The New Way to Do Employee Training - Rachael Nemeth, Opus

Employee Training has been a big "miss" in the restaurant industry because the tools and techniques for training desk-less workers are dated or have not even existed . 

The way we train restaurant employees needs a whole new perspective, approach, and strategy. 

Enter Rachael Nemeth, CEO and Co-Founder of Opus. An expert trainer and life-long hospitality worker, Rachel knows what it takes to succeed in developing embraceable training that people actually learn from. 

If you're serious about improving employee retention and attracting new employees, training must move to the top of your list!

Highlights from Rachael: 

• Employee training is now an operations game, no longer an HR function
• Training must be delivered in small pieces or "micro segments" to increase the uptake (the global attention span is shrinking)
• Access to training has been the biggest problem - access to technology and apps that people want to use
• Training can't be done well in a classroom! 
• Don't expect 100% on quizzes - it's okay to only view half the training.
• The differences in Planned versus Responsive training
• Technology that helps you build a new lesson in 9.8 minutes

Resources:

• Labor Series: A Labor Equation that Makes Better Dollars & Sense
• What’s Self-Care Got to Do With It?
• We're in the People Business

Connect with Rachael & Opus 

Check out Qu's Annual State of Digital for Enterprise QSR & Fast Casual Brands

Transcript

Qu - Restaurants Reinvented - Rachel Nemeth

[00:00:00] Rachel Nemeth: Opus is a technology that helps you build a lesson in 9.8 minutes. I'm not kidding. 

[00:00:06] Distribute it to your team. We prioritized building content quickly 'cause that's a huge pain point. You can deliver that lesson out to a hundred percent of your workforce quickly and get data and frontline business intelligence on how people are effectively learning that new knowledge. 

[00:00:23] Jen Kern: Hello everyone and welcome back to Restaurants Reinvented. This is Jen Kern, your hostess, and today I have Rachel Nemeth with me. She is the CEO and co-founder of a very interesting technology company called Opus. I can't wait to hear more about this company, but on the website, it says, " Mobile training for the desk-less employees," which I was like, "Ooh, that sounds really interesting."

[00:01:14] And so, Rachel and I got a chance to meet at a conference recently. And I was like, "I got to get this woman on the show." Because number one topic that keeps coming up, one of the top ones, there's several, but when it comes to culture and labor and employee retention is employee training. So, welcome to the show, Rachel.

[00:01:35] Rachel Nemeth: Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. 

[00:01:37] Jen Kern: Yeah, really, really excited. Excited to talk to you. So, let's just start out with this big question that's been lurking in my mind. I think Lauren Fernandez had said it the best, which is, "Employee training has been one of the biggest misses in our industry and not just training, but the mentoring, the coaching and the educating our employees."

[00:01:59] And so, I would love to know from you, as someone who's definitely, I've seen an expert in training as well as in hospitality, what areas have we really missed on when it comes to employee training in restaurants and why?

[00:02:12] Rachel Nemeth: So, it's a great question and you're right. It has been a big miss. I would say that it's largely, you know, it's, it's important for restaurants to be thinking about, but it's not for lack of trying, right? If you talk to any operator, they're going to tell you that they are doing employee training.

[00:02:30] The challenge is how do you train a distributed workforce? How do you train people across six shifts, summer part-time, summer full-time, a hundred locations, you name it? Maybe you have a commissary, you have four languages you need to support. So, think about that. Plus there's kids and commutes and all of these other factors.

[00:02:48] So, when we think about training, we have to really be thinking about, "How can I get consistent knowledge out to my team?" That's the core problem that you're solving for, in order to solve the business problem of higher output. Right? What we've always fundamentally believed that what's led to these struggles is access, access to good technology that can help get this knowledge to your frontline. And so, I think we're entering, I know, 'cause we're seeing it at Opus, we're entering a new era where businesses are rethinking the delivery mechanism through which they train their team because it's a need to have. You have to make sure that your team is consistently training on your brand, on your safety procedures and protocols, on leadership skills,

[00:03:35] what have you and that has to start with better technology and better distribution. 

[00:03:41] Jen Kern: Okay. Okay. So, access is really something that you just hit on and providing that access to this distributed workforce and people that are very distracted, doing a lot of different jobs when they're actually in the restaurant. Talk to me more about that. I mean, we obviously aren't about, like, putting the blame on restaurants here.

[00:04:00] Like, "Oh, you've missed it because you haven't tried." Like you said, the intentions are there. They're trying to do. But until now, are you saying they haven't had the proper tools to do it?

[00:04:12] Rachel Nemeth: It's the proper tools and also the proper pedagogy. Right? Like, we're an instructional design team at Opus, right.

[00:04:19] Like, that's, I worked in restaurants for 15 years. I was an instructional designer for 10. I have a background in second language acquisition. And so, um, I've sort of seen both sides of this, and there's a lot of factors that aren't being taken into account when it comes to thinking about training. You had mentioned, so let's talk about both sides of it. The first is just the planned training. There's a lot of different categories, but I'm going to talk about planned and then I'm going to talk about responsive. The planned training is the, like, we need to get everybody up to speed on the new menu, or we just hired 300 people for this restaurant opening,

[00:04:52] we need everyone to get into one space for six hours so we, we can train them on X, Y and Z. We're doing our re-up on anti-harassment training. We all know what this is. Well, what normally happens with planned training is a classroom, right? And it's probably just the dining room in your restaurant or the home office.

[00:05:10] The way that people learn is changing, it has changed. The global attention span is shrinking. And so, when you try to get working people who oftentimes have two, three jobs into a seated environment for even more than an hour, knowledge retention is going to plummet. So, you have to think about how to deliver that training in a way that increases the uptake, which means that it can't, can't be sit on, it, it can't be classroom training. So, that's when I talk about access, it's access to really great micro training where people can kind of pick up that knowledge more effectively. I think we try to, like, dump and run when it comes to knowledge. I'm just going to read through this package with everyone and hope that you learned it, but that's just not how people learn.

[00:06:01] Jen Kern: Right.

[00:06:03] Rachel Nemeth: One of the favorite stories I like to tell is that, you know, we'll talk to a lot of restaurant owners about how people learn and, and they'll say, you know, like, "I just don't understand. Like, we did this 60-minute training with everyone and, you know, Judy picked on bonnet perfectly, but Jose is still struggling, but Jose is really smart."

[00:06:22] It's like, "Well, it's not about smart or not smart. And it's not even a matter about learning styles. Like, studies show there's no such thing as a learning style. It's really about making sure that you're reinforcing that knowledge." So, you had mentioned coaching, right? So, what's happening is there's no data, there's no, like, tracking behind those coaching moments that are actually happening.

[00:06:44] What's probably happening is that Julie has a manager that's checked in with her, that said, "Hey, I want to check and make sure you actually make this burger properly." Maybe Jose's manager was absent for two weeks or maybe didn't, doesn't know how to coach. So, you have to find ways to not only present that information and practice it, but also be able to produce it and get feedback on it. So, it's not just about the classroom, it's about what happens outside of the classroom in order to reinforce it. 

[00:07:13] Jen Kern: Right. And so, when you say pedagogy, what do you mean by that? Like, that there's, you said there's two, two parts to it.

[00:07:19] Rachel Nemeth: Oh yeah. So, so, the first part is the plan, is the pedagogical nature. 

[00:07:23] Jen Kern: Which means what?

[00:07:25] Rachel Nemeth: And it means how you teach, how you deliver learning. 

[00:07:29] But the other side of training that I think is not really addressed is accessibility and inclusivity. And I mean it, not from, frankly, like, yes, there's the diversity equity inclusion aspect, but it's also just straight up, okay, let's say you have a thousand employees, 50% of them don't speak English. Uh, maybe 5% have trouble reading a, you have like 3% who are visually impaired. Like, inclusivity is about making sure that your knowledge can reach your people in any way that's comfortable for them. So, you have to make sure that your training is delivered in multiple languages.

[00:08:08] You have to make sure that it's delivered not just over like a big block of text, but you have visuals that accompany it. It's about accommodating the way that people take in information, which these days, like, I don't know about you, but, like, the way that I learned. Just day-to-day and it's kind of unconscious is through YouTube videos and TikTok and Netflix and, you know, picking up an article here and there.

[00:08:35] That's how people are taking information is videos and, um, kind of audiovisual experiences. 

[00:08:43] Jen Kern: Yeah. Yeah. You know, and when you and I first met, you used this term, the thinning American workforce, and you, you were talking about that and, and we all know that the labor crisis, isn't just about the fact that, you know, I, I met someone recently, who said they have a theory people don't want to work in restaurants anymore.

[00:09:00] So, it's not just about the fact that we need to change and reinvent the way restaurant culture is shaped and how it's delivered and how we manage. But it's also, there's a whole demographic phenomenon. I will call it happening, which you're touching on now, which is the next generation, the current generation of workers, what they expect, how they learn, you know, you reminded me, my son, who's now,

[00:09:24] you know, a musician pretty much taught himself how to do it on YouTube, you know? And, um, I hear people learning and teaching themselves how to do things on TikTok. 

[00:09:33] And so, um, before we kind of dive into that, though, I'd love for you to tell our listeners a little bit more about you, in terms of, you've obviously amassed a lot of knowledge around training and restaurants, and I know your background, like, you worked at Union Square Hospitality, you worked at another restaurant, um, in New York City.

[00:09:52] And you also have this sort of tech, HR, I think one of your roles was in HR and people at Union Square. So, so, so, tell me how you, you, like, first of all, your experience there and then how that's contributing to what you're doing now at Opus.

[00:10:07] Rachel Nemeth: Yeah. So, I'll tell you the quick story here. I spent 13 years in the restaurant industry. my, my dad was in manufacturing. My mom is still in food service. My grandpa owned a barbecue chain in Kansas city called Don's world of beef. I spent my entire life in these jobs, and I spent my entire life trying to get out of these jobs.

[00:10:27] But then, when I moved to New York, um, 10 years ago and I was officially in a buying position, I was a GM, I was an operator, I was a People Operations. I saw the other side, which was that there are really no tools for my team. I was hiring 300 people to open up Untitled at The Whitney Museum at USHG, and there was no tools to get people up the curve quickly.

[00:10:51] And so, quit in order to solve, solve the problem. I'm not an 

[00:10:56] engineer, but, um, I just got, you know, and I was there for several years, but I was building the business underneath that umbrella. But my point is, is, is like, it's such a burning problem. There's 110 million American workers who do not sit at a desk all day.

[00:11:11] That's 70% of Americans. And the restaurant industry is, is what, 14 million workers? That's a, a huge percentage of that, but also think about outside the industry. Like, there's a big migration from restaurants into manufacturing right now. Manufacturing has 12 million employees. So, we're starting with restaurants because that's my background, but the pain point is the same, regardless of what industry you're speaking to. And here's the key point to remember. So, yes, I worked in HR for a while, but at Opus, we're actually working directly with CEOs and CTOs and CFOs, training at, statistically speaking, training is very quickly becoming an Ops game, it's no longer an HR game. Because when you think about and listen, like, all my friends are in HR, so it's not a knock on HR, but think about what's happening in restaurants right now. It's increasingly litigious. We've seen lawsuit after lawsuit, HR is bogged down with COVID regulations. Like, that's the role of HR, is compliance. If you were also a people operator and if you're thinking about culture, right, there's that whole other aspect to be thinking about. But training actually leads to operational efficiency, which is why we continue to see training reporting directly into operations now versus where it was a decade ago, which was like, kind of nice to have. 

[00:12:39] Jen Kern: Yeah, yeah.

[00:12:41] Rachel Nemeth: Really, it's critical now. Like, ask any restaurant operator, they're struggling right now with getting their people up the productivity curve. 

[00:12:48] Jen Kern: Yeah, yeah. So, wow. Yeah. It's no longer an HR game. I wrote that down. It's an 

[00:12:54] Ops game. It's an Ops game. So, and, and, and talking about, like, seeing your teams not having the tools to get up the curve quickly, 

[00:13:05] I gotta think that resonates with a lot of people. So, tell us how Opus does that and how you're, how you're changing that.

[00:13:11] Rachel Nemeth: So, one of my favorite stories to tell is, is what I'll start with here and then I'll, you know, high level, just so you know what Opus does. Opus is a mobile first or mobile technology that

[00:13:24] helps deliver planned and responsive training to frontline teams. What's happening every morning is that, you know, employees, managers, COOs are waking up and they're using the most sophisticated technology on the planet, 

[00:13:41] their smartphone. And then, they go to work and they go through that door and they turn on their computer or they turn on the POS system and they're using something from 1991.

[00:13:53] So, it's no wonder that operators are not investing in these like legacy learning management systems. They're all transitioning to more sophisticated technology, but training has sort of been left behind, it's two decades behind. A lot of the businesses that we're talking to, uh, in fact, 70% of our customer base, right now, at Opus is transitioning from nothing.

[00:14:18] And you ask these people, "Well, why did you never have a system to begin with?" Like, "Why now?" They wanted something, there was nothing built for their team. So, it didn't make sense to invest. Restaurant operators are looking for something that can reach their people, but why would you invest all of that money

[00:14:35] if you know it's only going to reach the 10 people in the home office. So, Opus is a technology that helps you build a lesson in 9.8 minutes. I'm not kidding. 

[00:14:45] Distribute it to your team. We prioritized building content quickly, 'cause that's a huge pain point. You can deliver that lesson out to a hundred percent of your workforce quickly and get data and frontline business intelligence on how people are effectively learning that new knowledge.

[00:15:03] At the same time, you can engage your managers in the process of, managers get an app, too, so they can track their people. They can have live coaching moments with their people. They can even send them a video, "Hey, here's the new menu item." Ship it out to a hundred percent of their people at their location

[00:15:20] and it's auto-captioned, auto-subtitled, and they get read receipts on that message. So, they know instantly how effectively their team learned that new information. 

[00:15:29] Jen Kern: Wow.

[00:15:29] Okay. So, I have million questions, what you just said. First of all, is it, is it iPhone and Android compatible? 

[00:15:36] Rachel Nemeth: Yes. Yeah. And tablet. 

[00:15:38] Jen Kern: And a tablet. Okay. 

[00:15:39] 9.8 minutes to build content. Okay. I could use that, you know? 

[00:15:47] Rachel Nemeth: Yeah. 

[00:15:47] Yeah. 

[00:15:48] Jen Kern: Are you using, is it voice-enabled? How are people able to build whole lessons or training in 9.8?

[00:15:55] Rachel Nemeth: So, a couple of ways. 

[00:15:56] Jen Kern: Did I say it right? Nine minutes, nine minutes, and eight seconds. 

[00:15:58] Rachel Nemeth: 9.8 minutes. Yeah. That, we, we always try to shave down the seconds

[00:16:02] there. Um, but, you know, if you talk to operators, they'll talk about, like, an LTO training or new menu training. It took 30 days to make it. 

[00:16:13] And, right, it's insane. And a lot of that goes back to what I was saying earlier, which is that

[00:16:18] I think a lot of people, you can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, this is about getting content out to your team and getting feedback from your team. So, the beauty of Opus is that you've shipped that quickly, and you can actually get scores from your team on how well they liked the training.

[00:16:32] So, you can even improve how you're building your content, right?

[00:16:35] This is about a nice, virtuous cycle. But here's how it's built. We built a collaborative course offering tool. It's multiplayer, it's multi-lingual, it's approachable for anyone to be able to build in. Like, we've seen, the levels of people building in Opus really ranges, only 15% of our customers,

[00:16:57] and we work with large organizations, have a training manager. Most people who are building is like, it could be the CEO, it could be Jen and marketing. It could be, uh, you know, Joe and operations, and you have to build something that's easy for anyone, even if they're not an instructional designer, which most people aren't.

[00:17:16] Jen Kern: Right.

[00:17:17] Rachel Nemeth: But the other side of it is that we built a content marketplace where you can get free templates, content that's created by experts. So, like, we partner with, um, a company called AllerTrain, and they deliver allergen safety training through our platform. So, you kind of get a one-stop-shop for any sort of regulatory training that you need, as well. 

[00:17:37] Jen Kern: Okay. Okay. Okay. So, it's not, it's not voice-enabled, is that what I heard?

[00:17:43] Rachel Nemeth: So, what do you mean by voice-enabled? 

[00:17:45] Jen Kern: Like, you could actually use the app to create training by talking to it, just like I do with Siri.

[00:17:52] Rachel Nemeth: So, you can do that on the manager app. So, there's two ways that you can create content. One 

[00:17:57] is through the content builder on the desktop computer, and one is through the mobile app, and that's really where that responsive training comes in. And that's basically like, think of about, like, a TikTok video, uh, where you can kind of show, do a FaceTime video and then it can be automatically delivered out to your team. 

[00:18:15] Jen Kern: Okay. Okay. So, you have a voice-enabled component of it. How has it been received? I'm curious.

[00:18:22] Rachel Nemeth: Well, we've never lost a customer, so I think that's a good sign. 

[00:18:27] Jen Kern: And how many years have you been in business?

[00:18:29] Rachel Nemeth: We've been in business since 2017. So, just to, a little bit of backstory on Opus and why we're special. The first iteration of Opus was a company called, I built, called ESL Works. Our very first use case was delivering English training to smartphones.

[00:18:47] And, listen, if you can solve training for restaurants and solve training for non-English-speaking employees in restaurants, you can literally solve for everything. So, we focus on that problem for a little over two and a half years, and then we expanded to include all types of use cases and really help restaurants cover the whole employee life cycle. 

[00:19:11] Jen Kern: Okay. And you mentioned you have this big repository of stuff, 

[00:19:16] you know? So, I'm assuming these are best practices honed over some years of every type of training a restaurant operator, regardless of size, could use. 

[00:19:27] Rachel Nemeth: Yeah. 

[00:19:28] Jen Kern: That a fair statement? Yeah?

[00:19:29] Rachel Nemeth: And, and really the types of customers that are going to be most successfully using any sort of digital platform for training are, are usually restaurants that have more than 150 people. Because at that point, you're starting to scale and really need, you know,  data on that distribution, right?

[00:19:47] Like, a smaller mom and pop, I'll just say it right now. Like, you probably don't need anything digital. You're good. 

[00:19:54] Jen Kern: Um, if you just have one location or two locations. 

[00:19:57] Rachel Nemeth: You're probably fine. So, we work multiunit groups that need to scale their training. 

[00:20:02] Jen Kern: Right. And do you differentiate between concept types? Like, do you have different training customized for "I'm a fast-casual" versus a QSR versus fine dining versus pizza and delivery? No?

[00:20:14] Rachel Nemeth: No, because, really, about 80% of training is replicable across all of the industry, and about 20% needs to be curated to your specific operation. So, you know, if you're working with just salad, which is one of our customers, you know, they might have a specific standard operating procedure around the cash register.

[00:20:32] Well, that's a template we have, and they can kind of adjust it to their needs. But everyone has some sort of cash handling policy or credit card handling policy they need to address. And so the templates can help across all segments of the industry. And then, that last 20% that usually people build from scratch is anything brand-related.

[00:20:53] It's all going to be bespoke to your leadership style, how you like to deliver content.

[00:20:59] Jen Kern: So, the 20% is about maybe the mission, the vision of the company. 

[00:21:04] Rachel Nemeth: Yeah.

[00:21:05] it could be, it really ranges on, like, "What is most important to your company?" Like, you know, &pizza is very values-driven. And so, lot of that upfront training is getting people to understand the ethos and the culture of what it means to work at &pizza and then, you know, the next course's how to make the perfect dough.

[00:21:28] Jen Kern: Right. 

[00:21:29] Rachel Nemeth: Um, you know, so, but they do dough, and to your point, Jen, they're making pizza. Right.

[00:21:35] And just now making salad. So, we don't have a specific 

[00:21:39] template for how to make the perfect salad, but we have a deep understanding of how to procedurally train people in different ways. And so, we can provide a template to get you started so you can kind of fill in the blanks. 

[00:21:53] Jen Kern: And that had a train, that template that you have about how to train people in procedural ways that is ,my understanding of what you're saying, replicable. 

[00:22:03] Has that proven to, to improve employee retention and engagement?

[00:22:08] Rachel Nemeth: Great question. So, the outcome of training and, like, for anyone who's listening here, whether you're on Opus or another platform, we should always be thinking about how training can impact our business in that it can get people through the door, it can get people up the productivity curve quickly and can get people to stay.

[00:22:31] Um, and so, listen, like, restaurants are a high turnover industry. There's no single platform that's going to completely wash away the turnover issue because, frankly, like, it's kind of ingrained in restaurants. We pay low rates. We hire a lot of young people that are kind of transitory, you know, X,Y,Z.

[00:22:51] But Opus has been shown to significantly decrease unnecessary labor costs. Right now, a business with a thousand employees that's delivering, even, like, an annual required training, let's say it's like anti-harassment training. I'm going to do some quick math. Let's say, so, it's an hour and a half of training per year, a thousand employees.

[00:23:16] And let's say you're paying $15 an hour. You're already paying $22,000 just in additional labor costs to deliver that training. And that's me being very generous or, like, not being very, not thinking about, to create the content, all that stuff. Um, these are very costly. And so, the business output is, "Okay, I'm going to help my people stay on the floor so they can train in

[00:23:39] micro-moments, learn that knowledge really fast." And then, the magic moment is how special is it that literally when you are walking through the door on day zero, you can scan into an app and you feel taken care of and it's automated, and it says, "Hey, Jen, welcome to, you know, Joe's cafe. Here's your day one training." Opus tells you, "Here's this moment when you need to check in with your manager because they're going to make sure you're answering phones properly or whatever."

[00:24:08] And you're kind of guided through with this training companion that makes you feel like you're taken care of. Managers are doing so much with so little, right now. Like, I'm talking to GMs who are overseeing five locations. That's insane. But it's the way the restaurant industry is going. We're talking about fitting workforce.

[00:24:27] So, managers are doing more with less. They care about their people, but it's no wonder that people are leaving their jobs if they're not trained from day one. So, Opus can supplement a lot of what managers are having a hard time managing right now. And that of course, um, kind of naturally leads to people staying in their job longer.

[00:24:49] Jen Kern: Right. Well, that's, that's cool. So, I mean, so many things you said resonate. It's never, there's no panacea, right? It's never, there's never going to be, like, one technology that's going to cure any aspect of the difficulties that are in the restaurant industry today, 

[00:25:04] mainly this, you know, labor issue and retaining employees. But it can help on the cost side, which, by the way, is incredibly important to operators who have

[00:25:15] very squeezed thin margins. So, that's great to know. And, you know, you also talked about, I mean, you touched on a lot of different things there that I think are interesting, but I'd love to hear from you where you sit on this theory of people just don't want to work in restaurants anymore? Because you started out saying like, "My whole family, I've got, you know, I've been in the business my whole life."

[00:25:37] And then, you were like, "And I tried to get out of it." You know? Where do you think that has come from, and where can we go from here? When we talk about reinventing restaurants, where, how do we make it a place that, not everyone but the people that are eligible and good fits for that type of work want to work there?

[00:25:59] Rachel Nemeth: So, you're saying how can businesses become employers of choice, basically? 

[00:26:04] Jen Kern: Yeah. Restaurants. 

[00:26:06] Rachel Nemeth: Yeah. Oh, man. That's the million-dollar question. 

[00:26:09] Jen Kern: Make it more attractive, make it more attractive.

[00:26:12] Rachel Nemeth: I mean, I'm biased, but I think great training. But, you know, I mean, obviously, but, when we're thinking about being, well, let's talk facts for a minute. We are in the most competitive labor market in US history.

[00:26:27] Jen Kern: Okay. Yeah.

[00:26:28] Rachel Nemeth: Worker pay rates are well above pre-pandemic trends. We know historically that those are, will not lower, again, they're just going to keep going. They're 4% above the trend. Um, and frontline workers have more power than they ever have. And so, as we're thinking of, as business owners, as we're thinking about how we can position ourselves so that people come to us, it's really about thinking about how you can cater to four generations of workers.

[00:26:58] I think that's the secret here is, I see a lot of employers think about, "Okay. How can we attract, um, employees?" And they're only focused on young employees, or they're only focused on millennials. You have to have a message that can cross all generations. And so, think about, like, how training can do that too.

[00:27:22] And, again, I'm biased, but your approach should be adults. It should address adult problems. Talk about the benefits that you're offering. Talk about maternity leave. If you can, talk about flexible schedules and commutes. Talk about the fact that, you know, you, you want to receive employee feedback in order to be a better employer.

[00:27:43] This is where we're headed with the next generation of work, especially as workers have more power. Gone are the days of like, "Okay, well, we can have a revolving door. That's okay. We're going to kind of work it into the budget." It's just not really an option. Like, people are leaving the restaurant industry and they're not coming back.

[00:28:02] And so, that's why, Jen, when you and I were talking, it's like, it's really about how businesses can do more with less, but it's also about how you can identify those high potential employees and keep them and really support them in being career level restaurant employees, which means great benefits and just great training. 

[00:28:21] Jen Kern: And, you know, you talk about the four generations of workers. I mean, I heard someone use this term, zillennials. I don't know if you've heard that. 

[00:28:27] Rachel Nemeth: Oh, no. I get it. Yeah. 

[00:28:29] Jen Kern: Gen Z and the millennials. Right? And so, you've got the zillennials, you've got the gen X, you've got the boomers. Right? And you talk about your training and using this smartphone approach and this digital first, you know, training approach.

[00:28:41] At what point did people sort of tap out with it? 'Cause I know myself, you know, I'm on screens all the time. I'm looking at the screens all the time. I've done the anti-harassment training, which it was micro chunked out, you know, into 20-minute pieces. But even that felt long. So, how do you cater to folks that may, even if it's not a generational thing, like, they want a blend of, you know, the in-person on-the-job training and in the restaurant and some of the digital?

[00:29:08] Rachel Nemeth: Yeah, well, that's what, that's what Opus does. I sound like a broken record. But, like, when I say that we meet people where they are, I say that because we're reflecting the reality of how training is actually happening. We're not trying to create a new, innovative type of training. We're trying to reflect what's actually happening on the job and then capture that data,

[00:29:30] really beautifully. But, I think, like, the dirty little secret about any great training program, whether it's online or on paper or whatever is, just treat people like adults. Like, let them make mistakes. Don't require a hundred percent accuracy on a quiz. Don't require that somebody have to watch a hundred percent of a video. Like,

[00:29:52] okay, if I've watched, in January, talking about anti-harassment training, like, just mandating that somebody watch a video does not lead to better learning outcomes. It's about, "Okay, I watched this video. Now I'm going to discuss it." Um, there's a term in training that everyone should know and not enough people know, it's called PPP.

[00:30:11] Do you know what that stands for? PPP stands for present, practice, produce. So, no matter what, let's say you're doing a new menu training. Anybody walking away from this podcast right now, I want you to think about how, if you're doing a new menu training, how are you presenting that information? Is it a video?

[00:30:30] Is it just, like, a quick stand-up meeting? Is it a piece of paper with a recipe? How are they practicing it? So, are they taking a quick quiz? What have you, are they talking to a friend about it? Are they taking a photo, and how are they producing it? So, are they making the product, are they talking about the product, like, picking it?

[00:30:51] Are they selling wine? What have you? Those three elements lead to extremely high levels of knowledge retention. And so, as long as we're always thinking about that curve, we can be in, ensured that we're engaging our people the whole way through. If you only have one of those peas the whole time, like a lecture is just present. Right?

[00:31:12] Jen Kern: Right. 

[00:31:12] Rachel Nemeth: If you're just giving somebody a quiz and they've never actually learned anything or if you're just telling them, like, "Go, sit at the fryer and make these fries." And they've never actually done the previous two steps, then they're not going to be successful in their job. So, as long as PPP is worked into everything that you're doing, from an operational standpoint, you're going to have higher output and happier people. 

[00:31:33] Jen Kern: Hmm. That's great. Present, practice, produce. 

[00:31:38] And it sounds like you have the data, too, on the production side so you can actually monitor if they are producing. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. And talk to me a little bit more about the, the 

[00:31:50] practicing. I mean, how much, do you have data on how much people need to do, you know, something like, I have heard in the past, it takes 30 days to learn a new habit. 

[00:31:59] Rachel Nemeth: Oh, yeah. 

[00:31:59] Jen Kern: Right. Do, you know, in terms of, of the practice element, is that important? I'm, I'm sure it differs per person. 

[00:32:06] Rachel Nemeth: It definitely differs per person.

[00:32:08] But there are some facts, right? Like, you can only retain three pieces of information for every 90 minutes of presentation. 

[00:32:14] Jen Kern: Okay.

[00:32:14] Rachel Nemeth: And, but there's also tactics you can use so that people remember, right? Like, I just taught you PPP. So, acronyms work and little, little isms to help people remember visuals

[00:32:25] considerably increased people's uptake with learning. Repetition is important. So, you can't just expect somebody to learn something in three minutes, you have to kind of reiterate that. So, there's no real hard and fast, like everybody's going to learn this thing because you did that. I think what's most important is to make sure that you're reinforcing it.

[00:32:50] At the end of the day, we are a people business, and we're a hands-on business. So, if you're just expecting people to read a packet and be successful on their first day, it's going to be a challenge to get them up the curve. But if you have a system by which they are being visually verified by a manager and a skill on each shift,

[00:33:11] as there, let's say a new hire, um, the likelihood that they're going to learn that knowledge is much higher. So, make sure that there's a people component or a co, excuse me, a coaching component to learning. And, and I don't think it has to be super scientific. We certainly have our methodology, but overall,

[00:33:32] you know, you and I both worked in, in the industry. Like, it's, at the end of the day it's about the people connection that you're making. And, and then that, the business level is just making sure that you're capturing that data so you know what's working and what's not. 

[00:33:44] Jen Kern: Yeah. How many users are on the platform?

[00:33:46] Rachel Nemeth: So, we don't share user numbers. But we are in all 50 states. So, we're focused on the US and Canada right now. We work with multiunit groups with between 10 and a hundred locations, just to give you a sense of our customer base. And we also work...

[00:34:03] Jen Kern: Well, you go over a hundred locations? 

[00:34:05] Rachel Nemeth: Yeah, we work with, with companies, very, very large companies as well, on a select basis. We're actually pretty choosy about the customers we work with. We want to work with folks who are mission-aligned to our, interested in investing in their training and operationalizing their workforce. So, with, with, with larger companies with, say, like,

[00:34:24] 200,000 employees, we spend a lot of time thinking about, you know, how there, how we can really impact their bottom line and what sort of business outcomes they're looking to improve. 

[00:34:35] Jen Kern: So, you will work with, like, a thousand unit chain, but they have to be super aligned with 

[00:34:40] your, your mission, your vision. They have to have the resources on their side to commit, I suppose, to the training? 

[00:34:47] Rachel Nemeth: Yeah. It's less about resources. It's more, you can talk to, I remember having this conversation with Michael Lastoria, &pizza. And he was like, "I've never had, I never had a conversation where I, the customer, was being vetted before." It's like, it's like, "Yeah, we're not mean about it or anything, but we ask qualifying questions." Like, we want to make, listen, like, and we will also be honest with you if we feel like Opus is not a great fit. And we'll say, "Hey, like, listen, it's probably best that you use one of these legacy systems, or you should stick with paper for now." So. 

[00:35:23] Jen Kern: We need more of that in this industry, by the way. We do the same thing and we've been told also, "Thank you." Like. 

[00:35:31] Rachel Nemeth: Yeah. Like, "Don't buy it if you don't need it." And, and our sales team is trained very well to be thoughtful. And then, you know, sometimes people are too small, and we'll say, "Hey, come back when you're ready, we're not going anywhere. And, and we're happy to give you resources, in the meantime, we have a great, great resources on our website for better training."

[00:35:48] We have a huge community of about 5,000 training managers, operators that we just share resources with, who are deeply invested in their people and training their people. So, yeah, I think...

[00:36:03] Jen Kern: Yeah, sorry. I cut you off. You were talking about, you were talking to Michael Lastoria. So, what were the questions, like, you were asking him if it's not about resources? Yeah.

[00:36:10] Rachel Nemeth: So, the very first question we ask on a call is, is simple. It's, "Tell me about your training program. Tell me what's working. Tell me what's not. We don't know what you're using. We don't ask if you're using a legacy system, we don't ask if you're, you know, like what's, what's, what other companies are you talking to."

[00:36:29] It's really about, like, "How do you think about training?" We had a great call the other day with a large employer, QSR, and I just remember him using the term blended learning. And so, we listened for these keywords. Do you know what blended learning is? 

[00:36:47] Jen Kern: I've heard of it. I have an idea of what it is, but go ahead and, and for, for everyone explain. 

[00:36:52] Rachel Nemeth: So, blended learning is where, essentially, where you combine technology with in-person training. 

[00:36:57] It's exactly what we do at Opus. We're not trying to eliminate humans. Your managers are great trainers, but we want to save them time and capture the data. 

[00:37:04] Right? 

[00:37:05] And he was like, ma, "I'm obsessed with blended learning and how I can incorporate more of those, those people moments."

[00:37:12] And that was like the box that we checked. Like, "This is great. This is how you're thinking about it." Some of the things, it's probably more interesting to talk about what disqualifies people. So, if a business will come to us, and they'll say, "Hey, you know, like we're interested in a program that is fully gamified." And by gamified, it's like everything is turned into a game and there's points

[00:37:35] and there's leaderboards, we have that too, but the method is not gamified. There's a lot of studies that show that gamification does not yield higher learning outcomes. And we're really serious about taking a meaningful approach to training. I think gamification is a proxy for bad engagement.

[00:37:55] So, we do things that make learning fun and interesting, but we're not going to just say like, "Well, you got five points, Jen, because you finish this lesson." You know what it should lead to? It should, finishing a course should lead to you having more access to economic opportunity. So, like, we're thinking about ways that you can build work value throughout your life.

[00:38:17] And so, we're, we're asking those questions and if you want something that's real quick, games and things like that, we'll refer you to a couple of fun platforms that we love, like, Kahoot is awesome. Things like that. But, yeah. I like, I'm 

[00:38:29] obsessed with them. But you get my point. It's like, we're really interested in the future of learning at work and like to partner with companies that are thinking about it too and want to do something interesting. 

[00:38:42] Jen Kern: No, no, I really appreciate that. I mean, like I said, and it is a soapbox for me. I don't want to get on it too much. But this industry and I always feel bad for the restaurants and the buyers on the restaurant side, they'd been shoved so much stuff that I don't think they need, particularly from tech companies.

[00:38:59] But, you know, I go to these conferences all the time, and you see it, everyone's got a next shiny or widget the next person. Right? And there's so much just stuff out there. I mean, you look at that technology ecosystem chart and the hundreds and thousands of different systems. And I think, "Wow, I'm so glad I'm not on the restaurant buying side." You know?

[00:39:18] And how dated the whole process is when you go to these, you know, I call them, like, dog and pony shows almost, like these conferences, you know, where people are literally, you know, I was just at NRA and I had someone almost grab me and pull me into their booth to sell me, like, a heater, you know, gets food warm.

[00:39:34] Rachel Nemeth: No one, like, yeah, 

[00:39:37] No, one, like 

[00:39:37] Jen Kern: But what you're describing is a challenger sale. We do that here, we call it, but we, we need to be more authentic and real and honest with people about what they need. And when you start talking about the gamification, it does, it sounds like the, a shiny widget. And they're like, "Oh, I heard X, Y and Z restaurant over here got gamification and their employees love it.

[00:39:58] So, I'm going to go get gamification. And what you're talking about is a much more thoughtful and intentional approach to your business. 

[00:40:04] Rachel Nemeth: Yeah. 

[00:40:05] Jen Kern: Maybe that's where we're going in restaurants, is them adopting, you know, the classic, like, more business-savvy learning, right? And systems and strategy. 'Cause, 'cause like you said, your first question is, "What is your training approach?

[00:40:19] What is your strategy?" And you're trying to discern what is their thinking, how are they prioritizing it, right? And that's what we do. And you mentioned the legacy nature of it all. And you mentioned that, you know, training around the cash register and, and, you know, all the legacy, like, "Fine. Go use Aloha or whatever you want to use."

[00:40:38] Like, "We will recommend other systems if it's Clover or Toast." You know, like, "But what we really care about is the process and the strategy, we want to make your ordering easier, yes, of course, for your guests, but mainly first and foremost, for your people, your, your, your people working there, it's gotta be easy for them."

[00:41:02] Rachel Nemeth: Exactly. 

[00:41:04] Jen Kern: So, that's where the efficiency comes in. That's where it's going to help with labor and, and the thinning workforce. And so, that was one question I was thinking, how do you work with all these other systems that are in the restaurant ecosystem? Do you, do you need to integrate with POSs or not yet?

[00:41:18] Rachel Nemeth: You don't have to, uh, we integrate with, with 26 different platforms right now. But it's 

[00:41:23] not required. But you know... 

[00:41:25] Jen Kern: It's a non-integrated solution.

[00:41:27] Rachel Nemeth: Yeah, like, it can really plug and play and we kind of purposely built it for that way that, the restaurant tech ecosystem is massive and there's some platforms that have to integrate with a hundred percent of your systems, like the, the CRMs and the marketing intelligence tools.

[00:41:41] Like, you just have to be a part of all of these things. With training, it's not a requirement. We like to do it to make things a little bit simpler for people. So, we integrate with UKG, UKG and ADP and all of kind of the standard people management platforms. And you can probably guess why, it makes it easy that when you hire that person, they're automatically in their training.

[00:42:05] And then, when they leave, they no longer have access to it. 

[00:42:08] Jen Kern: Right, right. Okay, cool. Well, as we wrap here, Rachel, first of all, I just really thank you for your time and appreciate all of your insight and all the wisdom you have around training. It's clear, you know, you know what you're doing. Promo for your company, party wisdom for, you know, folks trying to really deal with and grapple this whole idea of, "How do I quickly implement a training system that's not going to cost me an arm and a leg?" Like, yeah, what are your parting thoughts?

[00:42:36] Rachel Nemeth: Yeah. I mean, I would just say, so, you know, feel free to reach out if you want to learn a little bit more about Opus or if you're just curious to learn about ways that you can improve training at your own company. We're, we're an open book, and we, we love talking to people. We co-built Opus with the industry,

[00:42:54] so, a lot of what you're seeing come through is built in partnership with our customers. Um, and, and all of them will tell you that anytime we release a new feature, the first thing we want is their feedback. And oftentimes, we're releasing a feature it's because they gave us that feedback. So, yeah,

[00:43:10] I, I think, like, at Opus, if you want to join our community, you can go to www.opus.io, you can learn about our community called Opera.

[00:43:19] If you don't know what Opus stands for, Opus means a life's work. Opera is the plural of Opus, it's when many voices come together. And so, we just like to bring folks together and think about new ways to innovate at work, especially when it comes to the majority of our people. And you can follow us on LinkedIn.

[00:43:40] We have a vicious LinkedIn following. So, if you're a LinkedIn person, we're very opinionated. So, if 

[00:43:47] you want to learn a little bit more there, uh, feel free to follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, all of the, all of the socials. 

[00:43:54] Jen Kern: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. Well, you know, I, I did have this one other question about the, uh, the training aspect because I've heard this also is, you know, 'cause the parting thought I'm having is, it all comes back to investing in your people, right? 

[00:44:10] We need to double down on our people. And that includes our training, foremost.

[00:44:16] What about, and you mentioned, so what should be the outcome of them getting the training? It's they have more opportunity, economic opportunities. There's also been a mess around educating people. Do you have access to other, like, career development resources through Opus?

[00:44:33] Rachel Nemeth: Through Opus, like... 

[00:44:35] Jen Kern: Can I go? Yeah. Could I go on and learn other well 

[00:44:38] Rachel Nemeth: Oh, Yeah. 

[00:44:40] Jen Kern: Okay.

[00:44:40] Rachel Nemeth: Yeah, a thousand percent. So, like, lifelong learning, things that can help you develop those skills. Yeah.

[00:44:45] Yeah. 

[00:44:46] And that's a really important aspect of, that's one of those use cases that's important. 

[00:44:50] A lot of the thing, one thing that employers ask us about a lot is, "Hey, you know, I want to spot potential promotions." But sometimes you want to see if people are taking the initiative. So, what we're thinking about next at Opus is ways that you can give people access to, like, lifelong learning opportunities and things that they can do outside of the required training. So, you can kind of spot that people are taking the initiative.

[00:45:16] "Oh, I just saw that Julia, who's aligned cook, wanted to learn about bartending. So, she, like, took a course..." And I, we could talk a whole other hour about cross-training, but the amount of conversations I've been having with restaurant employers about how critical cross-training their people is right now, especially with labor shortages, it's just what's next. And so, all of that to say is, yes. 

[00:45:47] Jen Kern: Yes. Invest in your people. 

[00:45:50] Invest in your people, reinventing the restaurants and get in touch with Rachel at Opus. 

[00:45:54] If you really want to get serious about training. So, thank you so much for, for being a trailblazer in our industry and, and helping us all be better and do better. And thanks for joining us on Restaurants Reinvented.

[00:46:06] Rachel Nemeth: Thanks, Jen. Appreciate your time.