From the editor: From our culture to yoursFrom the editor: From our culture to yours

Sarah E. Lockyer

Culture is a funny word in the corporate context. It means so much in theory, but can be very easily forgotten in practice. 

As NRN explores in its special report, Win the Workplace, employee expectations are shifting all around us on pay, benefits and culture, and companies need to adapt to secure top talent. Brands that continually work to define, tweak and evolve their workplace culture and principles — and execute on the promises made to employees — will win in the extremely competitive labor market we all find ourselves in today.

Each magazine issue, for better or worse, you see my headshot on the Editor’s page, as I work to communicate with you on industry business trends, restaurant brand strategies and consumer changes and habits. It is my goal to always inform the NRN audience, share the insights I’m able to collect from industry leaders and even at times use this platform to push the industry into areas that may be uncomfortable.

This time, I want to highlight the full team at Nation’s Restaurant News. You know them; and their standing in the industry and in business-to-business media is unparalleled. The team you see here is the living and breathing culture that makes NRN the leading media brand it is today. Our mission is to inform our operator audience with news, insights, data and analysis that drives their businesses forward.

Our culture is to execute on that mission collaboratively, with hard work, kindness toward each other, and plenty of humor along the way. The stewards of our culture is the full team — not the leader, not a mission statement hanging on a wall, but everyone you see celebrated here.

Special report: Win the Workplace

Win the Workplace: Building a company employees love

Pay still rules in recruitment

Building a holistic benefits program

Culture counts for top talent

Labor crisis hits teens

Chefs wanted: Inside the kitchen staff shortage

Steal these ideas: Lessons from the best companies to work for

Operators share their top recruitment strategies

This isn’t your standard editor’s letter, and I’m sure I’ve lost some readers. But after spending so much time and effort with the NRN team on this special report — perhaps one of the best in our 50 years — I felt it was more than appropriate to share a bit of our culture with you.

As the restaurant industry convenes this week at the NRA Show in Chicago, NRN has provided business content imperative to any operator. We take a deep look at the shifting landscape of delivery; we present operator sentiment on sales, expectations and concerns from our recent Operator Survey; and, as noted above, we provide strategies that every business can use to win the workplace.

We hope you learn from our efforts here and use the data and insights to inform your business decisions.

From our culture to yours.

Sarah E. Lockyer, Editor-in-Chief
E-mail: [email protected]
Twitter: @slockyerNRN

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