Sean Ryan is going to be our area manager in DC. He’s helped build some of the most successful fast food companies in the country. And he’s looking at Clover with a pair of fresh eyes. He had an idea a few weeks ago to do a weekly pre-meal video for Clover employees. I really loved the idea.
If you’ve worked in a restaurant before chances are you’re familiar with a pre-meal. Basically before each shift, the manager will have a meeting with employees to go over any current restaurant happenings and new items.
At Clover, we’ve played around with the idea of a pre-meal. We tried doing one at Kendall, but it never stuck. Employees were all coming in at different times, so it wasn’t always practical to hold a daily meeting. Sean suggested we look to video. We could film a video pre-meal once a week, post it to the Clover Youtube channel, and have each employee watch the current weekly video before each of their shifts. Right now we’re in the testing stage at Clover KND. We’re on Week 3 now. Paul who’s our awesome communications intern, is shooting the videos on iPods so they can be viewed by any employee. Ayr is the subject of the first few videos. In time, if this goes well, we’d shift to other leaders in the company.
If we do this right,
-The video would help ensure that all the great things Clover is doing don’t go unnoticed by the folks who are making it happen every day
-The video would provide a point in the employee’s day where they are focused solely on learning and gathering information. The video could enhance their understanding of food, recipes, food systems, etc.
If we do this wrong,
-The video could feel repetitive and not engaging. The employees could ignore the information.
I think tone will have a lot to do with whether this succeeds or fails. We’re hoping to strike the right tone.
