PRLA Spring 2019

6  • PENNSYLVANIA RESTAURANT & LODGING matters • Spring 2019 Jim Fris CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE FUN. That’s the PJW Restaurant Group company culture summed up in a word. If you can’t have fun at work, why do you even go? At PJW’s, we hire for culture and train for the skills of the job. Our team is like family. In fact, our managers are often a mom/dad/friend/guide to our new employees, who are fresh out of school, maybe in a new city, and in their first real job. These new employees often don’t inherently know or recognize what they need to do on the job because they are 1) learning the industry and 2) learning how to be adults. As a company, we have made a conscious effort to make sure we are their advocates because when they succeed, we succeed. We also have had to adapt to today’s younger employees who want to know where they are going and what the future has in store. We learned the worst possible thing to do is leave that employee floating without any specific direction or pathway of growth. Engagement, ownership, and accountability go a long way towards retention. After six months of training, we put that employee in charge of something—it can be as simple as making sure they have a role, whether it’s putting them in charge of the bar or scheduling the front of house employees. In March, we promoted five employees to managers—all five had started with us as either a server or bartender. It’s so rewarding to see the server who is promoted to managerial ranks. I’m also proud of the strides we’ve made in promoting women into management positions, both at the corporate and store level. Our process for identifying potential leadership starts at the store level by either an employee expressing interest in moving into management or a manager identifying potential leadership talent. If, for whatever reason, the potential talent is content in their current position, we don’t force the move to management. Forcing it never works. The labor market is tight. Everyone is feeling it. But I would like to think that PJW Restaurant Group has weathered the brunt of the storm because of our company culture. Yes, we’re expanding but we’ve stayed true to our independent, family-oriented roots. • “Engagement, ownership, and accountability go a long way towards retention.”