Proving that it’s all about the people you hire, train and keep, four foodservice companies were honored with 2010 SPIRIT Awards at the 51st annual MUFSO conference this month.
Sponsored by The Coca-Cola Co. and presented by Nation’s Restaurant News and the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, or NRAEF, the SPIRIT Awards honor companies with innovative policies and practices designed to improve employee recruitment, satisfaction, retention and performance.
The winners, representing four industry segments, were chosen by the editors of NRN and the SPIRIT advisory board, which evaluated criteria that included innovation and creativity, program presentation, in-unit communication and measured results.
Jim Sullivan, chief executive of Sullivision.com and an NRN columnist, presented the awards, along with Carlton Curtis, vice president of industry affairs for Coca-Cola, and Sharon Tiknis, interim executive director of the NRAEF.
The winners were:
FINE DINING: B&O American Brasserie, located in the original Baltimore & Ohio Railway headquarters in downtown Baltimore. Since opening in July 2009, the restaurant has retained 91 percent of its staff, “which is a direct result of a company culture committed to providing a workplace that is caring, fun, challenging and rewarding,” said Sullivan.
Retention programs include a variety of team-building activities, quarterly employee recognition lunches, a Value Awards program and other benefits and recognition initiatives.
Accepting the award on behalf of B&O American Brasserie was general manager Marcus Garner.
FULL SERVICE: The Red Lobster chain, owned by Orlando, Fla.-based Darden Restaurants Inc., with nearly 700 restaurants and more than 63,000 employees. The company has worked hard to strengthen its focus on employees as a key priority and involve those staff members in reaching business goals and driving change.
“As a result, engagement scores have soared and the morale, enthusiasm and feedback from employees has been extremely positive,” Sullivan said.
Diane Psaras, Red Lobster’s vice president of human resources, said she was proud to accept on behalf of the seafood brand, “but it really belongs to our restaurant teams.”
QUICK SERVICE: Ivar’s Seafood Bars, a 26-unit fast-casual seafood concept based in Seattle. The chain, which is owned by Ivar’s and is siblings with three full-service waterfront restaurants and 20 regional stadium concession outlets, is known for its low turnover.
Sullivan said a recent survey found that 98 percent of employees at Ivar’s said the restaurants were “a great place to work,” and 93 percent said the chain invested a significant amount of time, money and effort in training and development.
Accepting the award for Ivar’s, Patrick Yearout, director of training, said, “I’m proud and grateful to work for a company where people really do come first.”
ONSITE FOODSERVICE: St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, Okla., where the food and nutrition services department provides more than 2 million meals each year to patients, employees and hospital visitors.
Prior to 2004, Sullivan said, the medical center’s turnover rate for cooks averaged 33 percent. After initiating several programs to retain and motivate the cooking staff, turnover rates have improved significantly, and the department’s Employee Relations Index is now higher than the hospital’s average and the industry norm.
Accepting on behalf of St. John’s Medical Center was Janet Potts, director of food nutrition services.
“No one gets here alone,” said Potts, “and I’m proud to work with an outstanding team of 120 people.”
Summarizing the observations of the winners, Sullivan said that hiring correctly in the first place is the key to having good staff. “Hire tough, manage easy,” Sullivan said.
However, the economic downturn has resulted in the lowest turnover in years, and operators have the opportunity to make working for their company a privilege.
Audience members observed that this panel was not as well-attended as the standing-room-only session on social media held in that room beforehand.
Ken Schiller, president of restaurant company K&N Management in Austin, Texas, was on that social media panel and in the audience for the SPIRIT panel. Explaining why he thought the human-resources panel was more sparsely attended, he said: “This is hard.”