in the company. The company is valued at one million euros. If the employee decides to leave after five years, he can exercise the SAR. The amount the employee receives depends on the value of the company at the time of exercise. Suppose the shares via the agreed valuation method are then worth three million, the employee receives €30,000 and benefits from a €20,000 increase in the value of the shares.

5. Certificates

This is a complex option that requires a lot of work. The use of a notary is required and there are disadvantages to the construction related to control and information sharing. It is therefore not of interest to most hospitality companies.

6. Training

In addition to financial incentives, there are other ways to retain employees. By continuing to educate employees, employees are often able to stay in their jobs longer and better. Investing in training is not only a necessity to motivate and retain good employees, but also a condition for being able to say goodbye to less well-performing employees. Since the introduction of the new dismissal law and the Work and Security Act, employers are more expected to invest in employee training and guidance. In order to dismiss employees, there is a requirement to first examine whether the employee cannot be redeployed through retraining and/or additional training. You do not always have to bear the costs yourself. Although there is currently no hospitality industry collective bargaining agreement that includes training budgets, municipalities and the UWV have made budgets available that you may be able to utilize.

7. Greater flexibility

Employees often need flexibility regarding working hours. For jobs where working from home is possible, this is easy to arrange. But for a cook or waitress, the situation is different. Still, it is worth exploring whether flexible start and end times can be used or a system can be created where staff schedule themselves. They then become responsible for their own schedules and can better accommodate work and care responsibilities.

8. Encourage health

More and more employers are implementing healthy perks for their employees such as a bike plan, healthy lunch and/or facilitating and funding fitness and sports internally or externally in the form of a gym membership.

Avoid leaving for the competitor

To prevent good staff from simply transferring to a competitor or making direct contact with important clients and suppliers, you can make (competition) restricting agreements. Many employers and employees are under the impression that these types of agreements are not valid, and an employee cannot be confronted with these agreements when transferring to a competitor. The reality is different. Although the rules in the law on entering into a non-competition clause were changed in parts in 2015, it is still common to include a non-competition and/or non-solicitation clause in employment contracts. A prohibition on recruiting colleagues for another employer is also common.

The legal requirements for a non-competition and non-solicitation clause are limited. If the employer agrees the non-competition and/or non-solicitation clause in writing with an adult employee, the clause is in principle valid and the employee is therefore bound by it. It only becomes different if the court finds that the clause should be annulled in whole or in part, or the employer voluntarily informs the employee that he will not abide by it.

In fixed-term employment contracts, an employer may not simply include a non-competition and non-solicitation clause. If he does, he must substantiate why he has an important interest in binding the employee to the clause. These compelling interests do exist in the hospitality industry. Cooks or company managers know the purchasing prices, know what target group a company is aiming at, what strategy has been devised and who the regular customers are from which a large part of the turnover comes. So it is not unusual to bind these employees to restrictive agreements. Record the agreements properly and make sure they are signed by the employee. That way, you prevent a good employee from walking away without you being able to do anything about it.