Redberry Restaurant CPO’s top 5 strategies for hiring at scale

Redberry Restaurants has ambitious plans. Operating in the franchised quick-service industry with the banners Burger King, Taco Bell and Jersey Mike’s, the Canadian company is looking to grow from 170-plus locations, adding hundreds of new locations and over 1,000 new employees in the next five years.

As a result, hiring and retention at scale will be crucial to success.

Kiran Benet, recently promoted to be the company’s first CPO, is in charge of strategizing the mammoth task of locating, hiring and retaining the talent to keep up with the growth. With almost 20 years in HR leadership roles behind her, 10 of them at Redberry as VP of HR, Benet has definite plans for how to do it.

“It's all very exciting, and it really does change the parameters of everything we do on a day-to-day basis,” she said in an interview with HRD.

“It really is about scaling everything that we do, and thinking long term as opposed to right now, so that's really shifted our focus in order to prepare.”

Managing employee expectations

A main challenge Benet is experiencing with upcoming large-scale expansion is managing the expectations – and concerns – of their existing workforce.

Many employees might assume the growth will mean cutbacks or more work with fewer resources, she said, which is why two-way communication and open-door policies are so important.

“Last year alone, we had over 600 promotions,” Benet said.

“We announce all of those, and we post all of them, so people are well aware that we're hiring throughout the organization at a time when you’re hearing other companies are scaling back. We tell them: ‘Not only are we hiring, we're also investing in the organization, we're investing in new technologies.’ All of these things send a very clear message that, basically, we're prepared to walk the talk.”

Five top strategies for hiring at scale

In addition, Benet has developed five clear strategies to ensure Redberry has the talent in place to fill thousands of upcoming positions in every level of the company, from front-line to senior management.

Use a hiring playbook for management to ensure clarity: “We will have over 200 restaurants by the end of this year so it's really important for us to build a robust pipeline,” said Benet. “When we think about building that pipeline, it's really important that we have a hiring playbook for all of our managers to follow, so they understand what it takes to ensure consistency and experience, and really putting on a talent search initiative that's going to get you what you need.”

The company, which is mainly comprised of Burger King and Taco Bell franchises in several provinces, recently secured a large deal with American sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s, making it the first to bring the popular brand north of the border.

Benet stressed that because there is an essential, “multifaceted approach” to hiring and onboarding in varying markets, standardizing the framework is important to ensure consistency.

“Being very clear about what your expectations are in terms of timelines, making sure the people you're recruiting understand who we are as a company … that hiring playbook really helps to create that consistency of experience where everybody is operating out of the same standard procedures across the company.”

Take a creative approach to finding talent: With Redberry expanding into new markets, it’s important for marketing and HR to work together to create strong community connections, said Benet.

“When it comes to finding the right talent, we like to be creative,” she said.

“It's really important for these community connections to be developed well in advance of the restaurant actually opening, because sometimes we don't have a Redberry Burger King, or a Redberry Taco Bell or Redberry Jersey Mike's in the community, so we want people to know who we are, to build that trust in our brand and understand who we are, to encourage everybody to come apply for jobs with us.”

Redberry is also expanding into social media platforms to convey opportunities, a new territory that Benet and her teams will be exploring in the coming year.

“Instagram and Tik Tok is something that we're working on, to really demonstrate the fun culture, who we are as a company and help get the word out. As we grow at scale, we're really committed to innovative hiring practices. So we're always looking to find different ways to let people know who we are,” she said.

Share your story and create excitement: Today’s workforce wants to know what the values and goals are of the company they’re working for, which is why being open about the company’s growth plan and journey has become part of Benet’s strategy to attract talent.

This includes demonstrating concrete actions instead of just making statements.

“What our values are and what we stand for is a big part of that, and also letting people know that we're really committed to community engagement and giving back,” Benet said. “At Burger King, we do fundraising initiatives, we raise over $250,000 per year towards scholarships to help students; not only our team members but also our guests are eligible to apply for that program.”

Highlight specific perks of employment: It's really important to highlight the perks, Benet said. “Some people aren't really sure what's offered at quick service. There's so much that people don't know about what's great about working at a restaurant company like ours.”

These include benefits for part-timers, flexible schedules, and easy advancement along with “underemphasized perks,” such as access to IT training, contests and discounts, she said.

“A lot of people think that a quick-service job is very transactional, you're just there for a little bit,” said Benet. “We have employees that retire with 45 years of experience; we have a lot of employees right now who have over 30 years of experience. These are things a lot of people don't know so it's important to highlight that.”

Keep culture and community at the centre: Creating a sense of belonging is at the centre of Redberry’s community and culture, Benet said, especially with many employees being international students or temporary foreign workers who might be in Canada without their families to support them.

“Obviously, with a growing organization such as ours, retention and engagement is really important. We like to emphasize that joining Redberry as an organization, you're part of something really great and you're going to make an impact, because of all the community involvement that we do and really partnering with the community organizations.”

Citing turnover rates significantly lower than most restaurants, and an average employee age of 28 — not high schoolers most people assume make up fast-food workforces — Benet said that an emphasis on people-centric values and relationship building is what has made the company’s growth successful so far, as Redberry opened 34 new locations just in the last year.

“It's a really exciting journey for us, in terms of what we're doing here,” she said. “It’s really rewarding to be in an environment where people are scaling back, and people are a little bit concerned about the recession, [but] we have a very positive message in terms of what we're doing, and that we're growing.”