Restaurant Employee Training: How to Engage and Develop Today’s Workforce

00:06 — Anthony Presley: 

So thanks for hanging out with me here at the National Restaurant association show. 

 

00:09 — Scott Koller: 

Good to be here. 

 

00:10 — Anthony Presley: 

Would you mind introducing yourself? 

 

00:12 — Scott Koller: 

My name is Scott Koller, represent Cowboy Chicken, based in Dallas, Texas. I’m the director of corporate operations overseeing the 10 corporate stores, our area directors and some other different cross departmental responsibilities. 

 

00:27 — Anthony Presley: 

That’s awesome. Awesome. So how long have you been in the restaurants industry? 

 

00:32 — Scott Koller: 

The restaurants industry for about 22 years I believe. Actually graduated from University of North Texas with a degree in hotel restaurants management and started right away basically being in the business. So it’s actually a choice for me. It’s a choice. I love that. 

 

00:47 — Anthony Presley: 

We had this discussion last night with some operators. We were talking about people who get trapped in the industry versus those who view it as a real business and go through it. 

 

00:55 — Scott Koller: 

That’s something I learned early on, was that knowing more and treating it like a true business is how to get ahead a little bit. Some people get trapped in operations world and certain things take over and either they put a ceiling on themselves or other, you know, they just can’t succeed in life sometimes because of restaurants operations. Because it is difficult. 

 

01:15 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah, it’s a, it’s a hard job, right? It’s a hard job. One of the topics, evergreen topic in restaurants is all around labor. Gen Z, Gen A, these folks coming in and you know, and whether or not they want to work, don’t want to work. Some of those habits. What have you seen in the industry over the last 6 12, 18 months, you know, with new hires and turnover. Could you talk to that for a minute? 

 

01:37 — Scott Koller: 

Yeah. So it’s interesting and we are based in Dallas, Texas so obviously everywhere has its own labor market, good and bad. And Texas and specifically the Dallas Fort Worth area is a pretty strong labor market. There’s a lot of diversity in the labor market with the younger demographics though Gen Z, Gen Alpha, like you’re speaking about, it’s a little bit of a mixed bag and it’s just like you don’t want to lump everybody into one category just based on, you know, how old they are. We’ve seen some good, we’ve seen some bad. Definitely one of the things that our brand Cowboy Chicken is trying to adapt to is the technology side of how we train them. We do most of our training, we do have tablets and checklists and things like that. 

 

02:19 — Scott Koller: 

But I’m looking at it to where really it should be more engaging and fun in a way. So if they’re used to always having a fun, used to having TikTok used to having something scrolling, you know, to keep their attention span. How do you do that within a training set to really keep them engaged? Because that’s really one of the things that I’ve seen is that it’s just harder to keep them engaged. They want to work. But sometimes, you know, and there are, I have seen a little bit of lack in social skills and being in our business, really being upfront and open and have customer service, hospitality, top of mind is something that you obviously need to hire people that will succeed, set them up for success, and sometimes they just want a job until they realize what the job entails. 

 

03:00 — Anthony Presley: 

Right. So I love that. So a little bit about you mentioned soft skills. Right. So are you guys training specifically for that? Are you finding that you’re having to do that differently with. 

 

03:12 — Scott Koller: 

Yeah, you know, I would say that’s not something that we want to train. We’re probably not as good at it as we need to be. I mean, really, that depends on our managers that are in the building. Because we rely. The way we train is our hourly employees, you know, are basically shadowing hip to hip with the hourly people, team members that are training for that position. And then managers are the ones that come in and follow up with hourly. With our management candidates, our MIT candidates, it’s a little bit different where we do have a corporate trainer that’s a little more involved far as the soft skills. 

 

03:44 — Scott Koller: 

It’s something that we try to put out there, but sometimes the feedback from the younger generation or the, the lack of taking feedback, I guess I should say, is an issue to where they feel in some instance picked on or things pointed out that normally they like, why do I have to act that way? Why do I have to act happy and inviting if I’m not really feeling that way? 

 

04:10 — Anthony Presley: 

Right. 

 

04:10 — Scott Koller: 

And it’s like, well, that’s what we pay you for. 

 

04:12 — Anthony Presley: 

Right. 

 

04:13 — Scott Koller: 

You know, and sometimes there’s a disconnect that it’s like, you know, eventually some of them get it and some of them don’t. 

 

04:17 — Anthony Presley: 

Right. 

 

04:18 — Scott Koller: 

You know, it’s like, hey, I’m here, I’m showing up, I’m doing my job. You’re like, well, you require a little more. We require a little more for you to do your job well. 

 

04:25 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah, I love all of that. The gamification is very interesting. Are you going down a little bit of that path with the how to make it fun, the training, the engagement? Is that. Have you gamified that? Is that something that you’d be interested in doing? 

 

04:36 — Scott Koller: 

Something we’d be interested in doing. We don’t necessarily have the bandwidth and a lot of times in our departments, sure. To really, you know, we all know where we want what to do and. But it’s how to get there. 

 

04:46 — Anthony Presley: 

Right. 

 

04:46 — Scott Koller: 

Is a lot of times we have a little bit of a disconnect within our corporate teams. We’re not the biggest company, we’re not the smallest company in the world, but some of us wear many hats and it’s like. But training is an area that we are actively trying to get better at. 

 

05:01 — Anthony Presley: 

Got it, Got it. Switching on that just a little bit on the leadership side. Right. There’s a lot of discussion of how you grow leaders, how you train leaders up. And there’s some interesting discussions. I mean it’s one thing to have kind of the command and control leadership from the top, but what do you guys think about leading from the bott? What do you think? What do you talk with your team about, like how they might lead from whatever position they’re inside the organization? Is that something you guys believe in? 

 

05:27 — Scott Koller: 

That’s something that we are trying to get better at. And that’s one of the things when I say that because we are a company that really in the past four to five years has, I mean, obviously since COVID you know, came out and everybody has to realize we need to do some things different. 

 

05:41 — Anthony Presley: 

Right. 

 

05:42 — Scott Koller: 

It’s a good thing and a bad thing. We’ve had a lot of long term employees, hourly employees. We’ve got a lot of long term leadership in Cowboy Chicken. I’ve been with them for about three and a half years. So I’m kind of the new guy. One of the things I was kind of asked to do is bring a little bit different perspectives from some of the other brands that I’ve worked with and things I’ve done in the past. And that is definitely where we want to listen to all levels of our from cooks, back of the house, front of the house, cashiers. And we’ve actually done a pretty good job of that over the years. And some of it is because we need that input, we need that information because we are a small and nimble team. 

 

06:20 — Scott Koller: 

Like to say, yeah, we rely on some of those long term employees to actually give that honest feedback of what works and what doesn’t work. Yeah. And it’s probably actually more for us from the back of the house than it is the front of the house. Just because it seems like our front of the house operations, just like most fast casual are kind of. They are what they are in a way, you know, so it’s like how much innovation or perspective can somebody that’s kind of new coming in really give? But we, you know, somebody says something that I find interesting, I would obviously listen to it. 

 

06:49 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah, that’s great. That’s great. Are you finding with your team and just kind of as a workplace has evolved and are you finding needs to be more flexible, say in scheduling or how you might deal with somebody’s weekends or. 

 

07:02 — Scott Koller: 

Yes, considerably. 

 

07:03 — Anthony Presley: 

Yes. 

 

07:03 — Scott Koller: 

You know, and that’s one of the things, you know, I’m not that old, but I’m definitely older school. 

 

07:08 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

07:08 — Scott Koller: 

When it comes to the operations side of, you know, when you sign up to work in a restaurants, you work weekends, you don’t have weekends anymore. 

 

07:14 — Anthony Presley: 

Right. 

 

07:14 — Scott Koller: 

And it’s like, and from the management side, standard, 50, 60 hours. You know, we’re at 50 hours, you know, back in the day, 10, 15 years ago, standard full service, 65, 70 hours. Yeah. You know, stand fast casual, QSR, you’re looking at 50 to 55 hours. Standard. 

 

07:30 — Anthony Presley: 

Yeah. 

 

07:30 — Scott Koller: 

And so now we’re worried about 50 hours for a management team and for our hourlies. Yes. It’s definitely something that we are and we do. And that’s one of the things about being a company. We’re also be more nimble, we’re more flexible when it comes to certain things. We have more understanding. We have long term employees, we understand single motherhood, we understand all those things and make accommodations as much as we can. And I’m a big believer in what’s nice about, you know, QSR and fast casual is the ability to have day shift, night shift flexibility. So if somebody wants to work 20 hours, they want to work 25 hours. Hey, that works for us too. 

 

08:03 — Anthony Presley: 

Right, right. 

 

08:04 — Scott Koller: 

You know, and if that one day can be a Sunday, I might even pay you more. Right. You know, so it all depends on the give and take when it comes to the flexibility. But it’s. We’re definitely hearing and that ask is out there more. 

 

08:15 — Anthony Presley: 

Got it. Love it. So last kind of we’ll call it. But quick answer here. If you are a new director of operations, what would be your advice to somebody? Like, hey, you’re coming into a brand or you’ve been given a new director of operations. What’s the first thing that they can do to make a difference in their organization without necessarily having to go through six months of change management? 

 

08:35 — Scott Koller: 

Right. And I would say just endearing yourself to the current, the situation you’re being put in. Endear yourself to them as being a leader that’s going to listen and enact changes for the better. 

 

08:46 — Anthony Presley: 

Love it. Awesome. 

 

08:47 — Scott Koller: 

Quick answer. 

 

08:48 — Anthony Presley: 

That’s a very quick answer. Appreciate it. Thanks for your time. 

 

08:50 — Scott Koller: 

You’re welcome, sir.