Formalizing Employee Responsibilities and Streamlining Business Practices
In addition to being a restaurant and outdoor venue for the community to congregate and enjoy live entertainment, food and drinks, our client extends itself by offering free meals to the community in a time when even the smallest support means the world.
This client operates as a food truck offering its customer’s fried chicken, among other tasty meals.
Situation:
Fortunately, our client had the resources and infrastructure to remain resilient throughout the pandemic. In order to keep up with rising demand, our client had to increase their number of employees. By increasing his staff, the client was faced with a variety of organizational issues. The main issue being the lack of a formal training process for his new employees.
Challenge:
Our client needed to establish clear responsibilities for each employee. In addition to the working responsibilities of each employee, our client wanted us to address larger issues regarding company expectations, appropriate disciplinary action, customer service expectations, and health and safety rules.
Approach:
Our approach was to first understand the different positions on the food truck. Fortunately, our team had the opportunity to visit the food truck in person, interview all the employees, the owner, and the customers being served. We recorded detailed notes on all current business processes and practices, from taking orders to cooking to cleaning and closing the truck.
Understanding that each employee has a different perspective on roles, we used the conglomeration of interviews to establish standard responsibilities for each position, approved by the client.
Next, our team split up into two research teams aimed at understanding 1) best practices for onboarding employees and 2) how to create an effective and responsible disciplinary approach that ensures top quality work while maintaining employees’ job satisfaction.
After defining and compiling the ideas and information necessary for employee onboarding, we then translated the information into an online handbook filled with information, pictures, and quizzes. The handbook can be easily shared with employees online with a link, and our client can manage the onboarding progress by requesting quiz scores and conducting in-person evaluations.
Realizing that our client was in the very early stages of preparing for an expansion, our team wanted to do even more for our client by assessing the current available retail space in Durham. Our approach for this analysis was to first identify available retail space in the area, establish important criteria that must be considered for each location, and then use the criteria to communicate the benefits and drawbacks from each choice.
Impact:
Our client needed an employee onboarding guide in order to more efficiently and effectively onboard his employees. When the restaurant is opened, the employee onboarding guide will serve as an important training program, making the new hire process efficient and effective.
Since our client will be hiring a new manager for the restaurant, the deliverable will also be a great resource that ensures that the culture and expectations of the food truck are not lost in the expansion. The retail space analysis will give our client an opportunity to quickly narrow down options for his new restaurant; as well as, provide insight into possible considerations for making his choice.
As a minority small business owner who was left behind by the federal government stimulus programs, our client was excited to partner with Rem and Company
Team Breakdown:
Team Lead: Sam Rosenthal
Strategist: Iris Lang
Strategist: Alexi Braun
Strategist: Danielle Duffalo
Strategist: Jake Zanazzi
Relevant Background Information:
Business Type: Small Business
Industry: Restaurant
Location: Durham, North Carolina
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