bake - October 2015 - 14

labor front

Assign Trainees to Mentors
The retail bakery environment has a core set of skills across
most of the positions that make up ownership, management
and staff. While speciﬁc bakeries will have certain areas of
uniqueness that set them apart in terms of operation, there's
still a lot of commonality in the industry.
When it comes to training new employees, the best way a retail
bakery can get the job done without spending a lot of money
is to set up the new employee in a mentor relationship with one
of the best people at the job. If it's a new sales person, they're
paired up in a mentor relationship with the bakery's top sales
person, a new decorator gets paired with the best decorator,
baker with best baker, etc.
Shadowing
It's not in the best interest of bakery production to pull a star
employee away from the tasks they do best to train a new hire.
Instead, have the new employee shadow and simply observe
the star player in action for the ﬁrst few days.

the case that someone from the back of store might need to ﬁll
in for a missing salesperson, and in rare cases that production

Because a continuous learning curve exists in any workplace,

might need help from a front-of-store employee. While these

once all parties involved feel that the new employee is ready

scenarios are not ideal in the bakery setting, it's always a good

to begin working on their own, have the mentor supervise and

idea for coverage in emergencies.

be available to answer questions, give advice and tips while
the new hire continues to learn the job. Have the mentor give

If closing down the shop for employee training doesn't ﬁt into

management/ownership and the new employee updates on the

the store's schedule, it might need to be done on a day when

new hire's performance, their areas of strength and areas that

the shop is closed for business. If that's the case, incentivize the

need improvement with follow up from all parties

training so employees come into it with a good attitude. Either
of these might cost some time and money in the short term,

Specialized Training

but will be worth it in the long run.

Even though the retail bakery environment consists of speciﬁc
and highly specialized skills, technology permeates all areas of

Retention

business operation in today's world. From new equipment and

Once you've helped employees with initial training and skill

machines, to new software systems for point of sale, inventory

building, retaining them over the long term will prove beneﬁcial

control and customer service management, technology training

to business. The best way to accomplish this is by promoting

is must for all employees, new and veteran.

from within. Current and long term employees will already have
the best understanding of how your bakery operates, but in

When the time comes for new technology implementation at

addition, this sets an example for younger employees that the

your shop, always remember to cross train your employees in

company will reward loyalty and hard work.

14 < OCT 2015 | bakemag.com
http://www.bakemag.com
bake - October 2015

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