Well, welcome back to another episode of turning the table.

My name is Adam Laman.

We're here with Jim Taylor of benchmark 60, and this show is about staff centric

solutions for today's restaurant operators and how they can leverage some new

information to create a workplace culture that anybody would be happy to work at.

Hey, Jim.

I'm great.

How are you?

I'm doing fantastic.

How's how's the how's life with the new baby.

It's amazing.

It's just different.

Right.

Just trying to get, get used to the, the chain, but it's, it's amazing.

She's great.

So, thanks.

That's fantastic, man.

Yeah.

And you know, today's topic is kind of apropo because today's topic is, you

know, willingly embrace the change.

So how have you gone about willingly embracing this huge change of

having a brand new life in your.

Well, I mean, how can you not for one, right?

I mean, it's, it's what amazing experience, but yeah, I mean, we've been

talking my wife and I have been talking lots about the fact that it's, there's

this, you know, lots of good stuff going on in, in the business side of things

and in, you know, spending time with guys like you and talking about how to move

the, the restaurant industry forward and that kind of thing, but there's also,

you know, my office is at home, so.

Right.

Feet away.

There's, you know, a, a draw on someone else on hospital time.

So it's been interesting to kind of figure out that balance, but

it's a, it's a really good problem to have, so, yeah, everything's

great.

That's awesome.

So perhaps I want to just start off in this place where we're

talking about embracing the change.

And for anybody who's perhaps unclear about what we might be talking about.

We're talking specifically about the hospitality, food and beverage industry.

And of course there was the huge upheaval with COVID.

But after that, when everybody started coming back and reopening,

uh, many operators were that it wasn't business as usual.

And we're trying to figure out what the heck to do.

And they were confronted by, you know, some things that hadn't happened before.

So what change are we actually talking about?

Well,

it, you know, in, in my, in my opinion, the, the change in

restaurants has been, I mean, it's been all encompassing that's happened.

And, you know, I think the change that we wanna spend more time

talking about is, is how to make this more of a people-centric industry.

I want, I, you know, at the risk of saying again, I mean, we wanna make

it more about, you know, people loving working in restaurants again, but, you

know, I was thinking about knowing that we were gonna have this conversation

thinking about just all the stuff that's happened over the last few years.

And you know what, I don't blame most operators for forgetting a little bit

about their people, which might sound crazy mm-hmm . But if you think about,

they went from open to close, to open, to close to takeout, to, you know, building.

Temporary patio to all these different things that were being thrown at

them, credits, repay those credits, pricing changed, inflation, all

of this stuff that's going on.

I don't, I don't blame them for getting really caught up in that.

Mm-hmm I think where there's opportunity and where I hope a lot

of operators are starting to think now is that this labor shortage and

retention challenge that's happening is the next version of those things.

And if they don't address that the same way that they addressed closing,

opening takeout, you know, temporary patio, all of these different things.

They're gonna be in, you know, equally, if not more trouble than they were

based on those other variables.

So, you know, I think that's a change that we wanna

talk about.

Yeah.

And I, I couldn't agree with you more, um, during COVID and post COVID,

I, you know, kudos to most of the restaurant operators out there because.

There wasn't a challenge that they didn't necessarily have some response to.

Like you said, some folks completely changed their closed their dining

rooms and set up tables on the sidewalk socially, socially distanced.

So they were all up for whatever operational challenges were thrown

at them in order to stay open.

And yet now that things have kind of relaxed a little bit and things

are quote unquote, back to normal.

Now, all of a sudden they're discovering.

There's a lot of challenge.

As far as keeping staff, attracting staff attracting the right staff.

And that's why we're so excited to bring on Scott Turner from Oden

hospitality all the way from England, because this is something that's

near and dear to his heart as well.

Warning Scott, how are you?

Hey

Adam.

Hey Jim.

Hi.

Welcome now for anybody, that's not either with you in your work.

I loves for you to kind of give us a, a thumbnail sketch of your efforts to this

end, but maybe you can first start off by telling us what Aden actually stands for.

Sure Aden stands for old friend.

And when we were, when we were looking at the name for the business, you know, we,

we really wanted to put it around people.

And why did we choose our old friend?

Because your oldest friend is generally the person you turn

to and you're our hour of need.

And it's the guy who you always turn to for advice and, and trust.

So it just seemed like a.

Name to call the business.

And a few of the people who were on board and on the team with me, we've

worked with for a number of years.

So, uh, they kind of fit the whole thing around audience.

So, yeah, that was really nice.

But you know, in a nutshell, we are really passionate about

helping restaurant entrepreneurs.

Young brand chefs really grow, develop, and.

For the future.

And you know, we're going to talk about a much more important

subjects than, than that soon.

But I think it's really important that as we start building brands and we start

building new vitality ventures, we start thinking about the people that sit inside

of it because they are the people who are going to be the heroes of the future.

Right.

So we are working with entrepreneurs, as I said, with chefs.

And, uh, we're looking at everything from it, starting the brands,

starting the concepts, looking at business plans, how to make it viable.

When's the right time to jump.

When's the right time to hold.

And then when we get in operations, how we develop amazing cultures that really

fit around the principles that we have.

And

can you talk a little bit about what those principles are?

What are the, what are the core values that you and Oden hospitality

strive to embody and also to.

Impart to other operators.

Yeah.

You know, we thought a lot about this and, you know, I kept coming

back to, you know, the classic thing of mission, vision values.

And I scrapped mission because I replaced it with ambition because to

me, ambition is one of those things that you don't ever have to achieve.

Isn't it a great goal to try and achieve it.

And I think if you set an ambition, it's generally much greater than ambition.

So I, I went with an ambition with the values.

We looked at passionate because who in this industry isn't passionate.

Right, right.

You know, if you guys have just been talking about it, but if,

if we look at the history of hospitality, most people didn't set.

On a, on a track to coming to hospitality, they did it as a part-time

job while they were at university.

They did it as a part-time job.

When the, you know, they were first at school.

My first job in this industry was a silver service waiter back in the day

is when you were doing banquets and you just fall in love with it, right?

You fall in love with the adrenaline.

The, the fact that things are different every day.

The fact that you, you you're serving people, you're meeting people

and you just wanna stick around.

Right.

So.

That was, that was why passion was important to me.

The next one was curious because I.

Without curiosity, how do you ever find things that are new and, you know, back to

Jim's point about having two young kids, I've got three and five year old, and that

curiosity, you know, is just infectious.

So that whole why, why, why, why?

Uh, it's just a great skill to have.

Right.

And you lose it as you get older, but we go back to that and then, you

know, from there that's, that's really where it was, where it was built all

on, you know, so curious, passionate.

That's what it's all about

for.

Now what, give us an idea of what your back background is.

What are the, what are the specific skill sets and strengths that you bring to odd

and hospitality that, that you had kind of built up over your hospitality career?

Yeah, sure.

So I started in hotels, as I said, at silver service wedding in bank did hotel

management at university, you know, and, and I look at that time late a drive in

exam because, uh, I'm not sure I've used too much of it since learned it all on

the job, but, uh, you know, there we go.

I've got the certificate and wedding hotels, Fivestar hotels.

I did, you know, country, household hotels.

I did city hotels went to the dochester collect.

As F and B manager.

I got a Michelin star there when we were there as well in the restaurant.

So, you know, that was great.

Opened three hotels, opened many restaurants within those hotels.

And then I got to a certain level in hotels where for me, the next

stage was kind of going to a hotel manager, general manager, looking

after rooms, housekeeping engineering.

And I just kept finding myself, going back to the.

And finding an excuse to go back to the past.

And I thought, you know what?

Hotels same far walls, different, you know, different place to

go on the tubing and jump off.

But it's the same thing.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and decided to go into independent restaurants,

new to Dubai for five years, running independent restaurants, working

with amazing companies against hospitality over there, who, one of

the, you know, the, the largest home.

Restaurant groups there worked with Ellen Deka, worked with China grill management.

So, you know, some, some really big names came back to the

UK just before COVID and you.

In a, in a thrown into the fire pit.

I moved back literally a couple of days before the lockdown here.

And we were operating 10, 11 QSR restaurants at the time.

And we had to navigate through COVID.

You know, we had to consolidate our estate into, into operations that were working.

Same as you were saying, you know, we, we consolidated restaurants

into inters from and we looked at how we did delivery and we made

delivery of base park where we did, we looked at kitchens, ghost kitchens.

And really navigated through there.

And then, you know, it, it got to a stage where I just wanted to help new brands

and I wanted to make an impact and I wanted to see people grow for the future.

And that's why I decided to move away from being an employee.

And became someone who was there to help and advise and grow and develop.

And, you know, I keep coming back to the word, inspire a lot, but to me,

that's, what's really important now about this industry is that we, we are

start inspiring people, our guests, our people, suppliers, you know, everyone

that sits within that E eco system of, of running great F and B experience.

I think now it more than any time, it's about inspiration

and having moving forward to be

successful.

I couldn't agree.

I kind of wanted to kick off this conversation with an article that I came

across this morning from fast company and I'll, I'll post the link in the chat.

It's the, the articles titled you need a leadership makeover.

If you're just focused on getting things done, here's how to do it.

And the first paragraph is kind of a resting cuz it says a recent McKenzie

study on the great resignation arrived at a stunning conclusion.

Despite the fact that millions of workers have been leaving their jobs

every month for nearly two years, companies still don't really have a

grasp on why their employees quit.

While employers believe people are resigning to get bigger paychecks

and gain a better work life balance.

The truth is something far simpler workers told McKenzie.

They specifically left because they didn't feel valued by their

organization or by their manager.

And they didn't feel a sense of belonging at work, which blows me away.

And his conclusion is, is that too many workplace managers are so focused on

doing on achieving on moving the ball down the field, that they rarely take time to

consider how their employees are feeling.

And this lack of awareness is repeated.

Proving to be their downfall.

If they're not feeling the love, people are especially willing to

seek it in a job somewhere else.

So, Jim, what about the love?

Shouldn't there be more love in the restaurant industry?

A hundred percent there should.

It's amazing.

You know, and, and obviously all of us, as, as Scott said, started

somewhere in the restaurant industry, you know, most of us not looking

for a career when we first got into.

But that's why we stayed.

Right?

Whether that, you know, you could use that term in lots of different ways in

terms of what part of the industry we fell in love with, whether it's the culinary

side, the service side, the vibe that the people, you know, all these different

things, but for all and all the above.

But that's, that's, I think the interesting shift that's happening in

the industry right now, right, is there's there needs to be, as this article was

talking about a bit more of a shift in terms of companies looking for ways to

get their people to fall in love with the.

Because it's, it's become, it's swung, you know, so far the other

way where people are just, it's just a job and, you know, they will go

look somewhere else really quickly.

And we're starting to see some really cool things come up.

I mean, Adam, you and I have talked about some of these examples of companies

doing crazy outside the box stuff to make sure people love where they work.

I mean, the guy who Jenson Cummings, I mean, you've met him.

We both have him talk about that company that added pet insurance

for every employee that works.

Because they don't want anyone in the, in the company to ever have to run into

a situation where their, their dog or cat or whatever is in, you know, in trouble.

Like what a, what a good outside the box way to keep people, you

know, understanding that the company they work for cares.

Yeah.

I, I couldn't agree more.

I mean, and that caring thing is so subjective, right.

Because what might matter to one person is not gonna matter to

another person and let's face it.

There's always those staff members who.

You know, the, the pantry woman that's been there for 10 years and she's

completely content with her space and doesn't necessarily want to, or

have the wherewithal to move up or, or, you know, and the other point in

this article that I thought was really fascinating is that, and this goes back

to shout out to Allison Anne that we had on last week is that if leaders

aren't actually self-aware of their, of.

Of their own stuff, their own inner work, then there's no way

that they can be good leaders.

They'll, they'll end up defaulting to that manager of like, it

feels good to get stuff done.

Right.

Scott, and

it, yeah.

You know, I, I think it's that saying, right?

Every, every kitchen needs a kitchen portal, but not every

kitchen portal wants to be a chef.

Right.

You know?

We have to, we have to understand what, what our people want and what

purpose they they're there for.

And some people don't want to be executive chefs.

Now, it, it it's for me, you know, the interesting thing about the, a

article you just read as well is, you know, most people won't tell their

employers when they're not happy or when the culture isn't there.

If the culture isn't there.

It has to be offered because if you go to an, an exit interview with her HR

and listen, you know, why you leave it?

How many people are actually really going to sit because the culture's not good.

They're not, they just want get out of there as quickly as possible because

the mind has been made up once ago.

So I think it is about that.

I think, you know, Jim's talked about some of the benefits.

I was speaking to a, a recruiter yesterday and he said that he'd just

been in an argument with his accountant because he gives everyone works for.

He's 16 people, a thousand pounds a year to spend anywhere they

like, because that's mental health.

And he said, his way of his mental health is he builds Lego.

Right.

And that's his thing.

He gets in his zone and he builds his Lego, you know, the big

ones, Titanic and all the rest.

And that's his way of dealing with his mental health, because it helps his

accounts kind of sitting there going, how do I justify this Audi commit?

Is that.

The benefit is that people can use it in any way.

They like the mental health.

So I think, you know, going on the days where it's 28 days holiday, where

it's, you know, we give you some nice healthcare, but actually in reality,

is it really, is it really nice?

And you know what else we give you free food in the restaurant

and we've gotta be more creative.

Now.

I, I, I spoke to Jim before about, we did a, an amazing benefit.

What we thought was an amazing benefit.

We all sat there in corporate office thinking we have done this now our

employee, engagement's going to go up, tapping ourselves on the back.

And, you know, we got them all a platform.

I won say, which, but you got discounted vouchers.

And we thought the fact that they could get 5% off in the supermarket

here was going to change the life.

Right.

And we had no engagement apart from on one module and it was online GP, which.

In 30 minutes, any member staff could speak to a GP online and

they didn't have to go to a doctor, which I dunno what it's like there,

but notoriously is difficult here.

And that was the only thing that they engaged.

So we canceled.

And we went and looked for online GP for everyone because

that's what was important.

And I think it's, it's understanding and knowing and bringing your

people into those conversations to go, what is important.

And then there's the must haves for me, nutritious staff food.

We've talked about it a lot.

I I've talked about it a lot.

It doesn't cover any extra to give someone nutritious staff food,

but mm-hmm, people don't do it.

And then wouldn't it be great to sit round a table together and do it,

you know, recently in the UK we had a inwe we're not built for heat, Wes.

Would people give chill, drinking water to people.

I'm not sure, you know, there's, there's all these things that I think

that must house the non-negotiables that are really easy costs.

No.

And then the ones where you want to add value and you wanna spend

money, that've got to be worthwhile.

Otherwise, the only thing that you doing is giving everyone a tap on

the back in, in head office and that achieves nothing, you know?

Right.

Everybody's kind of, everybody's kind of clapping themselves on the back of

like, look at us, look what we can.

In conversation with you yesterday.

One of the things that jumped out at me is that one of the, one of your

insights into that you bring to your new clients, especially when they're

doing a build out is to make sure that the space is all ergonomic.

Now I have been , I've had two back surgeries and I realized that

for 30 years bent over at a 40 degree angle over a table, that's

too short, you know, for most of.

We're pretty stubborn, you know, we'll, we can deal with anything and

it takes nothing to grab another, a number 10 can and put 'em underneath

the, the table legs to bring it up to a height that now you're standing.

So this idea of ergonomics, I think not only speaks to what, what

the immediate need is, but also future need of that staff member.

Whereas you're assisting them to maintain their health in a way that they

might not even be cognizant of a time.

So it's like make hidden benefit that they probably wouldn't say, oh my

God, but anybody who's worked in the kitchen to be able to stand straight up

and man cut that's that's juicy, man.

No, for sure.

Right.

And you know, the, the scary thing is, is if we went and worked in any

reputable company that runs an office, they will really think about how to make

sure people are comfortable at a desk.

Make sure that the computer height is right, so that the not crouch still.

Right.

That's that's something that's done.

My wife used to work in an office at the law firm and they did that all the time.

They used to have people coming round and checking posture.

We don't do that in restaurants, but we're on our feet every single day.

And, you know, just putting the table higher, the right level for a, chef's

gonna make a fundamental difference, getting the lighting right in kitchens.

Ah, I mention mention that that.

Not being teed, bright, not giving people, headaches, the temperature,

making sure that's that's right.

You know, and help lets put a speaker in there so that they can

hear what the customers hear and everyone's in the same vibe, you know?

So I think we've gotta start doing that because I think the people of

today and the young generation of today are looking for something different.

They're looking for employers who want to have thought about

things properly and, and they're looking for places to go and work.

They looked after and you can see it in the blood.

You can see it in the design.

You can see how it, how it feels because let's face it.

There's so many more cool companies like Google, like Facebook, these

type of people, whether can go work in real sexy offices now.

And it's more cool.

So we've gotta, we've gotta go with that.

Otherwise we, as an industry will be left behind.

Right.

So I think it's really important that people consider workflows.

You know, people not pushing past, is there enough space in the.

Are we just trying to squeeze that little extra meter does it really make

that much more revenue compared to your guys who might leave because they keep

bumping into each other or breakages?

So I think, you know, it's, it's all these things there.

People have got to start asking questions of, is it really adding value?

Because I saw a step today from hospitality rising here today that

the cost of people in labor turnover is in the billions in the UK.

So how much does that all meet on that bar?

Really make a difference if all the revenue you're making from having

that extra meter, me just spending it back on turning employees,

because they don't, they're not comfortable where they're working.

So I think we've gotta start asking different questions,

asking different questions.

It's so important.

And a lot of what you're talking about, you.

Is work workload related right now, all of a sudden you're focused

on from an ergonomic standpoint.

And Jim, I know we at benchmark 60 talk a lot about workload measuring it.

I wanna ask you so.

I've understood for a long time that most people in the hospitality industry

are confrontationally inverse, right?

They want everything to be.

They want everything to be in harmony.

They want everybody to be happy yet to Scott's point about engagement.

You know, I get that.

Some managers may not necessarily want to ask their associates what they

need, what they want for fear of that.

They're gonna need to give away the house.

And in fact, that's typically not what they're looking for.

Since this is a solution oriented show.

What can you say to the restaurant manager or the restaurant owners who's either

watching or listening now who's decided that this weekend they're gonna go in

and they're gonna gauge their staff and, and, and listen to what they say mm-hmm

Well,

I think the, the first thing that everybody thinks about anytime, and

it, this could be people related or not.

Right.

I mean, you think about it in terms.

Like Scott was saying all the transition that they had to do.

And every offer restaurant operator in the world can relate to the

transitions that they had to do to take out on all those different things.

The first thing that comes to everybody's mind is how much is this gonna cost?

How much do I have to spend to make this happen?

How much is this benefit gonna cost?

How much is the cold drinking water gonna cost?

How much is the air conditioning unit gonna cost?

How much is the, you know, all of that stuff, it's all about, you know,

restaurant operators are notorious for feeling like the margins are incredibly

sin and anything that's an added cost is gonna put me outta business.

I, I get it.

That it's fair.

We talk about workload a lot because it doesn't cost money

to manage and measure that.

It doesn't cost money to go to your team and say, we have a strategy

in place that will actually protect how hard you have to work, because

we don't want you to burn out.

You know, we don't wanna, and, and Scott, you were mentioning the exit interview.

Well, if the culture's not right and we don't protect the employee experience in

the right way, chances are, they don't go over the exit interview anyways.

They just don't show up for it, or they just don't participate.

But it's, you know, it's interesting in my corporate experience, you know, over

the years, The annual survey, the, the feedback request form, all these things.

They didn't really ever give us anything because the people that weren't happy or

the people that weren't being protected in the right way, they weren't there anymore.

So they didn't sell it out.

Right.

And I think trying to find ways, whether it's workload management

or some of these things.

To try to stay ahead of that problem before it, so you can understand

what's happening before the employee gets burnt out before they come to

you and say, I'm exhausted before they need a personal health day.

You know, those, those things are just becoming more and more important.

And if we can include that in messaging to employees and say, as a company, we

have a strategy and a, and a policy in place that will actually protect how

hard you have to work to prevent burnout.

I.

Of the things that, you know, I think everybody is speaking about right now

in terms of the current generation is they wanna feel protected, right?

They want feel, they wanna be where there's a purpose.

They wanna feel like they're included.

They wanna feel like they have a say, they wanna feel like they're protected.

And you know, that's part of that I think is, is really making sure that the, the

people who are working in our industry now feel like someone's looking out for me.

Hmm.

That's

not just in.

Yeah, it's emotional and physical safety and it's all kind of intertwine.

One another.

I think just, just under that point, as one idea is, you

know, I, we're not sitting here and I definitely am saying I'm, I'm perfect.

Okay.

So in corporate offices, it's really easy to get into the system and you're

in the system and you under pressure and you've got people talking and you're

talking about revenues and costs and.

We're sitting there today and looking at what the government

are giving us here in the UK.

And we're, we're like analyzing every, every word.

So we're not perfect.

But one thing that I've learned from stepping out of that corporate environment

is stepping out the situation and looking in you won, you know, you, you

putting your hands over your eyes in terms of how many mistakes you made

when you were in the environment.

So on the back of what Jim was saying, I would encourage any managers at that

point to maybe just step out of the.

If that's possible, step out of the challenges and try and look independently

and objectively at the, at the situation, because that's what I've

been able to do since stepping out of the day to day corporate environment.

And it's been, it's been enlightening, you know, it's been enlightening

and, and the more and more people I talked to who were talking about.

It becomes much more powerful and you realize that there has to be a change.

So, you know, there's so many people talking about, Jim's doing a great

job, Adam, you doing a great job.

There's you know, Michelle here in the UK, it was, it was really forward thinking in

terms of leadership is doing a great job.

And I think it's about those managers.

If they're struggling, reach out to the people who are talking about

it, because would say, because we're not in it data them, and it's

really easy to then sit objectively.

Outside of, of that and talk and be a bit more independent and

challenge more because you don't have those pressures coming in, but

there's a lot of things you can do without spending extra, extra money.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, and the spending extra money thing.

I think Scott is gonna continue to this, this employee engagement, turnover,

retention thing is gonna continue to push its way to the forefront.

It is slowly being started or starting to be talked about more

the cost associated with that.

Right.

And so if we think about how much did the transition to take out

cost, how much did the closure cost?

How much did paying back your government loans cost as a restaurant

operator while the next one coming?

You know, I firmly believe that the next one coming is how

much is your turnover costed?

Right.

And, and, you know, it's this, one's not about generating

more revenue to cover the cost.

This one's actually about looking at the model and the business and the people

differently so that we can reduce that expense because it's crazy, right?

I mean, yeah.

I think Canada, I was reading the other day, they're saying now it's

$2,500 to replace an hourly employee.

And I was talking to a restaurant the other day that is short 70 people.

Scary is it?

I don't even how many people have sat in those boardrooms that does come

with, with senior directors and that we need a point off the phone cost.

We need a point off the labor.

But, you know, you've just proved there that the retention piece and understanding

what that's costing the business is probably better to look at one point

after the turnover cost than it is to look at a point off the food cost.

Right.

So I think, I think it's a really valid point in terms of looking

at what the true cost of all this is, because it might shock

people absolutely.

Into making a

change.

Yeah.

Couldn't agree.

More.

I have one question.

As we come to the end of this particular episode, and I'm hoping to get your,

both of your perspective, Jim and Scott.

Now the title of this particular episode is embracing the change.

What do you think is the ultimate cost of not embracing the change, Jim?

Well, you could, I think you get answered that

in lots of different ways.

I mean, the ultimate cost is that I think your people will go work somewhere else.

Hm.

You know, I, I think that there's, I was talking to a guy yesterday who he,

he was telling me that he had seven interviews scheduled on Monday this week.

And the only one applicant actually showed up.

He offered the applicant.

What he thought was a really, really competitive package.

And the applicant said to him, well, I've got two other interviews lined up.

I'm gonna go see what they offer.

So, you know, gone are the days where someone comes.

Wanting to work in your environment, you offer them a

job and they're excited about it.

You know, now it's, it's you offer them a job and they go shop it around.

Right.

Right.

So I think if we, if, if operators aren't embracing the change and really sinking

outside the bots on how to dramatically do things differently, They're they're.

I mean, ultimately they're good are people that are competitors

who are gonna look at things.

Yeah,

Scott.

Yeah.

I think, you know, if I take, you know, maybe five years ago when, when you

were interviewing people and used to get to the end of the interview and you'd

asked all the questions and you used to say, do you have any questions for me?

And you, you, you would gauge your plus on whether they asked

you two or three question.

You know, and if they didn't, you were kinda like maybe they weren't

prepared, they didn't ask questions.

Whereas now you almost Don a chance to ask that question because it's a

two-way street and they're finding out if you are the right fit for them as

much as you are the other way around.

And I, I, I agree with Jim.

I think it's definitely become a two way street.

Now.

I, I go back to that word inspire and I think it's for us.

We, we might lose that inspiration and we might lose that creativity and

we might lose those people who come in and can really make a difference.

And we might not be a desirable industry.

We might, I, I genuinely think it's got opportunities here to, for

really good brands to, to suffer.

Really good concepts to suffer.

I think we're going to see casualties because of it because people can't

sustain this people can't sustain causing two, three days a week, not

oddly for lunch, you know, running at losses, it it's not feasible.

So I think, you know, we have to understand that it's how people that are

going to make the biggest difference to how we're going to survive the future.

So I think for me, we should take this seriously.

We should be looking to embrace it.

We should be looking at you.

Those three guys here.

We can't tell the young guys what they want.

They have to tell us.

Because we want things completely different.

We had had a conversation yesterday, you know, whenever it's

in hotels, when I first went to Dubai, people used to call me Mr.

Turnouts.

Like, I feel makes me feel like I'm a teacher and I, I, to

be a teacher, I'd go do that.

Just call me Scott.

Right?

So, so we've come up in a completely different generation.

We were subservient, you know, whereas the generation now need a purpose.

They want to understand.

Why they're here, so we have to do it, you know?

Yeah.

I did a, I did a policy the other day where the, the biggest fear

coming out of COVID isn't COVID isn't disease, it's climate change.

Mm.

So every employer now should be looking at that and saying, how

do we do some one or two things?

Doesn't have to be a big checklist, but one or two things to show our people

that we understand what their fear is.

And we're trying to help.

Yeah.

They'll, they'll accept that and they'll understand, right.

They're not looking for us to change the.

They're looking for us to help the change of the world.

And that sounds like a really big statement, but in our own

little way, we can do that for the people who work for us.

And, and we can help because we spend more time with the people who work with

us than probably we do with our families.

So mm-hmm we wouldn't let our families sit there.

Fear, sit there, not happy.

You know, without not dreading to go to, to, into the house when they

get home from school work where, so why do we do that with the people

that we see the Boston, a debt, so, you know, big, big statements there.

But I, I think for me, it's do we lose the inspiration from the

industry that, you know, starts killing what we all love about it?

Yeah.

Those are great comments.

I think for me, one of the things we'll most miss out on, if, if we don't embrace.

This change is innovation because very often people who

are coming into an organization can see the forest for the trees.

Well, sometimes, you know, we're so in, in it that we might not see

something that's really apparent that could make a huge difference.

And those innovations often come from, from new hires who are thinking

outside the box and we embrace.

You know their suggestions instead of like, wow, what the hell I, I

grab em, like, what do they know?

Well, let's wait till they're here.

2, 2, 3 years, da, da, da.

I think it's a, I think it's a huge miss for us because without innovation,

you know, this industry will not be able to sustain growth indefinitely.

And so there's a lot of factors that are, that are moving.

Should cause any restaurant operator, owner company to really take a hard

long look at what they're trying to achieve, how they're going about

it, how can they get their people?

I mean, Jim, to your point, you know?

Yeah.

It's it always was a people.

Business and then it became a number business, and we're bringing it right

back to being a people business.

At least that's our objective here at earning the table, Scott, we

really appreciate you joining us.

And if people wanna follow up and find out more about you, how do they do that?

So LinkedIn Scott Turner, Scott with ONET or check

is our den hospitality com really enjoyed it, put it thought no longer.

So

thank you very much.

Oh yeah, we could go on and Aden is spelled a U D.

Yeah, for those of us on this side of the pond, Jim is always any last words.

It's just always good to have, you know, the opportunity to

have some of this discussion, right.

We just gotta stay in the forefront and, you know, keep,

keep pushing it's we can get there.

It's just a matter of, you know, one operator at a time, one step at a time

and happy to be doing it alongside guys.

Yeah.

I mean, the business has always been one to one.

It's all about relationships.

And as soon as we lose sight of that and make it about something else,

then that's when the possibility for at least getting a lot less than what

you think is possible and more than anything else know that we together

and those out there who are ready to embrace the change can make this industry

something that we can all be proud of.

And that serves all of us.

So.

Thanks everybody for joining us on this episode of turning the

table and we'll see you next week.

Thanks for joining us on this episode of turning the table with

me, Adam Lamb and Jim Taylor.

This episode was sponsored by benchmark 60 we're on a mission to change the food and

beverage industry by focusing on staff, mental health and wellbeing by forecasting

and actively managing workload product.

Over 200 restaurants and food and beverage operations have discovered for themselves

how to increased staff retention and become a preferred employer in their

market by using our proprietary system.

If you'd like to have an operational culture that everybody wants to work

for, then check out benchmark 60 on the web@www.benchmarksixty.com.

Thanks for taking the time to be with us and the courage to try new

things for the restaurant profess.

Oldest problems turning the table is a production of realignment media.