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This training shift will be overseen by your mentor, or another leader if your mentor is not available. Prior to your shift, you will have a Training Session with this leader where they will teach you how to create a Set- Up. Throughout the shift, your mentor will continually reference skills you read about throughout this section as you learn hands-on how to lead a shift. Fill in the activities before your shift. Complete post shift reflections & any questions you did not know with the help of your mentor.
Shift Leading: The Big Picture
Shift Leading: The Big Picture
There are multiple aspects and facets to leading a shift in a large, complex restaurant like Chick-fil-A. Your mind will be pulled in many directions and there are a large number of things to remember, but you always have to think: BIG PICTURE.
Being able to see the Big Picture means you can take a step back and look at how our store is operating as a WHOLE. We see bits and pieces of our business at a time. If you don't ever step back, you will get caught up in the smaller parts, which can cause other areas to suffer. The Front Counter line, the Drive Thru window, Nuggets, Prep - these are all parts of a larger picture, and they all interconnect. If the Breaders are behind, Boards cannot prepare your food, which will cause the lines to lengthen as our guests wait longer. If the Dining Room person is bogged down compacting tons of trash, then your Drinks person won’t have their needs met in a timely manner, which will cause the Drive Thru to back up. When you see the Big Picture, you can see these underlying connections and work to fix them.
Every decision you make as a leader will impact the Big Picture. It will influence one area of the business, which influences another, which influences another. The domino effect of your decisions must be thought of ahead of time. You must be able to see a train wreck before it happens; you must be able to anticipate a smart move to make before that move becomes necessary. This is what will make you a strong shift leader.
Big Picture Focused Set-Ups
Big Picture Focused Set-Ups
The first opportunity you have to see the business from a bird’s eye view is when creating the Set-Up. It is crucial to create a Set-Up that considers the Big Picture, that thinks of every part of our business, and that accounts for how those parts interact. If you place all of your Drive Thru capable people on Front Counter, you will only be left with Front Counter Team Members who cannot work the Drive Thru; if you use your strongest Breader for Buns and leave Breading with only newbies, you will likely hold on food often. When placing Team Members on your Set-Up, think BIG PICTURE.
Creating a Big Picture Focused Set-Up is much more than just making sure a body is filling every position. This takes practice, experience, and knowledge of your team. It is mastered through trial and error. As part of this section & training shift, you will create the Set-Up for a shift with the help of your Mentor. Consider all of the Best Practices below. Be aware that your Set-Up will more than likely change throughout the shift depending on the flow of the business. This will happen no matter how experienced you are as a Set-Up Maker. Part of seeing the Big Picture is being flexible enough tochange your plans when adjustments are needed.
Best Practice: Place all training on your Set-Up first.
Best Practice: Fill the most difficult to work positions first. Then, Team Members with limited knowledge on your Set-Up next. Hard to fill spots are spots that require special knowledge/training/ ability.
Best Practice: Put "Aces in their Places.” In order to have a smooth, efficient shift and serve our guests with excellence, fill key positions with the strongest, best Team Member for that spot. Best Practice: Set each area up for success. Avoid putting all of your strong or weak people in one area.
Best Practice: Consider each Team Member’s "off time.” Your Set-Up will not work well if everyone on Boards gets off at 8:00.
Best Practice: Fill in the blanks on your Set-Up. If you do have someone getting off and you still need the position they were in, make a game plan ahead of time, and write it on the Set-Up.
Best Practice: Be mindful of where you place leaders. Ensure proper leadership coverage so they can assist, develop, & monitor others in accordance with the business's needs for that shift.
Running Breaks
Running Breaks
While running a shift, one of your responsibilities as the leader will be to ensure Team Members receive their breaks in accordance with our policies & the law.
Best Practice: Send breaks in order of employee arrival.
Best Practice: Always check and double check minor status to ensure you are following labor laws.
A 16 or 17 -year-old must be permitted a one (30) minutes break period for on their four (4) hour mark is they are working more than (8) consecutive hours worked.
if an employee has an 6 hours shift, one of the following must occur:
The employee gets a 30 minute break by the time they have worked more than six consecutive hours
It is best to send breaks when we are slower. During specified times, we have a breaks “person" so we can run breaks without sacrificing the spot that person was working.
Your breaks person will take each person’s spot as they go on break. You do not have to wait until you have a specific breaks person to send breaks, though. If you are working at any time and it is slow enough to sacrifice a Front Counter or a Stocker or any other spot, you absolutely can do that.
You should be proactively trying to send breaks when you can so that all employees get one, and we don't end up in a pickle later with too many breaks and not enough people.
Be aware of who needs a break and make game plans in your mind about how you can send those breaks and when.
Think about: which spot can I lose? Do you need secondary fries right now? Do you need 4 order takers outside? If not, you can use one of the less needed spots to send a break.
Think about: who needs to move where to accomplish this break? Get those changes made to get your Team Member on break.
VSBL Breaks is also set up with the current labor law. This will provide a suggested time for break for each team member you currently have on your shift.
Running Outside Rotations
Running Outside Rotations
While you are leading a shift, you are still responsible for maintaining the safety and health of our
Team Members working outside even if we have a DT Floater. This includes iPOS Order Takers, Outside Cash and Outside Meal Delivery. The more Team Members we have outside, the more complicated this becomes.
However, in a blistering hot and miserably humid state like Florida, it is absolutely necessary that we rotate these positions as soon as needed. Our Team Members go outside with the promise that we will not overwork them in the heat, we will swap them out and give them a break, and we will never let them get to the point where they feel sick. This is all part of caring for our people. All leaders are required to download the OSHA App on their phone. OSHA stands for Occupational Safety & Health Administration. This is the government agency responsible for ensuring safe working conditions for employees in the United States. We use this app when making Set-Ups to determine risk based on the heat index. The OSHA App will tell you what the heat index is, and what the risk is of working outside in the current weather and heat conditions.
When the weather is considered “low risk,” Team Members can rotate as often as once per hour. When the risk is moderate, Team Members can rotate as often as once every 45 minutes. When the risk is high, Team Members may rotate every 30 minutes. We call this the “Rotation Time.” During high risk weather, rotations are mandatory. In every other situation, Team Members rotate when requested. If the risk is ever extreme, we do NOT go outside! All Team Members must come in. No matter how much better your shift would run if we were outside, we choose to make taking care of our people more important.
If a Team Member needs to rotate and they haven’t been outside the length of their “Rotation Time,” check up on their condition. Find out if they don’t feel well, or if they can be a team player and stay outside until a fair time to come in. If they don’t feel well, bring them inside ASAP! Again, we never leave Team Members outside when they’re feeling sick, and we never want them to get to the point that they do feel sick. On the flip side, we can’t let Team Members rotate too soon before their Rotation Time
if they’re not ill, because this means another Team Member will end up outside much longer than the Rotation Time. The times are established based on risk, so they are perfectly fair and doable. You can absolutely ask a Team Member to wait until they’ve been outside long enough to rotate.
Best Practice: Consider what your inside team will look like after everyone rotates. For example, if you rotate your window person, you want to replace them with an equally strong window person.
Best Practice: If the Drive Thru line is past the dumpster, always rotate from inside spots out so we don't lose an order taker.
Best Practice: Always assign each Team Member a rotation buddy and ensure they always rotate with the same person to reduce complication & confusion.
WIN: What’s Important Now
WIN: What’s Important Now
As the leader on the shift, it is entirely your responsibility to be aware of what tasks need done at which times, which tasks need done now to meet a need, how to delegate them, and when it is not appropriate to complete tasks because it is time to serve guests.
We call this “WIN” or “What's Important Now.” Leaders who understand WIN win every time! Delegation is now a huge part of your role. It must be done based on WIN: what’s important now?
It must be done strategically based on what needs or tasks must be met or done, which are the most important, and who you have available to do them: WIN! At each time of the day, there are different tasks that need to be done at different times.
For example, when we open, we have to place jellies on the condiment stands; during lunch time transition, we need to bring fry catchers up front; at night, soup needs to be set out to thaw.
These are examples of tasks you can delegate to Team Members and others that must be done at these times. Complete the following exercise to practice the concept of WIN & delegation.
Shift Leading: Best Practices
Shift Leading: Best Practices
Throughout this section, you have seen a glimpse of the many moving pieces that interact throughout a shift. From Set-Ups to policy adherence, it is all part of the Big Picture. To help you manage all of these pieces while leading a shift, there are some best practices you can follow.
Best Practice: Periodically glance around. Where are your cashiers? Where are your breaders? Is everyone where they are supposed to be? If not, find out what they are doing. Make sure everyone is in the spot they should be.
Best Practice: Periodically check the Set-Up. Where are we at on breaks? How many more do we need to send? When are most of our team members getting on/off the clock? Who will take their spots, if anyone? Checking the Set-Up periodically will help you prepare for these things.
Best Practice: Think ahead and have a game plan. You know what tasks & things need to be done, so formulate a strategy in advance. For example, you know bathrooms need cleaned, so plan to have a Team Member returning from break do those before sending the next break.
Best Practice: Keep the team busy. If there is down time, there is something for a Team Member to be doing. Work together to get everything done and meet everyone's needs. Provide Team Members direction when they haven't found something to do, or you need them to do something else.
Best Practice: Check on your team. Ask drinks, iPOS, FC/DT Bagger, Boards periodically: How are you doing? Do you need anything?
The Big Picture: All Together
The Big Picture: All Together
Together, all of these pieces will overlap and interact as you run shifts. Your first step is to create a Big Picture Focused Set-Up. When you do this, considering all parts of our business, you will set your team up for success from the get-go. Throughout the shift, you will need to run breaks in accordance with the law, and considering how all pieces of the puzzle impact one another. You will need to organize your teams, delegate tasks, and ensure policies are being followed. As the leader of the shift, you are responsible for each part. The key to your success is understanding the Big Picture: how each decision you make creates a domino effect.
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