For a small to medium sized restaurant, family health insurance will cost you ,375* per year per employee. Many restaurants are offering dental and even 401k’s.

The purpose of any employee benefit is 2 things: employee effectiveness at work -which increases restaurant sales- and employee retention -which decreases turnover and reduces restaurant labor cost from training new employees-.

By offering employee meals as a benefit you will:

: which increases passion for selling your food! I’ve seen so many restaurants where the employees know nothing about the food they are selling and are unable to give accurate, 5-star descriptions simply because they have not tasted it. Part of the cost of giving away food can be offset because, let’s face it, some employees are going to find a way to steal food; this simply writes the cost of theft off. Employees will talk friends and family into coming in and trying the food if they believe in it.

Don’t think of employee meals as 100% of the menu cost, it should really be 25%. For example, if your restaurant menu price is then the real cost for the employee meal would be .

Some tips for implementing an employee meal program:

for specials, wine, your most profitable items that you want to push. on ordering high restaurant food cost items. in order to maintain professionalism and respect of the chefs’ line. Offer a food discount: keep it consistent of employee meals: this needs to be recorded for inventory purposes and the restaurant cost is tax deductible