I don't know if you've, I don't know if you've ever had this experience

that your phone's going off right when you should be doing other things, and it's

nutshell curious Live, always live curious to know if you have ever had this happen

to you whereby maybe you're struggling in the operation to maintain staff.

They seem to be.

Bailing on you for 25 cents a dollar or something silly like that, which to

someone who's in the lower wage categories quarter could make a lot of a lot of

difference until it starts getting taxed and that it's not really a viable move.

And I think it's important to let the listeners know that

nobody's leaving for a quarter.

Okay?

People don't leave a job over and over.

We're hearing that people are leaving because, Of their management.

Yeah.

Bad communication, no benefits.

No upward mobility, no clear career path, no orientation, all these

things that, to a certain extent, larger operations and hotels and have

done a really great job at doing.

And of course, they're the ones who are fully staffed right now, if

you've ever had that same question driving home after a night full day

at the shop, and you're going past a competitor's restaurant and they seem

to be booming and nobody's waiting, what do they know that you don't know?

We're gonna find out right after these messages.

Welcome to Turning the Table, the Most Progressive Weekly podcast for

today's food and beverage industry, featuring staff centric operating

solutions for restaurants in the hashtag new hospitality culture.

Join Jim Taylor, benchmark 60 and Adam Lamb as they turn the tables on

the prevailing operating assumptions of running a restaurant in favor

of innovative solutions to our industry's most persistent challenges.

Thanks for joining us and now onto the show.

This episode is made possible by e vocalize.

E VOCALIZE makes complex local digital marketing push button easy for anyone.

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To find out more, go to Turning the table podcast.com/e vocalize.

Welcome back to another episode of Turning the Table.

My name is Adam Lamb.

I am a career coach for chefs and hospitality professionals, and I

am joined as always with my great co-host, Jim Taylor of Benchmark 60.

How are you, Jim?

I'm excellent.

How are you?

So I guess now's probably a great time to warn any listeners, viewers,

that we're not gonna spend a whole lot of time talking about the problem.

I think by now.

Everybody knows the problem, and guess what?

It's not just Covid, it's just not post covid.

We were going through this for a long time.

As a matter of fact, the last time I can remember getting more than

a couple resumes for an open job position was back in the nineties.

Where there was 12, 14 people waiting, knocking at the door.

Yeah.

That was then, this is now there are some operators that have jumped

on this way ahead of the curve.

And what we wanna do is we wanna talk about some solutions

that are actually working.

Out in the work in the industry.

We're not gonna talk pie in the sky, although we have some examples and

some PDFs and and some templates if somebody wants, and real world examples.

If it's okay, I just wanted to start with this because.

Got this a couple days ago from one of my, one of my clients.

We went through a whole series of coaching and so she just said

I, this dm, I got a new job chef.

I wasn't gonna talk about how much money they were making, but it's basically

Monday through Friday, weekends off.

Chef Dick was deemed for banquets.

And she's talking about a a healthcare type facility.

They just built a new conference center for medical conferences.

More money, fewer hours.

Woohoo.

I hope you're doing well.

Thank you again for helping me get there.

And they have mental health benefits.

So health benefits, mental health benefits.

So I thought that was really, important.

And so I thought we'd start the conversation by saying, I.

There's the attraction of the associate.

Like you want to attract the correct type of people Yeah.

Into your organization.

If you're really clear about what your core values are and what your goals are.

And I just want to share an example and kind of crow on a Asheville

local here by name Sha Chef Katie Buttons, who owns, or who is running.

Four or five different restaurants, but they make a big deal on their

website of making sure that the benefits and their core values are

way ahead right up above the fold.

Meaning it used to mean newspaper the top of the page.

So when you click on their website you, see it automatically.

And it's impressive.

It's so impressive that this isn't, this is a one ad that they ran just

not too long ago for a sous chef.

And what you can see here on the slide is they're already tagged

by Indeed as as an equal pay.

So somebody who's looking right down, they see that right there above the fold.

They don't even need to click into it.

If employers are out there trying to figure out how to be the employer of

choice, this is a really great example.

And as you're scrolling down to the benefits portion, the very

first thing in bold is direct primary care, beginning on day one.

Now.

Nice.

That might not, seem like a big deal to folks in Canada because the

Canadians have a really great health system and it's it's well lucky

because it's so pervasive and so on.

It I have a friend who's has twin boys who were constantly falling

down and nicking up and as.

As teenagers do never, battered an eye about taking him to the merge, right?

The emergency room.

So what I'm saying is that in Canada there's this low level of stress

because nobody's worried whether or not they're gonna be able to

pay for their health insurance, or God forbid, you get hurt and.

And then you got, so very often you get hired into a position and it's 90 days.

What happens if you get hurt in those 90 days?

Man.

Now it doesn't have to be the entire package, but it might be something that

you look at and see you can scale in.

So maybe there's one particular benefit.

And then the rest of them start scaling as they they're, longer

they have a lactation room.

There's an employee referral program.

They have regular company outings because what they're doing is they are building

a community of associates because they've got five restaurants and almost all of

them have, she's been a James Beard winner multiple times, and she is a really.

Great example of what's possible out there.

50% dining discounts, living wage certified paid time off with accrual

starting day one and three sick days a year for an hourly employee.

Never heard like that.

Doesn't exist.

Yeah.

And there are insurance companies out there who are being very aggressive

about providing these types of benefits because they know if they're doing that,

they got to hold in the marketplace.

That just won't budge.

Yeah.

And do you know what the piece that stands out most for me?

About all of that stuff that you've just been talking about?

Yep.

Day one part.

Yeah.

I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with people over the years about

things like probation and 90 days, and the one that jumps out to me is always the.

Companies that pay a recruit, like a referral bonus to employees who

bring other new employees in, right?

Yep.

And a number of times we've talked about why they do or don't wait 90

days to pay that referral bonus to their current employee for bringing

somebody else to come to work, right?

And they, the answer is always what if they don't work out?

What if they.

Then, as you, you hired the wrong person, I know you're doing what

you're asking them to do by Exactly.

In new candidates.

So I think the day one thing is, such a big deal.

I.

Yeah

Couldn't agree more.

And we already got somebody making a comment, which I think is really important

because we wanna know from you what's actually working and what's not working.

Like what have you tried that, that just doesn't and I guess I want

to start off by saying we can talk about all kinds of benefits, Jim,

that people are doing everywhere.

And it might not necessarily work because of the geographical location or whatever,

but I gotta tell you, It's real simple.

Just sit your staff down and ask them what matters to them.

What would make them feel like that you cared enough about them as a human being

to make sure that they're actually able to feed their children or take their pet in.

Yeah.

There was a, woman we heard about, Who was making the decision to take her pet

in for medical instead of buying gas for her car or groceries because she

was emo so emotionally attached to that dog and without that pet insurance,

who knows where she'd be, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And Jennifer I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing this right, hop

or, if that's the right name.

Thanks for chiming in.

We appreciate your comment.

She's, it's my sweetie.

She's upstairs on the front porch.

Oh.

For me it's about a fulfillment.

I wanna work with people that are happy and feel excited to get to work.

It makes it really easy when, people are there and they're happy about being there.

So we're gonna be putting a lot of links into the chat.

And I guess Jim, where I go from that next, and again we're, talking about stuff

that doesn't cost much money, if at all.

So the other, yeah.

So the other thing I wanna talk about is and this is a benefit that

pays off throughout the entire.

Employment is having a really robust day one orientation.

I don't know about you I've been in plenty of jobs where I get thrown in apron and

you're on flyer right now, and that's it.

Like, where is the employee manual?

Where's all this different stuff?

But go ahead.

What do you think of that?

And you're, quite passionate about the, orientation piece.

I am as well, but I think this is something that, that you're you've

got tons of experience in too.

Look, what's the biggest, what's the most important part of the orientation?

Is it recipes?

Is it culture?

Is it, how is it?

It's culture.

What is it?

Yeah, so this is an example of what our day two orientation used to look like.

So everybody would come in, there's a little breakfast break and then we

start off with a little introduction.

Kinda laugh a little bit.

We talk about rules of the road and then an agenda.

So there's topics, everybody gets handed a, their own book

that has all their sign offs.

So we can do it all in one go.

And it also, it backed up with policies, procedures, and stuff like that,

because later in their employment, I wanna be able to go back and say,

Hey it seemed a little off today.

Are you okay?

Is there anything I need to know?

Yeah.

And they said no, I'm okay.

Okay.

Because, cool.

Because.

Back when we first had our orientation, you remember that we talked about

no cell phones on the job, right?

And you actually signed a paper saying that you understood and

acknowledged the fact that you're not supposed to have your cell phone.

So I'm just curious.

It's easy to forget and people get emotional, so I'm

just, so it's, your backup.

And so one of the things that we've made a big deal about is an employee covenant.

So covenant.

Denotes this sacred bond between one another.

A lot of my experience has been getting hired into a job and not really

understanding what's expected of me.

What exactly do they want from me?

And so this says clear and cons.

What were willing to provide is clear and concise information,

the right tools to do your job.

Constant skill training consistent and.

If this is what we're gonna give you, what do you get?

What do you give in return?

And so it's spelled out, it's not an assumption that this is a clear boundary

line in which we're gonna state this is, these are the rules of the road

and it's firm and fair for everybody.

You can call it whatever you want, but the fact is, for an associate to

understand exactly what they're getting hired for what their career path may be.

And have all that information upfront before they actually hit the floor is

incredibly powerful for them because A, they feel like you looked out

enough for 'em and you're committing to them for consistent training.

Now, I put together, This program called Leader in Development Program.

And we're not gonna belabor this point, but for anybody who was in

lead Cook, they could actually apply for a leader in development program,

which was a three month program, one-on-one with me and a whole bunch

of other stuff that went into it.

But again, it gives an opportunity for someone who's coming in to go, oh, and the

rules of the road war that each position.

Had a clear job description and expectations in so far as a skills test.

So if I wanted to move from cook three to cook two, cool, let's do

the test, let's see where you're at.

And then that becomes the training PR program.

And now, you're able to actually create a succession plan, whereas if the sous

chef decides to leave, you got somebody already in barrel man ready to rock

instead waiting till the last minute.

So yeah.

And our hospitality workshop, which we do on that day one orientation.

Grounded everybody regardless of where they were before, unlike

what we expect hospitality to look like within our organization.

Again, just a lot of examples.

If and if anybody's interested in in these templates, DM me here on LinkedIn

and I'll make sure that you get 'em, including job descriptions, waste scales,

everything I built for this organization.

I'm, willing to to put out there to assist.

Yeah, for sure.

Now I have to, before we get too Yep.

Far of the conversation.

I forget, I have to go back and comment on the fact that it's amazing that you

had pagers listed on what your phone and your pagers, so you were doing this.

Yeah.

For one, that's funny cuz I, yeah, it was long time ago.

Pagers.

But the thing that tells me is that you were doing this stuff wrong.

I'm no, not a

MRI here, but No And the thing was, which maybe wasn't happening yet.

The thing was, Jim, is that again, I was having these experiences myself, and if

I'm having, I'm getting frustrated, then what's it like for other people and.

It's there's nothing more beautiful when an organization comes together when it's

busy and everybody knows their spot.

As a matter of fact, when you're busy, it's probably easiest.

When it's slower, then it's kinda oh God.

It's but so I thought of someone coming in that had skills, someone didn't,

have any skills, like how would we support them because Now, man, I'm gonna

send a link to this particular ebook that I got from another organization.

They have some really clear statistics up at the very top of what it actually costs

you when you have to replace somebody.

It's somewhere between two and $4,000 every single time that someone walks in

and walks out, and it puts a burden on you and the rest of the staff because

now you've got another person to train.

Not to say that you shouldn't always be doing consistent training,

it's just it becomes a Chinese finger trap that you never rise

up out of.

Yeah, it's, yeah, very difficult for sure.

Yep.

And go ahead.

I was having conversation with somebody the other day that there's

so much of the stuff that's you can formalize it and it's, yep.

And I Adam, you mentioned this already, but if anybody who's listening is, working

through some of this stuff, send us a DM cuz we'll send you all of this stuff.

Yep.

Yep.

When I say we, Adam cause it's, I was having a conversation example stuff.

You said this a minute ago, that doesn't cost money, right?

Yep.

Things like, and the comment that kept coming to my mind

was if restaurants spent.

As much time caring about the staff area as they do the way

that the dining room looks.

Oh how much easier it would be to retain people just from an

employee experience perspective.

I'm also thinking back to our, when we had Jay on the on the on

the show when he was talking about the initiative that he was working with.

It wasn't the keg, but it was a, but he was wanted to do is to go into every

restaurant and doll up the break rooms.

Yeah.

Such that people felt like comfortable, like a lactation room.

How cool is that?

And I'm sure that lactation room can turn right into a meditation

room when somebody starts stressing.

And so we've gotten to a point in the show where we wanna

talk about what the setup is.

Best case scenario.

Now someone's there, they know what's expected of them, it's

very clear you've committed to consistent feedback and review.

Of their training plans so that they know that they're going through.

The other thing that I think is incredibly important to, to speak about right

now before we get into the individual things is physical and emotional

safety is a really, big deal now.

It didn't used to be, as a matter of fact it was all suck it up sunshine.

And I was talking to a good friend chef James Shirley.

Who said at one point in the day he got all weepy, started crying on the

job because he's an emotional guy and really cares about what he does.

And I said it ain't a day until somebody cries, bro.

But I know that's

terrible.

It's unreal.

But it's not uncommon,

right?

So now you've got a crew who are working together.

They're looking after one another.

The culture starts to shift as soon as these things are in place.

And it doesn't necessarily have to happen overnight.

It doesn't.

You can start layering these things in little by little And so the

safety thing really came up with me.

And there's another slide that I'm gonna show in a little bit.

But there are organizations out there right now who are actively assisting

hospitality companies, make sure that they are addressing mental health and wellness

Uhhuh and so here this is Touch Bistro.

And so they have examples.

With hyperlinks of ways that organizations and restaurants can actually

address mental health and wellness.

There's a couple apps, there's all kinds of different things and of course we're

big fans of the Burnt Chef Project of of I Got Your Back project of chow.

There's assets out there that actually speak to this, and again, doesn't

necessarily have to cost you any money.

The Burn Shaf Academy has a great ambassadors program where you can

actually learn how to identify people who might be in, in stressful

situations and how to approach that.

Again, if you're actively presenting this and continuing to, reinforce the

message that we care enough about you, not just as what you do here, but as a

human being in your mental health and the staff know that they're safe there.

I'm not saying that they don't have to work hard, and there's not

knives and you might cut yourself.

I'm talking about getting.

Shit, talk to them or cornered in a cooler or a store room by somebody

like breathing heavy all over him.

That's, I sure hope that doesn't happen anymore.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah, it's true.

But the, term that I use is, about protecting people, right?

And then yes, that can be in lots of different forms, mentally,

physically, whatever it might be.

And it's not just about, Having a first aid routine and a a muster

point you gotta protect people in their overall experience, in their

learning, in their upward mobility and their compensation plan and their

mental health, all of those things.

It's all, that's all part of it.

So where have you seen since you bring that up right now,

which I think is a great point what have you seen working for the

operators that you're talking to?

In terms of just examples around what they're

doing for their people.

Yep.

Oh man.

There's, some really cool examples.

There's some just really outside the box things.

Excuse me.

One of them we, you mentioned a few minutes ago, was the, example that we

heard about the pet insurance thing.

Because the owner of that restaurant didn't want their people to run into

that scenario again, where it was either pay for groceries, pay for

myself to go to the hospital or pay for my pet to go to the hospital.

Yeah.

So they just took one of those variables away, yep.

Another one was telling you just before we jumped on the, live here that

just a rockstar kitchen staff member.

An up and coming chef.

And he wasn't even part of the management team at this point.

But was having a hard time getting to work.

Bus schedules and he had an hour long commute on transit and this and that,

and he, but he liked the place that he worked and they were into keeping

him around and that kind of thing.

They just bought him a car.

Yeah, it shows up as a taxable benefit, but it's a sure company and it was

five grand or something like that.

It seems like a big ask at the beginning the impact that something like that has

rather than increasing his wage by $2 an hour, he loses such of tax by the time

he actually, it would take him two years to save five grand at two bucks an hour.

Sure.

Absolutely.

Take the pain away for him.

And I think the most extreme one, and you and I have talked about this a few times

I use them as an example all the time.

This example this, story is the, cleaning and laundry service

for every employee that works.

That's

correct.

Yeah.

That's really

147_ Restaurant Staff Retention_ What_s Working and What_s Not.:

cool.

I can't name the name of the company on air like this,

but if public send me at the dm, I'm happy to take you through some of it.

But basically they were noticing that they were a little bit tight on staff.

Their people were having a hard time.

Staying fresh and ready and, that kind of thing.

Cuz they were all grinding to, to keep things rolling.

And there was a staff member that just came into the, into their

shift in the morning one day and looked like they just slept in

their uniform and rolled out of bed.

Yeah.

And when asked, are you okay?

They were brave enough to say, no, I'm not.

I'm doing what I can.

We're short.

I closed last night.

I opened this morning the old clo and shift and but I'm here.

What do you want?

And so the company basically said what's one variable we can take away

in order to improve their at work life?

But also they're out outside of work life, right?

And so they said, okay, we're gonna provide two hours of at home cleaning and

laundry service for every single employee that works for that, it's 300 people.

Incredible.

And you talk about the, main benefit of that around, okay, you get your

cleaning and your laundry towel a little bit, but the, byproducts, if

I'm a 20 year old and I'm just, I've just moved out and I'm doing my own

laundry and cleaning my own apartment.

Maybe I got roommates that are messy and all, whatever.

There's all that stuff.

All of a sudden I go and tell my other 20 year old friend that

my company does my laundry job.

Yeah.

There's a pretty good recruiting thing.

Yeah.

That's happening there too.

You know how that is.

That one has had a huge impact on their, staffing levels.

So Jim, I want to jump in here and talk about two re free

real resources that anybody can get.

And I'm gonna just share my screen if that's okay.

Yeah.

Oh, sorry.

Nope.

So this is a free ebook that you can get from the company.

It's called Principle about how to become the employer of choice.

And it's really easy because they've got three universal rules for retention.

Number one, be a good employer.

Number two, tell your own story.

Transparency, vulnerability, and a willingness to be a

human in front of other people.

Very, powerful.

And third, know what employees expect.

So this goes back to this conversation that you and I were talking about earlier,

which was I, might think that a GR gas card or a grocery card is the thing

to do, but how the hell would I know?

Yeah.

And if I'm not taking the time to talk to somebody about what's possible, And what

they're really looking for, then I'm just like, I'm not doing anybody any favors.

At

all.

Yeah.

To get to know the employee expectation and that kind of thing.

It's interesting, a company that we spent some time with,

they actually had it in there.

You shared this a few minutes ago, but what's the, here's what the

company's gonna do for you and here's what we expect outta the Yes.

One of the things they actually had in there as a condition of employment.

Was, and excuse my language, but they actually, it was called

in their manuals bitch up.

Really?

Cause we all know there's gonna be stuff that goes sideways on shift, right?

There's gonna be things that you don't like.

There's gonna be stuff that, you know, problems that come up and, all the stuff.

They literally had it in there that if we hear you complaining about what's going

on in the restaurant to other people, we're gonna sit you down and have a con,

like a performance conversation about.

Here's how we communicate about issues in the business.

Wow.

If you're somebody who's confident and comfortable in coming forward and saying,

these are the challenges that the team is having or that I'm having, or whatever,

as long as you do it to the right person, it's actually viewed as good performance.

Wow.

How do you feel about that?

What?

What?

What comes to your mind immediately?

I mean there's gonna obviously people sometimes that just take that

as the opportunity to complain, right?

But some coaching can probably help them with that.

But I think it, it helps to bring this culture of we're all in this

together to improve things, to move the needle forward, to be successful.

You're part of the solution all that type of stuff.

I think it's, I think it's awesome and fully open door policy.

You're actually held accountable to complain as

long as you do it productively.

And I, think the people that work in that environment, from the feedback that I've,

heard and discussion is they, feel very empowered and, comfortable and like they

are have stake in the game a little bit.

Ah, see now you get back to this thing.

I love if I'm getting the staff together to talk to them about what

matters and what would really be, what would really be great for them.

And they give us feedback that gets incorporated into the final solution.

Now, I've got an entire crew that's bought into it.

What do you mean we.

This is what you said.

And I get, that things change and we can't get so stuck in our ways

that we develop a package and it's static and it never it's just there.

Unless it's a living thing that, that people can actually, I can

gravitate towards and see prac practiced in person in front of them.

That's why most Mission statement, vision statements fall flat on the floor because

the manager's being completely incongruent with what they said they were gonna do.

That's why for me, having that covenant a signed document, it's a contract between

you and me or the organization and you.

I just get to be the representative of that.

So when you talk about feeling passionate about it, I, yeah, I'm really passionate

about this stuff because Folks have lost their jobs for so much less.

And typically they don't even know, like they're simple stuff, but sometimes they

don't even know why they're getting fired.

And I think that's a goddamn shame because we're at a state

right now where we should be.

Talking about this all the time in all of our media.

Really, grabbing the narrative to let everybody know, including everywhere

that this is still an honorable profession and getting better.

And these are the examples.

There was a restaurant in Denver a pizza company chain who had all these benefits

that they were offering people, including I think there was tuition reimbursement.

The one that stuck out to me was if you are there for a certain amount of

time, they will help, they will match you for a down payment for your house.

Yeah pretty nontraditional, but they put it right out there.

They weren't meal benefits.

Everybody sits down at the same time.

How many more pictures do we have to see of three three line cooks huddled

down, shoveling food over a garbage can because the day wasn't planned

well enough to make sure that listen, you got, production's, gotta speed up.

Cause we sit down at four.

Yeah.

And again, creating a cohesive community within that organization.

Here's one that doesn't cost any money.

There's an operator who decided that he wanted to ask his staff what their

life goals were, and then he got, bought this big board, put it on the wall in

the service area, in the kitchen, and then wrote it out at the very top.

And then weekly and monthly, they would, in their standup, they would

talk about where everybody is, and then everybody gets to celebrate the win.

Yeah, that's powerful stuff, man.

That and.

Again, you, it's your time, a marker and a board.

And you can change someone's life forever.

It's crazy.

Yeah.

And I think too, thinking back to, both you and I have been in

that position where you're in the, role of leadership, having to make some of

these decisions and create some of these documentation, make these promises.

And we've done probably some good stuff.

We've done, probably done lots of it wrong.

But I remember whether it's something like.

Bitch up or it's something like match the, down payment for the house.

Yep.

One could cost $50,000, $20,000, whatever that amount is.

The other one costs nothing.

It's just an attitude thing.

But the part I remember being in conversation so many times, and this

is where I try to challenge, so here's, this is the challenge for anyone who's

manage in management that's listening.

I think sometimes we, we get stuck in this Okay, but if we tell everybody

to bitch up and then all of a sudden everyone has feedback, that's not

gonna be a good, that's gonna suck.

Or what if everybody on our team tries to buy a house?

Yeah.

Okay.

That'd be a really good problem to have.

Exactly.

Think about the reputation, think about the cloud, think

about the, maybe the media.

Think about the, customer attraction.

Think about the, again, retention.

Yep.

That'd be a good problem to have.

When I was still in, in corporate ops, we had this, going back again to

this referral agreement thing, right?

If you bring somebody forward to work in the company, We'll pay

you instead of paying a recruiter.

From a management perspective, sometimes it was like 5, 6, 7, 8,000 a host who's 17

years old, who's working their first shift in the company, if they bring a management

candidate and that management gets hired we, would pay them like five, 10 grand.

Yep, yep.

And there was all this, always this pushback of what if we have

to pay out $200,000 next year?

Yeah, so that'd be good probably to have, cause we wouldn't have any

holes in our management team anymore.

You got it man.

I think there's lots of different ways to look at that.

But I encourage people to go down that path until it becomes whoa,

this is hard to keep up with.

Sure.

And, then it's, man, listen, most of the time we're worrying about.

27,000 things that are gonna happen, projecting into the future,

a possibility that may occur.

And like putting our armor on in the moment when it hasn't even shown up.

So to be talking about, oh, what if everybody like, that's great problem

and the staff is around and you probably your market shares probably increased.

Your margins probably increased.

So there's more.

Jim, you see it every day in Benchmark 60 work.

You're showing everybody, you're showing operators how to view

their labor in a much different paradigm on a productivity scale.

And then you're actually showing them what that actually saves them.

Over a course of time a and be adequately staffed for every period.

That's crazy to me.

But what blew me away when we were first talking about it was, is

that this is the backdoor to the conversation about culture and benefits.

Because now that they've got some flow through to the bottom line, the

operator might say gee, geez, I guess I can't pay for health insurance.

Or there's enough margin there that we can probably do house cleaning once a

week or There are things that we do as an operator every day that affects the

possibility of what we can do for our associates and their long-term retention.

And I gotta tell you, it, it sucks to be a line manager and to see the need to see.

I hate this.

I had this guy who worked for me for a while, he would've gone to the

wall for me, and he wanted paid time to go visit his family in Haiti.

The guy was always there, the most rock solid person you'd ever want.

And I had to come back and tell him that it wasn't a priority for the company

that he do that because there's no accommodation for paid time off for cooks.

And I had to go into that situation owning that decision.

And it made me feel like dirt to see his face collapse into itself.

He didn't leave, he didn't stop coming to work.

But man he, was a different guy after that and I felt so I, not

emasculated, but certainly impotent to change the course of that for him.

And that's when I knew I had, that's when I knew I had to

change jobs at that moment.

And silly me, I should have been asking that type of question in my interview.

Sure.

Yeah.

And not to put words in your mouth, but I, it sounds like you just, you realized

you needed to change jobs because your values didn't align with the company

anymore.

It took me a really, long time to even understand what my values were.

I was going from job to job because the the, impetus of I gotta make

sure that the rent's covered.

I gotta make sure the mortgage, like all this list.

And yet I never stopped to clearly understand what my core values are,

which is something that Chef Holly and I did in her coaching practice.

Like sh like she had been fired from a job she was at almost 10 years, and

then went into another job and couldn't understand why she was so miserable.

Like she had never actually mourned that.

Yeah.

And as soon as she was able to get that out, her boss thought it was the most

amazing, like the most amazing employee.

And so this idea of getting grounded in your core values so that you can use that

as a tool to interview employers, you're not the, this is not a passive thing

where you're just sitting in the chair.

You need to be upfront.

And let me tell you something.

If it, when it comes to making the deal, you wanna make sure that it's the

right deal because you can't go back and renegotiate it when they say let's, talk

in 90 days, or Let's talk in 60 days.

Doesn't happen.

Too much shit comes up in the, in, in the course of an operation.

Yeah.

So you gotta make it right from Jump Street and you might be able to set a

precedent for others coming after you.

Yeah, totally.

I have one other thing to show you because I'll put these

in the in the in the show notes.

But this is another thing that I got from a company called Articulate 360.

There's so many great.

Resources out there.

You just have to look.

And this one is the, one I like about this one is the top three

soft skills your employees need in the new world of work, right?

Soft skills.

And what this told me was these are the soft skills that employers need.

And very often that's not something that we really talk about.

Where's the gap for our middle managers and our hiring managers?

As far as how do you, define the right hire?

Yeah.

Is it, listen, HR does a really great job, and they're very, focused, and

there's some amazing professionals out there, yet they're not a chef.

They're not a front of the house manager.

What kind of questions should they be asking on a screening?

None.

And I love the whole thing with Jensen.

Jensen was talking about that immediacy where someone applies.

He's he's texting them, sends 'em a little video to keep the, juices

flowing, to keep the energy moving until that person's actually in the seat.

Because in this.

Now, you've got a, now you've got an organization that you're really proud of.

You can't, wait.

Gotta take action right now.

And there's other things out there that you can do, such as fractional

fractional checking where there are companies out there that'll provide the

associate hourly associate or salary associate debit cards that are attached

to their account and they can take out.

Every the, all the money that they've accrued, it's like gig pay, early wage

access, but it's a, but that's a great benefit to be able to support somebody.

And I'm sure there's a cost on the backside of that, but

can't be much, can't it, Jim?

No, a lot of those companies actually provide things for free, right?

It's just, that might be the cost of the card for the

employee or that kind of thing.

But most of them that I know One that's doing some great things

here in Canada is Xtm Technologies.

They use a card called the Today Card.

And yeah, it does earned wage and early wage access and tips and all

that kind of stuff, and it's, free.

Yeah.

Yeah there's they, obviously have some upgraded things that you can do that

can help with the organization that have small fees associated with them.

But I think that there's some good ones kicks in, in, in the us does some really

good stuff like that too, that it doesn't cost the operation anything to do and

it just provides an easier path for.

Okay.

There's one I, don't know if you saw, shared a little bit of content

this morning about this, but I, it's because of a conversation I was

actually having with someone yesterday.

In advance of you and I talking about that.

We were gonna speak about this today around the concept of how

often you hear a manager or a chef.

Refer to their team as bodies.

Sorry, I didn't mean to shout out loud, but I can't tell you.

We've talked about this before.

And listen, I worked at one of the oldest resorts in the nation in,

Virginia, almost the West Virginia line.

And it's been around since the 18 hundreds.

And can't tell you how many times in banquets because we, would

do banquets in the back end of this huge cavernous kitchen.

I can't tell you how many times some banquet chef would pull up from the table,

Hey, but we need hands, to the table.

Okay dude.

If that's all they are to you, then.

Yeah.

Like you, you can say, oh no, that's not what I meant yet.

There's probably a little core of truth in most jokes and, racial epithets, right?

They're trying to pull that shit off and no, I was only joking, man.

No, you weren't.

No you won't.

Yeah.

And, now you wanna wonder why nobody respects you and walks away from you

when you're trying to tell him something.

There's, a

manager that I worked with for a long time that this

is when this actually I, may have noticed it a little bit, but I don't

think it really even landed for me until this one scenario happened.

So I was in a sort of executive position and was working with a, a.

A general manager of a location, and him and I happened to be sitting at a table.

Having a meeting, talking about the weekend that was coming up, and how short

staffed they were looking on the schedule.

So he needed to do something to find more people to come and help cover the shift.

And at that moment, pure random, the staff member walks up to the table and

just says, Hey guys, how's it going?

Da Just says hello.

And this manager looked at her and said, we're really tight this weekend.

We need another body.

And she literally, I'm so proud of her to this day.

She said, I'm not just a body that comes to work so.

And if he had said, I need somebody who can come and help.

If he had said he would be a he would need so much if he would help us out,

any of those things, she, there's probably a good chance knowing her

that she probably would've said yes, but because he referred to her as I

need a body to come and cover a shift.

It's no, I'm good.

Yeah.

That's what it's about.

Yep.

So it, I've never forgotten that conversation.

I, it's like a vivid memory that,

again, I, and I don't wanna belabor this point,

but it's really, powerful.

Sometimes it's hard to mentor maturity.

Yeah, especially in an op in an organization or an environment

that's so fast, right?

So if you don't have a plan to, and it's scheduled in your calendar to be

able to sit, like how many times someone say, Hey you doing anything right now?

No.

Cool.

Let's let's talk about your review.

No, It has to be scheduled.

They have to be told about it.

They have to be able to prepare.

It just there's, a level of care and concern that's shown by those small

steps that really speak volumes about not only what type of what type of

leader you are, but what type of organization would allow that to occur.

For sure.

So for anyone

Who's, listening to some of this conversation We always

wanna make sure that there's good takeaways, there's good ideas that, yep.

So reiterate again, dm, Adam, if any of that stuff that he

was sharing lands for you.

Also DM Adam, if you're in that management position that's going, I need to find

ways to evolve and grow as a leader.

That's what, you do every day.

Yep.

Yep.

If you're an organization more from a big picture organizational

part this is what benchmarks does.

What day too, help companies look at things like employee workload in order.

So there's, solution there, right?

Yep.

Yeah, and we've certainly put a bunch of assets into the chat.

I'll follow it up with making sure that the links to the eBooks are there.

If anybody wants the templates they can DM me.

And I already put you in the chat and also put a, link to our mental health

partners, which is on the shelf life coaching dot com webpage under partners.

Jim, we could be going on all day.

But what are your top three?

Just, to wrap up.

Yeah,

my, my top three would be two for sure.

Because one of them was fluffy, but I'll save it for three.

I think the first one would be encourage your people to actually,

and this one doesn't cost money.

Encourage your people to actually come forward with feedback in an

environment that they feel that they can have skin in the game, Uhhuh.

Because if they're part of the community, they're likely

more likely to stick around.

The second one would be pick outside the box and do something

that your competitors won't.

Can you gimme an example?

Laundry service, pet insurance, buy a car.

Like just do something that your competitors would go, they're doing what?

Yep.

And the third one.

And this is the one that's a bit fluffy, so I'll, preface it.

Just care about your people, right?

The staff area.

Don't call them.

All of those things show that they actually give shareable.

Yeah.

How about you?

Gosh, start, I for me, you wanna set yourself up for success first.

If you don't have any job descriptions, there are so many

resources on the internet free templates that you can download.

I give you mine.

I don't really care where, but the sooner you can have job descriptions a tiered

wage scale, that's if not public, at least everybody in the organization knows that.

If John leaves and he comes back and now he says yeah, I'd like to get my job

back, but I really need 16 bucks an hour.

The answer is no.

Dude, you bailed.

What's, how do I prove that to the other people that now you're getting more

money and you came back and I took you.

That's just, that's not fair, firm and fair for everybody.

So set yourself up for success.

Work on your day one orientation, even if it's just a couple hours.

And, that's a great task for a junior manager.

Very often these, types of trainings are.

Can really bring out a lot.

But I guess for me it would be I would jump on the the

fractional pay card right away.

I would I would investigate whether or not there's an insurance

company in my area that provides that, that tiered day one benefit.

Which I think is very important in the United States, not so much in Canada.

Thanks very much.

And the other thing I would look at is am I providing my associates an environment

to take a break that actually isn't a locker room stinking of kitchen uniforms

or the back dock next to the grease bin.

And maybe that's a private dining room that doesn't get used during the day.

What I wanna make sure that when p people are taking their breaks,

that they have enough time for nurture and sustenance because it's

a busy day and I need you strong.

So I wanna be able to provide you those, benefits because you

can't give from an empty cup.

Me, you, or anybody.

We gotta smarten up and just we have to admit our, shortfalls or

our gaps without shame or regret.

Because shame or regret basically is another story that we tell ourselves that

prevents us from actually taking action.

You can just look at a situation and when you think of it, it's like the

expectation is here and I'm here.

What's, in the way?

What's the gap?

How can I close the gap?

Yeah.

Simple.

True.

That's it.

I you get me on this subject, I might go all night.

Them too.

You bet.

Folks, thanks very much for joining us.

I know that we have given you lots of stuff to sort through dm Jim DM

me if you have any further questions.

If you disagree with us, please DM us.

We like those.

We like those conversations, right?

Not to say I'm right or Jim's right, but in the conversation,

the truth will, reveal itself.

And as long as we're committed to to that truth in a mutual rounding way

you're not gonna talk trash about us.

And we won't about you.

It's that simple, right?

Mutual honoring.

Jim Taylor of Benchmark 60, Adam Lamb Chef life coaching.com.

This has been another episode of Turning the Table.

We'll see you next week.

Thanks for joining us on this episode of Turning the Table with

me, Adam Lamb and Jim Taylor.

We're on a mission to change the food and beverage industry for the better

by focusing on staff mental health.

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By proactively measuring and managing staff workloads.

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