Theme Based Restaurant Chain

The newbie restaurant chain about two years old started with a great story, a great theme. Initially the team was small and the founders made sure every employee lived the theme; the culture maintenance was an important part of the job. But as the chain grew they got funding, they brought in franchises as they could not themselves keep up with the pace of growth. At this point, the story took the back seat, it was not instilled into the restaurant’s culture as rigorously as before, thereby employees started caring less about it. The problem was that it wasn’t being communicated in the right way to the employees. The story needed to be communicated consistently, continuously and with care.

Problems:

1. The restaurant needed each team member to hear the right story.
2. They needed an orientation program for new employees that included the story of the restaurant, a tour of the restaurant and the expectation of the team members.
3. The training needed to be complete in 7 days.
4. Because the company is so new, there was no system in place for testing, tracking the results.
5. Paper records (training material) in each restaurant were not organized, if they even existed.
6. Paper tests were hard to schedule, grade and again file in an organized format.

Solution:

Special design techniques were introduced to include more content in learning in less time for managers and team members.
1. eLearning courses were implemented on orientation. Founders got involved at this stage. All of the team members see the same story and goal of the company. They see the roles and expectations for every position.
2. Courses are in English and Hindi.
3. The system tracks performance of trainees. Maintenance was built into the program allowing managers to see how trainees performed in the course allowing for scheduling of special training in advance of need.
4. The tests are graded automatically.
5. Test maintenance is easy.
6. All content is put into eLearning format. Thus, if an employee is hired to work, they only need to go through the course.
7. The e-learning allowed employees to learn more in less time and at faraway places from founders’ locations.