Healthy Work Hours Can Boost Productivity and Reduce Turnover

Employees come with different kinds of personal responsibilities. They appreciate an organization that does its best to give them time to meet those obligations.

By Wade A. “Skip” Corn, Jr.

The cornerstone of every restaurant is its employees. They're the face of your business, whether they work in the back of the house handling logistics and food preparation, or out front as hosts and servers.

The founder of Egg Ventures, Chris Skodras, grew up working in a family restaurant that served three meals each day. He loved the restaurant business, but observed that it was not a family-friendly environment for employees who often became stressed about juggling work and family. Evening shifts often meant missing important children's events like ball games and school plays. Often, the productivity of good workers suffered because of such pressures, and turnover occurred too frequently.

After Chris married, he and his wife, Pat, began to think about better ways to run a restaurant. Their plan involved limiting hours from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and concentrating on just two meals, breakfast and lunch. When the first Eggs Up Grill opened in 1986, they began building the brand's reputation, cultivating happy customers, and providing employees with flexibility to better address some of the stresses associated with balancing work and family.

Franchising began in 2006 and today, there are 22 Eggs Up Grills that operate on those principles. The franchisees pride themselves on having healthy and happy employees and low turnover — a rarity in the restaurant business. The number of franchisees continues to grow.

Emphasizing Family Time

It's easy to say that a business is family friendly. But Eggs Up Grill has never made a big deal of saying that. Instead, the company lives it. And, the way its employees interact with customers backs that up.

Priority is placed on employees' need for family time. In today's world, employees come with all different kinds of personal responsibilities, and they appreciate an organization that does its best to give them time to meet those obligations. There are working moms with families to care for, single moms and dads juggling the responsibilities of kids, home and work on their own and even grandparents handling a second family act by raising their grandkids. Because the stores are not open after 2:00 p.m., employees have time to do what they want to do in life. They can pick up the kids after school, participate in after-school events, and even manage their schedules to accommodate medical and other appointments.

First-In, First-Out System

The company provides even more flexibility through creative scheduling. Store operators work with employee-parents and rotate them to allow one parent to leave earlier than another. They also encourage the informal creation of carpools for dropping off and picking up kids at school. This reduces the stress of some family obligations, with the added advantage of fostering team spirit in the work environment.

Employees vary by market, but they are very similar to Eggs Up's customer population which ranges from ages 18 to 60-plus. Interests are diverse, and the hourly structure is flexible to accommodate even employees who are retirees and want to work without giving up their afternoon rounds of golf or established bridge games.

Scheduling is on a first in, first out system. For example, an employee who comes in to prep and open may be finished and out by 10:30 a.m. or 12:30 p.m. Most employees don't work from 6:00 a.m. or 7:00 a.m. until closing. They are “staggered in and staggered out.”

In a restaurant offering three meals, it's especially stressful to work a 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. shift. Several franchisees first came to Eggs Up because they were working as employees in a non-family-friendly environment. One couple revealed that they never seemed to see each other because he worked at one facility and she worked at another. That made it tough to consider starting a family, let alone raising one.

They've owned their Eggs Up store for a few years now and have been able finally to have the family life they envisioned, as well as the opportunity to provide the same option to their employees. With shorter hours of operation, employees can have more family time, and they don't ever have to miss a chance to tuck the kids into bed and tell them bedtime stories.

Less Stress Equals More Customer Satisfaction

Overall employee stress has also been reduced by providing a pleasant environment with new and reliable equipment and an attractive, fresh décor. Employees take pride in working at stores like this and customer satisfaction goes up as well.

Other efforts to reduce stress also contribute to a happy workforce. Customers frequently comment on the upbeat way employees interact with each other, as well as customers, and that begins with the sense of teamwork fostered in each store. Each Eggs Up Grill franchise has someone in it who has ownership. The day-to-day presence of owners in the same environment as their employees represents a powerful level of commitment. Employees know that franchisees put a high value on employees and that they are No. 1 on their store owner's priority list.

Like employees, owners have families, and they often involve their families in the business. In some cases, franchisees blend their family members right in with their work families. A favorite story is about the six-year-old son of an owner who likes to come in on Saturdays when he's not in school, dressed in a little uniform like his dad's. He greets customers and everyone knows him. People connect to that. They see that there are families running the stores and interacting with the families that become customers.

That's one reason stores are located close to residential areas and owners are encouraged to run the stores and work in them. Employees often find their most loyal customers are people who live near them. When working where customers live, relationships come about naturally. Customers are people from church; children go to school together; the same kind of recreational pursuits are shared. When people come in, employees are often familiar from PTA meetings or walking the dog. They have a connection. Living in the same community as the customer base creates a healthy environment for both employees and employer.

Just Good Business

Structure and ongoing training also reduce stress, generating higher productivity and lower turnover among employees. People like to know what is expected of them and to know the boundaries. Within those, an employer and its employees can work out family time and flexible work hours. Eggs Up Grill franchise owners encourage and reinforce that. They're models for their employees.

For Egg Ventures and store owners, emphasizing family time and healthy work hours is just good business. Employees see their jobs as more than just where they work. They are engaged with their customers.

Customers often comment about how happy Eggs Up Grill employees are. When customers walk in at 6:00 a.m., employees help them start their day with a smile. And a good start today means that customers are likely to come back tomorrow.

Wade A. "Skip" Corn, Jr. is CEO of Egg Ventures Inc., parent company of Eggs Up Grill.