In Conversation with Jody Palubiski, CEO, and Megan Stover, People Person, The Charcoal Group

“The (Coronavirus) Crisis Has Defined Us In A Whole New Way”

The Covid-19 crisis has impacted various aspects of our lives - especially work. On one hand, employees are worried about job security and the challenges of working as a team, on the other, employers are facing issues such as engagement and productivity drop, and are also staring at issues such as furlough and employees’ financial concerns, among others. 

Meanwhile, many countries are opening up their markets. What would the post-COVID-19 world be like? What would companies be focusing on when they open offices after the lockdown? What will be their new workplace strategies? How do they plan to alleviate employees' concerns? There are a lot of questions to be answered as the world buckles up and is in the midst of picking the pieces up where they left off.
 

Jody Palubiski, CEO and Megan Stover, People Person, The Charcoal Group, answer a few questions around their challenges during the lockdown, how they have been addressing their employees’ concerns, factors to consider when re-opening, and their future plans.

 

Q: How has the COVID-19 crisis affected your business and workforce?

Jody & Megan: On March 16, we voluntarily closed our businesses, before it was mandated to do so in Ontario. We felt the safety of our team and guests was at great risk and had expected the government to announce all restaurants to close that day. When it did not happen, we made the call that was in the best interest of our stakeholders. 

As a result of this, 954 hourly team members were placed on temporary emergency leave. It was absolutely devastating. To date we have remained closed and have chosen not to do any form of takeout service as we are fully committed to doing our part to curb the pandemic and ensure the safety of our team. 

We chose to keep our salaried team members (65 people) actively working and use the time intelligently to complete training initiatives, menu development, and cleanliness and small renovation projects.

Q: What are the top priorities for HR in the current scenario? How are you planning to help employees when it comes to concerns such as job security, personal health, children and homeschooling, personal finance, stress and mental health etc., productivity, social isolation?

Jody & Megan: With regards to supporting our team members (TMs) who are on leave – initially it was instinctual for us to put an ‘iron ring’ around our people to make sure everyone was safe and cared for. We do this through clear and timely communication to our team through weekly personal phone calls with managers and their direct team, in addition to e-communications from our operations team once or thrice per week. 

These communications have been focused around well-being, public health news and recommendations, accessing government benefits, offering remote training initiatives, mental and physical health resources, financial advice and updates anticipating the reopening of our restaurants. 
 

Our salaried team remains actively employed, working now at 70% capacity – the focus around making that decision was as gut-wrenching as putting our TMs on leave. The biggest consideration was around keeping this team off government benefits, keeping them actively working and giving them purpose, while also ensuring that they are not any worse off staying employed than receiving the CERB (Canadian Emergency Relief Benefit). 

The CEWS (Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy) was pivotal in making this possible for us. This team has been working from home as well as some small projects in restaurants, always socially distanced. Schedules are completely flexible around each manager’s personal and professional responsibilities (i.e. children, homeschooling, personal physical/mental healthcare, caring for family etc). Many meetings and training sessions have occurred over Zoom, which was a completely new format for us. 

We have held an open door for all members of the team to discuss any concerns, personally or professionally. We have had many conversations with each other and our team. We have come together to support anyone who has been of greater concern through this. We have offered additional supports, dropped off care packages, offered in person socially distanced meetings to boost moods. 
 
We share weekly Moments of Truth stories with the whole leadership team which have pushed us all to seek out ways to brighten each other’s days. This has created an upward spiral of care from every member of our team for each other. There have been dark spots for sure, but there has been a lot of light and positivity internally as well, and that alone has kept us charging forward, for one another.

We truly believe we have the greatest team in our industry and keeping them engaged, cared for and advancing their own interests and skills right now, makes us stronger. Our people are our greatest asset.

Q: What programs have been most successful in alleviating employees’ concerns?

Jody & Megan: The constant communication, with personal weekly check-ins as described above has been absolutely the most impactful element. We have received numerous personal messages of thanks from our TMs for the care we are demonstrating to them remotely. We are so used to caring for our guests in a very personal and individual way, that without our ability to access them right now, we have directed every ounce of care towards our team and each other. 

Every TM also has a direct line to their restaurant management team, and us. We received hundreds of individual messages from our team and have answered every single one within usually a couple hours.

We also introduced a weekly initiative/competition for our whole team to dine together – remotely. #CGFamilyDinner happens every Friday night, we have a different theme each week and encourage our teams to be creative and share their dishes on Instagram and Facebook. We award the top three creations each week. It has been such a gift to connect this way. It is making us very hungry to get back into our restaurants and kitchens. The team has greatly appreciated the challenge and having something to look forward to each week. 

Not only do we share a meal in our own homes, but many restaurant teams have connected with each other over Zoom to actually eat together – visually. Last week, Jody and I surprised the team at Beertown Cambridge and joined in their Family Dinner Zoom call.

Q: Are you planning any compensation restructuring, furlough leave or compensatory working?

Jody & Megan: Our focus is on getting our team back to full capacity as quickly as possible and ensuring anyone called back from leave is thoughtfully scheduled, so that we are able to commit to them being back and not fearing having to go back on leave. 

We will have new responsibilities and procedures to ensure safety and it will take a total team effort from all levels of the organization to execute these to our own standards. 

The world we are returning to will be different than what we left – we have all had to pivot to get to this point, and we anticipate more pivoting in the coming months. We are a very agile and adaptable crew, which will serve us well coming out of this.

Q: What leadership lessons have this health crisis taught you?

Jody & Megan: This has really outlined to us that we are in a great position to ride this wave. Previous to the shutdown, we were experiencing the most successful year in our 65+ year history. We had great growth plans in place for later this year and into 2021. 

This crisis has really defined us in a whole new way that our Mission/Vision/Values which has always been our compass, continues to serve exponentially well even with no guests to care for and no business income. 

We have always promoted the idea of ‘Ruthless Prioritization’, but this practice has become so imperative to our current operations, particularly with respect to our people. Protecting them, keeping them engaged, brightening their day, and putting our entire team in the position to be the most engaged, driven and effective team of leaders we have ever had coming out of this pandemic. We also hope to inspire members of our hourly team to step up into leadership roles as well. We have already had a few express their interest.

Q: What positive change has transpired that you would want to maintain?

Jody & Megan: The full team connection is at an all-time high, in our opinion. We need to continue to foster this strong sense of belonging flowing through and around all levels of our organization. 

We have also looked at all steps of our operation very specifically to determine what we need to alter for team and guest safety and comfort when we reopen. Through this we have created a number of system changes that we feel are just better than what we have done in the past. These will stick with us even after health/government mandates are relaxed.

Q: What are the legal issues you should consider when reopening?

Jody & Megan: It has always been our approach to use the law as the minimum standard upon which we build our plans. We have seen both federal and provincial laws change at a head-spinning rate since mid-March. Staying attuned to future changes will be our first consideration. We anticipate there will be many more in the coming months as we approach reopening and beyond.

Then there is the health and safety of our guests and team, which is paramount. We have been closely watching other jurisdictions and similar industries in Canada, the US and around the world in their specific reopening plans so we can pre-plan for various scenarios. We feel well prepared to reopen and are now awaiting industry-specific updates from the Ontario Government to make any tweaks needed to our return to operations plans.

We also have to carefully consider our commitments to recalling our team back to work. We want to do this intelligently, so that we are staffed appropriately and able to make the initial team as ‘whole’ as possible from the shifts and earnings perspectives. Record keeping of offers to return to work are a big part of our recall process. Which as of this week has been documented and all managers have been walked through the process and any scripts needed. We have a dually focused due diligence to call our team back as soon as possible, while also ensuring we mitigate our potential liability for constructive dismissal.

Q: How do you plan to make work safe both physically and psychologically for all?

Jody & Megan: We are firm believers in setting our team up for success. Under normal operations we have thorough training systems for each role. These give our team the opportunity to shadow their trainer, attend seminars, practice with support and demonstrate they understand before they are officially held to account in their role. We will not sacrifice on this with return to work training. We have training documentation prepared, we are running our managers through the program right now – we will provide the training documentation to our TMs in advance of their on-site training so they can think it through and prepare any questions. 

Being both comfortable with and knowledgeable about the measures we are taking to ensure physical safety for all stakeholders, will also give our team that mental security that they both need and deserve.

Q: How do you plan to respond when employees are offered jobs, but want to remain unemployed?

Jody & Megan: As we have been talking to our team weekly over the phone, we have been preparing them for the call back well in advance. We know we will only get a few days’ notice at the most. The majority of our team are ready to go and can not wait to get back in action. ‘Wanting to remain unemployed’ really is not a reason to not return to work in Ontario. There has to be a greater need behind that and we have to honour each team member’s personal decisions, while also ensuring they are aware of any consequences under Ontario Law. 

A TM who can not return because they need to care for their kids who can not go to school or daycare, is going to be handled entirely differently than someone who wants to stay home and collect government benefits. 

These examples are not congruent either for us or under Ontario Employment Law. Through the constant communication with our team, we have a very good idea of our team’s intention to return and what their availability will be like. We are also mostly aware of anyone who may have challenges returning initially. 

As things stand currently, we believe there will be very few (if any) examples of our TMs choosing to remain unemployed, just ‘because’ – most need additional supports for good personal reasons, and for those we are committed to supporting them.
 

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