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Employee food policies

We have been thinking about this but have not made any firm decisions. In general, an entitlement offer such as food discount is used to attract new employees and is not very motivating to keep them. They “expect” it whether they perform well or not. I hope that it is a nice feature but not something to rely on to get them to be great team members.

  • No paid breaks. (I have not seen where this is federally mandated and shifts are usually shorter than 8 hours for most of the employees anyway. If someone can find it in the labor laws, please post the link.)

    $1 per hour worked earned towards food/drink credit. Accumulates on a gift card and can be used anytime outside of shift and for whoever they want. Ordered and paid for at register like regular customer. We will probably cap this at $200 or so if they do not use it and it cannot be “cashed out” if they leave.

    If we have a break room, they can eat there. If they want to eat in the dining room, they will need to change out of uniform.

    When we introduce new products, employees and their family/friends will be invited and encouraged to attend the complimentary tasting.

If you feel I am violating some law, please post a link so that I can read up on it. I have just started this discussion with my partner so it is apt to change.
 
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50% off, 15 minute to eat, paid time
over that 30 or more minutes off the clock…

conditions apply, ie, not during rush, no purchases for friends, etc.

Otis
 
50% off if working personal food only. 10% off if not working they can buy for their friends or family if they want with the 10% off, this promotes them bringing people with them to eat.
 
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50% employees and direct family.

I provide drinks, usually canned pepsi product stored in the walk-in.

Employees are NOT allowed to purchase drinks from the pepsi cooler. As a matter of fact they can not even bring in from home, anything we sell. There-fore we will eliminate any chance of drink theft that is very common in this industry.
 
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Also…on a side note. We have a tip jar that every one participates in ($ divided up by hours worked).

Everyone is in the pool accept for me and my partner and the drivers.
 
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All the pizza and salad they want to eat, free, any day they are scheduled to work whether they are on shift or not. 50% off on other food anytime, carry out only. No delivery at employee discount price.
 
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Here’s how it goes at the place I work.
  1. 50% off, carryout, any employee, anytime.
  2. Free meal and 30 mins to eat (un-paid) if you work 6 to 8 hour shift.
I’m not sure that I agree with the other poster who said it should be a new employee incentive and it’s not something that keeps them going.

In any pizza, or other food job I’ve had, actually, there has always been a meal discount, and to me, it’s a large reason to consider working at a place or not.

Yes, there are some people that don’t work to your standards…but, to me, it would make more sense to discipline and if they don’t get it, fire them.

Their mistakes and laziness will cost you a lot more than the employee meal discount given…so I say make it a good discount, and keep it going, and don’t let the “bad apples” spoil the whole picture.

This not only encourages employees to work well, it also shows brand loyalty…and what a better sign to your customers than when they see one of your employees leaving with YOUR brand of pizza in tow.
 
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In my stores we start a shift with a crew pizza, one or more, as needed. The employees can also eat any mistakes we make and can drink as much soda as they like. They are allowed one free pizza a week for themselves to take home. If they come in a night they are off, they get 50% off the first pizza but everything else they get is full price.
 
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Thunderman:
The employees can also eat any mistakes we make and can drink as much soda as they like.
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In my opinion this will only encourage “mistakes”. Instead, I implemented a successful policy of feeding the crew for free any evening that no mistakes were made. We rarely had mistakes after that.
 
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I agree with you there dewar.

It does encourage those accidental “whoops”…but what our restaurant does is throw away mistakes (very few), but DOES let employees eat cancelled orders or those where the customer modifies the order after we made it.
 
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Rest periods of short duration, usually 20 minutes or less, are common in industry and are customarily paid for as working time. These short periods must be counted as hours worked & the employee paid. Any breaks 30 minutes or longer the employee does not have to be paid for it.
This is by US Department of Labor laws under their “Wage & Hour Division”. Just Google & you can find it.
 
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Not many of my employees are hungry enough to get fired for intentionally (or unintentionally) making mistakes. Especially since we start every shift by feeding them. We average less than 2 mistakes a week, so we are doing ok.

Back to the topic, I also don’t give paid breaks as most employees work 4 hour shifts, the most anyone can work is 6 hours.
 
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asheborobluecomets:
Rest periods of short duration, usually 20 minutes or less, are common in industry and are customarily paid for as working time. These short periods must be counted as hours worked & the employee paid. Any breaks 30 minutes or longer the employee does not have to be paid for it.
This is by US Department of Labor laws under their “Wage & Hour Division”. Just Google & you can find it.
Click to expand...
I saw that. (As you cut and paste some from it, it would be nice to also post a link to it).
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs22.htm

What it means to me is there is no mandatory break time, but if you offer it, you must pay them if it is 20 minutes or less. I guess I am a hardass, but I don’t believe in the expectation of “breaks”. If you are working 8 hours or more, clock out sometime in there for a meal. But if you are working 4-6 hours, just work hard like I do and leave when the load eases up and your station is clean.
 
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It’s been my experience that there “ARE” no breaks in the pizza business, unless you’re an Assistant or Shift Manager or another position working 8 hours.

Take tonight for instance…we were slow from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., so I took the time to stock my make table and slap out some extra dough…and when it would slow down in between rushes…I took the time to restock and refill.

The only break I got was when I punched out for the night.

I don’t think you’re being a hardass per se…it’s just one of those “learned as you go” things to an employee new to pizza.
 
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we do a straight 50 percent
we also make a pizza for staff on friday and saturday
when they pic up off the clock we give them their discount as well
but full price to be delivered
 
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