Courting customers with flavorful and labor-efficient menu itemsCourting customers with flavorful and labor-efficient menu items

Here is a bit of good news for restaurant operators with hiring headaches: the restaurant employment outlook seems to be slowly improving.

Restaurant job growth gained momentum in July, according to a National Restaurant Association economic analysis. Eating and drinking places added a net 74,100 jobs that month, which also marked the 19th consecutive month of employment growth in the industry. Nevertheless, “a strong majority of restaurants are still actively seeking to fill positions—even as they face the building headwinds of a slowing economy,” says the Association.

Operators can ease their labor concerns by using more prepared foods and cooking less from scratch. There are many high-quality, fully cooked foods that offer wide customer appeal and consistent quality as well as labor efficiency.

The fully cooked difference

Fully cooked chicken wings, one of America’s most popular finger foods, are prominent examples. They are ready to heat and serve with minimal labor and skill requirements.

The alternative to choosing ready-to-use wings is dealing with the labor, training and food-safety concerns of working with raw chicken wings.

In contrast, getting a head start by using fully cooked wings reduces training requirements and avoids problems. “You're not going to worry about training people to handle raw product,” says Beau Batchelor, corporate research chef for product development at Wayne-Sanderson Farms, which has a portfolio of three fully cooked wings brands. “You don't have to worry about employees changing cutting boards and changing gloves. Instead, you’re basically just going to portion out that product and fire it when the time comes.”

“Using a fully cooked product lends itself to repeatability and delivering the best possible customer experience every time, and that pays you back,” adds Batchelor.

And from a business standpoint, the ability to quickly rethermalize and serve wing orders “is going to reduce your pickup times and allow you to do more turnover, have more people in the seats and have more checks,” says Batchelor.

Furthermore, the time chefs save by using fully cooked chicken wings can be deployed in other useful ways, such as creating signature wing sauces that make the restaurant stand out from the competition. “We’ve given you the canvas,” says Batchelor. “Now you can go paint your picture.”

Power of the portfolio

The Wayne-Sanderson Farms portfolio of fully cooked wings meets the needs of foodservice operators who can benefit from having signature wings on their menus but do not have a lot of time, expertise and labor budget for product development.They make it possible for even an understaffed kitchen to serve outstanding wings.

Buffaloos: These chicken wings, available in bone-in and boneless chunks, have the bold and tangy classic Buffalo-style flavor profile.

Crispy Fliers: These wings deliver a consistent, craveable crunch. Available boneless or bone-in and mild or spicy, they can be customized with a vast array of sauces, rubs and seasonings.

Fly’n Saucers: This new brand of fully cooked chicken wings is available steamed or roasted, and adaptable to a wide variety of preparation styles and sauces.

Nice, sticky and craveable

Another time saving results from the fact that fully cooked wings are available with flavor profiles and textures that would be difficult to replicate in the kitchen with raw chicken wings.

“We enhance the crispness and crunchiness of the wings and improve their ability to hold sauce and be nice and sticky and craveable,” says Batchelor. “Those are some of the advantages of fully cooked wings in addition to those enhanced pickup times.”

For an example of how fully cooked wings streamline kitchen labor, consider a recipe like Hoisin Glazed Sticky Crispy Fliers, based on Crispy Fliers wings. It takes only 10 minutes to simmer a glaze of hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, gochujang and honey. Then simply deep fry the Crispy Fliers for 7 to 9 minutes and toss them in the hoisin glaze.

Similarly, it is short work to prepare Rosemary Honey Roasted Saucers with Fly’n Saucers wings, which can be rethermalized from a frozen state in 15 minutes in a convection or conventional oven and tossed in a glaze of honey, soy sauce and apple cider vinegar for 8 to 10 minutes. Take the wings off the heat and add minced fresh rosemary. Finish them off with optional garnishes such as coarse black pepper, scallions and lemon zest. “I find a combination of all three is the best,” says Batchelor.

In a time of persistent hiring challenges, using flavorful, fully cooked chicken wings can ease labor concerns. For more information, visit waynefarms.com/wings.

It is easy to see why flavorful chicken wings are exceptionally marketable in restaurants. It comes down to versatility and mass consumer appeal.

Since 1964, when the first plate of Buffalo wings in a tangy, peppery sauce was served at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, restaurants have sold an incalculable number of these palate-tingling delights. Over the decades, wings with many other flavor profiles, including honey-barbecue, teriyaki and sweet chili, have become hits as well. For restaurant operators, chicken wings with signature flavors are the go-to menu items to serve customers in the mood for fun, zesty and craveable munching.

“I can tell you that they're very, very useful to operators,” says Beau Batchelor, corporate research chef for product development at Wayne-Sanderson Farms, which has a portfolio of three fully cooked wings brands.

Craveable and customizable

It is a given that fully cooked wings have a faster order pickup time than wings cooked from scratch. But there are additional advantages. “The way we formulate these wings enhances their crispiness and crunchiness and ability to hold sauce,” says Batchelor. “They’re nice and sticky and craveable, everything you’re really looking for from wings.”

Versatility is another strong suit. Frozen, fully cooked chicken wings come in a variety of styles—bone-in and boneless, and with seasoning levels ranging from mild to spicy. And they adapt readily to all sorts of added sauces and flavorings. They are quick and easy to prepare for both dining room guests and off-premises orders. Just rethermalize them and glaze with a sauce.

What’s more, the inherent customizability of wings makes them appealing to many people who love to put personal flavoring touches on their food. In fact, 74% of customers want to be able to customize the items in their orders when they get food delivery, according to the DoorDash Restaurant Online Ordering Trends report last year. This makes it easy for operators to create a selection of signature chicken wings with distinctive flavors that appeal to patrons with experimental tastes.

Finally, wings are a superior food for delivery and takeout, which have become widespread consumer habits these days. The simple reason is they maintain their flavor and moistness extremely well when packed up to travel. In fact, chicken wings are one of the few menu items that are just as good for home delivery as they are in the dining room.

Batchelor sums up the deliverability of wings: “They’re versatile and they hold for a very long time. When you've got nice, glazed honey-barbecue wings or Buffalo wings, they are going to hold well and your customers will be happy.”

It should also be noted that the low labor requirement, speed of preparation and wide appeal of fully cooked chicken wings makes them ideal for small-footprint stores that specialize in takeout and delivery. Those same attributes make them appealing additions to restaurants with broad menus and a combination of dine-in and off-premises business.

Betting on the portfolio

The Wayne-Sanderson Farms portfolio of fully cooked chicken wings brings restaurant operators the advantages of labor efficiency and consistent flavor and texture while providing the variety that is so important to flavor-craving customers.

Buffaloos: These are traditional hot and spicy Buffalo-style chicken wings. “They have an exhilarating heat, but it’s manageable,” says Batchelor. “We marinate them to give you that great classic Buffalo flavor all the way to the bone.”

Crispy Fliers: These wings offer “an overwhelmingly, really crispy bite,” says Batchelor. And they lend themselves to picking up the flavor of sauces, which makes them ideal for customized signature wings offerings.

Fly’n Saucers: This is a new wings brand available in oven-roasted or steamed for versatility. “It’s a workhorse wing with a savory, solid chicken flavor for anyone cooking in an oven, either conventional or convection,” says Batchelor. “They reheat evenly and go well with pretty much any glaze.”

Having products like Buffaloos, Crispy Fliers and Fly’n Saucers in the kitchen enables an operator to promote seasonal specialties and limited-time offerings just by varying the sauce flavors.

“You could turn Crispy Fliers into teriyaki wings that are perfect for an Asian grill,” says Batchelor. “Or if you have a sports bar, you could combine them with lots of different flavors or just make a simple, crispy wing that goes great with a beer. You can use the same product to do all of that.”

A lineup of fully cooked chicken wings with signature flavors is a crowd-pleasing addition to a restaurant menu. For more information about the Wayne-Sanderson Farms wings portfolio, visit https://waynefarms.com/wings.

During any time when doing business becomes even more challenging than usual, whether that’s a run-of-the-mill recession, a 2008-style financial collapse or a global pandemic that disrupts their customer base, labor pool and supply chain all at once, restaurants that survive respond by getting leaner and smarter.

Many successful chains did just that, squeezing more out of each restaurant, as indicated by the fact that sales growth far outpaced unit growth at many of the most successful chains.

Starbucks, for example, opened a net 113 locations in 2021, a unit growth of 0.7%, but saw sales rise by nearly $3.56 billion, or 19%. The Seattle-based coffee specialist saw increased traffic even as it raised menu prices in October. In fact, the chain’s customers seemed to take the price increase in stride.

“In terms of elasticity, we have not seen any meaningful impact to customer demand,” Starbucks chief operating officer John Culver told investors during an earnings call for fiscal 2021. “To the contrary, our customer demand continues to grow. We're coming off a very strong quarter in terms of transaction growth at 12% for the quarter in the U.S., the highest since pre-pandemic levels, and our ticket is also very strong.”

The same holds true for Noodles & Company. The fast-casual chain ended the year with six fewer restaurants than it started with — a 1.3% decrease — but saw a 20% bump in overall sales, thanks in no small part to higher prices: It raised them by 3% in August, followed by a 2% increase later in the year.

“Over the years, we’ve been soft in terms of price increases,” CEO Dave Boennighausen said in an earnings call in October. “As we evolve and improve the concept from a quality and food perspective, we feel value remains very strong.”

As with Starbucks, Noodles’ customers seemed fine with those price increases.

“We have not seen resistance over the past few months,” he said.

That sentiment seems to be pretty common, according to Brian Warrener, an associate professor at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., who specializes in teaching food & beverage hospitality and management. He told attendees of the recent National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago that many operators he has spoken to who have raised prices received little to no pushback from their customers, as long as the quality of food and service were maintained.

He cautioned, however, that as the middle class gets squeezed on gas and food prices, a majority of them say they plan to cut back on how much they spend on restaurants.

Gunther Plosch, Wendy’s chief financial officer, told investors he was aware of the need to strike a balance between raising prices to remain profitable while keeping customers’ needs in mind.

“We're going to watch value and value perception,” he said when reporting on the quick-service chain’s 2021 earnings. “About 30%-35% of our consumers are making less than $45,000 a year, so we need to make sure that we are striking the right balance and maintaining value perception.”

Nonetheless, Wendy’s made a 6% price increase in the fourth quarter, which Plosch said was in line with the inflation rate of food away from home.

Wendy’s opened a net 53 restaurants in 2021, increasing its system by 0.9%, while enjoying a sales increase of 8.6%.

Plosch said that, apart from raising prices, a $25 million increase in spending on breakfast advertising also helped. That daypart, introduced days before the pandemic started, accounted for 8.5% of sales during its 4^th quarter biscuit promotion.

Noodles & Company’s sales also benefitted from the rollout of new equipment, specifically steamers that increased both throughput and product consistency, as well as menu innovation in the form of tortelloni, a stuffed pasta, which had long been a top request among its customers.

Along with raising prices, investing in marketing, rolling out new equipment and introducing long-requested menu items, some chains did less with more by cutting down on their offerings.

Dine Brands Global made use of consumer leniency in the early months of the pandemic by slashing the menus at IHOP and Applebee’s by about one third.

Then-CEO Steve Joyce said he had no plans to bring back those items, and in fact last year Applebee’s menu innovation was minimal, with little more than some monthly drink specials and summer limited-time offers, and new versions of its budget platform Irresist-a-Bowls.

IHOP was a bit more ambitious, with the permanent addition of some melts and burritos, but the menus remain more streamlined than before the pandemic, allowing for more efficient kitchens, improve profitability and more satisfied customers.

“Any brand that has the venerability of our brands has had decades of additions, and we always talk about it, but we can never seem to get rid of the product, because someone’s selling it to somebody,” Joyce said in 2020, adding that the pandemic gave them the leeway to do that.

That approach seems to have benefitted both chains: Applebee’s systemwide sales were up by 34.4% despite just a 2.2% unit growth, and IHOP, which grew its number of units by 1.7%, saw sales rise by 38.5%.

With the cost of doing business rising and operators facing the triple headwinds of labor shortages, supply-chain disruptions and inflation, emerging restaurateurs should know their brands well and perfect their operations before opening new units.

That was the advice provided by veteran operators in the first of a six-part monthly series geared toward emerging operators and hosted by Nation’s Restaurant News and its CREATE educational program, in partnership with investment group Savory Restaurant Fund and research firm Black Box Intelligence.

This particular webinar was sponsored by geo-fencing platform Radar.

Andrew Smith, Savory’s managing director, told attendees that his company doesn’t define growth as opening new units. That, he said, is “scaling.”

Growth is improving operations, and therefore profitability, of the restaurants you already have, he said.

“Growth is increasing revenue through repeat transactions — repeat consumers,” he said, cautioning that raising prices could give you a false sense of growth by inflating same-store sales figures.

“[It’s] making sure you take care of what's under your roof, or multiple roofs that you have today. It's not adding more roofs. … Fortify the position that you have now and make sure the foundation of this business is as strong as it could be,” before thinking about opening new restaurants.

Victor Fernandez, Black Box’s vice president of insights and knowledge, agreed that, although most restaurants have had to raise prices due to rising costs, it’s not necessarily great for business. He said restaurants that have raised prices the least are seeing faster growth in sales than those restaurants that have raised prices the most. He added that customers have noticed which restaurants’ prices have gone up the most: They score lower in terms of value perception.

Restaurants also are scoring better among guests who dine at the restaurants than those who order takeout and delivery. On a 5-point scale, in-restaurant dining at full-service restaurants on average score 4, while off-premises scores average 2.8, with the most criticism coming from delivery times.

Coby Berman, co-founder of Radar, said technology can help speed up delivery times. For example, through geo-fencing restaurants can anticipate when customers, or third-party-delivery services, are going to arrive so the food can be prepared just in time.

Additionally, the technology can alert the front-of-the-house when a customer is arriving, “So you don't need to constantly pick your head up and run out to see if someone has arrived. You have that information automated, ultimately making your job much easier,” he said.

Jason McGowan, founder and CEO of Crumbl Cookies, now with nearly 550 locations; Lauren Bailey, CEO of Upward Projects, which operates 24-unit Postino as well as several single-unit operations (and two-unit Joyride Taco House) near its Phoenix headquarters; and Jeff Chandler, CEO of 32-unit Hopdoddy, all agreed that perfecting operations in the units you have is essential if you’re going to scale your concept successfully.

McGowan has expanded Crumbl through franchising, but he said having a good tech stack was essential to making that work in order to provide delicious cookies consistently and to spot problems.

For example, customers are invited to upload pictures of their cookies, and then Crumbl has an internal system that looks at the cookies and rates them, and then sends scores to franchisees comparing them to other franchisees while also indicating what looks wrong with each cookie so they can fix any operational problems.

“We invested a lot in technology to really help us scale,” he said.

He added that there is a lot of off-the-shelf technology available to operators, such as those for operating loyalty programs, but if something is core to your business and not readily available, “I wouldn’t hesitate to invest a little bit in technology.”

Chandler said that when he joined Hopdoddy it was too complex a concept to franchise because of a lot of scratch cooking and other brand idiosyncrasies, but he used the time during the pandemic to develop internal processes that means the company now views franchising as one of three avenues for growth, in addition to organic company growth and acquisitions, such as Grub, another better burger chain with 16-units that Hopdoddy has acquired.

Bailey said that it’s important for operators to understand how customers use their restaurants and to foster use of multiple dayparts and occasions.

“One of the things we're most proud of [at Postino] is that the daily sales go over multiple different hours of the day, so you don't just have lunch and dinner. …  You might see someone drinking wine and working on their computer. You might see girlfriends meeting for a drink after work. You might see people on a first date. If you want [to earn] more than $1,000 per square foot you've got to really think about these different dayparts and use cases.”

Fernandez indicated that there was opportunity for restaurateurs to expand beyond traditional dayparts, especially since the fastest-growing time of day is the mid-afternoon, between lunch and dinner.

He said that had to do with more people working from home or working for themselves, meaning how they order their lives is more flexible.

When it comes to taking on capital investment, Smith warned operators to be methodical. He said it’s important to structure deals in such a way that the investors don’t insert “silver bullets” into the contracts of the deal that makes it difficult to buy them out or take on more investment.

“Make sure that you get an attorney to review all documentation before you take money from anybody,” including family members and friends.

He also warned against structuring deals that put your valuations too high.

“Then you’re living with that sin for a long time of trying to chase that valuation.”

To see the entire webinar and register for future presentations, visit nrn.com/livelearning. 

It’s no secret that labor retention is one of the toughest challenges facing restaurant operators today, and while increasing wages might seem like the one-size-fits-all solution, it is only the beginning to changing rapid industry turnover culture.

During the latest CREATE Live Learning Series, editorial director Sam Oches and Savory Fund’s Andrew K. Smith hosted a panel of operators to discuss labor retention strategies with Victor Fernandez, vice president of Black Box Intelligence; Clay Dover, CEO of Velvet Taco; Patti Simpson, chief administrative officer of Union Square Hospitality Group; Katie Bach, chief business officer of &Pizza; and Luke Fryer, CEO of Harri.

“Retention is one of the few things you can control,” Patti Simpson said. “You can’t control the labor market or macroeconomic factors but you have control over what happens within your four walls.”

But how should operators approach turnover rate improvement?

Wages are by far the biggest concern of employees who don’t want to stick around

According to data from BlackBox Intelligence, 92% of operators surveyed said that the number one change that helped non-management employee retention is raised wages. For management positions, wages are still the number one turnover cure, but they are followed closely by career development opportunities.

“Starting wage attracts them but once they’re there and they encounter a team culture that’s not a right fit, that’s when they leave really quickly,” Victor Fernandez said. “Culture is how you make that transition from ‘I just want to get paid’ to ‘I want a career in the industry.’”

Katie Bach agreed and said that when she joined the &pizza team in Dec. 2021, they were struggling with turnover rate, so they had to change their approach to improving staff culture to encourage longevity, especially since in the limited-service brand of the restaurant industry, 61% of employees have been at their job less than one year, according to BlackBox Intelligence data.

“Pay matters, but you want meaning and a sense of belonging,” Bach said. “[…] Even if you’re paid well, if you have enough days in a row where you’re disrespected and set up to fail, you’re going to leave your job.”

Bad managers make good employees quit

That’s why if you want employees to last longer than a year, operators should pay attention to how managers are treating their employees.

“The fastest way to get someone to leave quickly is to have them work under a manager that treats them disrespectfully,” Bach said. “When I worked at Starbucks, we used to hear from employees all the time either ‘I’m loyal to this company because my manager is great’ or ‘my manager does not treat me well.’”

In response to these observations, &pizza has been rolling out manager programs and training tools which they had previously not had.  

Use surveys and data to learn what your employees want

Almost all of the operators who spoke at the CREAT Live Learning session said they’ve learned a lot just by surveyed their employees and keeping track of employee data.

“We started measuring retention by restaurant and making retention front and center on our priorities list,” Clay Dover said. “We took our eye off the ball just for a bit and became worse than the industry average. We do a happiness survey twice a year and I personally read all of the team member comments and raw data. It’s amazing to hear their perspective.”

Focus on the first 90 days

According to recent data, nearly one-third of all employees quit their jobs within the first 90 days, across all industries. So, restaurant operators should try to particularly focus on a smooth training and onboarding process.

“Look holistically at the new employee experience: how are you interviewing, what is the training, etc.,” Luke Fryer said. “Understanding the employee experience is about how you’re hiring your employees, moving them into a role, and communicating them about their schedules.”

Predictable scheduling should be priority

Flexible scheduling was another of the top priorities of employees, alongside fair pay/higher wages and career opportunities.

“A fair workweek is about having predictable schedules,” Fryer said. “This pattern is so important: you have to plan out predictable schedules far in advance.”

Focus on internal promotion

The last, but not least, key to the retention puzzle is promoting internally, which helps employees have a sense of purpose and also cuts down on costs needed to hire externally.

“We made internal promotion a priority at &pizza this year,” Bach said. “We gave a big shoutout when someone was promoted internally and whenever a manager made a request for advertising a leadership role externally, I’d ask why they hadn’t considered someone internally first.”