Community Service and Employee Retention

A recent survey of unit-level employment practices shows tat philanthropy can have great rewards for restaurants. People Report™, which benchmarks human resource practices in the foodservice industry, found a strong connection between a restaurant's participation in volunteerism and far lower employee turnover rates.

The survey found that when a restaurant simply sponsors or contributes to charities, there was not a strong relationship with employee turnover. However, restaurants that also allowed their employees to participate in charitable events on company time and/or allowed schedule flexibility to do so had dramatically lower employee turnover.

People Report Founder and President Joni Doolin says, 'While the perception is that fostering volunteerism doesn't do much, the reality is that it can do a lot. We believe that this provides a huge opportunity for operators who can fill this need for employees.'