The following transcript is provided unedited.
Rose Ann Garza:
We’ve always said that we don’t live on planet fair. And so as much as you would like to say that the customer’s always right, they may or may not be, but it’s our job to always make sure that they feel heard and that they feel right and that they leave our restaurants feeling like this was their third place.
Tony Lee:
Welcome to the HR Storyteller Podcast Series from the Society for Human Resource Management. I’m your host, Tony Lee, head of content here at Sherm. Thank you for joining us. Our HR Storyteller Podcast feature practitioners and thought leaders in human resources, sharing stories about why they love HR, what motivates them, and what’s moved them in their careers. Today, we’re joined by Rose Ann Garza, CHRO of Kerbey Lane Café in Austin, Texas. Rose Ann, welcome.
Rose Ann Garza:
Hi, thanks for having me.
Tony Lee:
Well, it’s our pleasure. So you’ve got a story you’d like to share.
Rose Ann Garza:
I do. I think it’s really important to understand how I got where I am today to talk about really the dream that began it. And so I come from a family that our entire life was spent in service of other people. And so it was natural for me to want to be in a profession that I spend my days helping other people, because ultimately people don’t come to HR on their best day. They typically come to you on their worst. And so I learned early in my career that it was really important that I be kind and considerate and gentle to others. And that really comes from my experience being raised in a home with a special needs child. My oldest sister is Down Syndrome. And so we started our service to others by doing Special Olympics, as young children. And I found that’s kind of where my passion was and I bring that to work. And it’s great.
Tony Lee:
That’s really great. So at Kerbey Lane, do you find that experience translates into helping people with special needs?
Rose Ann Garza:
It does. It’s wonderful to work for an organization that feels the same passion that I do. And that’s why it works so well. I’ve been there 16 years now. And so it’s been wonderful to kind of see our program get off the ground of working with local special needs organizations so that they can come and work in our restaurants.
Tony Lee:
That’s great. So let’s give people perspective. How many restaurants, how many employees?
Rose Ann Garza:
Great. So we have 700 team members and we have 10 restaurants. The 11th one is opening soon.
Tony Lee:
That is so cool. So from an HR perspective, working in the food service industry can be pretty challenging these days. How are you dealing with high turnover, great competition, all the challenges that everybody’s facing?
Rose Ann Garza:
So ultimately, we learned so much from the last couple of years. As we all know, they were hard. They were hard on many organizations. Restaurants were not an exception to that. And so what it did is it really kind of opened up all the doors for all the departments to really work well together, to come up with innovative ideas and HR didn’t just become only HR’s responsibility, just like marketing didn’t and sales. And we all work together to be innovative, to really kind of source what we need for our team.
And so we have changed a lot of the things that we’ve historically done. Before the last couple of years, we were an organization that was a very risk averse. And then the carpet got pulled out from underneath us and we had to just pivot and determine what might work. And we got really lucky on a few things and we didn’t get so lucky on a few things, but it’s really helped us now to be a much closer team and to come up with ideas of how to hire, how to retain, how to treat our team. And we have a much closer bond now.
Tony Lee:
Yeah, food service has a high turnover rate. What do you do to manage that?
Rose Ann Garza:
So I think that it starts with our culture. So our culture is very easy to… We have core values that are very easy to remember, and those are called the three Cs and those are care for the food, care for the guest, and care for each other. And no one of them is more important than the other, but ultimately care for each other is really where HR comes in, in making sure that people have the support they need in and out of work. And so we make sure that they have everything from, of course, wonderful benefits. Childcare, if they need it. Elder care, if they need it. And then of course we give them paid time off and we also give them an opportunity to take food home for their families so that they don’t have to worry about cooking dinner after a hard day’s work. And really we just support each other as best as we can.
Tony Lee:
Yeah. It sounds like a great culture.
Rose Ann Garza:
Thanks.
Tony Lee:
How do you communicate the culture? Not just to your employees, but to potential employees?
Rose Ann Garza:
So ultimately… Obviously what’s hired, we have several training classrooms, the art of giving great service. And part of that is us taking care of each other and taking care of yourself. And then outwardly we’ve been lucky that we’re a 42 year old company that has a history of really giving back to the community that we’re in and also giving back to our team members. And so that is very helpful. We have a really good referral program. And so we reward both the new hire and the existing person who referred them. And that’s actually helped. We have some people who have referred upwards of 30 people to work within the same location. And part of it is we just say, don’t you want to work with your friends? Do you know someone great who would have a good time here? Because we’re all about having a good time at work.
Tony Lee:
Yeah, let’s talk more about that. Because employee referrals have always been an essential part of recruiting, but lately we’ve seen companies offering some pretty good incentives for employee referrals. Is the monetary reward what drives it or is there more than that?
Rose Ann Garza:
I don’t think that’s what works at for us. I think that for us, we make sure that we’re doing things at day 30, day 45, day 90. So it’s getting them to get indoctrinated into our culture. And we also have a mentorship program within the organization. So we found as people were leaving, one of the things that was hardest for them was really making friends if they were a shy person. And so we made sure to pair them up with another team member who had been there a long time to make them feel welcome, to introduce them to their social circle, and really just to answer any questions they might have beyond the initial training.
Tony Lee:
How important is it to communicate to new employees that promotion from within is possible?
Rose Ann Garza:
Oh, I’m actually glad you brought that up because it’s really one of the things that makes us unique. 98% of our leadership is from within.
Tony Lee:
Wow.
Rose Ann Garza:
And so we have a program called the Leadership Development Model. And so that teaches anyone and everyone, no matter what position you start at, it gives you all the skills of how to be all the way up to a managing partner. And it’s within your hands. We also have open book management, which is we share our financials with every single team member. We also allow them to do a financial literacy program, which teaches them how to read and understand a P&L.
Tony Lee:
Wow, that’s really very, very cool. So in a market like Austin and Central Texas, that’s just booming, how do you compete with the Amazons and everybody else who’s hiring and offering huge starting salaries?
Rose Ann Garza:
Well, that’s actually a really hard question. And if anyone has the perfect answer, please feel free to share it. But I think that our history and our culture is one of the things that separates us. We take care of our team. We’re loyal to our team. They’re loyal to us. And we’re really just well known for the service that we provide to our team members. How do we compete with the larger corporations? I mean, I think that we treat everyone like a human and we make sure that no matter your circumstance, we’re going to help you.
Tony Lee:
So in terms of your hiring, are you looking at less traditional candidates, maybe people with criminal histories, veterans who are making the transition older workers. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Rose Ann Garza:
I can. So we actually are open to any and every type of person who’s a second… We are a second chance employer. That’s a very big thing for us. We always have been. One of the cornerstones of who Kerbey Lane Café is that we have always been a place where we welcome everyone and where we encourage you to be yourself, whatever that might be. Our owners talk about back in the 1980s, how they were one of the first places to hire people with colored hair and tattoos. And now you see that everywhere, but that was very unique back then. And that is who we are.
And I mean, that just kind of happened. It wasn’t on purpose, but we just felt this is going to be a place where everyone feels welcome. And so we take that to the next level by, of course, hiring people who have retired and want to come back into the workforce and just work 10 or 15 hours a week so that they have a social outlet. And it’s been wonderful for us to really kind of get that program going and have them be our host and hostess at the front door.
Tony Lee:
Yeah. Now how important has it been to offer flexibility?
Rose Ann Garza:
Well, I think one of the things that’s been great about the restaurant industry always is that we were kind of one of the first innovators to have workplace flexibility. That’s one of the greatest things and part of why I waited tables even when I was in college is because I knew that if I needed to pick up a shift to make some extra money, I could. I knew that if I needed to give up a shift, because I needed to study for a final, I could. And so restaurants have always been really flexible and we find that it needs to be even more flexible these days. So we are working hard with our teams to make sure that no matter which location is your home store, if you want to pick up or give up a shift, you can work at any one of our locations at any time.
Tony Lee:
Wow. So how important has it been in the people that you’re hiring to train, to make sure that they understand your way of doing things?
Rose Ann Garza:
Well, if you’ve ever eaten at a Kerbey Lane that we have a really large menu. And so part of that is really just making sure that we’ve got an extensive training program, so that they have all the skills and they can provide the service that people come to expect with us. And so beyond obviously, like I said, they have a mentor, they have trainers. And then of course we do follow ups with them. And so we do a check in on day one, day 15, and day 30 to just make sure if there’s any gaps in their training that we’re following up on that and giving them more attention if they need it.
Tony Lee:
Yeah. Is there a special secret, special sauce to keep people engaged and retained?
Rose Ann Garza:
I think making sure that when they come to work, they feel like they can leave their problems at the door and they really feel like this is my sanctuary and this is the place that I can come to and not have to worry about all those outside stressors. And not only that, we’re a place that can actually help with some of those stressors, which is like I said, helping with childcare, helping with an advance on your paycheck, if you needed it, making sure you have great benefits and that you have time off so that you can take care of yourself or your family.
Tony Lee:
Yeah. So let’s flip it a little bit, talking about how you’re taking care of the employees, but you’re a customer facing business. And there’s a lot of talk about civility these days. How do you train people to deal with customers that may not be as civil as you’d like them to be? How does that go, because it falls on HR, right?
Rose Ann Garza:
It does fall on HR. And so one of the interesting things is we’ve always said that we don’t live on planet fair. And so as much as you would like to say that the customers always right, they may or may not be, but it’s our job to always make sure that they feel heard and that they feel right and that they leave our restaurants feeling like this was their third place. So your first place is typically your home. Your second place might be your gym, your church. And then your third place is really up to you and where you spend your time and we want to be their third place.
Tony Lee:
Yeah. Well, Rose Ann Garza, thank you so much for joining. We really appreciate it. You can hear all of our HR Storyteller Podcast by visiting our website at sherm.org/podcast. Thanks for listening.