March/April (Revised)

CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES
THE CHALLENGE
According to Restaurants
Canada’s Restaurant Outlook
Survey published in April 2020,
an estimated 800,000 foodservice
employees were either laid off or
not currently working as a result
of government-imposed restrictions
put in place to slow the
spread of COVID-19.
“The initial effects were like a
Tsunami that kept on coming and
[there was] no real plan for such
an event as everything happened
very quickly,” recalls Dorrie Karras,
CEO of Calgary-based OPA! Of
Greece. “Our first priority was to
support our franchisees, as most
were forced to close or limit their
operations. We proceeded to slash
royalties and marketing fees by 66
per cent in the form of an abatement
and not a deferral.”
That meant the fast-casual
chain now had its major revenue
stream reduced to 33 per cent.
“And that was on much lower
sales, which meant we had to cut
expenses to keep the company
OUR FIRST
PRIORITY WAS TO
SUPPORT OUR
FRANCHISEES, AS MOST
WERE FORCED TO CLOSE
OR LIMIT THEIR
OPERATIONS
from bleeding at a rapid rate. At
that time, I had to make one of
the most difficult decisions of
my professional career and layoff
almost half the head-office staff.
The remaining staff’s salaries and
hours were also cut, but after a few
months, all staff were brought back
and full salaries reinstated.”
Finding ways to keep people was
a challenge also faced by Calgarybased
Browns Restaurant Group
(BRG). “We have so many great
people in our restaurants and the
biggest challenge has been to find
ways to sustain sales revenues to
allow us to keep as many of our
people employed as possible,” says
James MacFarlane, vice-president,
Operations at BRG. “Maximizing
our off-premise dining as a sales
channel has been key in this effort.
We have adopted new technologies,
adjusted how we operate, changed
our floor plans and our restaurant
designs all to facilitate greater offpremise
sales while keeping our
guests and our teams safe.”
The logistics of staffing were
also a challenge, as regulations
across the country continued
to change when the virus hit its
second wave and sales volumes
continued to fluctuate.
“Typically, in our restaurants,
we can forecast our daily/weekly
sales quite accurately to allow us
to schedule properly to provide
the best possible guest experience,”
says MacFarlane. “Through
the pandemic, forecasting has
become challenging. Consumer
spending habits and patterns seem
to change weekly, depending on
reports in the news or changes in
provincial COVID-19 regulations.
This has resulted in some tough
times for our teams where we have
been unexpectedly understaffed.
Conversely there have been periods
of overstaffing that have challenged
us financially.”
Changes to roles and responsibilities
as a result of these fluctuations
presented yet another
challenge for BRG. “In our
restaurants, and throughout our
organization, our people have
taken on more work or different
work than they did before.
Keeping people engaged and
feeling valued while they take on
more work, or work they weren’t
accustomed to, is an ongoing
challenge,” says MacFarlane.
And as an industry that relies
heavily on part-time workers,
MacFarlane says the introduction of
the Canadian Emergency Response
Benefit (CERB) meant, in many
cases, “we have not been able to
secure the part-time people we need
as they have opted to not work and
collect the CERB benefit instead.”
MacFarlane says, at BRG, “we
haven’t needed to do much hiring,
but when we have, it’s clear that
experienced staff and managers
are not actively looking for work.
We hope that this is because experienced
people are staying put in
their current roles, but we fear this
is a sign that many experienced
people have fled the F&B business
in search of a more stable sector.”
THE OPPORTUNITY
In the 2020 Canadian Chain
Restaurant Industry Review published
by CWB, NPD Group
and fsSTRATEGY, Allan Dick,
co-managing partner, Sotos LLP,
predicted the volume of restaurant
closures “would generate
a tremendous pool of available
employees at a time when
demand had previously outstripped
supply — a trend which
had previously been expected to
accelerate rather than decline.”
The opportunity now exists, says
Dick, for restaurant owners to be
aggressive in attracting top talent.
This is also the time, says
MacFarlane, to re-examine operational
efficiencies. “While we’ve
always prided ourselves on being
very effective and efficient in running
well-planned and well-costed
schedules, the pandemic forced us
to re-visit what lean looked like. In
order to survive the worst days of
the initial COVID-19 shutdown,
and ups and downs since then,
we had to re-visit every minute
of every schedule shift for every
person in our restaurants. This
perspective has allowed us to really
zero-in on where inefficiencies
have existed in the past and how
we can better deploy our people.”
He also points to the newfound
opportunity for cross
training and teamwork as a silver
lining over the past year. “From
our GMs and chefs through to the
front- and back-of-house staff,
everyone has had to become more
knowledgeable and versatile. This
has resulted in improved efficiency
levels and an increase in comradery
and pride,” says MacFarlane.
The biggest opportunity
Karras says he was able to leverage
at Opa! was the “benefit of clear,
open communication. To keep
our restaurants open and make
sure our team rosters were full, we
needed to trust each other (to follow
the rules, to stay home when
you’re sick and come to work when
you’re not). Clear expectations,
strong commitments and trust are
essential and you can’t have those
without communication.”
Operationally, he said the chain
adjusted and accommodated along
the way, but has not made any
permanent changes. “There’s been
a tectonic shift to online ordering,
[which has] added an extra level
of complexity to the stores. For
that reason, we continue to investigate
and adopt new technologies
that can make the operators’ lives
less stressful in managing the new
way of doing things.”
“COVID-19 has thrust change
upon us in many parts of our
business,” agrees MacFarlane.
“This rapid succession of change
and adaptation has made our
teams nimbler and has better
equipped everyone in our restaurants
to handle the evolutions
that will be critical in our recovery
going forward.” FH
FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM
MARCH/APRIL 2021 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY 59