Article
How sweetgreen execs use tech to sweeten employee training
Although technology has gotten a bad reputation for cutting human interaction, sweetgreen is using a variety of tech tools to get up close and personal with its employees.
September 26, 2019 by Cherryh Cansler — Editor, FastCasual.com
Before making headlines this week for earning a $1.6 billion evaluation, sweetgreen was known as an innovative brand that embraced technology to enhance the customer experience as a way to increase sales. Growth, however, isn't the only way technology has helped the 100-unit concept thrive. After all, "A restaurant's customers are only as happy as its employees," is a mantra that Amy Jones-Hom, VP of operations, and David Salzano, director of operations, understand well. And it's why they've made technology the focus of their labor management strategy.
Apps for days
The 13-year-old chain communicates with its employees via mobile apps. For example, it partnered with Wisetail to create Sprout, which helps them properly train staff without interrupting production. The app tracks schedules, hosts training videos with a gamification component and serves as a way for employees to communicate with management. For example, if an employee has an issue, they send an email to the "gardener," whose job is to field concerns and questions.
Employees, who use Sprout only via iPads or desktops while they are in the store, have their own accounts that not only show them a clear career-development path but also track their training progress and award them points as they complete modules.
"We want them to engage the material while they are in the restaurant," Salzano said during a session last week in Austin at the Future Restaurants conference. "We don't look at training as something you do something outside. We want you to take the time during the training process, so it's scheduled. That's the same for trainer, so (no one gets) sucked into working a regular shift when they're supposed to be training."
Jones-Hom agreed.
"We have (built) a culture with it," she said. "They can celebrate when they finish their module. Their leader will know and can post a picture or emoji."
If someone needs to learn about knife safety, for example, they simply watch a short video.
"It takes 60 seconds, and it's a really fun cartoon," she said.
Employees then get to spend their points on sweetgreen swag at the "farmer's market," which includes T-shirts, hats, water bottles, etc. And there's a lot of opportunity for earning points now that employees are cross trained, Salzano said.
"In the past, when hiring team members, we would hire them into single role," he said. "Now, they have specific work routes."
For example, employees may start their training in kitchen prep but upon completion may continue to master other roles, such as manning the delivery or service lines.
"As you progress through those lines, you can become a captain and then a one- and two- and three- stripe captain," Salzano said. "It's your way to becoming a manager."
Technology leads to communication
While implementing an employee-centered app is a step in the right direction when it comes to training teams, communication is the real silver bullet. Sprout is just a tool. Another is HUMU.
The online communication platform not only surveys employees regarding their onboarding and training experiences, it combines scientifically validated questions with demographic analytics to build a better understanding of employees, Jones-Hom said.
"You usually know by the second day if you are going to quit, so this allows us ask, 'Who's the newest team member? Let's sit down and tell me how your onboarding was,'" she said. "HUMU helps us monitor that."
Salzano agreed, saying that everyone at sweetgreen has a voice.
"We engage them at all levels, he said. "We take it seriously; we don't get hung up on your role."
When she first interviewed for her position," Jones-Hom said they told her, "'We don't do egos here.'"
"And they don't," she said. "John (Neman, CEO) is learning just as much as we are learning from him. You don't feel silly if something didn't work out. You just go back to the drawing board."
The sweetgreen leadership team is just as dedicated to learning from its GMs, bringing them in for regular regional meetings to not only gain their feedback but to help keep them motivated.
"We support one another; we're not afraid to be vulnerable, and we see that in our career retention," Jones-Hom said.
Putting family first
Good communication, of course, is just half the strategy. The other half is about creating a family atmosphere with an inclusive environment.
The chain, for example, gives all employees five months of paid parentalleave and also pays them to volunteer in their communities.
"That's part of who are at sweetgreen, so we pay them to (volunteer)," said Jones-Hom, who described how the company has in online "deed board" that shares community events. "If staff take a day off work, they get paid to go, millennials get nervous and shy. Getting them out there helps them but even one day hurts their paycheck to go volunteer, so we pay them," he added. "It's just making a better place at the end of the day."
About Cherryh Cansler
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