“Stay interviews” and manager certification programs were among the human resources initiatives honored for their innovation and effectiveness during the recent People Report Best Practices Conference in Dallas.
Operators in four industry segments were singled out for creating exemplary workplaces, including The Cheesecake Factory in the upscale-casual segment, Eat’n Park in fast casual/family dining, Logan’s Roadhouse in casual dining and McDonald’s Corp. in quick service.
“Their turnover rates for both management and hourly employees were among the lowest in their industry segment,” said Joni Doolin, founder of the People Report, a research firm and sponsor of the conference along with Black Box Intelligence, another research firm.
“Each cultivates a diverse workforce, with increased numbers of opportunities for women and minorities,” she said. “Their comp sales numbers were extremely good, and these companies all had robust programs for philanthropy.”
Dallas-based People Report provides its members with service-sector workforce metrics for more than 30,000 restaurant locations and a million employees each month. Its sister company, Black Box Intelligence, provides financial and market data for the restaurant industry, covering more than 12,000 units.
Finalists for the Best Practices Awards this year also answered questionnaires regarding their community involvement, corporate responsibility, employee funds and foundations, and initiatives in sustainable business practices.
Nation’s Restaurant News asked each of the four Best Practices Award winners what made their human resources programs especially effective in the past year.
Fast casual/ family dining
Karen Bolden, senior vice president and chief people officer, Eat’n Park Hospitality Group Inc., a chain with more than 75 units, based in Pittsburgh:
“We have a certified shift manager program, which we developed to certify our hourly supervisors. They are critical to management success because they cover a lot of the shifts and provide a lot of the support. We have strengthened that program, which has really helped our management.
“We’ve reduced [management] turnover. When you can reduce management stress with a fully staffed team, it helps. They train in a classroom, and then they have a program they go through at the restaurant. Then, they take an exam and get certified. We have a little celebration for them, as well.”
Eat’n Park’s certified shift manager program was beefed up this year, Bolden added.
“One important improvement/enhancement that we worked on in 2011 is that we have partnered with Westmoreland County Community College and their hospitality program to get our team members college credit at that school for completing the certification process.
“In all, they can earn nine credits from WCCC toward either a certificate or toward an associate degree. We think this will assist in helping them achieve their goals and will help us to develop our management from within. We hired more than half our management from our hourly ranks this year. Our certified shift manager program is one way we are working on building this pipeline.”
Upscale casual
Dina Barmasse-Gray, senior vice president of human resources, The Cheesecake Factory Inc., a 150-unit chain based in Calabasas Hills, Calif.:
“While you do exit interviews when someone leaves, we do ‘stay interviews.’ You have people you want to have stay, so you talk with them about how happy they are, how satisfied they are at work, and what would it take for somebody to take them away from us, and what is the one thing we could do to improve their work experience. When we looked at the retention statistics of those who had a ‘stay interview’ and those people who didn’t, [there was a dramatic difference between the two]. It’s a simple act, but it’s impactful.”
Casual dining
Christy Cox, senior director of human resources, Logan’s Roadhouse, a 206-unit chain based in Nashville, Tenn.:
“What drives our great results are what we refer to as the ‘Three Cs’ — which is our culture, compensation and consistency.”
Cox added that consistency extended to the tenure of the leadership team and the regional managers.
“Consistency, over the last couple of years during some of the challenging economic times, helped us maintain our great financial results,” she said. “With that high-tenured team, we were able to have a consistent message. It’s a lot easier to get that message down to our general managers and our hourly team members.”
That has enabled staff members to serve guests well and do what they are expected to do on a daily basis, she added.
Quick service
Peter Mazza, senior director of strategy and measurement for human resources, McDonald’s USA LLC, which is based in Oak Brook, Ill., and has more than 14,000 U.S. units:
“For us, the best thing has been alignment — getting everyone behind the same set of actions in the restaurants. We work real hard on communications and working with the operators and talking to our managers.”
Contact Ron Ruggless at ronald.ruggless@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless.
