BWW LEADERS MANAGE TEAMS THROUGH CORONAVIRUS CHALLENGE
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2020 Issue 2 |
THE
SCORE
18
n the six months since the calendar turned from 2019 to 2020, the world has experienced unprecedented change. The novel coronavirus pandemic disrupted economies and social institutions across the world on a scale that was unimaginable at the dawn of the new year. For the restaurant industry, the challenges – and pains – of COVID-19 have been especially acute. Orders to close dining rooms and socially distance were meant to slow the spread of the virus, but a side effect was the complete upheaval of industry operations. For quick-serve restaurants, where much of the business is conducted by drive-thru, the effects were not as severe as they were for fast-casual concepts, many of which had no easy means to quickly switch to serving customers suddenly not allowed or simply afraid to walk through their doors. At Buffalo Wild Wings®, the formula of food plus drink plus sports is meant to bring people together in the sports bar for extended periods of time. It’s a great business plan. Unfortunately, according to community health experts, it also creates an environment conducive to the spread of COVID-19. The upheaval wrought by the virus left BWW® managers scrambling to adopt new ways to provide food to customers and to prepare for a raft of new operating procedures designed to keep team members and customers safe as dining rooms were allowed to reopen. The weeks after the pandemic’s arrival were filled with challenges. The experience was “ever changing. Each hour, day and week there were changes that were made to both provide
by Sean Ireland
a safer environment for our guests and to execute takeout on a much higher level,” said Anthony Bourne, director of marketing and development for Montana-based Anderson Management Group and its seven BWW locations. “I personally had to become more flexible. Each day brought a new challenge, and we all had to adapt to that.” For Juan Feliciano, area director for Four M Franchising, based in New York, the changes the coronavirus brought to the restaurant industry provided company managers with an opportunity to look at operations through a new lens. “At first we really dug in and assisted in hourly positions. This allowed us to see our operations from the view of our teams, almost like they do on the TV show, ‘Undercover Boss,’” he said. “It was pretty interesting to see the trials and tribulations [our team members] go through each day. To put ourselves in their viewpoint gave us a new perspective in execution and standards.” That viewpoint was an important consideration as those managers led implementation of the new health and safety guidelines and operations procedures needed – and, in many cases, required – for restaurant dining rooms to reopen. Knowing that significant changes were coming, keeping team members top of mind was an important step toward easing the anxieties they faced and getting buy-in as they returned to work. “A lot of policies and procedures were implemented from
