The Employee Life Cycle - Part 3

In Part 3 of the Employee Life Cycle series on The Restaurant Roadmap Podcast, we focus on what happens after a new hire completes onboarding, and why most retention problems actually start during training and team integration.

This episode breaks down the differences among task training, standards training, and culture training, and explains why simply telling a new hire to “shadow someone” rarely produces consistent results. We talk through what clear training plans really look like in a restaurant, how to choose the right trainers, and where most operations quietly struggle with train-the-trainer gaps. You’ll also learn how to measure readiness before putting someone on the floor alone, and how doing it too early creates costly mistakes, frustration, and turnover.

We then move into integration, the point at which a team member truly becomes part of the team. We explore how social acceptance, unspoken cultural cues, and psychological safety on the floor and in the kitchen shape performance far more than most operators realize. We also discuss the critical role leadership plays in setting the tone, and why people often leave not because of the work but because they never feel they belong.

Finally, this episode looks beyond initial training into ongoing development and skill-building. From reinforcing standards over time to creating clear paths for skill development and mastery, we share practical ways to invest in people before problems arise. If you’re trying to avoid stagnation, burnout, and constant rehiring, this episode will help you build a training and development approach that actually supports long-term performance and retention.

What is The Restaurant Roadmap?

The Restaurant Roadmap is your guide to building and running a successful restaurant. Each episode explores the full journey of operations—from planning and development to menu design, execution, and growth. Hosts Danny Bendas, Amanda Stokes, and Chef Eric Lauer bring decades of expertise, joined by industry leaders and restaurant professionals who share their insights and stories. Together, they uncover strategies, tools, and lessons that help operators improve performance, strengthen teams, and elevate the guest experience. Whether you’re opening your first location or refining an established brand, The Restaurant Roadmap equips you to navigate every step with confidence.

Danny: Welcome to The Restaurant Roadmap podcast, powered by Synergy Restaurant Consultants, your go-to source for actionable insights and real-world strategies from the industry’s top experts, clients, and special guests. Whether you’re building a new concept or refining an existing one, we’re here to help you create a forward-thinking sustainable brand, elevate guest experience, streamline operations and maximize your bottom line. With decades of hands-on experience, our mission is simple: to deliver practical, proven solutions to the everyday challenges restaurant operators face. Let’s dive in and get to work.

Danny: Hello, everyone. Welcome to The Restaurant Roadmap Podcast. Today’s subject, a continuation of the employee life cycle, number three, and we’re very pleased to have with us, Amanda Stokes. Hello, Amanda.

Amanda: Hi, how are you?

Danny: Good, good. Long time, no talk about employees. Looking forward to it. And Chef Eric. How you doing, sir?

Eric: I’m doing great. Danny, how about yourself?

Danny: I’m doing really fantastic. So, excited to get back talking about this. So, the first two episodes, we talked about sourcing talent, recruiting, how do you recruit, how do you hire, how do you interview, and the importance of onboarding. And we know you know that’s your first impression that you make, right, and it can be great, or it could really suck, in which case the chances of keeping the employee are not going to be so great. So, we’re going to talk about training next, and we’re going to move into some other subjects as we go through our six-part series here.

So, I want to ask a question. I’m going to start with Amanda first because oftentimes when a new employee comes in, they basically get put with somebody on the team, okay? So, they could be a great trainer, not such a great trainer, they could be a great server, but not a good trainer. So, if you had to define the personality of a great trainer, Amanda, how would you define that and what is that personality?

Amanda: We look for somebody who has the patience and the skill set to teach. So, your most skilled team member is not always your best trainer. From a tactical standpoint, they know how to do the job, but when it comes to—you know, and it translates to how to teach somebody how to do that job, it’s the person who has great communication skills, who listens to understand, not to respond. So, we really look for a different skill set. And you know, we’ve all fallen into the trap—I know Eric has, we’ve talked about this—where we put our best, most skilled team members as trainers, and it doesn’t always pay off.

Danny: Eric, any add-ons to that?

Eric: No, I think Amanda killed it. You know, for me, the biggest thing for me, for a trainer, is patience, right? They have to have the ability to allow somebody to make a mistake so they can learn from that mistake, and they just can’t get overwhelmed by the fact that this person is working around them and could possibly be making a mistake in the long run.

Danny: Right. All right, so let’s just take that a little bit farther and say, can we develop a training program for the trainers, and what would that look like?

Amanda: I would say that the best restaurants always have a train-the-trainer program in place. And so, we train the trainers how to be effective communicators, how to get the information broken down, you know, most organizations have a tell, show, do review process where they go step by step with all of the learning that they need to accomplish within that module. And so, it’s very systematic, they’re testing for movement throughout. And so, when our trainers know how to customize the material to the type of learner that they have, they become much more effective and the material becomes much more sticky to that new learner. So, I think those two things are really critical.

Danny: Eric, what about certification? I think it’s great if you can certify people to be the trainers, and then you know that they’ve been trained, they know what to do and how to do it, right?

Eric: Absolutely. I think any training program starts with the trainers. You have to train them up, they have to understand what our goal as an organization is at the end of the training to be able to get there. They need a roadmap, so we teach them on the tools and the systems that provide the training, we teach them how to certify the new trainees, and we also certify them in the training program. That way there’s no ambiguity, there’s no light between us and them, and they understand what the end goal is, and we follow up with them on a consistent basis to ensure that they are still hitting all of those marks and doing it for every trainee, every time.

Danny: Yeah, and I think I’m moving on to another topic here that we always talk about—and I know, Amanda, you preach this religiously—is culture, culture, culture. And you can teach a task, but if the people aren’t infected with the culture of the brand, you haven’t hit them, you haven’t hit the mark, right?

Amanda: The culture is the secret sauce that makes an organization go from good to great. And the good news about a culture is, you can’t buy it, it doesn’t come in an Amazon or UPS package, you have to create it, and you create a great culture one person at a time, by the leadership consistently living those cultural beliefs, or those values, or you know, their motto. Whatever they have posted on the wall, it isn’t just wallpaper. It becomes how they live and how they treat each other, it becomes the language in which they speak to each other, and I think successful organizations who weave that culture piece into everything they do, not just training, are the ones where you walk through the door and you immediately feel that culture. And a great example, I know I’ve spoken about Chick-fil-A before, but Chick-fil-A does it consistently. In every state, every experience, they hit the mark.

Danny: Yeah. And that doesn’t end just when training ends, right? I mean, that lives through pre-ship meetings. Anytime you touch your team member, you’re constantly preaching, and that’s how you’re living your life—your restaurant life, I should say, right? So Eric, shadowing somebody just isn’t always the solution, right? So, give me some other suggestions besides just shadowing that person, right?

Eric: So, people learn in different ways, right? There’s kinetic leaders, there’s people who learn by reading, there’s all kinds of learners out there, so you have to meet them where they are. A lot of the newer generation coming up, they learn by watching short videos, so we’re seeing a lot of momentum in that out in the field, where companies and organizations are changing their training program from the sit down, I sit across from you and you read from a book to me. As a learner, that doesn’t work for everybody nowadays, so you’re seeing more bite smaller little videos that are taken on a consistent basis over the course of the entire training, and then followed up even after training for continued learning. It’s become an industry leader in how we’re doing training nowadays.

Danny: And didn’t you reference a client recently, we had—we were in our own strategy sessions, all of their training is on YouTube, right?

Eric: Yes.

Danny: It’s all visual and demonstrative—if that’s a word—demonstrative, right?

Eric: Right, so they did a great job. Everything was on YouTube. It was their own private YouTube, so they sat people down, it was on the TV, you can view it on your phone, any way you can consume this training. And it was, just for me, it was eye opening. And they utilized other areas of the industry to help get that. So, I believe they were using some ServSafe sanitation videos in there. So, they’re not recreating the wheel, they’re just giving their learners the best possible chance to get the information they want them to have. So, it was really inspiring to see that.

Danny: Yeah. And I know, Amanda, the other thing that you aspire and preach is having clear training plans, clear outlines, clear objectives, and clear understanding of the accountabilities so they understand what they need to learn. People work better in an organized scenario, right?

Amanda: And I find that sometimes we walk into a situation where surprisingly the client has really great materials and we’re impressed by what’s in writing, but it’s not translating to really well-trained team members. So, there’s a lot of pieces of the puzzle, and so I like to start with the corners when I do a puzzle, and so once you sort of have the edges of a puzzle, you can kind of fill it in, and to me some of the edges are right, starting with a great program, one, that’s really concise, really easy to teach and coach, starting with a group of certified traders, they’re really strong, they’re bought into the culture, they understand the brand, you know, having a clear plan on how to execute the training so you’ve had a great first day experience, you’ve sort of brought them into the culture from day one, and then having a great plan for follow up because, you know, we say it all the time, when somebody gets out of a training program, if we’re lucky, we’ve done our job, they know 30% of what we need them to know. So, what happens after day five? Like, sadly they’re not fully assembled, right, so they’re like that Ikea piece of furniture. You might have the outside, but you still got to put the drawers in, and you still got to put the wheels on the bottom, or whatever it is. It’s not a fully-assembled person in your organization yet, so it’s having a plan after that last day, that five days, so that there’s an ongoing training plan, and then the other pieces of the puzzle, you know, come within, you know, three to six months.

Danny: And you know, Eric, I think we probably have all experienced in restaurants where a new employee comes in, they get given to a trainer, but they never really see their manager, which I think is a real problem, right? So, what do you have to say about that?

Eric: I truly believe that the manager needs to follow up with both the trainer and the trainee at the end of each shift, and then greet them as they’re coming in for each shift, as well. You know, as a manager, I’ve had to shift trainees from one trainer to another because when the trainer came in that day, they were not ready to train. I could tell just from the conversation I had with them that it wasn’t going to be a great experience for the new team member, so I shifted that trainee from one trainer to another. I went to the other trainer and said, “Hey, listen, I got to make a change here. I need you to be a little flexible.” Had a conversation with them, explained the situation, and move forward in that direction.

And then, at the end of the shift, you know, followed up and did everything we needed to do then. But that’s important. You have to have a conversation with both the trainee and the trainer, beginning of the shift, end of the shift, just to find out how everything went, you know, figure out what their next steps are as far as training goes. Because sometimes somebody may need to repeat that day, right? They need to learn again and spend a little bit more time on whatever subject it was that day, be it in the kitchen, at the host stand, or on the serving floor. So, super important to follow up, but it’s also important that you had that conversation in the beginning to ensure that trainee is going to have a great shift that day.

Amanda: I love everything you said, Eric, and I just want to—before I lose this thought—is that you’re also telling the trainee that you are important, you’re important enough to the GM in the building, you matter. And so, as a new team member, I think that makes somebody feel really special, that you know, either the manager or the GM invested time and is invested in their learning. And I think that sends the message from day one that we take this seriously, and I absolutely love that.

Danny: You took the words exactly right out of my mouth. That’s exactly what I was—you know, making them feel part of the team, make them feel special, make them feel cared for, and that just builds that bond, which should be part of your culture, right? So, we get back to the whole culture thing too, right?

Amanda: I want to circle back to one thing. So, in the beginning, I worked with a brand that they did something significantly better than the competition, and they made a training board. And on that training board was a picture of all the trainers, sort of a little bio, who they were, and every time we welcomed a new trainee into the organization, they would have, you know, their little bio, their picture, and it was a really neat way of helping the team to connect sooner. Like, if you know Eric saw somebody’s picture and they say, “Oh, you have a cat? I have a cat too. She’s crazy. Her name’s Chloe, and she’s a lunatic.” And it’s like people connect that way where they find a commonality, and now, you know, that speaks to the culture within that restaurant, is that, you know, we’re making connections with people that are new.

Danny: Absolutely, and I think I referenced, in one of these podcasts somewhere, we had a client that, in the old days of Polaroid cameras, they took a Polaroid picture of the new employee, and then there was a thing the new employee filled out, you know, favorite movie, I have a pet, you know, whatever, and that got hung up on the employee board as a welcoming conversational break the ice. Which then leads into our next topic, which is integration. And you know, beyond the training, it’s also how do you make these people feel part of the family? So, let me have some of your thoughts on that, Amanda.

Amanda: From the beginning, when that trainee is taken around and they’re introduced to everybody, you know, it’s not just a, “Hey, say hi to Bob,” behind the line and Bob waves. It’s, you know, taking the time to make the introductions in the right way. I feel like that’s always valuable. And you know, I think some of the best groups, there’s always a danger of having a lot of, like, inside jokes and inside stuff that only the people know about, so it’s really creating a culture from the beginning that feels inclusive. People decide—and we’ve said this in probably many of our podcasts—in the first 24 hours whether they’re going to stay with you long term. And so, you know, those first couple of shifts are so critical. And it’s like, you know, teaching your team sort of that EQ, if you will, and you know to read the room, and when that person seems a little bit distressed, how to jump in and create the connections that make that person feel like they’re part of the team from the beginning.

Danny: All right. Eric, how does leadership, how does a management team help in this regard?

Eric: You know, we talked about it briefly already. You know, just having those conversations pre and post-shift, getting the trainee involved in the pre-shift meeting, letting everybody know a little bit about them at that point, and making sure that everybody has that opportunity to be introduced to both the trainee and the team, vice versa, so they have the opportunity to learn something about everybody. So, as Amanda said, that connection is being made, that culture is being built. Say, somebody’s a Dallas Cowboys fan, for some reason—I don’t know why they would ever do that—but you know, there’s going to be another member of the team that might be a Cowboys fan, and they can have that conversation. And it helps ingratiate them to the team, and the leadership helps facilitate that.

So, that’s what’s important from the leadership side of it is just ensuring that that introduction is being made at the right time, whereas Amanda said it’s not just a quick wave to Bob behind the line. “Hey, Bob, this is Sammy. She’s going to be working with us.” You know that never really helps out because Sammy is not going to remember Bob’s name, and Bob was making a burger, so Bob’s not remembering Sammy’s name.

I have a story about a cook. He told me I don’t learn any of the servers’ names until they’ve been here for three months. And I was like, “Hmm, why is that?” And he goes, “Because they turn over so quick and so quick.” And I challenged him on it. I said, “Maybe you’re part of the reason that they’re turning over so quick is because they don’t have a relationship. They can’t talk to you because you don’t know who they are.” And we turned it around, and the turnover in that restaurant dropped precipitously, and we were able to build a great team and work through it that way.

Danny: Yeah. And you know, the other nice benefit of that is, you know, like, if you’re a server and you’re having a problem with something, you can go to somebody in the kitchen, and at the kitchen, you just build that camaraderie and then teamwork where everybody helps everybody out because everybody understands everybody’s working for the benefit of the brand, the team, and everybody gets rewarded because of it, right? So, that’s it’s all—and again, it all gets back to culture, right?

Amanda: And you know, the thing is, sometimes a restaurant will have this great guest-facing culture, it’s fun and it’s recognizable and it’s energetic and it’s all those things you would want a guest-facing culture, and then the team-member-facing culture, it’s like a prison. And so, you know, it’s always amazing to me when we walk into a brand and there’s that duality, and it’s like, how did this happen? Because I know this isn’t what they wanted. Either over time the internal culture eroded, but if they—you know, you ever see the ones that they walk out in the dining room and they look like they’re having the best day of their life, and they walk in the kitchen and they look like they’re ready to murder you? And so, like, how does that happen? “It’s like, well, I smile out there.” Well, great. How about we try to smile in the kitchen too? And it’s like, you know, the best, you know, restaurants that we walk into, that culture matches internally and externally.

Danny: I could never figure out how people can do that. I don’t know. I guess I could never be an actor, I guess it’s the only thing I could say. Anyway… let’s talk about ongoing development because there’s the now, but then there’s also the future and I think Amanda hit the nail on the head. You get to a certain percentage to begin with, but there’s still so much more. And cross-training, and the more you learn, the more valuable you are, right? So, growth beyond training. What do you have to say about that?

Amanda: For me, it’s a very intentional process where, you know, there’s a road map, if you will, that you know, after your first, you know, five days, this is what you learn, and there’s ongoing modules throughout the process. And within that map, it should last for at least three months. We’re talking about 90 days. And then there’s also opportunities after that where they can see, hey, I can be cross-trained, and I can make another 50 cents if I do this, or here’s the progression from where I started today. Today I’m a host, the next step is I’m a food runner, and then I’m a server assistant, or whatever the organization’s succession planning is, that it’s laid out from the very beginning, and that there’s communication throughout the process. Because, like I said, we’ve walked into brands, and they have great ongoing training plans and none of it is executed, you know? It looks great on paper, conceptually it’s strong, but there’s no integration.

Danny: Eric, what would you like to add to that? Anything?

Eric: I just love that she brought up that they have these great programs that look fantastic on paper, but as we get in there and we dig in, we see that it’s not being followed. And what happens is somebody is pushed to the side or there’s no real pathway to growth, right? You have the little Candy Land-type map where you go from host to server assistant to busser, however it lays out, but then you talk to one of the people and they’re like, “Yeah, nobody ever follows that path. They’re never working in that direction. You know, they hire servers from outside.”

So, people get discouraged, and it really hurts that culture that you’re trying to build. So, the best organizations, they definitely follow that, they supplement their hiring needs as well with bringing some folks in from outside, but the best leaders and managers, they have those conversations with the person who was hoping to take that role and say, “Hey, listen, you’re just not ready yet. You’re only at spot X on this track. You know, we needed you to get to Z. Unfortunately we have to fill this spot now. When you get to that spot, we can work you in, but currently this is what our need is, and this is where you are, so we can’t move forward from there.” Communication is always the greatest key in these situations, and that’s what a lot of these leaders are not doing. So.

Danny: Yeah, and I think a lot of this gets down to we advocate a lot for succession plans. So, you know, it’s not just, I been here a year; I get a raise. It’s, okay, what value have you learned or what value can you bring, right? But let me throw this statement out and have you guys react to it before we sign off for this episode. My wife and I go out to a restaurant that just opened, and I always say to her, this is the best training the crew is ever going to be because they’ve gone through eight, nine days of training, and they’ll never get the same amount of training as they did for the pre-opening. What do you guys think about that? Is that right, or does it have to be right, or how do you fix it?

Eric: They may be the best trained, but they’re still very green as far as the restaurant goes. So, I would say don’t judge the entire operation during that timeframe. Give them the opportunity to hit their stride and get up and running because, like we just talked about, there’s still ongoing development and skills building. It takes four to eight to twelve weeks for somebody to be fully assembled in their new role, so if you’re going to a restaurant and you expect perfect service the week they open, it’s going to be a little bit rough sometimes. But give them time and go back consistently, and you’ll see the people getting more confident in their role, getting more comfortable in a role, understanding the entire environment, and that guest experience just gets exponentially better—hopefully—in the right places.

Danny: Amanda, what say you?

Amanda: So, I don’t know if it’s the best training crew you’re going to have. It’s the most invested in training you’ll ever be because there’s a lot of hands that are, you know, hands and feet that are moving to help this training take place, and so, most restaurants don’t have that budget on an ongoing basis. So, I think there’s more resources that are put towards that effort in the beginning. I would say that, you know, organizations that are very forward-looking are making sure that as training continues on, there’s just as much emphasis, maybe not as much horsepower because it’s cost prohibitive.

But I would say, from the beginning, that culture should feel amazing. These people are drinking the Kool-Aid, like, by the gallon, so if you don’t have happy, smiling people that really are embracing and loving what they’re doing, then I would be really concerned because that’s when the culture is the strongest, when it’s kumbaya, everyone’s high-fiving each other every day, and it should feel amazing. If it doesn’t feel amazing in the beginning, and if the bar was here from an opening, you’re in really big trouble with your culture. It should feel like from day one, and you know, then the job of the leadership in the restaurant is, how do you sustain that culture? How do you keep them drinking that Kool-Aid and still loving what they’re doing? And leadership owns that piece.

Danny: Yeah, and the reason why I made that statement, obviously, to trigger a reaction was, you know, and you guys made the points that all the training materials they sit on a shelf, and then six months after you open, when you have to replace people, you don’t follow the same regimen of training culture, and that’s when things begin to deteriorate over time because now you’re dealing with tribal training versus consistent training like someone got in the first eight days before you opened the restaurant. So, the point is, got to keep it ongoing, doing it the same way with every employee, certified trainers, good programs, and not cutting it short because, you know, you’re short servers, all of a sudden the warm body principle kicks in, and then everything just kind of goes to hell in a handbasket, right?

Amanda: Your training team is your, you know, that’s your North Star. So, if they are not living it and you’re not continuously going in and making sure your training team hasn’t gone off one degree because if every trainer moves one degree, one degree, one degree, it’s diluting your entire brand. So, great leaders have a lot of face time, they have monthly meetings with their certified trainers, they address any issues in terms of things that are happening in the restaurant with the team members so that training could be readdressed. It’s not just new team members; it’s how do you fix the issues that are currently existing? Or you see a trend and you’re like, yeah, we don’t like that. Let’s get the trainers on this. So, there’s a lot of ways to leverage that training team. It’s not just for training new people.

Eric: That’s true. And when you said that, it caught my mind, right? So, you want to not only do those monthly meetings, but you want to follow up with your training team on every shift, right? “Hey, this is what I’m seeing in the dining room today.” And they can help curb those behaviors during shifts and over time, so it doesn’t become a massive issue, right? So, they’re your eyes and ears in the dining room because there’s more of them than there are of you, so utilize them to really push your agenda and push that culture throughout the entire building so you’re gaining traction every day.

Danny: Very good, y’all. I appreciate it. Amanda, Eric, thank you so much. Another great episode. Nice cup, by the way.

Amanda: [crosstalk 00:26:23].

Danny: For those of you interested, reach out, [e-mail] comments, suggestions, topics, anything you’d like for us to talk about. And appreciate you being with us today. And everybody, take care. Thank you all again. Bye-bye.

Eric: Bye, Y’all. Have a great day.

Danny: Thanks for tuning in. We hope today’s episode gave you valuable insights you can put into action. If you have questions, want more info on today’s topic, or need support with your restaurant-specific challenges, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out anytime at [e-mail], and visit synergyrestaurantconsultants.com to explore our services, sign up for our newsletter, and catch up on past episodes. Don’t forget to follow and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook so you never miss what’s next. Do you have feedback or a topic you’d like us to cover? Contact us. We’re here to help make the world a better place to eat.