Flavor, Spring 2021

flavor

T H E M AG A Z I N E O F T H E Q D O B A F R A N C H I S E E A S S O C I AT I O N | S P R I N G 2 0 2 1

The Road Ahead: Franchisees Preparing for Post-Pandemic Recovery page 10

Flavors West LLC’s

Michael Scott focuses on the strengths of the brand page 8

table of contents

QFA Board of Directors

Columns

Ron Stokes Chairman

2

Randy Key Vice Chairman Tom Lewison Secretary/Treasurer John Ghirardelli Director Leo Stathakis Director Debra Finkler Chief Staff Officer Christy Williams Elevanta CEO

QFA Editorial Board Sean Ireland Editor-in-Chief seani@qdobafa.org Rachel Jackson Managing Editor rachelj@qdobafa.org

Departments 3

QFA Member News

6

Look, Listen, Read

7

One Topic: 10 Facts

8

Franchisee Spotlight

Directories 5

Associate Member Listing

IB

Advertisers Guide and Editorial Calendar

Features 10

The Road Ahead: Franchisees Preparing for Post-Pandemic Recovery

by Sean Ireland, QFA director of communications

12

Calling the Shots: What You Should Consider Before Implementing Vaccine Policies in Your Restaurants

by Savannah Daly, QFA communications coordinator

Savannah Daly Communications Coordinator savannahd@qdobafa.org

Advertising Sales Montserrat Almaraz Sales & Development Manager montserrata@qdobafa.org 678-439-2284

Design and Layout Kristen Thomas KT Graphic Design ktgraphicdesign@gmail.com

Chairman’s Column

by Ron Stokes, QFA chairman

14

The Fast-Casual Market Post COVID-19: Focused Cleaning and Hygiene Make Dollars and Sense contributed by SSDC

15

Measure Progress and Consider Adjustments

by Dan Coughlin, The Coughlin Co.

16

What Workplace Changes Can We Expect in the First Year of President Biden?

by Douglas H. Duerr, Elarbee Thompson

18

Why Do You Do What You Do?

by Dennis Snow, Snow and Associates Inc.

20

Making the Right Choices: Five Observations About Intuitive Vs. Analytical Decision-Making

by Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro®

On the Cover Longtime QDOBA Mexican Eats® franchisee Michael Scott has always felt the brand embodies freshness and flavor to stand above competitors in the fast-casual Mexican restaurant space.

Read more about Scott and what he’s learned over nearly two decades with the brand in the Franchisee Spotlight on page 8.

Headquarters 1701 Barrett Lakes Blvd. NW, Suite 180 Kennesaw, GA 30144 Phone: 678-797-5160 Fax: 678-797-5170

www.qdobafa.org Qdoba Franchisee Association publishes Flavor. Any reproduction, in whole or in part, of the contents of this publication is prohibited without prior written consent of Qdoba Franchisee Association. All Rights Reserved.

In keeping with our commitment to the environment, this publication is printed on certified, environmentally friendly recycled paper using eco-friendly inks.

Copyright © 2021 Printed in the U.S.A.

chairman’s column

As 2021 Unfolds, We Look to the Horizon for More Opportunities A

s 2021 steadily unfolds a road map of healing and growth from the devastation the restaurant industry endured from the COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes clear that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Many Americans have been vaccinated and are ready to step out into the new normal. With the government providing financial assistance to many, guests have extra money to spend in our restaurants. However, with the uptick of guest traffic comes the need for more team members. And although the government-backed financial aid has brought more guests into our stores, it has dissuaded some staff from coming back.

Our biggest challenge now is staffing our restaurants so we can handle the record sales we are seeing.

This issue of Flavor explores how to establish a vaccination policy for your employees and other steps franchisees are taking to recover their restaurants in 2021, including handling the staffing riddle. As the landscape of restaurant service has changed and moved toward a digital focus, two Qdoba Franchisee Association (QFA) members share their best practices on moving forward and adapting to our world’s new normal.

This next year

will be one of

growth for the

QDOBA brand and for our

association.

2

This next year will be one of growth for the QDOBA® brand and for our association. From new restaurant openings for many franchisees to the addition of drive-thru windows for some, we will be spending the next year learning and growing together.

I encourage all of you to attend the QDOBA Corp. conference this June in San Diego, California. The QFA will be holding a general membership meeting from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 8 in conjunction with the conference. We will discuss franchisee-specific issues at our meeting. With QDOBA Corp. welcoming many new members to its team, this event provides a great opportunity to reconnect and reenergize relationships while establishing new ones in person for the first time since our convention in 2020.

The future is bright for our restaurants – and there is much to look forward to, including our own QFA convention in Las Vegas in February 2022. Watch for more details to come! l

Ron Stokes Chairman

flavor SPRING 2021

member news

QMG Venture LLC Opens New Restaurant in Vienna, West Virginia Q

MG Venture LLC, operated by franchisees Matt Herridge and Grant Wharton, celebrated the grand opening of a new restaurant in Vienna, West Virginia, in January.

The new restaurant brings the company total to three QDOBA Mexican Eats® locations in the area. The team has enjoyed making QDOBA the premier first-to-market Mexican fast-casual restaurant. QMG Venture is thrilled about the restaurant’s location near Grand Central Mall – a shopping spot with several big-box retailers that drive traffic to the area.

The space in which the restaurant was built is quite unique, previously housing a Steak ‘n Shake. Modifying an existing space The team at the QDOBA QMG Venture’s newest had its positives and negatives for Wharton and Herridge. They in Vienna, West Virginia, 3,500-square-foot location is saved on costs since they did not have to build from the ground up, celebrated the restaurant’s one of less than 3% of QDOBA but the interior had to be remodeled, which brought challenges of opening.

Mexican Eats restaurants with its own. Ultimately, “we knew it was the right move because of its a drive-thru window.

A-plus physical location,” said Herridge. excitement to the community made it a bit easier to recruit team The large 3,600-square-foot building was a stand-alone as members. “You know, people haven’t seen anything new come to opposed to an inline box space, and it also came equipped with a Vienna in almost a year and a half,” he said. “People are hungry for drive-thru window – both components uncommon for QDOBA something new and are eager to work and eat at a new location.” restaurants.

Wharton and Herridge are delighted by how many people “If there’s one lesson we learned from the pandemic,” said have expressed excitement about having a new QDOBA restaurant Herridge, “it was the significance of a drive-thru.” Although restauin the Vienna area and look forward to watching the restaurant rants have begun to reopen across the country, the convenience grow over time. l of the drive-thru keeps it a high priority for many consumers.

Herridge and Wharton also operate several BURGER KING® restaurants, which they felt helped prepare them for this new endeavor. The duo hopes to learn and share strategies for managing the drive-thru experience in a QDOBA restaurant.

The company first celebrated a drive-thru-only opening in late January. The team was waiting on its dining room seating and furniture package to arrive, but felt it was ready to start serving Vienna residents. So, team members took advantage of the drive-thru opening to sharpen their skills on the window.

A few days prior to the grand opening, the team also completed a few trial runs to let deserving members of the community try a QDOBA meal. “We provided free entrée cards to front-line workers like nurses and first responders,” said Herridge.

“They could come from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. or 5 to 7 p.m. to redeem their free meals.” Entrée cards were also given to employees at local businesses around the area to encourage them to stop during their lunch breaks and visit the new restaurant or place a catering order.

In each of those two-hour trial run periods, the restaurant was completing around 100 entrée orders. This proved to be great practice for the restaurant staff, which is now doing about 50% of sales in the drive-thru.

The restaurant has six different ways that customers can order: dine-in, drive-thru, curbside pickup, in-store pickup, catering and delivery. This poses a new challenge for QDOBA and the restaurant industry. “It’s going to take people that are digitally savvy,” said Herridge. Finding these people hasn’t been easy for many restaurateurs, as the labor market has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Herridge, however, found that bringing a new energy and flavor SPRING 2021

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member news

Roaring Fork Restaurant Group Opens New QDOBA in Green Bay, Wisconsin T

his spring, Roaring Fork Restaurant Group, operated by Ron Stokes, opened a new QDOBA Mexican Eats® in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Because COVID-19 safety restrictions were still in place during the opening, it looked a little different than the company’s past openings, but residents were still excited for the new restaurant.

The company focused on promoting the opening through its community channels, digital channels, email blasts, chamber of commerce and on-site signage. Over 250 customers came to get their share of fresh flavors during the grand opening.

Normally, the team would provide free samples for customers waiting in line during the celebration, but restrictions prevented this. Instead, the restaurant gave out individually wrapped grab bags at checkout. These “This-one’s-on-us” sample bags provided surprise and delight for guests and included a half order of chips and either a 2-ounce cup of queso, guacamole or roasted tomato salsa.

Roaring Fork Restaurant Group celebrated its newest QDOBA Mexican Eats restaurant in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

“We wanted to continue to share our flavors with guests in a safe way that surprised them and offered something above and beyond their normal experience,” said Abby Hansen, vice president of marketing.

The new location brings Roaring Fork to three total QDOBAs in the Green Bay market. The team is excited to serve a new pocket of the market that was not

previously tapped so even more residents have a convenient QDOBA restaurant near them.

This restaurant also has a drive-thru window, which makes it even easier for consumers to get their favorite meals.

Roaring Fork hopes to see continued sales growth at the new location and looks forward to focusing on drive-thru strength and execution. l

Canticle Inc. Recognizes Team Members for Going Above and Beyond C

anticle Inc., operated by franchisee Daniel Passafiume, recently showed appreciation for some of its star employees.

The company has five QDOBA Mexican Eats® restaurants across West Virginia. At its Barboursville location, Canticle Inc. hosted a hospitality meeting for its staff and recognized a few team members.

The QDOBA Hospitality Avocado Pin was given to three team members: Madi, 4

Ethan and Miranda. They earned the pin for bringing flavor to the lives of people around them. “These three are dedicated to creating interactions instead of transactions,” said Canticle Senior Regional Marketing Specialist Tessa Blankenship-Norris. “They always have a smile that you can see from behind the mask, and they make sure every guest feels like family.”

In addition to the avocado pin, Ethan also earned the Golden Q for going above and beyond. He is known for always helping customers and giving them a warm welcome when they enter. One example of Ethan’s outstanding hospitality happened recently when a handicapped guest came for lunch.

She was by herself, so Ethan immediately went around the line to help her. He flavor SPRING 2021

assisted her with placing her order and carried her food to the table. He helped her get set up, then when she was finished eating, he helped her outside.

“This is just one example of why Ethan earned the Golden Q,” said Blankenship-Norris. “This is not uncommon for Ethan – that is how he treats everyone he meets.”

The entire team at the Barboursville restaurant enjoyed its hospitality meeting.

The company looks forward to rewarding employees at its four other locations for their hospitality efforts also. l

member news

QDOBA Employee Recognized as Black Hills Works Employee of the Year T

Mark Doering has been an employee at the QDOBA Mexican Eats in Rapid City, South Dakota, for over two years.

He was recognized as the 2020 Black Hills Works Employee of the Year.

JH Holdings LLC, which operates two QDOBA Mexican Eats® restaurants in South Dakota, has built a partnership with a community organization called Black Hills Works. The organization empowers adults with disabilities, providing them with programs and services to help them achieve a life of full potential. For one of its programs, Black Hills Works teams up with various employers across South Dakota to provide job opportunities to adults with disabilities.

TJH Holdings employs two of these individuals at its two restaurants in Rapid City, South Dakota. The company has been working on and off with Black Hills Works for around six years. Typically, a case worker will reach out with a potential employee, and they go in for a trial day on the job. One of these employees, Mark Doering, was selected as the Black Hills Works Employee of the Year for 2020.

“Mark does dishes at the store several days a week and has become a big part of our QDOBA family in Rapid City,” said Stew Mehlhaff, operating partner at TJH Holdings.

“He’s always smiling and likes to joke around with the crew but digs right in and gets his dishes completed before he goes home.”

Andrew McGlashan, general manager at the Rapid City QDOBA, said that Doering “is always bringing positivity” into the restaurant, and he is happy to have had Doering as a member of the team over the past two years.

Doering was recognized at the Black Hills Works 2020 Annual Recognition Gala, which was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When presenting him with the award, McGlashan honored Doering with a speech.

“Mark is happy, energetic, a friend to everyone and never seems to have a bad day. A dedicated QDOBA employee, we appreciate his ability to balance fun with an incredible work ethic. He takes great pride in his employment and respects his

Stew Mehlhaff, operating partner at TJH Holdings, and Andrew McGlashan, QDOBA general manager, presented Doering with a flower bouquet after sharing the good news with him.

co-workers; doing a good job is important to him. Mark brings out a perspective on life that we don’t get from others. He helps us see life differently. All of us at QDOBA are so proud of you, Mark, and all that you have accomplished.” l

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ook, Listen, Read is a quarterly compilation of some of the most highly rated and reviewed apps, podcasts, books, websites and other resources. QFA does not support or endorse the use of these tools, which merely serve as a guide to exploring a new level of knowledge and productivity for your business.

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7shifts allows you to manage employee schedules and labor costs. You can drag and drop employees into shifts based on their availability and shift requirements. Employees receive instant notifications about their shifts, and you can approve or decline employee requests with a click of a button. The labor cost-savings calculator helps you make important scheduling decisions.

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flavor SPRING 2021

One topic: 10 facts TACOS

Ghost Kitchens 1

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Ghost kitchens, also called virtual, cloud or dark kitchens, are

In New York City, the estimated cost to set up a ghost kitchen is just $100,000, much less than the $1 million to $1.5 million needed to start a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

restaurants without a dining room. They can be support kitchens for off-premises restaurants or stand-alone facilities for takeout and delivery.

2

7 There are currently over 1,500 ghost kitchens in the United States.

Between 2019 and 2020, meal delivery orders increased by more than 150%.

8 China is the leader of this market with over 7,500 ghost kitchens.

3 Experts expect the food delivery market to grow by tenfold over the next decade.

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4

orders compared to a regular dine-in experience.

Twenty percent of consumers say they spend more on off-premise

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It is estimated that ghost kitchens could create a $1 trillion global opportunity by 2030.

Between Q1 and Q2 of 2020, the number of consumers placing restaurant orders by phone or online increased by 24%.

5 The top two reasons for the explosive growth of ghost kitchens over the past few years are low risk and reduced cost.

flavor SPRING 2021

Sources: Technomic, Euromonitor, Restaurant Dive

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franchisee spotlight

Michael Scott Company name: Flavors West LLC (QDOBA), Family Restaurants Inc. (Village Inn) Number of restaurants: 11 QDOBA Mexican Eats® locations and 10 Village Inn locations States your restaurants operate in: Colorado and Alaska

How did you become a QDOBA franchisee?

Around 1997-1998, we were looking to diversify our portfolio from a single-family dining brand (Village Inn). We knew about Zuma and Z-Teca since we are in Denver, Colorado, and our general contractor did construction work for them as well as us.

When we first looked at Z-Teca, it was still in its infancy as a growth brand. It was still somewhat chaotic, having just survived a change from Zuma to Z-Teca, and they had not yet hired Gary Beisler. At that time, we chose not to sign on because we were unsure of the brand’s potential. During the next five years we kept a close eye on the now-QDOBA brand, waiting for them to figure out just who they were going to be. In 2003 we felt like it had become the brand that we felt could give us the growth and diversity of concepts that we were looking for and became franchisees in 2003.

How did you meet your business partners?

The Anderson brothers became the majority stockholders in our Village Inn franchise group in the late 1980s. At that time, I was already a district manager for our group. Paul Edstrom is our other partner and owns a general contracting business that specialized in commercial restaurant construction. Paul is the one that really liked Z-Teca and originally brought the brand to our attention.

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In your opinion, what stands out about the QDOBA brand?

To me the QDOBA brand has always been about “fresh” and “flavor.” When we were hashing out names for our franchise group 18 years ago, these are the two things that we focused on, ending up with Flavors West LLC. From the very beginning I felt like QDOBA was able to take the simplicity and success of the Chipotle concept and expand on it. I originally liked the additional variety and the décor elements that QDOBA brought to the fast-casual Mexican niche. I was in Denver when the first Chipotle opened, and I liked the concepts, but not the style or atmosphere.

I have always loved both Mexican and new Mexican cuisines, and I still feel like our flavors are superior to our competitors as well as to other fast-casual fares. And I still love our food!

What is the best piece of business advice you have ever received?

“Sometimes the best deal is the one you do not make!” In my career there have been many deals that we almost closed, but for various reasons did not. In hindsight most of the deals that we walked on were good decisions. Our decision to wait for the Z-Teca brand to develop before we bought in was a good decision. When we did join the brand, it was well on its way to becoming a strong and sustainable brand.

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Looking ahead, what are your top three business goals for the company?

First is to come out of the pandemic stronger than we went in. Second would be to find the right locations to fully fill out the markets in which we currently operate. Third would be to continue to create growth opportunities for our employees so that they can have prosperous and fulfilling careers with our company.

What do you feel is the biggest challenge currently facing franchisees?

One of the biggest challenges that we face today, and post pandemic, is the ever-growing government intrusion into our business. Each year we face more and more regulations and requirements that make it increasingly difficult to squeeze a reasonable profit out of a business that is already burdened with very slim margins.

What is the biggest industry change that you have seen since you started?

I think that the biggest change that I have seen in my career is the predominance of technology in our business. When I started, it was all about personal customer contact and hospitality. It was a very hands-on and interpersonal business. Those qualities are still a big part of our business today, but the recent growth of third-party delivery and to-go business has changed those personal dynamics greatly, and it doesn’t look like there is any going back.

Tell us a little bit about your family.

I have been very blessed to be married to my first and only wife, Lorraine, for over 42 years. When we first met, we were so poor that we didn’t know any better. But in 42 years we have lived all over the U.S. and traveled all over the world. We have two brilliant grown children, both very successful in their own right, and two wonderful grandchildren.

If I weren’t a franchisee, I would be …

still married to Lorraine, and we would have just found a different path to travel together. l

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Michael Scott of Flavors West LLC has contributed to the QFA through service as the former vice chairman on the board of directors.

flavor SPRING 2021

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The

Road Ahead:

Franchisees Preparing for Post-Pandemic Recovery

by Sean Ireland

M

ore than a year after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, there are signs of hope. Vaccinations against the disease are accelerating, and infection rates are down around the country from their difficult fall and winter peaks. After a long year of struggle, there are signs of recovery from the pandemic – economic and otherwise.

In a national primetime address in mid-March, President Joe Biden suggested that with continued vaccinations and discipline by the public, the nation could return to more normal behavior by July 4.

It’s a cautious benchmark, but if accurate, it means that preparation for better days

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ahead should be well underway.

You can hear the optimism being echoed by QDOBA Mexican Eats® franchisees, who are readying their organizations for recovery and growth. The pent-up demand of people finally feeling comfortable and safe to return to dining out and other social activities could be a boon for business. But franchisees also recognize that there may be challenges ahead with labor and other issues.

Getting ready for recovery, whenever and however quickly it comes, means having locations and teams ready to provide the food and guest experience that diners will want in an environment flavor SPRING 2021

in which they will have higher safety expectations than ever before. It will take the knowledge and experience gained from the last year to meet the challenge.

Smart operators innovated to focus on the business that was possible during the pandemic, not the business that was lost.

Even as things return to a more normal state, they’ll continue meeting consumer dining preferences. “I believe that once our dining rooms have opened at 100% [capacity], we will see sit-down business as

we did in the past,” said Bill Nelsen, chief operating officer and director of operations for Oregon’s North by Northwest, which operates 10 QDOBA restaurants. “This will not happen automatically but will take some time as many of our guests have changed their dining habits. When the pandemic hit, we were very creative as a company and started curbside service and promoted online orders for quick pickup and delivery services.

“Many guests have developed new dining habits, and I believe that as the dust settles, we will still have all of the current venues of service available. Some guests like all of the options that we offer them for dining.”

Some franchisees used the turbulence of the last year as an opportunity to step back, view operations with a critical eye and make changes they might not have considered in normal circumstances. “The virus did a lot of damage, but in my case, it had us refocus on operations and our business structure,” said Randy Key, franchisee with Delicio LLC, which operates five QDOBA restaurants in northern Kentucky and southern Ohio. “As an owner and operator, you can get stuck in a pattern of ‘This is the way we do things.’ When the virus came up, it forced us to focus on the question, ‘What do we really need?’”

Delicio LLC’s business was uniquely affected by the pandemic. With a high volume of sales coming from catering and restaurants located in business parks, it suffered a one-two punch from the pandemic that seemed targeted directly at the company. No events meant no catering orders, and no workers in office facilities meant no customers buying lunch or take-home dinners.

Through the crisis, the company managed to never have to cut salaries or lay off workers, but some management and restaurant personnel did leave, providing an opportunity to reprioritize and reconsider how things would look moving forward. “What that did is that it brought us back to the basics,” Key said. “We have restructured moving forward. We moved our catering to another building and added new management for the program. We’re getting new talent on board and resetting our teams and corporate structure.”

As with North by Northwest, Delicio LLC pivoted to pickup and delivery at the height of the crisis. Key said the QDOBA loyalty program, which his company adopted early, and digital sales helped carry

the group. Now, “we would like to see first, our core sales get larger. We’re working hard on growing that and lowering our digital footprint because digital is less profitable than dine-in and carryout. We’ll still be a purveyor of third-party delivery, but we would like it to come down significantly as a percentage of sales.”

Already in March, there were positive signs. Key noted late in the month that catering sales had doubled over the company’s previous two weeks and that core sales for the first weeks of March were up at some stores versus the same period of 2019.

The loss of large, in-person events to the pandemic also affected North by Northwest. “Pre-pandemic, a large part of our business was catering to other businesses. We averaged 18% to 20% in catering sales as a company. Once the pandemic hit our catering sales dropped to almost nothing,” Nelsen said. “We went to serving our individual box lunches versus the open bar catering layout where we could. We also started selling family packs, which would feed five to six people as an alternative to catering. It is going to take a long time for our catering business to get back to where it was, but we will focus on it every week until we get back to respectable levels.”

Both companies recognize that there will be challenges in the labor market in the months ahead. They are preparing to operate with smaller teams, if the need arises, and to gear employees for this reality even as they take on the safety protocols that consumers will expect going forward.

“We have been very fortunate that we haven’t lost very many employees and have a very strong base of employees in almost every restaurant,” Nelsen said. “However, with the new unemployment payouts, it is getting much harder to recruit employees.

We have always taken very good care of our employees and management, and this has contributed to our lower turnover.”

“It’s going to be a hard labor market,” Key agreed. “We want to have higher productivity with our teams. Up until very close to sometime in September, we are going to be challenged with hiring.

Employees need to have great communication skills and coordinate activities at a higher level than before with more attention to preparation and detail. We are sharpening that skill set with them.”

It’s clear that sanitation will also need to be a key focus of teams going forward.

According to a study by Simon-Kucher & flavor SPRING 2021

Partners highlighted by QSR Magazine in early March, sanitation standards have grown to become a top purchase consideration for consumers when it comes to restaurants. In the survey, customers indicated they plan to spend twice as much per month with restaurants that meet cleanliness standards as ones that do not.

“I think we have done a good job with safety and sanitation but going forward all new employees and our current employees must have an understanding of being safe in the workplace,” Nelsen said. “By this I mean we must continue to have the sense of urgency for sanitation for everyone that enters our restaurant.

“After the pandemic is over and things get back to normal, we will continue to implement some higher standards to help make our guests feel much more comfortable while dining with us. Just the visual of an employee cleaning the door handles or continuing to offer hand sanitizer to our guests as they enter the line makes a guest feel good about their choice of dining with us.”

There are other safety standards beyond employee practices that Delicio LLC plans to explore going forward, including coming up with a permanent, attractive replacement for the temporary plexiglass put into place last year to separate the food line from the dine-in booths that run next to them. “We’d like to expand the area where people come in to pick up food for carryout,” Key also noted.

“We have gotten so busy on digital, that area gets swamped sometimes. We may expand it in the summertime.”

After a year in which survival was a day-to-day grind and even the near future seemed cloudy, it’s good to return to making plans for weeks and months ahead.

Though it doesn’t mean the trials of the pandemic are over or that they will fade from memory any time soon, that too may be a good thing.

“I believe that it is important that we take what we have learned from this pandemic and implement it into our daily operation routines where it makes sense to do so,” Nelsen said. “We have always been very food safety-oriented as a brand, and if we take just a couple of low-cost items and implement them into our current operations, we will be a much better company for our guests and our employees.” l SEAN IRELAND is the QFA director of communications. You may reach Ireland at seani@qdobafa.org or 678-797-5165.

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Calling the Shots: What You Should Consider Before Implementing Vaccine Policies in Your Restaurants

by Savannah Daly

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here is hope on the horizon for restaurants as distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine has picked up across the United States. As the rollout process throttles up, many employers are expressing concerns and treading lightly when it comes to implementing vaccination policies in their places of work. Although the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released much anticipated guidance, there have been few mandates from a federal standpoint, and many experts think this might stay that way.

The Qdoba Franchisee Association (QFA) has researched and talked to legal experts to gather information about vaccination policies and what you should consider as a business owner.

When Will My Employees Be Eligible?

In November, the National Restaurant Association expressed concern for employees across the restaurant industry, pushing to have restaurant workers considered as essential. The association joined 14 other food-related trade groups in writing a letter to President Joe Biden urging food-service workers to be classified in one of the first groups eligible for vaccinations.

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In its recommended rollout plan, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classified employees in the food-service industry in phase 1C, one of the first groups eligible to receive the vaccine. These guidelines or similar ones have been established by state governments across the U.S., but each state and even some large cities have implemented their own plans according to what they feel is the best fit. South Carolina, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Utah all implemented age- or risk-based classifications as opposed to work-based classifications.

On March 11, President Biden announced a goal of making the general public eligible for vaccination no later than May 1. The administration also increased its distribution efforts in pharmacies and health departments across the country.

Many states started to open eligibility to all residents over the age of 16 following the March 11 announcement. Now that many restaurant workers are eligible, operators across the country are asking themselves many questions regarding potential policies.

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The Big Questions

Incentives: Giving an Extra Push

There are several big questions looming over business owners’ heads regarding the COVID-19 vaccine: Should we require it for employees? What are the legal implications? Where do I even start with building a policy?

The EEOC does allow employers to mandate the vaccine for their employees, with several exceptions.

• The employee must receive the vaccine at a third-party health care provider or pharmacy that does not have a contract with the employer to administer the vaccine.

• The employer must make accommodations for religious and/or disability-related objections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and/or the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

In a January webinar, attorneys from Littler Mendelson P.C. noted that before COVID-19, the firm reviewed and monitored various EEOC cases involving employee vaccination, and most of the litigation focused on the failure to accommodate based on religious beliefs, practices and observances. This is important to keep in mind when considering a vaccine policy and making sure you make reasonable accommodations for employees who refuse, such as social distancing and wearing personal protective equipment.

Despite it being legal, many employers are questioning the effects mandating the vaccine may have on morale. Opinions regarding the side effects, effectiveness and quick development of the vaccine are causing many to remain hesitant to take it. In a recent study by workforce technology company Harri, about one-third of restaurant, hotel and other hospitality workers indicated they don’t intend to be vaccinated against COVID-19, largely because of fears about the aftereffects.

Many companies have decided not to implement any type of vaccine policy and instead are letting individuals or state governments take the reins. Randy Key, franchisee of Delicio LLC, is among them. He believes it’s a personal choice for employees.

“We thought about a policy, but we’re pretty small,” said Key, who operates five QDOBA Mexican Eats® restaurants in the Midwest.

“We feel people are going to naturally do it. If they want to get a vaccine, we can give them assistance in finding out how to do so.”

In the same vein, many large corporations that are making the decisions to develop policies are making personal choice a priority. Restaurant brands such as Chipotle and restaurant parent companies such as Yum! announced they will not be implementing a mandate, but instead strongly encouraging vaccinations.

North by Northwest, a QDOBA franchisee with 10 restaurants in Oregon and Washington, agrees with Key’s stance on personal choice. The company did, however, decide to implement an official policy that informs employees of this choice.

“We are informing all employees and management about the vaccine and making it known that it is their decision,” said Bill Nelsen, chief operating officer of North by Northwest.

Some employees had religious reasons for not wanting to get vaccinated and expressed concern about possibly losing their jobs if the company made it mandatory. “To put all employees at ease, we are maintaining a neutral stance on if our employees should get the vaccine,” Nelsen said.

Although it doesn’t have a structured program in place to assist employees with making a vaccine appointment, Nelsen said the company is happy to assist. “Many of our employees are high school kids, and their parents will help them with the vaccination process, but if any team member should ask for help from any of the managers, we will gladly help them.”

Another option that many companies are considering is incentivizing their employees to receive the vaccine. Extrinsic motivation might push workers who are on the fence about receiving the shot to roll up their sleeves.

One of the first major restaurant brands to reveal its policy was Darden Restaurants Inc., which operates several casual-dining brands such as Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse. The company is compensating its workers with two hours of pay for each dose of the vaccine they receive. Focus Brands also recently announced that its employees will receive two hours of paid time off (PTO) for each dose.

McDonald’s released a similar policy of providing four hours of PTO for corporate and company-store employees. The other 13,000-plus stores in the U.S. owned by franchisees, however, have been left to implement policies at their own discretion.

This decision is due in part to the 2019 National Labor Relations Board ruling that the corporation was not responsible for actions that were taken at its franchised locations, meaning it is not a joint employer with its franchisees. Experts expect that many franchisors will follow McDonald’s lead and avoid creating a vaccine policy that applies to franchisees, allowing them to implement their own.

While some companies are offering PTO to receive the vaccine, others such as grocers Kroger and Lidl are simply incentivizing with cash. Big-box retailer Target is even covering the cost of a Lyft ride up to $15 each way to the vaccination site.

Data is suggesting that implementing incentives, especially financial ones, might be an appealing route for employers. A poll conducted by analytics firm Perceptyx indicated that 56% of employees would get vaccinated if they were encouraged by their employers, and 60% said they would line up for a shot if their employers offered a $100 reward.

As of early April, Nelsen noted that North by Northwest did not have any plans to offer incentives to employees, but “is open to offering them if we feel it is necessary.”

While the EEOC has issued direction on mandating vaccines, many business owners are still wondering what risks are associated with using incentives for their staff members. On Feb. 1, a group of over 40 business groups submitted a letter to the EEOC asking for more guidance about implementing incentive policies in their businesses. As of this writing, the commission has yet to respond to the letter, but franchisees are encouraged to check the EEOC website regularly for a response, especially if they plan on using an incentive in their vaccination policies.

It is important to note that legal concerns, whether through the ADA, Title VII or even the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, exist whether a company requires vaccines or simply encourages them. Ultimately, business owners will need to keep their eyes peeled as more information is released to make sure their policies comply. QFA will keep members up to date on information and best practices regarding vaccination policies through email communications, its LinkedIn account and the website, www.qdobafa.org. l

SAVANNAH DALY is the QFA communications coordinator. You may reach Daly at 678-439-2288 or savannahd@qdobafa.org.

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The Fast-Casual Market Post COVID-19: Focused Cleaning and Hygiene Make Dollars and Sense The New Normal for Restaurant Dining

The end of the COVID-19 pandemic is slowly coming into focus. The nationwide distribution of vaccines, warmer weather and the gradual loosening of state and local COVID-19-related restrictions have given consumers increased confidence to leave their homes and dive back into in-person social activities, including dining out. These trends might lead some to believe that the days of carrying hand sanitizer in our pockets and masking up are over and we can move back into a pre-pandemic lifestyle, but we’re not out of the woods just yet. While new cases of COVID-19 have declined to October levels since the January spike, thousands of Americans continue to contract the virus weekly with the ever-present possibility of new, more contagious variants emerging. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only 14% of Americans have been fully vaccinated as of March, and the country will likely not be close to full vaccination until 20221. As restaurant owners and managers prepare to invite customers back into their dining rooms, implementing and maintaining cleaning programs and guidelines to ensure the safety of employees and guests will remain vitally important for the foreseeable future.

Focused Cleaning and Hygiene Practices Make Dollars and Sense

Even pre-pandemic, cleanliness has consistently been near the top of the list of factors customers use to decide if they will return to a restaurant. Consistently dirty restrooms, floors and lobbies can do significant damage to your brand’s image and lead to lost customers. However, the crisis has brought restaurant cleaning and sanitation even closer to the forefront, influencing not only patronage, but also customer spending. A recent study that compared consumer attitudes toward restaurant cleanliness pre-, during and post-pandemic found that customers may be willing to spend twice as much per month at restaurants that meet their cleanliness standards versus restaurants that do not2.

Your customers are watching. They’re looking for frequent hand-washing and hand sanitizer use by your team members.

They’re observing how often high-touch areas are being cleaned and disinfected as well as the quality of the cleaning products being used. According to proprietary research conducted by Ecolab, the global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services, the use of hospital-grade sanitizers and disinfectants gives restaurant patrons a greater sense of safety when dining in3.

Ecolab is proud to partner with QDOBA® franchisees to help your dining guests feel confident that you are prioritizing their safety first.

Advanced Cleaning and Hygiene Standards for Reopening

For the highest level of employee and customer safety and satisfaction as we move into the post-COVID-19 era, be sure all recommended public health and infection-control practices for 14

personal and environmental hygiene are implemented and enforced in your restaurants.

Personal Hygiene

• Emphasize the importance of frequent hand-washing. It’s vital to help ensure managers and team members can meet corporate standards for hand-washing by keeping your restaurants fully stocked with an FDA-approved hand soap like SSDC MysticTM Foaming Antibacterial Hand Soap.

Ecolab’s NEXATM hand care dispensers feature low-productlevel indicators that make it quick and simple to see when hand soap is out and needs to be refilled. Dispensers in restrooms and hand-washing sinks should be checked continuously throughout the day.

• Proper personal protective equipment, including face masks and gloves, should be worn as specified by corporate guidelines.

• Encourage managers and team members to minimize close contact with people who show symptoms of respiratory illness.

Environmental Hygiene

• High-touch areas should be cleaned and disinfected at the corporate-mandated frequency with an EPA-approved disinfectant.

SSDC Peroxide Multi Surface Cleaner and DisinfectantTM by Ecolab is EPA approved and is listed as an approved product on EPA List N: Disinfectants for use against SARS-CoV-2.

• Consider dedicating a shift for the deep cleaning and disinfection of your restaurants, focusing on restrooms and high-touch areas like dining tables, drink stations and condiment stations.

We’re in This Together

As your partner in sanitation, Ecolab prides itself on establishing best practices for cleaning throughout QDOBA restaurants.

Now more than ever, it is critical that employees understand and explicitly follow proper cleaning and disinfection procedures to help protect your employees and your brand during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Together we can work to exceed the heightened cleaning standards of customers to maximize your sales and ensure a cleaner, safer and healthier environment for everyone. l Sources: 1 Trends in Number of COVID-19 Vaccinations in the U.S. – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2 The New Normal for Restaurants: Consumer Behaviors After COVID-19 Lockdowns – Simon-Kucher & Partners and Lucid 3 Ecolab proprietary research conducted May 2020 SSDC is a Flavor partner member of the Qdoba Franchisee Association. The company may be reached at 832-435-1554.

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Consider Adjustments

by Dan Coughlin

Instead use grades as indicators of your performance in terms of what you are doing well and what you are not doing well and use those grades as guideposts for leveraging what you are good at and determining what you can do to improve future performance.

As an adult, I am giving you the same advice. If your sales team numbers are better or worse than your competition, don’t base your self-esteem or your team’s worth on this comparison. Instead use the comparison as a means for learning what the team is doing well and what the team can do to improve in certain areas.

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here are fine but very important lines between different types of groups.

Brainstorming/Mastermind Group – the purpose is for the members to share ideas and build on each other’s ideas. It’s up to the members as to what they do with the ideas they hear.

Department Head Meeting – the purpose is for each person to learn what the various departments are working on and to offer each other information that might help to improve the performance of the departments.

Happy Hour Gathering – the purpose is to give people an outlet to share emotions and stories to allow them to vent and laugh and reenergize.

A Team – the purpose is for the members to support one another to collectively fulfill a meaningful purpose and achieve important outcomes.

Teams should be measuring progress toward achieving desired outcomes (tangible) and fulfilling their meaningful purpose (intangible). If the team is making no progress in terms of improving outcomes, then the team is being ineffective. The only way to determine if the team is being effective is to measure its progress.

The Purpose of Measuring Progress Is to Learn

Go back to your high school days. You received grades on tests and quizzes, and you received grades on your report card.

There are two things you could do with those grades. First, you could compare your grades to other people, and the effect could be a raising or lowering of your self-esteem. Second, you could use your grades as indicators of what you do well and what you need to learn to improve future performances.

Here is my advice to high school students: don’t use grades as an indicator of your self-worth. It’s a game that you will eventually lose regardless of your grades and the grades of other people.

Making Adjustments Is an Ongoing Process of Learning, Tweaking and Applying What Has Been Learned

As you measure the team’s progress in terms of fulfilling its meaningful purpose, the actual grade or number is just the tip of the iceberg. The key is to dig under the result and find out what generated it.

What actions occurred that led to the result?

What decisions were made that caused those actions?

What was the strategy behind those decisions?

Who were the people that developed the strategy, and what did they do that was effective or ineffective?

Who were the people that executed the decisions, and what did they do that was effective or ineffective?

Where were the team members effective in supporting one another to improve results, and where were the team members not effective in supporting one another to improve results?

Conclusion

The result is what it is. Don’t base your self-esteem or your team’s worth on the result. Instead use the result as a starting point to dig deeper into understanding the performance that generated the result and to dig deeper into understanding how to improve a future performance. Then make the necessary adjustments to improve the team’s performance. In doing so, you will be guiding the team to continually become more effective in the future. l

DAN COUGHLIN provides both individual executive coaching and group coaching programs on management, leadership and teamwork. To visit his free Business Performance Idea Center, go to www.thecoughlincompany.com.

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What Workplace Changes Can We Expect in the First Year of President Biden?

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by Douglas H. Duerr

s this article is being written, we are just over two weeks into a new period of control by the Democrats of two branches of government. In that short time span, President Joe Biden has signed more than two dozen executive orders (EO), some of which address workplace issues, and agencies of the U.S. Department of Labor, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Wage and Hour Division (WHD), have already taken many actions undoing the impact of the Trump administration.

Quite remarkably, although it had been widely assumed there would be no immediate impact on labor unions because the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will have mostly President Trump appointees until the end of 2021, President Biden took the unprecedented step of replacing the top two lawyers who decide what cases are brought to the NLRB. These combined

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actions are causing change in the workplace much more quickly than had been predicted, and in fact occurred, during this same point following President Trump’s inauguration. Will the pace of change continue since the House and Senate are controlled by Democrats? It is Washington, D.C., so probably not, but there is plenty on the horizon that might occur within the next 12 months. Here are a few highlights: WORKPLACE SAFETY: On Jan. 21, President Biden signed an “Executive Order Protecting Worker Health and Safety.” The EO is directed at workplace changes relating to protecting workers from COVID-19. Last year, OSHA was subject to criticism for allegedly not holding employers responsible for protecting workers

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from COVID-19 and for not issuing a new safety standard directly addressing COVID-19. OSHA had released guidance earlier in the pandemic, based on existing safety standards. The EO directed OSHA to issue revised guidance within two weeks, to consider whether an emergency temporary standard (ETS) should be issued and to do so by March 15, review and revise enforcement activity to “better protect workers and ensure equity in enforcement[,]” and take further actions. Within days of the EO, OSHA responded by issuing a “stronger worker safety guidance to help employers and workers implement a coronavirus prevention program and better identify risks which could lead to exposure and contraction.” While the characterization of the guidance as stronger may be subject to debate, unlike the prior guidance, which was, in part, seemingly contradictory to CDC guidance, the new OSHA guidance explicitly tracks and expands upon the current CDC guidelines.

While it has become increasingly difficult to make predictions about what is to come with the stark partisan divide in Washington, there is little question that with Democrats controlling two branches of government, employers will have a federal environment that is pro-employee and pro-union at the expense of employers.

OSHA is not known for issuing safety standards quickly, even for significant hazards. That said, the calls for an ETS have been coming for many months, and California’s equivalent of OSHA has issued such a standard that could serve as a starting point for a federal regulation. (In fact, the new guidance adopts elements of that temporary standard.) Thus, there is reason to suspect that OSHA may issue an ETS, if not by that deadline, by the summer; however, as we have seen with new, major regulations, we can also expect there will be challenges to an ETS in court once issued.

While there are promises of increased enforcement by OSHA, the reality is that funding for OSHA has been cut for years and that it takes a while to train new investigators. Thus, while increased enforcement is likely, it may take a while before that is directly felt in the workplace.

WAGE AND HOUR: In the closing months of the Trump administration, the WHD, which enforces the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), issued guidance on the thorny issue of who is an independent contractor as opposed to an employee and issued employer friendly opinions on the legality of certain compensation schemes under the FLSA. Not surprisingly, within days of the incoming administration, that guidance and several opinion letters were withdrawn in addition to termination of a program allowing employers to self-report violations in return for avoidance of penalties. With these actions and the simultaneous change in wording of public statements to “protecting workers,” we can expect the WHD to reorient from an emphasis on educating and providing guidance to employers to an emphasis on enforcement.

In addition to this change in tone, as demonstrated by the inclusion in President Biden’s proposed COVID-19-relief legislation of an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour and his EO requiring steps to increase the minimum wage for federal employees to $15 per hour, there will be renewed, and more likely successful, efforts to increase the minimum wage as well as further increase the minimum salary for managers and other white-collar employees to be considered exempt.

PAID LEAVE: Even prior to the pandemic, there had been calls by now-President Biden and the Democratic Party for a federal mandate for paid leave. While his proposed COVID-19-relief legislation provides for an extension and expansion of paid leave for absences due to COVID-19 through the continued use of tax credits, if that effort is successful, which seems likely, we can expect an effort later this year to expand paid leave to other types of absences.

DISCRIMINATION BASED ON SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER IDENTITY: Prior to assuming office, President Biden

stated that a legislative priority in his first 100 days was passage of the Support Equality Act (SEA). The bill passed the House in 2019, stalling in the Senate. While the workplace impact of passing SEA may be limited following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in July that current civil rights laws prohibited workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, we can expect increased enforcement efforts to prevent workplace discrimination of LGBTQ individuals regardless of whether the SEA is passed.

LABOR UNIONS: As noted previously, until President Biden’s sudden removal of the top two lawyers of the NLRB, which is responsible for enforcing the National Labor Relations Act’s protections for employees who act collectively on the terms and conditions of employment, little change in the employer friendly decisions of the NLRB had been expected until at least the end of the year. While the new Secretary of Labor (currently anticipated to be Marty Walsh but almost certainly a pro-union supporter whoever is approved) can take actions supportive of organized labor, it is the NLRB that has the greatest impact. While the NLRB is controlled by Trump appointees, it is the NLRB’s general counsel that can select which cases come before the NLRB as well as whether it will continue to prosecute cases awaiting a decision. As such, while President Biden will have a majority of his appointees on the NLRB by the end of the year, we can expect an almost immediate impact in the workplace toward a union friendly enforcement stance.

While it has become increasingly difficult to make predictions about what is to come with the stark partisan divide in Washington, there is little question that with Democrats controlling two branches of government, employers will have a federal environment that is pro-employee and pro-union at the expense of employers. This will present challenges in the years ahead, but if you remain focused on the fundamentals covered in my columns in prior issues of the magazine, you will be well ahead of the game. l DOUGLAS H. DUERR is a partner at Elarbee Thompson, a national labor and employment law firm with an industry practice area focused on franchisees. Learn more at www.elarbeethompson.com.

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Why Do You Do What You Do?

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by Dennis Snow

s we get into the meat of 2021, would you like a way to engage (or reengage) your people in creating loyalty-driving customer experiences? A proven way to accomplish this is to reconnect your employees to the purpose of what they do. Employees who understand the true purpose or bigger picture of their jobs will always perform better than those who see their role as simply completing a series of tasks.

What I’m talking about is creating a purpose statement for your organization (or refining the one you already have). I’m fully aware that when I talk about things like purpose statements, some folks roll their eyes because they see creating things like purpose statements as meaningless, consultant-driven exercises. And it can be a meaningless exercise if the purpose statement is created as just an exercise.

But when created and used strategically, an effective purpose statement can mobilize people to do things they never thought possible. To focus on something beyond themselves. President John F. Kennedy verbalized a powerful, motivating purpose statement when he said in 1961, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.” Not a lot of words in that statement, but it’s pretty clear what the purpose

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was. And tens of thousands of workers focused themselves on that purpose, and they succeeded spectacularly.

From a business perspective, I must share the power that The Walt Disney Co.’s purpose statement had on me. The statement was simply this: “We create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment for people of all ages, everywhere.” This simple statement provided a context for why I was loading people on rides, answering the same question for the thousandth time, helping guests find a particular attraction or picking up a stray piece of trash off the ground. I was creating happiness, and that was a pretty special job to have.

An effective purpose statement answers two questions: What do we create?

How do we create it?

Pretty simple, huh? I think any organization can get its arms around these two straightforward questions. The problem comes when an organization overcomplicates the process, creating a statement two pages long that no one in the organization can even recite. The secret is to keep it simple.

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Here are a few examples of effective purpose statements from my experience:

the Walt Disney Co. As I mentioned earlier, the company’s purpose statement is, “We create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment for people of all ages, everywhere.”

What does Disney create? Happiness. How does it create it? By providing the finest in entertainment for people of all ages, everywhere.

First Citizens IBank “We build life-enhancing relationships by helping our customers identify and achieve their financial goals.”

What does First Citizens Bank create? Life-enhancing relationships. How does it create it? By helping customers identify and achieve their financial goals.

might decide to engage everyone in the organization in creating it.

Just don’t let the statement evolve into “committee-speak.” Keep it simple and just answer as concisely as possible, “What do we create, and how do we create it?”

I know that you might not be responsible for the entire organization. You can do this at the department level as well. What does your department create? How do you create it? You can do this regardless of your sphere of influence. You could even do it just for yourself if you’re not in a leadership position. That’s not a bad idea if you want to create real value for your organization by creating real value for customers.

As I mentioned earlier, a purpose statement isn’t magic. It must be communicated relentlessly and built into new-hire onboarding and ongoing training. It must be coached and celebrated at every opportunity. But when done with a clear purpose and embedded in the culture, an effective purpose statement can be a game changer.

So, here’s something to think about: What does your organization create, and how do you create it? l

An effective purpose statement focuses your team on what you are really selling beyond the physical product or service. It focuses your

DENNIS SNOW is the president of Snow & Associates Inc. Dennis worked with The Walt Disney Co. for 20 years and now consults with organizations around the world, helping them achieve their customer service goals. He is the author of “Unleashing Excellence: The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service” and “Lessons From the Mouse: A Guide for Applying Disney World’s Secrets of Success to Your Organization, Your Career, and Your Life.”

You can reach Snow at 407-294-1855 or visit his website at www.snowassociates.com.

team on the WHY behind that

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product or service.

EPA Reg. No. 6836-305-1677 Refer to product label for complete directions for use.

Cool Cuts 4 Kids (hair salon for kids) “We create excitement by engaging our customers in a fun, friendly, family experience.”

What does Cool Cuts 4 Kids create? Excitement. How does it create it? By engaging customers in a fun, friendly, family experience.

Again, pretty simple. But powerful when used as a tool to align the performance of your team. These statements are easy to explain, train and coach. They’re easy to keep top of mind. I’m not saying that such statements are magic in themselves; they’re not. They must become embedded in the organization’s culture. They must become second nature. But when they do become second nature, they come close to being magic.

An effective purpose statement focuses your team on what you are really selling beyond the physical product or service. It focuses your team on the WHY behind that product or service. Remember the old sales expression: The customer doesn’t need a half-inch drill bit, the customer needs a half-inch hole. Focusing on the why takes things to a whole new level.

Lots of ways exist to create a purpose statement for your organization. You might decide to do it yourself. You might decide to put together a small team to create it. Or, if appropriate, you

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Making the Right Choices: Five Observations About Intuitive Vs. Analytical Decision-Making

by Laura Stack

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aking solid decisions is key to effective and productive work at all levels – individual, team, division or corporate.

Most of us make a remarkable number of decisions daily; some researchers claim we make thousands, if we include every little choice, like what to eat and which task to do next. In the case of routines, most represent decisions made in advance or enforced by deliberately limited choice, so we spend time more efficiently.

Most decisions are personal and have limited impact on others. But the decisions you make during work hours can impact thousands or even more, depending on your position – not just in your business, but also among your customers. For example, whoever decided that annoying paperclip that haunted Microsoft Office until 2001 was a good idea affected the lives of millions.

There’s always been some conflict about whether instinctual, intuitive snap decisions or more analytical, deep-thought decision-making works best. Here are some thoughts about both types, and how each can work for you, separately and together.

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We’re naturally intuitive. Most decisions are snap decisions; we’re biologically programmed to use intuition first, for good reason. When you see a snake strike at you from the corner of your eye, you can’t debate what to do; you jump away. When you decide to replace that glitchy old printer/copier, frustration may drive you, but in the back of your mind you also know it’s 10 years old, the manufacturer no longer supports it and it lacks a smartphone interface. Computers can evaluate every possible option and its most likely result; we can’t. Sometimes you just pick whatever seems best, based on pattern recognition, subconscious needs and knowledge borne from experience. Just because a decision is sudden or instinctive doesn’t mean it’s bad. Few instincts are hard-wired; most develop based on experience.

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Modern business often praises the intuitive over the analytical. Point No. 1 may be a reason why my research for this story was biased toward intuitive decision-making. Businesspeople and their observers have come to respect intuition as a highly valuable business tool. Psychologist Gerd Gigerzer calls it “fast and frugal thinking.”

Modern processes like lean manufacturing and just-in-time services often require quick thinking and snap decisions. So do startups.

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Collective corporate decision-making tends to be via committee and focus groups, which some consider a case of too many cooks in the kitchen. This analytical approach does, however, accomplish several things. It allows decision-makers to hear all aspects of an argument, identifies points that may not have occurred to the group and refines decisions once made. That’s why many organizations and individuals swear on the analytic process 20

of decision-making. Doing your due diligence and homework is required for the more important decisions.

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They needn’t be mutually exclusive.

Often, what we think of as intuition or instinct is like the muscle memory triggered by an activity requiring repetitive, fast response. In time, your muscles automatically react to what you see coming, whether you’re fencing, playing baseball, operating a machine or typing.

In the case of decision-making, you’ve picked up and internalized cues and responses from years of work in your field. So, even if a decision somehow seems instinctual, if it isn’t impacted by bias, it’s likely because you’re thinking analytically at a subconscious level based on your knowledge and experience.

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Even when working a plan, intuition is valuable. There was a time when businesses followed five-year and three-year plans. The business world is no longer stable enough for that. With the rise of complex telephony and the World Wide Web, even one-year plans aren’t tenable. We all know that, as in warfare, no plan survives contact with reality. Working with a plan is fine if you remain flexible and willing to divert from the plan whenever productive and profitable. That’s where intuitive decision-making comes in handy.

Decisions Come, Decisions Go The continuing debate about instinctive versus analytical decision-making is helpful, because both types of decision-making have their good points. Teams or institutions can benefit from taking the time to work out the decision-making process that works best for them. We value leaders who can merge both types, so that experience and new knowledge from analysis can yield the biggest, best ideas. So do your homework and take new trends and business realities into account; however, don’t undervalue intuition while making decisions. l LAURA STACK, MBA, CSP, CPAE, is an award-winning keynote speaker, bestselling author and noted authority on employee and team productivity. She is the president of The Productivity Pro Inc., a company dedicated to helping leaders increase workplace performance in high-stress environments. Stack has authored eight books, including “Faster Together: Accelerating Your Team’s Productivity.” She is a past president of the National Speakers Association, and a member of its exclusive Speaker Hall of Fame. To have Laura Stack speak at an upcoming meeting or event, visit www.TheProductivityPro.com.

flavor SPRING 2021

flavor advertisers guide

Elevanta Health

IF

678-797-5160

elevantahealth.com/qfa

Lockton Affinity

BC

844-403-4947

Elevanta.LocktonAffinity.com

Masters Gallery Foods 800-236-8431

3 mastersgalleryfoods.com

McIlhenny Co. – TABASCO 949-378-3119

9 tabascofoodservice.com

SSDC

19

832-435-1554

dean.flory@ssdcsoap.com

*IF=Inside Front, BC=Back Cover

2021 editorial calendar Issue

Ad Reservation Deadline

Publication Date

Fall

Nov. 19

December

Call for Franchisee News We want to highlight any news or events associated with QDOBA franchisees. If you have ideas for potential stories, please email communications@qdobafa.org or call 678-797-5160. Our editorial staff can assist in writing the story for you.

LET’S

‘BOUT Business Insurance Okay, so it’s not the most exciting topic, but co-brokers Lockton Affinity and Elevanta are here to support you.

Like you have 3-Cheese queso, we have 3-core coverage options:

GENERAL LIABILITY

PROPERTY

WORKERS’ COMPENSATION

And with add-ons like Commercial Auto, Cyber Liability and Alcohol Liability, you can create your own insurance plan.

Take a pico our options today at:

Elevanta.LocktonAffinity.com

The Elevanta Insurance Program is administered by Lockton Affinity, LLC d/b/a Lockton Affinity Insurance Brokers LLC in California #0795478. Coverage is subject to actual policy terms and conditions. Policy benefits are the sole responsibility of the issuing insurance company. Coverage may be provided by an excess/surplus lines insurer which is not licensed by or subject to the supervision of the insurance department of your state of residence. Policy coverage forms and rates are not subject to regulation by the insurance department of your state of residence. Excess/Surplus lines insurers do not generally participate in state guaranty funds and therefore insureds are not protected by such funds in the event of the insurer’s insolvency.

Elevanta will receive a royalty fee for the licensing of its name and trademarks as part of the insurance program offered to the extent permitted by applicable law.