Take a Shifty with CEO Beth Hussey who shares how she created technology to train team members

in a few minutes. But we've got somebody that's been on both sides of the house, you know, both has a restaurant and then decided Tech was was something that was a good choice. So that's why don't you introduce yourself to your audience. Tell us a little bit about who is bath? What How did Beth get in the restaurants tell us a little bit about about the restaurant side of things. And then we'll talk a little bit about about the new new project you've been working on?

there. And then Long Story Short, I'm back to where I grew up in Michigan. And I've sort of worked my way from, you know, serving in a restaurant all the way up to being a partner in a couple of pretty cool successful operations here in the Detroit market. And now currently, I own my it's my first solo venture, I have a partner and Chef, but it's my first official owning it. All right, and it's a restaurant called Hazel's in Birmingham, Michigan. It's a it's a popular seafood place.

And so. Yeah, so absolutely. Absolutely. And so you've got a new endeavor, Beth, like, talk to me a little bit about, about what it is that you guys are trying to do the origin story, tell me a little bit about, about what you guys are kind of trying to create because I think it's a bit unique, where you guys are going and I'd love to dig in and dig in a little bit about why you had that itch that you felt you needed to scratch. There we are. You're talking about the tech thing, right? The

tech thing. Yeah, that tech thing not serving food and, and shaking hands and kissing babies in the front of the house. There's a whole different side of what you're trying to do.

closed completely. And I did not nobody knew at that time what the heck was going to happen. But it was especially scary for me because I've got all my blood, sweat and tears in this and everything I own is wrapped up in the restaurant. So it was like what the heck is going to happen? And so basically, you know, I guess I'm not one to sit still. And so I dove in, and I decided to use the time to turn my unique way of training servers and bartenders into a technology platform. So way back

in the early 90s. I discovered that training is sort of a passion of mine and before I had ever even managed the restaurant I was serving a restaurant and I was able to convince the place I was working to let me take over the train training program for servers and bartenders, because as it is even still today, in most restaurants, they their training program was non existent.

you in a minute. But anyway, so I, I discovered that training was my thing, I developed a unique way of training servers and bartenders, and it's, you know, it's not that it's all that different from the way every restaurant already trains, which is, you know, with that shadow chef, right, the follow shift, or the shadow chef, there are just a few added elements to the way I was doing it, that made it very repeatable, measurable, you know, effective

and engaging. So, I kind of, you know, fast forward 3030 years, and I use this unique way of training 1000s of people I've opened 16, or 17, full service, restaurants, all unique concepts, I've always I've gotten a reputation of being great at training, I have a reputation in this market of being able to get good teams together and keep them together. Because after all, that is all restaurants biggest problem is the you know, turnover and employee retention and things

like that. So it was my passion. But I discovered that like, as I you know, advance through my career and got to the point where I own my own restaurant, even me who supposedly has a passion for training and you know, so good at it, it got harder and harder to train my employees. You know, back in the day back in the early 90s, you know, first of all, our menus weren't changing frequently, like they are today. You know, allergens and dietary restrictions weren't a thing

back then. Right? In the 90s. Nobody knew what gluten was, yeah, we just were all swollen. So it just it's like, over time, it's gotten harder and harder to train. And, you know, there's so much technology out there that helps restaurants manage their business. And I've always been an embrace of technology. But it's it's always surprised me that there's not much that helped restaurants to train their employees, not in a way that's relevant to restaurants

especially. So I, I was surprised that that didn't exist when the pandemic hit. And I found this time I decided to sort of work on this passion project. It's something I'd always wanted to do. But of course, because I was too busy going and running restaurants, I never had the time to do that or any other thing that I wanted to do. So I dove in. And I feel like I got three college education. So I had to figure out how to get software developed, which is the biggest fun. Yeah, it's fun. I mean, I

love technology. But I knew absolutely nothing about coding and what that meant. I actually took a course and taught myself how to code a little bit and coded for you. Well, I mean, it wasn't that impressive. But I've learned enough to know that I don't ever want to have anything to do with coding ever. But so I figured out how to get software developed, I figured out what a tech startup is. It's a whole different, you know, kind of company. So I figured that out.

And then I figured out venture capital, which is a really big subject, my favorite subject, but it's a subject and I raised the money, I needed the race. And, and I was able to get the the MVP developed. So

number of years. And he has a whole like onboarding thing. And it's, you know, this whole deal on excellence and you look at a brand like that and go, they they have to train their people and make them fantastic because you you don't get to experience that unless you're there. But what have you found, uh, make you're passionate about it, but just because you're passionate about it doesn't mean you're any good at it. People are gonna listen to you. Right? You know, I'm passionate about music. I

suck at playing a guitar. So there's that so talk to me a little bit what have you found that that has really resonated with the staff as you guys are? As you've kind of gone through your paces over the last number of years?

so what do they do? They look Pick their floor plan and they stick this kid with whoever happens to be the best server on the floor that night and, you know, fingers crossed, you've got some good people working that night. And then that person who was like, you know, somehow wondering what the heck he did to deserve this punishment that he's got to train this new guy, he'll let this kid tag along, it'll attempt to show him the ropes, like, can't think of a worse way to like, start a new

person off, right? Like, not feeling welcome.

person. So what what makes it I always say, the restaurants, you know, restaurants that, you know, are good at training? Well, you know, it might be a little different now, but they'll usually have a three ring binder, you know, big, thick, three ring binder, filled with pages and pages of, you know, nine times out of 10, outdated, and sometimes useless information that like doesn't actually help the server be any

better at their job. It's like, you know, technical recipes and things like that were so, you know, pretty ineffective way of training. So this, what makes our this method of training that I developed so long ago, what makes it unique and so engaging, is it's a tool for the trainer, as much as it is for the new person. So it basically it takes that shadow shift mentality,

right? It, it. The, it helps if I explain the way I used to train before shift existed, I get tripped up sometimes, because now shifting is existed for a while. And it's, it's all about

So how did you use to do it even when you before you had an app?

right now. So I would figure five shifts, usually three shifts, where the server follows a person out in the front of the house, sort of, you know, learning the ropes, and then two shifts, where they do other things such as spend time in the kitchen, learning the food, working with the expediter, or the chef, or running food or garnishing food, things like that, depending on the concept.

So for each shift, I'd have a piece of paper, then I'd have a new employee, new employee comes in, I'd hand them their training packet, for each training shift, there'd be a piece of paper and on the front, it would tell the person you know, exactly everything that they need to know about what they'd be doing.

It would tell the person you know, what, what they'd be doing, who they'd be doing it with, you know, who's training, what they can expect to happen, what they'll be learning what to wear, what what to bring if they need to bring anything like their driver's license, Id pens, paper, whatever. And then it really was just a checklist on the front of the paper that the trainer and the training would look at together. And, you know, every concept was different. But the checklist was always pretty

simple. It's like, you know, let's start with, here's where, you know, here's where you should park your car, here's where you keep your personal things, got loose things that policy, the draft policy that yes, so much information that you got to get to these people. And most restaurants just assume that these new employees are going to be told all these things and a lot of times they aren't and they learned the hard

way. Right by doing it wrong once and then and then it usually can affect the guests. So a checklist the things that start with a tour lead, here's where we keep the catch up, but it doesn't matter what the checklist was, it would be a checklist of things that they got to learn that shift. So the trainer, the trainee, go through the shift, check off all those items. So it still acts like the normal follow shift just like every restaurant already already

does. But it least the trainer now had his marching orders so to speak. These are things we want you to show this new person on this day of their training. And then the training would be given at the end of the shift the trainee would be given a homework assignment which was to go home and make themselves a set of flashcards. And this is the piece that makes the system

a little more unique. So they go home they turn that piece of paper over In the back of the piece of paper, we would give them a list of exactly what flashcards they should make. So there's a whole bunch of science and psychology around why flashcards are such an effective way to learn, right? We've, we've all used flashcards to learn things. And there's a

reason for that. And I always say flashcards are even so much more relevant in a in a restaurant environment because we've we've got short attention spans, right? Like, we're not gonna read long documents or watch long videos and

flashcard. The name of the game is the fewer words, the better. So they'd make themselves a set of flashcards that they'd use as a study tool. And those flashcards would pertain to all the stuff that they've learned

in that day of training. So they'd go through their five days of training with piece of paper for each one to check a unique checklist for the trainer and the trainee to go through, they turn the paper over, you know, get their new set of flashcards and they'd accumulate a stack of flashcards that they

study all the while. And then at the end of the training, instead of a big, sort of, you know, stressful sit down written test that, you know, that the manager has been threatening them with, you know, since day one, it's which, you know, I've got a whole nother story about why those types of tests are so ineffective. But instead of being tested that way, we would sit down with a new employee, a

manager. This, to me is the most special part of the whole system, we sit down with the new employee across the table, face to face have an actual interaction, right? It's, it's a human, it's a human to human business, they'd hand me their stack of flashcards, and I'd test them on their flashcards. So just like we did, back in kindergarten, I'd show on one side, if they got the flashcard, right, I put it on one pile, if they got it wrong, I'd put it in

the next pile. And then, depending on how many they got right or wrong, is how I could tell if they were ready to go out on the floor or not. And it was cool, because if they if they weren't ready, and didn't feel they were ready, that was okay, you know, they just needed more training. But at least I knew where they were struggling, you know, was it the bar information? Or was it the menu, you know, did they need more

time in the kitchen. So, you know, like I said, not that different, not now, not that different than the way all places already trained. But just that added element makes all the difference in the world. And that moment that the manager has with the employee sitting down face to face is so powerful. For a number of different reasons, right? It gives the employee a warm, fuzzy feeling that they're getting that one on one

attention. The manager learns so much about the employee, you know, what's their tableside man are going to be like, how seriously did they take their training? All sorts of things. So it's, to me, it's that moment that that really kind of helps with retention. You know, it's, it's, it's an uncomfortable feeling, being the new guy, right? Your first day, brand new. But if you show up in a place a restaurant, especially that's, you know, got a slick

training program. And everybody seems like they know exactly what to do. And they care about, you know, your training experience and your success at the place that it makes that employee feel like they've made a good decision, and they're in good hands. So to me, that really speaks to the retention piece.

it is that you need. And then we've been to the places where it's the opposite, where you know that you haven't seen that person in that establishment before, but they're killing it, because they know what's going on and they have the support that they need. Talk to me a little real quick, Beth about how. So we'll talk a little bit about shifting here in just a few minutes. But you know, just kind of how you digitize this

whole experience. But for those that don't have the standards, you went through 30 years of standards off the top of your head, bing bing, bing, bing bing drinks and how you serve drinks and my so very true story. My daughter is on a culinary

program at our high school. And last night we were having dinner and she knows I'm in the restaurant business and today is the very first day of service that heard they're having a full service so they do full service one day a week and the people from the community can come and get a full meal and the she's a sophomore and High school right now. And so her role is to be a runner, big food runner. And so she, she would ask me, you know, Dad, dad, I'm doing this, I'm

nervous. You know, I gotta wear my chef's whites and I'm running food, but what do I need to know? Because they've told me a bunch of stuff. But what do I really need to know? And so we went through plating presentation and how you put the protein, you know, the, the entree closest to them? And, you know, cups and I mean, I went through that just because that's what I do. Serve a lot of restaurants don't have those standards. She's program I don't even know if they've pulled her

this. If they did, she forgot it. But either way, a lot of places don't even have that, that they serve the lady first or, you know, just there's so many different things that inherently come out when you've been in restaurants and you've been in well trained. But for those brands that don't have the standards, talk to me a little bit about how did they even go through that process other than going to culinary school or, you know, going to a place like the Ritz Carlton going I see what

they did you get out? Is that something that you've seen done in the past that you struggle with?

need to read a long thing. You know, they just need to

really cool. Like, that's one of the things about this technology platform and is that it does come like preloaded with all those little details, all those little little things that you that every restaurant owner in the world would want their employee to learn and get that bit of information. So I've got this prebuilt set of flashcards right that have all this bit of

information. And just as an example, so that that flashcards make sense to you the flashcard for that item would on the front of the flashcard it would say never touch. And on the back of the flashcard it would say the rim of the glass. So is there studying their flashcards. It's like never touching the rim of the glass, right? It's not. Yeah, so anyway, that that kind of

fantastic. Because you're setting a standard and so few, especially mom and pops because they're busy running a restaurant, and they just expect my mother raised me that way. So you shouldn't be doing that. And ultimately, it doesn't happen that way.

shameless plug. That's a digital recipe book that we built years ago, that allows you to have the recipe book be in a digital format, so you're not filtering through and they're not having to remember, they can see it on an iPad, they can sit on it on a machine in the kitchen. So they're prepping sauces and those kinds of things and then the same on the front of the

house. But kitchen staff needs to know what the recipe is and how to change those things when they sub arugula for spinach, they need to be able to do all of those things but there's things that they don't do either whether it's no one had a knife, you know knife cuts for onions to you know, to how to store cold food and hot food not cross contaminate and you know, you know these things I know these things, but have you guys delved into that or is it mostly in front of the house so far?

mostly whatever. But once we launched the product, and I actually started getting it in, in us in customers, hands, other restaurants that weren't mine that understand this method of training, it was really cool because it was it was those people who basically enlightened me to the fact that this would be a great system to use to train the back of the house. So to answer your question, yes, my customers are using it to train every single department. It also has, you know, digital recipes

and all that kind of stuff. It's a pretty cool, that's kind of like an LMS. It's, it's not officially in LMS. But it's more it's like, it's so much more than an LMS. But But yeah, it we do use it to train the back of the house. And it seems like ironically, it seems like almost the back of the house guys that are loving it the most. Yeah, yeah. Because it's people we we tend we have a tendency to kind of forget about the kitchen a little bit. And it's, it's really kind of the most

important thing, right? Like,

properly. I'm going to ask you to rewind for just a couple of minutes, you talked a little bit about the psychology of leveling up and getting you know more skills and learning in this training, what have you found in that whether it's the back of the house or the front of the house, the motivation to get better every day, the motivation to, you know, that is part of what HR systems and all of these employee retention things, say

happens. Talk to me a little bit about how shift is helping with that, because I think it's, I mean, everybody's struggling with staff, everybody's struggling with getting people on boarded. And so there is not a better time than now to have a way to onboard people, keep them here, keep them leveling up, keep them growing years ago, you get stuck in the restaurants, we all get stuck in the restaurants and never left. You know, but people they can go drive for Uber and make the same amount of

money or whatever, you know. So talk to me a little bit about the leveling up aspect and kind of the skill matrix that people can continue to grow through this. Yeah.

one cares. You know, it's just a job that them but I would bet nine times out of 10 That's because the they the the message is coming from, from the restaurant tour, that they don't care it as a restaurant tour, if you show that you care about your employees, you know, and you treat him with respect and compassion, and you genuinely want them to enjoy where they work and do a good job and make great money. Then that, you know, that's, that's, you'll get that it'll reciprocate, right,

you know, an empty plate. And don't Priebus for people like again, these are all things that you and I know intuitively, when I walk by a table, if there's a napkin on the ground, I am going to pick it up. I don't even care. I'm not even working in the restaurants and I pick it up you do it too. I promise you. We

all do it. But it's just part of how we were raised and so you know, but that's part of what you need to ask them to do and ultimately it comes back around because they can make more money for themselves. And then ultimately you Is that Is that fair? Is that kind of what you've been saying?

impression on the guest. If you know, I always say the manager's job, if our servers and bartenders, if it's their job to take good care of the guests, it's the manager's job to take good care of the employees so that they can take good care of the guests. And if the managers aren't taking good care of the employees, then how on earth could we expect them to want to take good care of the guests

different. But I might ask one last piece, going back to your conversation about kind of the, the pre shifts pre going out on your own pre fleeing the nest and sitting down with a manager to take not a test, but really an overview of what did you learn? How did you how did you? How did you? How did you make out when you were doing that? Talk to me about how shifty

helps with that? You know, really, it's not grading them, but it's understanding how much did they get from what you were trying to give them and giving you a good direction and talk to me about how the technology has helped those restaurants and the staff members sit in that spot?

I think is so cool. And it's really great, because that experience is it's it's conversational. So it's not just a test. It's not like I'm gonna fire off some questions, you got to give me the right answer. I can't work here. It's not threatening. It's, it's, Hey, let's sit down, let's have a nice conversation, it's a chance for the manager to sort of supplement the learning, right? Like my restaurant, we're known

for oysters. And when we get to the oysters flashcard, they're gonna spout off the answer about you know, they come in fresh every day east and west coast, all the important things they need to know, It's my chance as a manager to say, Okay, well, let's I want to talk to you a little bit more about the oysters like, do you really know what's really special, we're ordering them directly every day from each coast. And it's like, it's their chance to really drive home the important pieces.

fingers on your mouth? No, you don't. So why would you want it on the ringer? In your class? Right.

quarter years. Yeah, that's a pretty good retention rates. Great.

doing? Because I think it's something that every restaurant needs something. And I know there's competitors to shift the we've had some on the on the show before, but you guys have taken a different approach. I love what you guys are doing, how do they learn more about what it is that you guys are doing? Can they go find you online, go download the app, talk to me a little bit about what you would want our listeners to, to look into next?

implementation wizard. So you can actually go to the website, you never even have to contact us if you don't want to, you can sign up, start using shifty, and it'll take you through the whole onboarding process. But the one of the things that I think is so cool about shifty is that it comes preloaded with a whole bunch of universal restaurant

training information art. So someone who doesn't have a training program, literally out of the gate can have a fully robust training training program, just just from from starting it. So it's kind of cool. You can get yourself on boarded, or you can hire us to it's really cool. There's like a menu catalog. There's all sorts of cool stuff. And the one thing we didn't get to talk about, I don't know if we're running out of time, do we have another quick?

a big buzzword right now. It's, it's kind of the innovation and engagement is the most important thing in this industry, according to the National Restaurant Association, again, and it we have a whole engagement piece that's great with shifty, you can not just dynamically communicate with your employees with this announcement feature, but you can also pull your employees get them to vote directly, which is really cool. You can also survey your employees ask them a

question. So in the actual mobile application, it's interactive. And you're asking them to cast their vote, or to you know, to answer a survey, which is very, very powerful. And there's also a truly anonymous suggestion box, which I've got some customers who are using shifty owners, just for the anonymous suggestion box, because, you know, the anonymous like,

Yeah. Last question. Before we sign off that's Where did the name come from? Shifting? Yes, like we're you know, it's a cute name. You got a little lowercase i very, you know, very Silicon Valley ask you got to throw one lowercase letter into a word. But where did it come from?

It's, it's the way this restaurant it runs shift by shift by shift by shift, the shift starts, the shift ends, and then you start the next shift. And so that's in it's filled with tools that help manage the shift. And then another reason is, you know, a lot of it's pretty commonplace in this industry that if you work in a place with a liquor license, a lot of restaurants give the benefit to servers and bartenders of shift drink or, you know, the ability to have a

discount on a drink. And in at least in this market that's lovingly referred to as a shifty. And so it incites a warm fuzzy feeling with servers and bartenders, that word because servers and bartenders really love their shifts.

her her new products. And if you're in the Detroit market, go check out the restaurant. She can tell you all about the cool oysters she gets in every day. And thank you so much, Beth, and to our listeners make it a great day.