How to train frontline workers effectively?

Ron (00:00): Welcome everyone to Frontline Fridays, where we explore the hearts and minds of the leaders who elevate the retail and hospitality industries to greatness. And what is their secret sauce? We are here to find out. This show is brought to you by YOOBIC, the AI-powered mobile app that gives frontline teams the performance tools they need to communicate, learn and work right in the palm of their hand. And I’m Ron Thurston, your host of the show, the author of a book called Retail Pride, and the co-founder of a retail recruiting company called Ossa.

Ron (00:38): I’m excited to have this conversation because we have a really unique perspective in quick service restaurants. I’d love you to meet Ashley Helkenn, the driving force behind training at Bonchon Korean Fried Chicken. She oversees training programs, new restaurant openings and career development, and has launched an online learning and task management system to enhance trust with franchise partners.

Ron (01:12): With a robust restaurant operations background since the age of 15, Ashley excels in supporting teams with her hands-on expertise. Before joining Bonchon, Ashley played vital roles in brands like Cotton Patch Cafe and Dickey’s Barbecue, where she developed scalable systems. Renowned for her project management and cross-functional leadership, she bridges language and skill gaps to augment team performance. Ashley holds a bachelor’s in business management, an MBA, and a master of science in management and leadership, and is an active CHART member. So with that, Ashley, welcome to the show.

Ashley (01:44): Hi, thanks for having me.

Ron: I’m thrilled that you’re here, because many of our episodes have focused on specialty retail. But frontline and quick service restaurants, and the work that you do, employs millions of people, and I think this conversation about the front line has to include restaurants. So I’m really honored that you’re here. You’re a YOOBIC customer, wanted to recognize that, and you do incredible work.

What is Bonchon, and how big is its frontline?

Ron (02:19): But maybe first, share what is Bonchon, how big is it, what do you do, for anyone that maybe doesn’t know the brand?

Ashley: So Bonchon literally means my hometown. It was based in Busan, South Korea, and we’re known for our sauce and our Korean fried chicken, which is this double fried chicken with a really intense crunch to it. But in addition to chicken, we have a full traditional Korean menu along with it, so there’s food for everyone. We’re nationwide. We have about 145 restaurants stateside with 20 more on the way this year, and internationally a couple hundred more. So pretty big worldwide presence for us.

Ron (02:53): Wow, incredible. And a sense of the kind of total team. Do you have a sense of what’s the size of the front line we’re talking about here?

Ashley: Oh, our front line is a couple thousand. Probably 3,500 total.

Ron: And so your role in learning and development is critical in this industry.

Ashley: It is. I’m super lucky to have a team that gets to be hands on on the front line, opening restaurants, supporting open restaurants, building content, working through communication, and just doing cross-functional work to bring amazing projects to life and make it easy to execute for our team members.

How did Ashley end up running restaurant training?

Ron (03:27): And you have a deep history in restaurants, and I would love you to share a little bit about your story. How did you end up here? I heard it once from you and I was fascinated by this. So give the audience a sense of your background, starting at, I guess, 15 years old.

Ashley (03:59): Yeah, I was young, and there was a local restaurant and they hired me because they needed people, and they didn’t fire me because they needed people, when they very much should have. And I learned a lot from making every mistake possible. Not a lie, they should have fired me a million times.

Ashley (04:28): I ended up going from this local restaurant that grew to a couple, getting to open restaurants and train for them, not mom and pop style but independent owners. And then I moved over to the Darden brands, working for a specialty concept of Bahama Breeze, and got this really intensive, immersive experience with a mega brand. And from there just fell in love with restaurants and restaurant people, and have spent most of my career in restaurants. I took a small break to go to school and do consulting work, but I came right back as soon as I was done.

What do people get wrong about working in restaurants?

Ron: And what do you love about it? I’d love to know, what do you love, and what are the misconceptions about the restaurant industry?

Ashley (04:59): I love that it’s about fun. It’s a party every night. Literally, it’s like a house party where you invite people into your home and you take good care of them. And there is this subset of people who both love and despise their jobs, and it’s competitive. Somebody wants to make more money or do something faster, and then you go out and have fun with them and clean up and do it all again the next day.

Ashley (05:29): Everything in restaurants tries to kill you. It’s either slippery, sharp, or on fire. And you think about that when you’re out to eat and somebody’s being really nice to you. They work in an environment that’s trying to kill them, and they do it with grace and speed and fun and hospitality. It’s just a different type of person, and they’re my people. It’s my tribe.

Ron: Wow. And so what are some misconceptions about this?

Ashley (05:59): I think the misconceptions are that it’s not a real job. You’ll see a bartender or a server and you’re like, when are you going to get a real job, because it’s not a salary paycheck. But they work harder, they know more things than a lot of real jobs. They have to understand money and customer service and speed of service. And restaurants are actually this really cool business where we run a manufacturing facility in our back of house and a retail establishment up front. And the people who work in this business have to understand how those two industries collide at this expo window where food is handed over. It’s just a totally different experience than you’ll get in almost any other industry. So it is very much a real job.

Ron (06:28): It’s very much a real job, as is retail. But you’re right, there’s a level of complexity of manufacturing and creating things that require safety, require a level of freshness, consistency. There’s all of this that adds a layer that in specialty retail we don’t have. It’s actually even harder. What you’re describing is even harder than working in a store that’s selling product they received on a truck. You’re actually creating the product.

Ron (07:02): And at the same time the front of house team deal with the public, which as we know can be brutal, and they get the brunt of everything the guest is upset about. They don’t like their food, they don’t like the weather, they don’t like the music. They really have to just take it in with grace and still provide an excellent experience.

Ashley: And it’s some of the most resilient people. They’re fascinating.

Why don’t front of house and back of house skills transfer?

Ron (07:32): Everything about this is fascinating. And speaking of front of house, there’s another unique complexity here. There’s not necessarily crossover in skill from front of house to back of house. So if I’m a trained chef, I’m not necessarily going to move into waiting tables.

Ashley (08:05): Yeah, there are very distinct skill sets in a restaurant. The personality type, the person who chooses to work in a manufacturing facility is not the person who goes for retail. One person’s much more gregarious, the other typically likes head-down production work. There is some crossover. The one thing most restaurant people have in common is that we’re chaos junkies, so we just like constant change. But the skill sets are different.

Ashley (08:36): When you have two vastly different skill sets of people, who stand on concrete and work over fire where it’s really hot and really sharp, and they’re just production the whole shift, and they’re getting yelled at or asked a bunch of questions in a loud environment, that’s one type of person. And then the other type of person who has to interact with the back of house, ask for what they need, and then turn around and be friendly and kind and able to multitask and just be of service. It’s two very different personalities, and they have to work together really well. So it can be a challenge, but it’s a huge skill builder. I would encourage anyone to work in restaurants for a little bit of time.

Ron (09:08): It’s so interesting. And really, you’re right, when you think about real jobs and real careers, I really can’t think of anything that’s more complex than this. Because there are so many layers to what a successful restaurant is, whether it’s more on quick service or whether it’s luxury. It’s highly complex.

Ashley (09:41): Yeah, and we also sell a subjective product. A shirt, you know what it looks like. Anything on a shelf, you know what it looks like, you can touch it. Food, you have to trust the person that sells it to you and hope that spicy means the same thing to you as it does to me. Or good, or fresh, that it all means the same thing. So how do we bridge that gap and connect? It’s a specific skill set to sell something where red is always red, but spicy isn’t always spicy.

Ron (10:12): And the cost is differentiating. So if I don’t like my food, you give me new food, potentially. If I buy this polo and I don’t like it, I return it, you give me my money back.

Ashley: Yes. And you can resell it. Especially for franchise organizations, where our owner operators, that’s their money. When you return food just because it’s not what you thought, or you didn’t like it, they literally have to throw it away and make you something else for free. It’s a very different cost than if you return a shirt that either you can return for credit, or get your money back and they can resell, or that piece is factored in as waste. It’s a much more complicated system.

How to train frontline workers effectively?

Ron (10:43): And so through all this, your years of being in this industry that you clearly love, and that’s why I love speaking to you, where has this influenced training? Here you are developing, creating, delivering incredible training through YOOBIC and through other platforms. So how has this experience influenced your training?

Ashley (11:18): I got immersed into restaurants early, and my friends were restaurant people. My husband now is a restaurant person. And this level of being of service changes who you are. Being in the restaurant, and I’ve spent years working in restaurants, you understand how hard it is to keep a smile when somebody’s rude to you, or when you’re stressed out, or when something catches fire, or anything happens. For me it changed my level of empathy as a person, but it also changed how I see training.

Ashley (11:52): I got really lucky, and I made mistakes that when I tell people about them, they’ve never heard someone do something so idiotic or randomly bad. But I was given this grace of, if you’re going to break it, here’s how you fix it. And so I’m no longer scared of table visits or upset guests, because I’ve done the worst. And the process of apologizing and fixing it is pretty much the same. The details may change, but everybody wants the same thing.

Ashley (12:26): And so I think in our role as trainers here at Bonchon, or any restaurant, we understand how it works. Think about if we want to do a course for a fry team member. They’re in a kitchen. They’re not coming in early, we don’t have the finances for that. Franchise restaurants don’t always have money to bring people in. So they look at it while they’re frying, so they can’t hear it. So how do you train when they can’t hear what you’re trying to tell them?

How to boost retail training engagement?

Ashley (12:57): And then how do they fit it into their day? How do we weave that in, so they get everything they need but only what they need, and they can get it exactly when they need it? That’s from working in restaurants and understanding the challenges that come with it. And that builds trust.

Ron (13:28): This idea of, you understand the pain points of my role, how can you therefore deliver training that fits my needs? Not what you think my needs are, but here are my real needs. And that I’m building trust with you, that you understand that and can create training that’s appropriate. Because you’re also creating training for a specific job, in a specific part of the restaurant. I’m saying that because often on the retail side there’s a lot of cross training. We’re going to train everyone how to ring on the register, we’re going to train everyone to do inventory, we’re going to train everyone how to fold and keep the store neat. That’s not actually true in your business. You’re training unique things, specific people with specific jobs, which adds another layer of complexity in training.

Ashley (13:56): On the counter service side of our business there’s a lot more back and forth. But on the table service side it’s a lot more difficult, because you don’t want your servers washing dishes. That’s not their skill set, it’s not their personality style, they’ll be miserable. Their outfits don’t warrant it. The safety gear is very different.

How to build a retail training program?

Ashley (14:24): You and I were talking earlier that trust is a resource. It’s as much of a resource as food, it’s as much of a resource as equipment, or as time, or as money. If they don’t trust us, then it doesn’t matter.

Ashley (14:56): And so what we did first was we leaned into communication and trust building, before we leaned into traditional course training. We had to listen to them. What do you need, what can you absorb? And then we tried to meet them where they were. And then when we started building trust, we could ask more of them, but they were also more willing to tell us the truth about what worked and what didn’t. And that’s the dream, right? As a trainer you want someone to be honest about what’s not working, instead of going, that’s great, that’s great, and either not doing it or doing it wrong.

Ashley (15:23): And I’m super lucky that I work for an organization that believes that trust is a resource, and we talk a lot about and do a lot of work around trust building internally with our franchise partners.

How do you test whether training actually works?

Ron: And did you do that by just spending time in the restaurant, learning, from your own background? So like you said, you didn’t just copy paste training. You actually needed to go in and see how they spend their time, what they do, and have them tell you what they need.

Ashley (15:58): We did. We also have this mix where subject matter experts are great, everybody loves a good SME, but sometimes those guys are too smart for their own good. There’s this old saying in restaurants that you can have the best food and drink in the world, but if you can’t sell it, you’re still stuck with the best food and drink in the world. Same thing with training and processes. You can have the best process in the world, but if you can’t sell it, if you can’t fit it into their day, then you just have this good process that doesn’t mean anything, that’s not being used.

Ashley (16:25): And so, super lucky, we have some ten team members that are from Korea or in the States working with us, and we partner them with people who really don’t know a lot, like new frontline team members, to fill in those gaps. And then we go out and we test it and we thoroughly vet it. And our big process is, can we break it? And if we can break it, how do we either prevent it from breaking, or fix it when it does? It’s built a lot of trust, but it also allows us to learn more about our end user and meet them where they are, which has been pretty cool.

How do you train a multilingual frontline workforce?

Ron (16:56): Really cool. And the workforce is very diverse. Korean chicken, and then the variety of languages, racial backgrounds, education backgrounds. The list is vast of who you’re training.

Ashley: Most restaurants that I’ve worked in, it’s primarily English and Spanish speakers, and so translation isn’t very hard. There’s typically somebody in the restaurant who can help translate. And even if you produce content, there are translators out there, but somebody has to vet those translations to make sure they mean the right thing. But our workforce here is kind of all over the board, and so we do use YOOBIC’s translation software, which has been great for us.

Ashley (17:28): So we leaned into communication first. But we also took a different approach and said, what is the universal language? And it’s visual. So we do a lot of iconography. This image means wash your hands, and this image means change your gloves, and this image means keep it warm, or keep it cold, or take its temperature. So that even if you have a manager who speaks one language and a team member who speaks another, they can look at the same content and know they’re seeing the same thing.

Ashley (17:57): And we learned early on that culturally there are some things. I had no idea that the thumbs up symbol in some cultures is offensive. So not all icons work. But because we built the trust, people were able to tell us, and we could pivot pretty quickly.

What does success look like in frontline training?

Ron (18:28): And what does success look like for you? Company owned versus franchise, table service versus counter service. Success, I’m imagining, feels really complicated, because success looks different at every touch point here.

Ashley: Yeah. I know a lot of training professionals look at compliance, because it’s one of the only tangible things that you can point to, to say my training was good because so many people chose to engage in it. But training should be designed to drive an impact.

Ashley (19:04): And so right now we’re on a Perfect Chicken Mission. Systemwide we have all undergone chicken training, and we are focusing on it in the field. And so success looks like impact. Are people doing the right processes? Are they getting the right results? And are guests enjoying those results? And the metrics that drive those. This is going to be controversial: I’m not that concerned if somebody took a course.

Ashley (19:35): I mean, it’s helpful, would love it. But we have a variety of resources in YOOBIC, in our system, as well as posted in the restaurant and just available. As long as they have the impact for the guest, that’s how we drive it. And there are metrics around that. Repeat business and growth, and all the KPIs that we all live and die by. All of that creates impact in the business.

How do you support franchise owners and share best practice across the industry?

Ron (20:09): And again, if I’m a franchise owner, I want to make sure I have the most successful business possible. Maybe I’m a first-time franchise owner, I don’t really understand all the metrics, or all the training that’s available, or how to hire and retain all of these people. So you’re coming in and saying, here are all the best practices, here are all the resources available, here are things that you can do to make sure that you’re successful. What a great partnership, that you get to make sure that these people that bought a business can do this. And I think you mentioned to me, many of them have multiple franchises.

Ashley (20:39): Correct. We have a lot of franchisees that have multiple units with us, and that also have other restaurant concepts. On one hand that’s really helpful, that they have this vast experience. But we fry chicken very differently than anywhere I’ve ever worked, so sometimes that’s a hurdle. So how do we take what they’re great at, and then sell them on what makes Bonchon specific and really special?

Ashley (21:11): I will say that I’ll go head-to-head with any other business and say that our franchisees are the most passionate people in the business. They love the brand, they really want to do the right thing. And so as long as we give them the resources to figure out how to do the right thing, they’ll buy in every time. Our leadership team, a couple of them, our head of operations, she owns her own restaurants on the side. They’re not Bonchons, but she understands what it’s like to be a business owner in this environment, and it builds that trust.

Ashley (21:42): But it also builds the connection of, this works in this restaurant, but that’s not just how we do it at Bonchon. This is how we do it, and why we do it, and the impact that works this way. So it’s been a cool way to connect.

Ron: And then how else do you share this as an industry? Retail as an industry does a really nice job, all the conferences and all the work that many of us do sharing best practices. What are you doing for that?

Ashley (22:13): So personally I’m a member of CHART, which is the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers. It’s an association of hospitality trainers, and we have this mission just to steal shamelessly. A rising tide lifts all boats, and we move forward together. So we’re not reinventing any wheel. We keep what’s proprietary close, but it’s really culture and product that drive the difference. A fryer is a fryer, a thermometer is a thermometer, knife skills are knife skills.

Ashley (22:43): And so instead of having to start from scratch at any new brand, we just share it. And that mentality is shared in a lot of restaurants, to understand what’s special and proprietary versus what are best practices. And you learn things about turnover and engagement, and new skills to use, and what works and what doesn’t. I shouldn’t have to figure out for myself that a voiceover course for the kitchen doesn’t work when there’s a vast amount of people who say they can’t hear in the kitchen. So we can just move forward together as an industry.

How do you develop future leaders in restaurants?

Ron (23:20): And my follow up to that is, how do you develop great future leaders in this business? Because you often come from restaurants where your leadership skills require you to actually have a very wide skill set. So how do you develop that? How do you make sure that people are prepared to move into leadership roles across the industry, not just at Bonchon?

Ashley (23:52): Yeah, I think that’s the million-dollar question for anybody in the industry. We all know turnover is at an all-time high, and it’s way higher for restaurants. If you gave me your retail metrics, I guarantee we’ll double it.

Ashley (24:19): And so I heard long ago, if this is going to be your first job, or if this is going to be a three-month job, let’s make it your best first job. Let’s make it your best three-month job. So if you stay, you stay. If you don’t, hopefully somebody else has made it a great job and you come to us. But we really look at the skills behind a practice. So guest service skills isn’t about how to make somebody who comes into a Bonchon smile. It’s about how do you engage with the public and meet them where they are. And that’s just basic leadership skills. Respect, sense of urgency, balancing time, having pride in the work that you do, and learning how to do it while having fun. Just the basic life skills.

Ashley (24:51): Traditionally restaurants have been hourly, shift supervisor, manager, GM, multi-unit. And I never wanted that. I grew up in restaurants, never wanted that trajectory. But doors open, because there are skill sets they need. They need training, and you go, hey, I know how to do this. Or they need marketing, and you go, hey, let me go market. There’s all these doors open. And if you’re with a company that allows you to capitalize and showcase and train you, that’s great. So how do we provide that for our teams? Some of it’s just making information available and being transparent about where we can help.

Ron (25:22): And do you find great GMs of bigger restaurants come from either front of house or back of house? Describe a successful restaurant GM. What’s their skill set?

Ashley (25:55): I think their skill set’s both. I was never good in the kitchen. I cannot fry chicken very well. But I was taught how to watch the frying process, and to understand the mechanics of it, to know where it breaks down. So somebody who’s open to understand the manufacturing side, whether or not you can do it, and understanding the service side, whether or not you can do it, that’s the best. So it doesn’t matter which one they come from.

Ashley (26:24): I think historically a lot of great GMs have come from the back of house, because they understand the number side. But more and more, especially as tech has come a long way and your point of sale system has numbers in it, you can train front of house easier on numbers. And the skill set of team building and engagement, energy level, that’s come more full circle, and you see that more. But the biggest one is, anybody who’s malleable to both sides makes the best leader.

Ron (26:55): Yeah, because you can’t avoid one or the other. You actually need to be highly engaged in both all the time. I’m making assumptions based primarily as a customer, but I’m looking at it and saying, I don’t understand how all of that works, and timing and ordering systems and processes and the manufacturing. If I don’t understand that, I can’t then deliver the experience I want for my customer in the front of house, because you can’t describe the process. So there’s a level of expertise that comes in both sides of this business that is not necessarily aligned to retail. As a GM or as a multi-store leader, things like doing inventory or some of the other back of house processes, not my expertise. I spent all of my time front of house. I didn’t really have to know how all of it worked to deliver great service. But that’s not true in your business. You actually have to understand all of it.

Ashley (27:29): Yeah, especially with turnover. Back in the day you had lifer kitchen guys who could take your inventory and write your schedule, and then you could read the data and adjust. But right now you have to be good enough at everything, and then to identify where you’re not, and fill those gaps with people who can.

Ron: And jump in maybe where you need to.

Ashley: Yeah, because of high turnover. Just jump in and fry some chicken.

What advice would you give someone building a career in restaurants?

Ron (27:57): Any advice you would give to people, as we wrap up here, that love this business and want to grow their careers on the restaurant side? What advice do you have for them, as someone that’s done it?

Ashley (28:29): I would say ask questions. And if you’re in a place where your questions aren’t being answered, find another place. For the most part everybody wants to share what they know. And the restaurant, if you think about it, we deal with real estate, we deal with sales, we deal with construction, supply chain, marketing, finance. Anything you want, almost, we can teach you in restaurants. So bring your passion and ask the right questions, or ask questions and hone them to the right questions, and your career can go wherever you want. You’ll get experience even if you don’t stay with that brand. You have this entry-level experience that you can carry over into almost any other industry.

Ron (28:59): And there are thousands and thousands of opportunities. Restaurants are everywhere, just like retail. Everywhere you look there’s an opportunity for a career that goes on. And if you could find a restaurant that’s not hiring, that’s a unicorn place. But there are always restaurants, and there are always restaurant hiring opportunities. Everywhere. Where can people find you, Ashley, if they want to ask you some more questions?

Ashley (29:27): Primarily on LinkedIn is where I spend most of my time. Just Ashley Helkenn. I think I’m the only one.

Ron: We’ll make sure we put your contact information in the show notes. But it’s really a pleasure. I’m fascinated by this business, this side of it, how hard it is, how fast it moves, how it’s trying to kill you every day at work. All of it. I just think it’s so interesting, and I love the stories you tell. So thank you for being on the show.

Ashley (30:00): Thanks, I appreciate your time. And the history you bring in retail helps the restaurant side be better. We are better because y’all honed the salesmanship and the product display, and so we learned just as much from the retail side. So thanks for having me, and thanks for all the work you do to promote hospitality in general.

Ron: My pleasure. Thank you.