Jay Hinson, vice president of restaurant kitchen operations at The Cheesecake Factory Inc., urges operators to advocate for diverse workplaces to younger people and ask more open-ended questions about leadership.
Hinson provided diversity insights during a leadership spotlight at June’s Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance Roundtable at The Cheesecake Factory headquarters in Calabasas, Calif.
“I was groomed to be in this position,” said Hinson, a 26-year employee at the casual-dining brand. “I owe it to people in our company to do the same thing.”
In a conversation with Gerry Fernandez, president and founder of the MFHA, Hinson said he started in the industry in 1987 as a dishwasher and clam shucker, leading to his role today.
“I have 26 direct reports that are responsible for anywhere from eight to 10 restaurants, which gives them about 50 to 60 kitchen managers at their disposal, that they have to groom,” Hinson said. “I really believe my job is to get people — Black, White, Hispanic — to really understand how to look for talent. Talent comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders. I respectfully challenge every single promotion that hits my desk. I asked why? Why is this person special? Who did we pass up?”
Hinson has been involved with ProStart, the two-year, industry-backed culinary arts and restaurant management program for high school students. He said younger people, especially those in high school, are open to ideas of careers in hospitality beyond those of celebrity chefs.
“Hopefully we can get more people from the under-represented groups into larger leadership roles,” Hinson said.
However, young people expect the restaurant industry to have toned down what he called “this restaurant industry bravado that we had, almost a bully mentality.”
“These kids nowadays, they're not going for it,” Hinson said. “It’s not the environment that they want to work in. So when I hear managers and leaders speak that lingo, I call them out on it.”
To help create a diverse workforce, Hinson added, restaurant leaders have to listen to those in the workforce.
“I just listen [and] ask open-ended questions,” he said. “I can find out some of their concerns that they have in that restaurant. I can point them to what we believe as an organization, and I can address their concerns behind the scenes.”
Hinson added that minority leaders must be willing to share their own journeys and stories.
“I share my story with young people, especially men of color, in our company, I tell them where it come from,” he said. “I don't come from a lot. My background is we were very poor. I was told many times in my last company that I didn’t smile enough. ‘You don't look happy. Why are you not smiling?’ I didn't understand that conceptually. I'm doing a job; why do I have to smile?”
Restaurant leaders must realize that many workers face different experiences, such as long commutes on public transportation, to get to their jobs, he added. They also should find areas of common interest outside of the workplace to strike up conversations, Hinson said, saying he personally had no interest in golf and found it a bad topic for conversation.
Coaching of those in under-represented groups is also important to expanding their ranks in leadership, Fernandez and Hinson said, especially in financial areas as exemplified by an enterprise’s profit and loss statement.
“For many years — maybe even today — the assumption is African-Americans, women and Latinos may not understand the financial P&L as well as others,” Hinson said. “Anytime I walk into a restaurant, especially in this job, I think I owe it to people to really dig down and ask: Why is this person not on your list to be promoted. A lot of times I hear we have to work with them on the financials.”
He said profit and loss statements are important to provide actionable information to improve the business.
At The Cheesecake Factory, Hinson added, “We have a portfolio of up-and-coming talent. We really started that over the last few years also in identifying people of color and women and all of these other under-represented groups.”
The MFHA Roundtable also featured a keynote address by Joelle Martinez, president and CEO of the Latino Leadership Institute, and a “State of the DEI Industry Panel” that featured leaders from Taco Bell, Sodexo and U.S. Foods.
The MFHA plans similar roundtables Aug. 1 in the Boston area with Inspire Brands and Nov. 9 in Chicago with McDonald’s Corp. Registration is open for those events at a dedicated website.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected]
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