Nate DaPore's Blog (17)

Last week’s Jobs Report, issued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, echoed news we’ve all grown accustomed to hearing — U.S. job growth is weak.

But is that the whole story?

If you take a moment to study the recent news, there is a silver lining — at least for the restaurant industry. In the month of August, 96,000 jobs were added on a net basis across the nation and more than 28,000 of those jobs were in the restaurant industry. In other words, more than…

I read an interesting article on Freaknomics recently. It was titled, “Obedience on the Job.” The writer relates a story where he questioned a bus driver on a policy change and the driver responds, “I just do what my boss tells me to do. I don’t question.”

If you’re like me, you have been in this situation before — and it can be aggravating.

Maybe you’ve called a customer…

Pop culture often mocks or exaggerates the behind-the-scenes frustrations faced by foodservice employees — and their reactions. From the 2005 film Waiting to MADTvs Bon Qui Qui,…

Are you being weighed down by the proverbial “ball and chain?” No, not that ball and chain. I’m talking about the processes that your restaurant just can’t operate without. Remember your great idea from 10 years ago? The one that changed the way your restaurant operated, or saved a ton of money … or even revamped your brand. Is it still the biggest thing to happen to your restaurant?

Being locked-in to certain business practices can stunt your creativity and growth. Every successful…

In the world of foodservice, brand is a word we hear and use everyday. Restaurants have to build their brand, protect their brand and strengthen their brand. But do you always know what you are focusing on when you talk about your brand?

By using the word brand, do you mean the image, as in the colors, design or logo that represents your restaurant? Are referring to brand as the atmosphere and experience provided — young and hip or family style — or your concept — fresh…

Formula For Success

The more I study the concept of employee engagement in the restaurant industry I see the need for innovation. One of the biggest challenges is how to get hourly employees to really engage with the company’s mission. The formula I’m seeing emerge in other markets could change foodservice engagement if readily embraced.

Goals + Gamification = Engagement

We all know that annual reviews in foodservice are impractical. With high…

There is a recently completed study on the work habits of Millennials that might surprise employers. The study was done by MTV, and before you shrug it off, think — who better to get honest feedback from a younger generation?

Let’s examine the results as they apply to foodservice and the upcoming restaurant workforce.

Culture

In a briefing with…

Did you ever sit down to watch a movie at home and have to sort through a collection of remotes to find the three or four you need to make everything work? There’s one to turn on the TV, one to control the DVD player, one for the sound system and who knows what else. Honestly, how many volume buttons does one entertainment system require?



Similarly, when you manage a restaurant, have you noticed how you use a variety of systems to run the FOH and BOH operations but none of them…

At some point in your life it’s likely you have offered, received or heard the advice, “If you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk.” Often this piece of wisdom is shared between friends or familiar business associates as a kind of friendly ribbing. But have you ever taken the time to really think about it?

What if you could get your staff to “walk the walk?” Or to throw another common phrase out there, what if your entire staff “acted like they owned the…

There’s a mobile epidemic occurring everywhere you turn - locally, nationally and globally. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), 27 percent of US households used cell phones exclusively in the first half of 2010. Additionally, a Nielsen survey reported smartphone usage nearly tripled in the last year, especially among 18-29 year-olds where 62 percent use smartphones.

How does this connect to the foodservice industry? It means your workforce demographic is moving…

“Nobody puts HR in a corner.” Recognize the line? It’s a classic. Well, it’s a slightly-adjusted classic. “Nobody puts Baby in a corner,” might sound more familiar. It’s the line from “Dirty Dancing” when Patrick Swayze retrieves Jennifer Gray from a corner seat so they can do the last dance of the season. The point being that her character has grown up and can be more than her peers and parents expected.…

In the restaurant industry, being fully staffed — with top-quality employees — is Holy Grail of HR. It is constantly sought after, rarely achieved and rumored to be difficult to achieve. More often than not a restaurant has a decent team, with a few outstanding employees and the occasional bad apple. It’s not uncommon to find a manager or head chef stepping in to cover a “no-show” staff member.

Foodservice faces such high turnover rates that managers often jump to quickly…

On Jan. 18, several websites participated in a blackout to protest the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as H.R. 3261. Wikipedia reported 162 million people viewing its blackout page, seven million people signed Google's petition and Twitter saw over four million SOPA related tweets.

Two days later, SOPA was officially ‘killed’ — for the year. SOPA’s Senate doppelganger, PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), has also been tabled for the time being. Will similar…

Recently I read a blog, Elusive Cuteness and Building Approachable Systems, on a project run by the MIT Media Lab that leveraged people to try and make systems more intelligent, efficient and successful. The team built a robot named ‘Boxie’ designed to appeal to the masses — then let it roll through different parts of the campus…

Everyone has a system of values that they live by — and in business, those values come into play just as they do in everyday life. Constant decisions define each individual, as well as how a company is seen by the world. Principles, ideals and ethics guide and shape priorities and reactions.

For me, the values I choose to run my business by also serve as markers that show the progress we achieve. They are beacons guiding us in the right direction, leading us to provide the type of…

I predict that 2012 will be the year for paper to finally become obsolete in all foodservice business transactions and information storage. Restaurant owners, finance officers and HR teams can deliberate how long it will take, but it is obvious that the days of using paper on the business side of foodservice are numbered. What’s causing the end of the paper world? Technological advancement.

Tech-savvy consumers, employees and managers alike are increasingly fed up with paper…

Ten years ago “Google” was only a noun. Five years ago “friend” became a verb. Social media is rewriting how we interact — and it’s happening in every aspect of our lives. Twitter transformed how we get our news; Groupon revolutionized how we consume; Foursquare revamped how we ‘check-in’; and now, social media is redefining how we hire.

Human Resources saw the emergence of Job Boards around a decade ago; they allowed employers to reach a wider talent pool, easier than ever…