QSR November 2022

BEST BRANDS TO WORK FOR

were down. It provided paid leave, PPE, and created a “Wellness Team” to advise on and monitor the mental health of workers. Additionally, Portillo’s gave 100 percent meal discounts and gift cards throughout the crisis and funded bonuses to field manag ers. Portillo’s introduced a formal meal plan so employees could take food home to their families. If somebody wanted to step aside for personal reasons, Portillo’s allowed them to take leave, and still paid out benefits and offered gift cards for free meals. It then launched a foundation called “The Heart of Portillo’s Fund” to help workers with setbacks. Through this, the com pany raised more than $400,000 over 18 months and awarded about 40 grants for close to $100,000. Coming out of 2020 depths and into the so-called “labor shortage,” is when Portillo’s conducted its “total rewards sur vey” referenced earlier. It was a straightforward ask: What do you want from the brand in an adjusted world? The answer unfurled throughout the many benef its Porti llo’s created, with a heavy focus on f lexibility, development, and recognition. “It showed that we don’t just put our purpose and values on a wall, but we actually live them,” Waite says. “And an additional data point that showed that was we improved our engagement scores, year-over-year, which in a year that Gal lup would say was a decline nationwide, worldwide, we actually saw an improvement.” Why Portillo’s is opening its coffers for employees isn’t tied entirely to recruitment and retention. Waite says if the brand wants to deliver customer service in a way that separates it, especially amid inf lation, employees need to like what they do and where they do it. It’s a challenging proposition to ask a stressed out and unhappy worker to be friendly to somebody walking in or pulling up to the drive-thru. That sounds sim plistic in nature but the execution is far from it. Portillo’s has been working on ways to create efficiencies in-store so employ ees can shed menial tasks and concentrate on what makes the brand stand apart. It gets as granular as catering boxes, which used to require employees to tape them up. A supplier and employee collabo rated to develop a new “pop and lock” product where the box snaps in place. “It sounds crazy,” Osanloo says, “but it saves so many hours of labor.” Before, Portillo’s would have somebody spending three to four hours each morning putting them together. Catering bread started to come in pre-cut, too. It used to be sliced in-house and packaged. Maxwell Street Polish Sausages— the brand’s offering born more than 75 years ago—also used to show up and get hand-trimmed by employees. Ends of the sausage were thrown away. Those arrive pre-cut and trimmed now as well. Portillo’s also moved to red onions machine cut by its supplier and vacuum sealed in bags. PROOF IN THE PUDDING Going back to the idea of fostering soft skills and setting employ ees up for future success, Portillo’s hosts “core interest” days where teammembers can raise their hands and ask about their futures. “What we’ve learned through our Ignite program is

as people are graduating and they’re promoting the energy in the restaurant, you can feel it,” Waite says. “From our recent engagement survey, it shows that our graduates from our Ignite program have a higher level of engagement that they then bring that back to the restaurant. What happens is when you visit a restaurant and say hey, tell me what’s going on, they’ll say Sarah is working on becoming the next assistant general manager. She’s in the next Ignite wave. It breeds a culture of continu ous development and continuous improvement.” This creates a tribe-like culture that appeals to younger generations, Waite adds. The examples of success in-store are visible and appar ent peer-to-peer. The notion of having a best friend at work, she says, has continuously shown up on surveys as a reason why people choose Portillo’s, and why they stay. Osanloo says it’s no accident. Portillo’s recruits for “immu table characteristics.” Are they someone who aspires to being great? Do they treat people at work like extended family? Do they like being in front of other people and having fun? Portillo’s trains GMs and assistant GMs on “what does a great Portillo’s team member look like,” Waite says. And what kind of behavioral questions can you ask to find that employee. “We’re not really looking for what’s on the resume, but we’re looking for who that person is and what they will bring to our life our purpose and our values,” she says. “We ask questions through an interview guide and training of how do you create or how have you created lifelong memories for others? Tell us about how do you bring fun to work, or to your soccer team? We employ a lot of first-time jobs. Individuals who this is their firs- time job and they may not have a job experience. So tell us how you create fun on your soccer team. We’ll take them back on the line and see how they interact with our teammembers.” “… I think that’s one of the key pieces that has allowed us to achieve the retention that we have,” Waite adds. “Because we’re not just looking for someone who can make a great beef sandwich.” The broad view is to hire a team with similar pur pose. More than 56 percent of the company’s hourly employees are BIPOC, which is a ref lection of something that’s going to factor in as the brand grows as well. Portillo’s hires individuals who ref lect communities, so stores that open feel like a local brand customers and workers feel ownership of. Osanloo says the company understands the challenge ahead, which is why Portillo’s has been unrelenting in its culture driven approach. Consumers have become more demanding in COVID’s wake. And you could argue it’s tougher to work in a restaurant than ever given the myriad tasks and channels brands are operating through, from curbside to delivery. “There are just other career paths now where the work might be physi cally demanding but it’s emotionally easier,” he says. “You don’t deal with customers. And while it might be monotonous or bor ing, it’s easier in some ways. And we have lost people to that.” “But I think, if there’s a secret sauce,” Osanloo continues, “it goes back to the culture that we’re trying to create and the values that we’re living.” q

DannyKlein is the Editorial Director of QSRmagazine. He canbe reachedat dklein@wtwhmedia.com .

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NOVEMBER 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com