“Applebucks” Used To Motivate Restaurant Employees

In a bid to reduce high turnover rates among their restaurant employees, Applebee’s International is following the management strategy of General Electric Co. (Applebee’s is the U.S.’s biggest casual-dining chain by number of restaurants—1,786.)

They’re doing it by ranking their hourly employees, and then rewarding managers for retaining the better workers. Managers get rewarded on how well they retain the top 80% of their staff, the “A” workers (top 20%) and “B” workers (the middle 60%).

To win employees’ loyalty, managers award them “Applebucks” points, the company’s currency, which can be used to acquire various goods and services.

The system is working, having reduced the annual turnover rate among hourly employees by almost half in four years.