"UNCOVERING THE UNDERCOVER BOSS" Episode 4, White Castle

Dave Rife is one of the owners of White Castle, the company best known for introducing fast food hamburgers to the masses. It is, in fact, the oldest fast food company in the U.S. This family business was started by Dave’s grandfather and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. The business began 88 years ago and has 421 restaurants in the U.S.

Dave Rife went undercover as an entry level employee by the name of David Allen. It was quite an eye-opening experience for Dave.

In this episode, there were two examples of how new employee training is not helping the employee, the Company or the customer. The first was where Dave was one of 70 other employees and managers at a new store opening. The situation was chaotic, the employees were receiving poor training, and the managers were wasting time while providing conflicting advice, which means that the customer must have suffered. The second example took place at a White Castle bakery. Here Dave continually asked his production supervisor, “What am I doing wrong?” as he proceeded to destroy 4800 buns in the packing machine. He never received much help from his supervisor or anyone else.

Too often employees are trained by the “sink or swim” method. White Castle has a detailed procedures manual and Dave, as an owner, was interested in improving the operational process of the Company. However, it appears the Company needs to do a better job of understanding the realities of operations and translating them into an effective training process.

So what did we learn from this experience? A quality new employee training process conveys to employees that you want them to succeed. It also sends the message that it is important to do the job right in order to give the customer a great experience. Furthermore, it helps achieve consistency in the product or service whether delivered by an employee who is on the job for one week or one decade. This lesson is critical to any customer service job, whether it is serving fast food or the finest culinary.

Another part of the episode was at the White Castle frozen food factory where Dave loaded cheeseburgers on a production line with other employees. One of his co-workers, Vicki, commented that the operation ran smoother and the quality was better eight years ago. She attributes the decline to the fact that the supervisor is not as involved as she once was. In this case, Brenda, the supervisor, was not involved and spent her time in the break room while Dave, Vicki and the others struggled to run production.

At the end of the show, after Dave revealed himself to Vicki and Brenda, he asked the employee, what do you look for in a good supervisor? Her answer was one that I have heard numerous times from employees. They want their supervisor to provide help when needed. Employees resent it when their immediate supervisor stays in the office, or as Brenda did, sat in the break room while employees struggled. A front line supervisor is “the Company” and they must demonstrate that they care and that they know what is going on.

In this particular situation, I do wonder where Brenda’s supervisor was during this time. Brenda’s job title was assistant supervisor so you would think that her supervisor or a manager would expect her to help the employees. If I were Dave I would be as concerned about what the members of middle management are focusing on within this plant, rather than only expecting Brenda to improve her supervisory abilities.

One of the things that makes “Undercover Boss” such a great program is that management experiences a reawakening to the fact that most employees take pride in their work, want to do a good job, and that they really care about what they do. One example was Joe, an excellent multi-tasking order taker who also dealt with customers in the most pleasant and efficient manner.

Joe is the result of a good selection process which brought the right person to the right job. Once in the job he must have received good training and supervision. As Dave said, “the Company needs a lot more people like Joe,” and every Company can attract and retain “Joe’s” with the right employee relations culture, management systems and supervisory skills.

At the end of this episode and the three preceding ones each of the employees discovers that members of top management actually care about their employees. This comes as a surprise to employees and yet it should not. Conversely, top management discovers how much employees care about their jobs and the impact their work life has on their families. This comes as a surprise to each undercover boss and yet it should not. That’s because we are all people with many of the same needs and concerns.

“Uncovering the Undercover Boss” is written by Richard Reinhardt, Vice President of F&H Solutions Group LLC. You may contact Richard by email at rreinhardt@fhsolutionsgroup.com or by phone at 901.291.1546.