Food Safety

We focused on the basics during my first week at West Oaks Mall, specifically Food Safety.

Health Inspection Audit
A company called Steritech performed a health inspection audit early in the week. This was a rigorous test that closely examined all the food safety areas of the business. It was clear that I had my work cut out for me after this audit.

Training
I instructed all of our team members to watch the Safety and Security dvd and pass the certification test with a 90% or higher. To ensure their understanding of the fundamentals, I went over crucial areas like the Temperature Danger Zone, proper hand washing, and fire safety individually with each team member.

Cross-Contamination
When I arrived, there were no systems in place to separate raw chicken from ready to eat food. For instance, there were no yellow handled tools in the restaurant and yellow gloves were not used to bread chicken. After ordering the right equipment we are now able to easily differentiate tools and gloves for raw chicken and ready to eat foods.

Biological Contamination
Proper hand washing procedures were not in effect, even when a team member would switch from breading raw chicken to preparing ready to eat food. After much discussion and many reminders, the team has significantly increased their hand washing. Also, employee drinks being held and consumed anywhere in the restaurant. This was solved by creating drink stations where team members could store and drink their beverages away from food and service areas.

Chemical Contamination
A lack of organization posed the biggest problem regarding our use of chemicals. We did not have all of the appropriate bottles which caused us to put incorrect cleaners in incorrect bottles. We discovered this because there were 2 bottles with multipurpose labels next to each other with different colored liquids inside. We also did not have adequate storage for our chemicals, which encouraged team members to hang bottles wherever they saw fit – including over paper and food products. This was easily remedied by purchasing and installing bottle shelves by the mop sink.

We were also not using sanitizer in any fashion outside of the dish sink. There were no sanitizer buckets or bottles in the entire restaurant. While there were green packets of sanitizer in the building, nobody in the store knew what they were used for. Everything, including all food surfaces and prep areas, were cleaned with multi purpose and degreaser. This was a MAJOR area of focus and each team member is now fully informed on how to prepare, test, and use sanitizer properly.

Physical Contamination
There were a few areas regarding physical contamination that we needed to work on. Team members were wearing too much jewelry, including multiple rings, dangling earrings, gaudy necklaces, and bracelets. Another team member issue was a lack of hair restraints. This was solved simply by having the leaders strictly enforce the rules laid out in the employee handbooks. Also, a majority of our light shields for the fluorescent lighting were cracked and broken and needed to be replaced.

It was a busy first week at West Oaks Mall but was all worth it when we passed our REAL health inspection with relative ease at the end of the week!

Cow Appreciation Day

We celebrated everybody’s favorite holiday of the year this past Friday: Cow Appreciation Day! We had a great day and represented the brand well inside of the mall.

Earlier in the week, we handed out reminders and cow costumes (spots and hats) to the mall employees to create a buzz around the mall. All of the team members handed personal invitations to customers welcoming them to come back on Friday to celebrate with us. We also encouraged the team members to dress up by having a contest to see who could be the best “cow”.

We had a great turnout for Cow Appreciation Day – about double the “cows” from last year! We had the Great American Cookie Company make us special cow cookies and had the kids “spot” the cows with black and white icing. The team did not disappoint with the contest, which really added to the festivities. Even the team members who did not dress up were given cow balloon hats made by a local balloon artist (or they were forced to don the cow costume and patrol the dining room)!

Cow Appreciation Day at West Oaks Mall was quite the celebration!

On the Road Again

After spending 3 months with Doug Bizerra at Gardens on Havana in Aurora, Colorado...I am back on the IM circuit! This assignment is at West Oaks Mall in sunny (and HOT) Orlando, Florida. West Oaks is a low volume unit and also is my first experience working in a mall. It has been quite an experience making the adjustment to such a low volume (our monthly sales are less than my previous stores' weekly sales)!

Since I am headed for Chicago next month, my primary objective is to maintain a sense of stability in the restaurant. Most of the team has worked with the previous operator for 4 or 5 years and they are going to have to go through ANOTHER transition in one more month. I really want to set up the next IM for success and inheriting a well functioning team seems like the best way to do that.

My other objective this month is to take care of the basics. Right now the store could use a good cleaning and there are a number of areas where the team members need recalibration – most notably in the areas of food safety.

I am confident that this month will be a success simply by focusing on maintaining a sense of stability and focusing on the very basics of the business – cleanliness and food safety.

Emotional Connections

This month, we decided to do an event with 3 of our local elementary schools. We held an essay contest where students had to tell us why their parents deserve a night out. Each student who submitted an entry received a free Kid’s Meal and the winning entry from each school received a full service dinner at Chick-fil-A and 2 movie tickets for his/her parents. The response was INCREDIBLE.

We had nearly 500 entries between the 3 schools! The essays were amazing – some were funny, some were sad, some were passionate, but they were all incredibly authentic. When we announced the winners, the responses were just as heartwarming (if not more so) as the letters themselves! One school administrator started crying when she discovered who had won. Apparently, the winner's parents had been going through some difficult times and the administrator told us that "this is exactly what they need”. There has been such a buzz among all the schools this past week regarding who the big winner would be. Each winner was announced over the school's intercom and got to call their parents immediately from the school office to share the good news.

This event was such a success. We have heard so many heart warming stories through this contest and I am confident that we have created new raving fans as a result. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Speed of Service

The Goal
When I first arrived to Federal Heights, the speed of service was very slow. We were averaging just less than 3 minutes a transaction. At the time there were other issues that I deemed more serious than our speed (i.e. Repairs and Maintenance, Food Quality, etc), so I did not place a significant focus on our times.

At the beginning of January, I decided that it was time to really focus on lowering our average transaction times. Success does not happen overnight, so I split the big goal into two parts -by the end of January I wanted to be averaging less than 2:30 per transaction, and by the end of February I want to be averaging less than 2 minutes. While I recognize that 2 minutes per transaction is far from stellar, I feel that lowering our speed of service by an average of 1 minute per transaction in 2 months is a significant achievement.

The Plan
From the very beginning, it was important to me that the team accomplish this goal without my help. I only wanted to encourage and strategize and process with them. It would not benefit the next operator of Federal Heights one bit if I were to single handedly achieve this goal.
I started with leadership. I cast the vision of what I wanted to see happen, and then we had about an hour discussion on what needed to be done to achieve this goal. We determined that this was not a result of one or two people underperforming. Rather, it was a matter of changing the culture of the restaurant. Our strategy involved 5 steps:

1. Training to encourage fast service and to share best practices
2. Signage to track progress
3. Placing the right people in the right places
4. Team huddles before all rushes to set goals and create focus
5. Rewards for accomplished goals along the way

We also came to the conclusion that our customer service and order accuracy could not suffer as a result of being faster. We would just need to find ways to be more efficient and resourceful with our team members.

The Results
The team has responded well to our 5 step strategy. At the end of January, our average speed of service was 2:25, which puts us right on pace with our goal. The team is definitely getting stronger, and I am excited to see our February progress!



UPDATE: As of February 13th, our average speed of service has dropped to 2 minutes, 8 seconds. Also, our Speed of Service CEM score has risen 7 points this month and our Order Accuracy has improved by 2 points.

S.E.R.V.E.

Current State
When I arrived at Federal Heights there were two managers and a few “leaders in training”. Most of the “leaders in training” have fallen short and lost that title, and only one ended up making the cut to become an assistant manager. The leaders here are great, but the depth is a serious issue. They are stretched too thin when they are here and all of the restaurant’s responsibilities fall on their shoulders. At the beginning of this year, it was my goal to add to the leadership depth at Federal Heights by developing prospective leaders through the use of the SERVE model.

Progress
We are just getting started with the SERVE model training and already I have been very pleased with the results. We are using the Great Leaders SERVE curriculum (Volume 1), spending one to two weeks focusing on each principle. The prospective leaders are learning so much about Chick-fil-A – specifically our culture, our values, and our leadership principles. We have wrestled through concepts such as leadership, strength building, vision, goal setting, and time management.

In addition to being beneficial for my prospective leaders, this has been valuable for my current leaders as well. I am having them lead the sessions which has resulted in their growth through teaching these concepts. It has also built trust among the current leadership and the prospective leaders in the restaurant.

The Great Leaders SERVE model has been an amazing tool and has cultivated growth among my prospective and current leaders.

Top Ten Learnings

10. Low-Awareness Market Challenges
While working in a low-awareness market is very exciting (hardly a day goes by where I do not have the opportunity to introduce someone to Chick-fil-A) it can also be very challenging.

9. Hiring and Terminating Employees
This is an area where I have had to learn from my mistakes. Employee turnover is necessary in order to remain remarkable and continuously improve.

8. Increasing Sales
Although I majored in Marketing and have been involved with a number of marketing events (Project IF), I have learned a lot about the ins and outs of increasing sales in the past few months.

7. Bartering
Recently, I have discovered the value of bartering with other businesses to save money. By bartering, I have been able to obtain other businesses’ products and services for my team by using the retail value of our food, while only spending the actual cost. This has been great for team member incentives and contest prizes.

6. “Lonely on Top”
As an IM/Operator it is my job to be a leader, not a friend. I have learned that it is SO important to have a social network outside of the restaurant in order to keep the priorities of the business in focus.

5. R&M
As an IM, this area is so important because I am responsible for equipping the next operator with a fully functional restaurant. This situation has forced me, out of necessity, to learn the ins and outs of preventative maintenance and the best practices of repairing equipment.

4. Signage
Signage is an effective way to communicate my vision to the team. Signs ensure that there will be nothing lost in translation – my message will reach the team just as I want them to hear it.

3. Goal Setting
It is so important to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time Specific) goals for the team in order to create focus. By taking time to observe and assess at the beginning of my assignment, I was able to create SMART goals that were tailored for the team at Federal Heights.

2. Vision
Vision is such a key part of leading a team. The past few months I have been given the opportunity to develop a vision for the restaurant, communicate that vision to the team, and make adjustments based on the team’s implementation of the vision.

1. Prioritizing and Organizing Time
My number one learning as an Interim Manager has been on the practice of prioritizing and organizing my time. A few weeks after I started my assignment, I was able to attend a Building Champions workshop where I learned all about prioritizing time, setting a vision, and focusing on the areas that are most important to me.