About the Partner Reception

About the Partner Reception

I would like to talk about the details of the reception, as I have received questions from you.

 I have received questions from you about the reception for partners (part-time workers) that I mentioned in my last blog. I wrote about the importance of not only managing store managers and employees, but also how to involve part-time workers, but the response was more positive than I had expected, so I would like to explain in detail.
 
 
Q) Is it better not to have executives from the headquarters participate?
 
→A) Basically, we decided to hold the meeting only for the president and part-time employees.
Even though the headquarters prepares for the reception, it is a meeting only for the president and part-time workers.
I still remember that there were about 8 people at the first meeting.

The participants were part-time students and freelancers whom the manager wanted to make his right-hand man.

 
Q) Direction, time, and location of the meeting
 
→I introduce myself, how I started the company, what it means to me, what I want to do in the future, and so on.
After that, I will ask each participant to introduce himself/herself, including his/her dreams for the future. I also ask each participant to introduce himself/herself, including his/her dreams for the future.
It lasted about two hours, but I remember it went by very quickly.
It is not a formal meeting, so everyone wears plain clothes.
We held it like a picnic, eating and drinking with bottled drinks and snacks.

That way, the part-timers could express their true feelings.

 
Although there were sometimes some surprising facts such as the manager's habit of being late or various other things in the store.... It was also a good store hearing (to understand the real situation).
 
The meeting was held in a conference room at the head office.
 
 
Q) What is the cycle and starting time of the meetings?
 
→ We held the meetings about once a month for about two hours, and since Gyukaku (open from 5:00 p.m.), we started after noon.
 
Q) What is the main theme?
 
→As mentioned above, I started by introducing myself, and then each participant introduced themselves one by one, and I asked them about their problems.
I talked about school, the future, finding a job, boyfriends and girlfriends, and so on,

I talked mainly about what I had done to solve the problems of part-time students, because I had also had many of them in the past. I also included my failures.

 
Young people are looking for someone like a mentor. They want someone who can point them in the right direction, even if they ultimately decide on their own.

It was like the more failures, the more popular it was.

 

If we put the store as the subject matter, it becomes a work-only meeting, so I would say that we talk about the store about 20% of the time, proportionally speaking.

If we leave it alone, we will talk about work.

 
 

Q) Regarding store visits, when the president visits a directly managed store, is it just the president? Does your boss accompany you?




→ A) Basically, I go alone. I go like a customer. Q) When the president visits a directly-managed restaurant, does the president go alone?

I actually ate as a customer, wrote down what I noticed, and gave instructions to my superior later, not to the store manager.

I would chat with the manager and commune with the part-timers during the free time I had at the restaurant.

All of the stores with part-time workers who attended the above partner get-togethers were delighted.
 
The employees were also pleased, but I might say that the most important thing was for me. As president, I had to deal with a lot of tough management issues.
When I go to the stores and see employees and part-timers working energetically, I think to myself, "I, too, must work harder and harder.
I think it was good in the sense that it inspired me.
 
 
Q) How often do you visit stores, select stores, give advance notice, etc.?
 
→A) We do not give advance notice at all.
I visited two to three directly managed stores a month. I also visited franchise stores when I traveled.

There was no particular reason for selecting stores, but I gave priority to stores that appeared at partner get-togethers.

 
I think it would be a good idea to start with a small number of people once and decide on your own direction.
 
For students, the main concern is finding a job.
What kind of company is best for me? What type of work is best suited for me?

It is natural for them to be anxious because they have never had a job before.

 
I was talking about the "restaurant industry" (service industry), which has all the necessary elements for any kind of job.
Would you be a stewardess? Become a nanny? Become a tradesman? Become a doctor?
 
All the elements necessary for any type of job can be cultivated in the food and beverage industry.
What are people (customers) thinking right now? →You can cultivate this in the restaurant industry.
Knowledge of numbers such as PL → Can be cultivated in the restaurant industry.

Other elements can also be cultivated.

 

In fact, when I talked with people at a reunion about 10 years after I started working, many of them were salarymen who could not even read PL.

In food and beverage, you learn quickly when you get involved in management.

The talk was that managing a restaurant is exactly the same as running a small company.

 

How can part-time workers connect the job they want to have in the future with their current job in the food and beverage industry?

He explained that the current jobs in the food and beverage industry would be useful for everyone's future.
 
That's what he was preaching.
 
During the meeting, as we got to know each other, we talked about family and love.
 

We didn't end this get-together once we left, so there was one student who came three times.

He has since become an employee. He is still working hard as the head of the business category.
 
 

I think the good thing about this meeting was that we were able to open up to each other and influence each other in such a casual manner.

 

Eventually, this meeting became the Raines Partner Forum, and Mr. Oshima, who attended the forum, organized Izakaya Koshien, and so on,

I think that was the source of everything that followed.

 
Other things we did within the company included the following.

All of them are designed to improve communication with employees.

 
Morning meeting at the beginning of each month.
　→ All employees participate. It was held from Sendai to Kyushu via Skype.
　It was very meaningful to speak directly to employees every month.
 
Putting a letter in the paycheck.
　→We wrote a letter every month on everyone's paycheck stubs, in word-processing format, explaining the direction in which the company was headed, etc.
　We wrote a letter to each employee's paycheck every month.
 
Employee birthday parties (monthly)
　→Once a month, we held a birthday party for the employee whose birthday it was that month.
 
Handwritten cards are given to employees on their birthdays.
　→Employees were given a handwritten birthday card on their employee's birthday with a word of encouragement.
 
Send flowers to the house on the employee's spouse's birthday.
　→ÆWe sent flowers to the home of an employee's spouse on his/her birthday as a token of our appreciation.
 
∙wife's Club: Inviting the wives of male employees to the company for a company presentation.
　→ÆThe food and beverage business requires long hours and is not possible without the understanding of families. We held this meeting to gain a correct understanding of the company.
　The company held these meetings to gain a correct understanding of the company.
 
 
 

Basically, in the service industry, work is divided between the head office and stores.

It is easy for sectionalism to form, with the head office saying "the head office" and the stores saying "the stores".

I thought it was important to take measures to fill the gap between the two.

 
I hope this will be helpful for your management.
 
 
Assentia Holdings Inc
Akira