The niece of an acquaintance was telling her experience of being a guest and her first dinner with a friend in a senior retirement community recently. After stating how surprisingly wonderful the food was, she mentioned the service. The server was a young college student working her summer between semesters. She knew this because the girl told them, along with … Continue reading
Keep in mind that if you have residents in your senior living community, you need a food serving team to serve them. While this sounds elementary, consider that you want skilled, knowledgeable, talented, considerate, food servers that exude a pleasant attitude. Do you wonder where to find them? Do you wonder how to keep those in your employ from searching … Continue reading
An acquaintance recently told me about her teacher friend who was about to quit her position as a third-grade teacher. She could endure the ogre of a principal in the small school no longer. The woman caused friction between the other teachers and completely upset the staff, causing havoc and creating dissension with every one of her new rules and … Continue reading
Robert opened a bistro in a small town expecting people to flock in just because his place was new. Just in case that didn’t happen, he had a plan to use coupons, specials, and discounts to get people to try his menus. He knew once they came they would return. He was that confident in his menu, his serving staff, … Continue reading
Speaking of importance in a dining room… “I stopped trying to chase the perfect place to be, and realized the perfect place is with your loved ones and your closest friends, around the dinner table, over a good meal, talking about the past year and the year to come and things that you want to change in your life. You … Continue reading
I often write about welcoming new residents that have chosen your community for the next chapter of their lives, which may be a fresh beginning for them. Your dining room is an important place for them to meet friends by sharing a meal and listening to their stories. Another way to look at them is that they have chosen your … Continue reading
Ambiance in the dining room is vital to success in the community. That means a food serving staff working together, cheerfully, enjoying the work they do. Dining seniors will respond in kind to that attitude if they see it every mealtime. Forward-thinking providers and administrators see the wisdom and value of arming their food serving staff with skills that improve … Continue reading
If you think that the next employee you hire will bring a fresh new outlook to your present group of food servers, take a deep breath and rethink that thought. Remember the last time you hired a person you thought was perfect for the job only to find that one little item slipped through the evaluation and analysis. It’s the … Continue reading
Do you remember Deborah Kerr singing Getting to Know You in the film The King & I with Yul Brynner? It’s a lovely, happy scene where she meets the King’s children, all of them. As the new teacher, she is in the same situation as the food servers in your community dining room. She sings “Getting to know you, Getting … Continue reading
When Steve Jobs was forced out of Apple he didn’t sit back and watch others succeed. He bought Pixar and moved the company to a location planned with three separate buildings that would hold separate departments. He scrapped that whole idea quickly and decided that what his company needed was one, open space building with a central location such as … Continue reading
