BUSINESS: Creating & Maintaining Your Culture Both On & Offline
When you first dreamed of owning a restaurant, you probably had a clear vision of what you wanted it to be like. You could probably picture the food, the customers, the staff, the environment. You likely knew exactly how you wanted your guests to feel from the moment they stepped through your door to the moment they left.
But even if the picture you had in your head yesterday matches the reality you see at your restaurant today — or at least comes pretty darn close — that doesn’t mean you’re done thinking about the kind of culture you want for your business. If you want your restaurant to thrive not just today, but well into the future, then building the ideal atmosphere for your business, your employees, and, above all, your customers should be a process that never ends.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Dog Adoption Beer
Motorworks Brewery in Brandenton, FL has come up with a great way to sell more beer and get more rescue dogs adopted by putting pics of dogs available for adoption on their beer cans. The “ADOPTABLE DOG Cruiser Kolsch 4-Pack” is a team up between the brewery and Shelter Manatee. Proceeds of the beer sales go to the Shelter Manatee to build a new shelter. The beer is available for purchase through the Motorworks website.
Raining Iguanas
Florida got real cold last week – between 30-40*F which is 15* below the seasonal average. That’s cold enough for local weather services to warn residents that iguanas may start falling out of the trees. It sounds harmless enough until you remember that iguanas can get up to 5’ long and 20lbs. That’s big enough that you don’t want them falling on your head.
Soccer Transfer Fees Reach Record High
FIFA has revealed that global spending on soccer transfer fees increased 5.8% to $7.35 billion in 2019, a record level. Clubs around the world completed 18,042 international transfers and 15,463 professional players were involved representing 178 different nationalities. Interestingly, permanent club-to-club transfers only accounted for 11.6% of all transfers with loans making up 13.5%. As in previous years, the most common transfer type involved players who were out of contract.
TRAIN KEPT A ROLLIN’ [Song]
Why it matters to you: You can’t stop the presence of marijuana, but can you control it?
There is no avoiding the newly legal presence of marijuana across the country. With 33 states allowing some form of medicinal marijuana and 10 states (plus DC) also allowing recreational use, at some point you may have to address marijuana usage at your workplace.
While normally a staff person’s medical conditions are not a conversation we are allowed to have with them, when it comes to state-of-mind altering substances you have more flexibility. With cannabis still listed as a Schedule 1 drug, you are allowed to prohibit its use while someone is working and you can test for its use if you have implemented a standardized drug screening system. However, make no mistake, you will be dealing with this live in your restaurant, if you aren’t already.
With edibles, portable solutions like vaping, and just the general ease with which weed can be consumed, you may never know if one of your staff is using while working. Sure you want to discourage that for clear safety reasons, but stopping it may prove a more difficult challenge. If you don’t feel like implementing a testing protocol, at least have your team sign a confirmation that clearly states they will not ingest anything that might adversely affect their state of mind, including alcohol, THC cannabis in all forms, and opioid substances both legal and illegal. At least that way you have them on record promising not to use. It will be sufficient to terminate someone that abuses that trust and protect your restaurant from any potential complications.
[Source: Modern Restaurant Management]
TICKING CLOCK
Why it matters to you: It’s time to put climate change on your menu.
The scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have told us that we little more than a decade before the effects of human activity have irreparably damaged the planet. While not everyone agrees with that assessment, it’s clear that sense of urgency has spread through our culture at large. From Greta Thunberg to the Sunrise Movement, young people are making clear that climate change is their priority. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that our most forward thinking corporations and communities would take their own action to solve the problems of climate change. Starting with the recent pronouncement by Starbucks that it wants to halve waste, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, you can see the results of the community awakening to the exigency of climate change.
Also, not to be outdone by their friends in Berkeley on their woke-ness to climate change, a group of San Francisco restaurant operators are adding a 1% climate change surcharge onto their guest checks. It is listed as the Restore California surcharge and is being handed out at some of San Francisco’s toniest restaurants. It’s also a sign that these operators believe they have both a responsibility to address climate change, but that it’s also good for business. As we have observed multiple times, being climate conscious is what your guests expect of you and doing so is the right marketing move. Whether you are engaging in composting to reduce landfill contributions or banning natural gas from kitchens (that’s the woke-ness in Berkeley, btw) operators are well served to demonstrate their commitment to addressing climate change. As it turns out that commitment is returned by Millennials and Gen Zers in sufficient measure to make it worth the effort.
