Pizza Today - June 2020 - 35

mandates, it is time to plan the future of
your pizzeria and your team.
Consider the operational changes
you may have made: reducing tables to
adhere to the six-foot rule, changing
business hours, laying-off or hiring more
employees, closing salad bars and dining
rooms, adding curbside service, expanding delivery service, adding third-party
services, additional safety precautions
and sanitation, adding beer and wine
for delivery and dozens of other small
alterations designed to stop the spread
of COVID-19 at your pizzeria.
Just as these changes did not happen
overnight, the return to normalcy will
also be a gradual process. What factors
should you consider as you form your
plan? How can you come out on the
other side of this crisis with more sales,
more profits and a stronger team of
people? I propose three steps to achieve
this.
STEP ONE.
Ask yourself these questions to take
stock of the state of your business.
1. As restrictions are lifted, what
health safety measures do I want to add
or keep in place and for how long?
2. What operational changes do I
want to keep in place permanently?
3. Did I develop new relationships
with third-party companies for the
ordering or delivery of my pizza, and do
I want to continue those relationships?
For our restaurants, we plan on the
following: Implementing temporary
health safety measures once our dining
rooms are allowed to re-open, such as
screens between tables, employee assistance with self-serve drink machines, a
salad bar protocol to prevent customers
from using the same utensils and dedicated dining and bathroom employees
for cleaning and sanitation. For more
permanent changes, we learned that our
customers enjoy curbside service and
no-contact delivery. We decided against
third party relationships, but if you
formed new relationships maybe now
is the time to consider whether you will
outsource that entirely, share it or keep
it all in-house.

STEP TWO.
"Teamwork is the ability to work
together toward a common vision. The
ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives.
It is the fuel that allows common people
to attain uncommon results." --Andrew
Carnegie.
You did not build your business by
yourself. And you will not re-build it by
yourself either. But your team looks to
you for the vision.
Ask yourself these questions to take
stock of your team.
1. If I laid employees off, do I plan on
bringing some or all of them back?
2. Did any of my employees elect
to stay at home for personal health
reasons?
3. For the employees I plan to bring
back, how should I support them while
they are out?
4. When and how do I begin to bring
these employees back to work?
5. Do I have employees who continued to work, but at lesser hours due to
changes in the business?
6. For the employees who continued
to work, is a reward in order?
In step one, you crafted your vision,
your plan. Now it is time to communicate that plan. Remove uncertainty for
your team. Begin with the employees
who are still working. Describe what the
business will look like one month from
now, two months from now, six months
from now. Explain that the plan is fluid
and adaptable to the potential of Health
Department restrictions in the fall and
winter. Next, reach out to anyone who
is no longer working. The CARES Act
allows for two weeks of emergency sick
pay and 12 weeks of continued pay for
qualified workers in addition to anything that was already in place for their
employment. See if they qualify and get
them paid if they do. As a business, you
can take 100-percent credit from your
payroll taxes. A payroll company can
help you navigate this. Share your plan
with each of them and describe how
they fit into that plan. In the worse case
scenario, their job has been eliminated
and you explain this and direct them to

unemployment. If their delivery job has
been eliminated because you switched to
third-party delivery, perhaps direct them
to apply for the third-party company. If
you are offering to bring them back, tell
them when that will occur and describe
any changes they can expect resulting
from your vision of what your 'Phoenix'
pizzeria will now look like.
Also, consider rewarding those who
continued working. Hopefully you have
applied for and received the SBA PPP
loan. Seventy-five percent or more of
this money must be used for payroll,
which is an excellent way to reward the
team members who stayed on with you
though this crisis. One possible reward
would be higher hourly wages paid in
arrears for the "Stay-at-home" period
that your business remained open as an
essential business. If no money is available, explore other ways to reward them.
STEP THREE.
Have your team implement your plan,
your vision. That is worth restating for
clarification. Have each member of your
team identify what they will do to get
results toward your vision. Rather than
direct their actions, point them at their
new job and ask them how they can
work that job to achieve your vision. It
is certain that every job has changed.
Maybe temporarily, maybe permanently.
How can they make curbside service
better than the competition? How can
they ensure a sanitized restaurant for
their customers? Ask them to consider
what tools they will need to accomplish
their new jobs and supply those tools.
As this will be a fluid, gradual return
to normalcy, continue the conversation.
Weekly updates of the progress towards
your vision is your job. Implementing
the vision is theirs.
The legend says that the Phoenix rises
reborn; new and strong. So shall your
pizzeria. n

DAN COLLIER is the founder of Pizza
Man Dan's in California and a speaker at
International Pizza Expo.
J U N E 2 0 2 0 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / 3 5
http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - June 2020

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