Member Blog

At CHART’s 86th Hospitality Training Conference, which took place in the summer in 2013 in Miami, we were extremely fortunate to have Ty Bennett serve as our closing keynote speaker. Ty’s topic then was, “The Power of Influence,” and attendees began raving about him before he had even left the stage. Many touted him as the best speaker we had ever had at CHART, and he eventually received the highest scores ever for one of our keynotes on our post-conference survey.

Don't worry, you didn't leave the gate open. I meant that figuratively :-)

With the economy improving and unemployment rates low, the labor market for the restaurant industry is getting tighter and tighter. At the same time, many restaurant chains are planning for aggressive growth, especially in the Fast Casual segment. New store openings are key to driving that growth, but staffing those stores, especially finding qualified general managers, is becoming increasingly difficult.

I recently had lunch with a friend and co-worker at a popular Denver-area sports bar. I remember the occasion well because that’s the day I had a “Garbage Burger” for the very first time. The experience forever changed the way I think about the connection between service, selling and repeat business.

In Atlanta, Michael White was one of our CHARTtalks presenters. He shared statistics on the growing number of technology options and the consumers who are more accepting of using technology. In fact, other industries, such as gas stations and banks are automated so it's time for restaurants to embrace this trend.

None of us want to become obsolete. In Atlanta, I challenged everyone to find one training program to focus on. Find a new route and put emphasis on collaborative learning. Your training must evolve. Break away from tradition and integrate social and informal learning into your training.

Welcome to 2015, everyone! To celebrate the New Year, I thought I would provide a list of 15 ways that you can transform your year by learning, sharing, growing, and caring with CHART during the next twelve months:

How are you living your life? Are you safe & comfortable? At the Atlanta conference, I encouraged attendees to Get Uncomfortable! I suggested they Raise a Brow and Be Bold.

Napa, California, is known for many things. Most people, of course, think of it as the source of the most spectacular wines produced in North America. Its dry, temperate climate and the unique diversity of its soil provide the perfect setting for growing many different varieties of grapes, and as a result the valley has become the home to over 400 different wineries.

In Atlanta, I shared why it's important that your employees, who are your best brand ambassadors, are happy and like their job. It's key that you create a sense of community and engagement. By focusing on your core values, by making them happy and engaging them; you will achieve success.

Promoting an associate to a managerial role or filling a long-vacant leadership position is always exciting, especially for those of us in training and development. We are happy to have a key position filled, and sometimes we make assumptions about what the incumbent may or may not have in their supervisory toolkit. Specifically, we may believe these new managers inherently know how to interview job candidates.

Recently I had the opportunity to tour a winery in Napa, not far from the upcoming CHART 89th Hospitality Training conference. I couldn’t help but notice a similarity in all of the intricacies to wine making compared to training and developing employees. Wine makers will tell you there are endless ways of creating wine and all deliver product of varying degrees of quality.