Leadership = Hire Right, Train Right, and Treat Right

In this episode of Ignite Cast, Judd Wilson sits down with Bernard Bean of the Eat With Us Group (https://eatwithusrestaurants.com) for a conversation about leadership, culture, and what it really takes to build a strong team. Bernard shares how his organization transformed retention by focusing on three simple but powerful principles: hire right, train right, and treat right. He talks about the importance of never stopping the search for great people, listening to employee feedback, acting on it, and creating a work environment where people feel valued and heard.

Bernard also reflects on the growth of the family business, the lessons learned through years in the restaurant industry, and why great leadership starts with personal responsibility, humility, and a genuine commitment to people. This episode is full of practical wisdom for anyone leading a team, building a culture, or trying to create an organization where both employees and customers thrive.

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Transcript

S7 E6 Bernard Bean
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[00:00:00] Taylor Tutor: Welcome to Ignite Cast, where ideas Spark action brought. To you by the Community Development Foundation, your Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Engine for Tupelo and Lee County, thank you to our presenting sponsor, iHeartMedia for powering this season of Ignite Cast. I'm Taylor. 

[00:00:35] Judd Wilson: I'm Judd, 

[00:00:36] Taylor Tutor: and welcome to Ignite Cast.

[00:00:41] Judd Wilson: All righty. We're having another episode of at Nightcast here in season seven. I mentioned this before. I love season seven 'cause this is the season. Right after the at night leadership conference, and I think if I, if I'm doing my math correctly, this is actually my last show in [00:01:00] season seven without my co-host.

[00:01:02] Judd Wilson: My co-host has been on maternity leave, Taylor Tudor. So she'll be back for season eight. So we will look forward to not having to hear just Judd, even though I like hearing Judd a lot. I don't know, but maybe the audience doesn't. But anyway, I got a great friend here, a great community leader. Bernard being with Eat With Us Group.

[00:01:20] Judd Wilson: Bernard, welcome to at Nightcast. Thanks 

[00:01:21] Bernard Bean: for having me. 

[00:01:22] Judd Wilson: Look, the studio audience is cheering. 

[00:01:24] Bernard Bean: Yeah. Well, thank you very much, 

[00:01:27] Judd Wilson: Bernard. You're no stranger to our area and, and you just do so much for Tupelo and Lee County and really our region as a whole. Um, welcome and I thank you. I ask this question to everybody that kind of sits in here.

[00:01:39] Judd Wilson: What's the greatest leadership tip? Bernard Beans ever been given? 

[00:01:44] Bernard Bean: You know, probably it was something learned coming outta COVID. And it may sound like a cliche, but it's really your people. 

[00:01:54] Judd Wilson: Yeah. 

[00:01:54] Bernard Bean: And who is in your organization and um, and. [00:02:00] Coming outta COVID, it, it became very evident that, that most restaurants have good food.

[00:02:07] Bernard Bean: They have good environments, they have good systems, but if you don't have the right people, you can't execute those things. And so we really started focusing, focusing in 21. Um, coming outta COVID of retaining people and, um, and hiring the right people and, uh, developing them, training and developing them and treating them right.

[00:02:32] Bernard Bean: Uh. Uh, I, I give a lot of credit, uh, to a guy named Tim Kirkland who wrote a book called Coach. And, uh, Tim passed away unfortunately, but he wrote a book. He was a restaurateur. The, the book is, is a good for anybody that manages anyone, but, uh, he was a restaurateur. So he came from the angle that we come from and, you know, basically it was hire right, train right, and treat right.

[00:02:59] Bernard Bean: And we [00:03:00] started focusing on those three pillars and we have been able to improve our retention tremendously over the years. 

[00:03:08] Judd Wilson: That's great. That's great. So, you know, I've heard it said, you know, hire, don't really hire for a skill, but hire for that, I guess, attitude or the right person. 

[00:03:16] Bernard Bean: Correct. 

[00:03:16] Judd Wilson: Um. And you see that's a, a great model.

[00:03:19] Judd Wilson: I, I would assume. 

[00:03:20] Bernard Bean: Yeah. You know, part, part, one of the biggest, uh, mistakes, I, I would say the biggest mistake restaurant managers make, and I I would imagine in other high turnover industries, the same happens is once a schedule gets easy to make you quit hiring. And you quit hiring and an A walks through the door and you say, I don't have a space for you.

[00:03:45] Bernard Bean: And not only do you lose that A, but they go to your competitor. 

[00:03:50] Judd Wilson: Yeah. 

[00:03:51] Bernard Bean: So we preach constantly hiring, looking for better people, upgrading our staffs, replacing [00:04:00] Cs with a's of course you're gonna work to develop. Your Cs until the last day, but you're constantly looking, uh, to improve your staff. So you're constantly hiring.

[00:04:11] Bernard Bean: And if you do that, you can send your CS and you know where they go. They go to your competitor. 

[00:04:16] Judd Wilson: Yeah, true, true. So talk a little bit about that turnover. 'cause I mean, as you said in your industry, the restaurant industry, there, there is a higher turnover than maybe in another industry. How, how do you change your leadership style to kind of.

[00:04:32] Judd Wilson: Handle that. 

[00:04:32] Bernard Bean: Sure. Um, in 2021, we ran, we have about a thousand employees in 17 locations, and so it's kind of easy to do the math. We ran 127%, uh, turnover. We refer to it retention because we like to be. Uh, as positive as possible and retain people. But the turnover was 127, uh, percent. Well, you do the math on a thousand employees.

[00:04:56] Bernard Bean: That's over 1200, 1300 employees. Uh, and [00:05:00] that was about industry average at, at the time and, and probably still is. Uh, but we moved from 20, uh, 2021 from 1 27. 2022 was 1 0 7, 23 was 1 0 2. 24 was 85 and last year was 77%. And this year we're tracking 52%. 

[00:05:24] Judd Wilson: Wow. 

[00:05:25] Bernard Bean: So you can see, and there's so much effort that goes into, um, hiring, training, getting someone up to speed, you know, there's just.

[00:05:35] Bernard Bean: Natural human errors, people learn. And your customer, your guest is who suffers. So we started, we looked at every aspect of our business, uh, our, our hiring practices and never stop hiring and keep hiring, keep looking for those as, but we implemented things like we, we used to just hire you and review you next year.[00:06:00] 

[00:06:00] Bernard Bean: Well, we, we, we started interview. We started. Reviewing people after 60 days. So, uh, we could develop those that needed to be developed, uh, and everybody needs development, but, but we could praise those a's and maybe give them what we call a pay raise exception. Everybody gets a, a raise, uh, at that nine, at that 60 day review.

[00:06:23] Bernard Bean: But if they're doing really well, we'll give 'em a pay raise exception so we can lock them in. Um, and so that was one thing that we did. Um, the other thing, we started asking feedback from our staffs. After each review, uh, we asked, what'd you like about your job? What do you not like about your job? Uh, if you could change one thing in our company, what it, what would it be if you were the CEO?

[00:06:48] Bernard Bean: Uh, how's your schedule? You are working more or less, or about the right amount, and if it's either more or less, how much do you wanna work or any, any other reasonable schedule requests and how can we help you with your [00:07:00] life goals? And the feedback we got from this, I was a little worried about, what do you not like about your job?

[00:07:06] Bernard Bean: Because I was concerned they'd start talking about the owners suck and, uh. Uh, and, you know, the manager, this and that, but we really started getting great feedback and I think what it created created an environment that our people felt like they were being heard and we didn't just get the information.

[00:07:22] Bernard Bean: We acted on reasonable information, you know, a a a point to, you know, we had uniform changes, we improved some, some benefits that people ask for. Um, we, if you go to Harvey's in Tupelo w we started this, we actually started asking these questions back when we remodeled Harvey's some time ago, and the awning that's over our curbside was a curbside server that said, well, when y'all remodel, it'd be great to have an awning over the curbside.

[00:07:50] Bernard Bean: Well. I would've never thought of that. And so we started getting their feedback. Um, we started reacting to their feedback. Um, [00:08:00] you know, you would occasionally get the, what do you not like about your job? Uh, you'd get, uh, the answer, uh. Sometimes there's managers that talk down to you, and we post these in our online managers log, so we post the answer so everybody can see 'em.

[00:08:16] Bernard Bean: And I read 17 managers logs every day to see this type of information. But if you'd see a note like that, pretty much everybody knew who they were talking about and the individual knew who they were talking about. Right? Right. And so it really helped us, um, develop our managers to develop the people much better.

[00:08:33] Bernard Bean: And so this feedback was so, so. Critical. And I would encourage you if you do things like that, if you ask these questions, you've got to act on them. So don't ask if you're not gonna act and like, you know, reasonable schedule requests. It'd be terrible for somebody to say, I hate to work doubles on Saturdays.

[00:08:50] Bernard Bean: And then the next Saturday they have a double. And so you've gotta put systems in place, like reminders in the manager's log or on the schedule to make sure you live up to that reasonable schedule [00:09:00] request. Or if it's not reasonable, you gotta let 'em know. That's not reasonable. Somebody in the restaurant business says, I want every weekend off.

[00:09:06] Bernard Bean: That's not reasonable. So we started, we, we, we got feedback from them, uh, adjusted benefits, um, you know, really just, just focused on those answers. But, uh. And creating a good work environment. And so that was, that was a lot of what we did, but there was, so there's many pieces to the puzzles that have helped us improve our retention.

[00:09:30] Judd Wilson: That's great. I mean, and, and you, you hit the nail on the head if you ask for feedback, but don't act on it. Number one, it makes you look bad, but number two. They're gonna quit telling you, right? That's 

[00:09:41] Bernard Bean: right. That's right. You know, we, there, there were other things like, you know, uh, and this comes from Tim's book, but, um, a a's hang with a's, so we have a bounty that when we have an a, we'll go to 'em and say, Hey, if you bring somebody in, we'll pay you a bounty.

[00:09:59] Bernard Bean: Uh, we don't [00:10:00] ask our seeds that, because, you know, you don't, they're probably hanging around sea. They're hanging with seeds. Yeah, they are. And so that was something that we learned from Tim. But there's just. So many, uh, things we've put, you know, we've really, we've, we've increased our 401k participation.

[00:10:17] Bernard Bean: We've tried to create benefits. A lot of times people think the restaurant business is just a stop gap job, and it can be a profession and you can make very good money. Cash, no tax on tips now. Um, you know, a very flexible schedule if you need it, and you can make really good money. And if we can back that up with better Ben, with good benefits, health insurance, 401k, paid vacations, the things other industries offer, we can compete with them.

[00:10:47] Bernard Bean: And so, uh, we focused on things like that and, uh, and it's got results for, for us. 

[00:10:53] Judd Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. And, and you're so right because, you know, I, I actually, when I was in high school, worked in the food industry, grew up [00:11:00] in Pensacola, Florida, and I still use some of those lessons that I learned today. I know you got people that have been with you from the get go, but have you seen success stories and maybe people that worked for you when they were in high school or, or in college that are now.

[00:11:15] Judd Wilson: Very, very successful, and they can look back to that foundation. Right. 

[00:11:19] Bernard Bean: Well, it's funny you say that. We, um, just recently, um, one of the, one of the individuals that worked with us in the eighties down in Starkville, we just hired a grandchild of theirs. Yeah. You know, ages me a lot, but Yes, it's amazing. The thing is, is that not only creating a good work environment.

[00:11:37] Bernard Bean: Uh, it's good for your environment and for your current staff. The ones that move on to other things, become the leaders in your community and they spend money with you. 

[00:11:47] Judd Wilson: Yeah. 

[00:11:47] Bernard Bean: But if you, you, but if they have a bad, um, experience working with you, they're gonna be less likely to, to. To spend money with you to, to be a, a customer, a guest.

[00:11:59] Bernard Bean: And [00:12:00] um, and if you're a bad work environment, the people in our industry go out and say, that's a bad work environment. People won't come. So you want to create this culture that, um, that people want to work. You want to be the best. Environment in your industry and hopefully other industries. Right. You know, and, uh, and, and that really helps p people.

[00:12:21] Bernard Bean: I, I, I, there's two things that we say you can't tolerate. It's a bad attitude and unreliable people, uh, bad attitudes. We're in the hospitality business. Mm-hmm. And you can train anybody to do almost anything, but you can't teach 'em to have a good attitude and see a glass half full. Number two, the unreliable.

[00:12:40] Bernard Bean: Unreliable. You know, if you've ever been in a restaurant and your food's taken a long time, it's a good chance a cook didn't show up. And not only did that cook not show up, but it's frustrating the cooks that did. 

[00:12:50] Judd Wilson: Yeah. 

[00:12:51] Bernard Bean: The A's that did. And so those are the two, you know, those are two things that we don't tolerate.

[00:12:56] Bernard Bean: We constantly hire, we send those people on their way [00:13:00] and the they end up, a lot of 'em end up at our competitors. And so there's just a lot of small things that you can do to create that good environment. But what you said is so true. The people that do move on to other things, um, become your customer for life.

[00:13:15] Judd Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, we do this a lot Mannar, we, we will play a clip from an a previous at night conference actually we had John Foley, uh, call sign Gucci. He was a Blue Angel pilot and just, you know, those guys are just sure everything is on on point, right? Let's listen to this clip 'cause I think it deals with a lot of what you've already discussed already.

[00:13:35] Judd Wilson: Okay, here's, here's a, a takeaway. There's five, I think, key 

[00:13:39] John Foley: dynamics in a, in a high performance culture. Alright? The first is you need a safe environment, alright? What I mean by safe environment, I'm talking respect. Second is you gotta check your ego at the door. This is about humility, genuine humility.

[00:13:52] John Foley: Third is you gotta lay it on the table. Open an honest communication. Fourth is the accountability piece, but what I really like to stress is more [00:14:00] personal responsibility, own the outcome. But the fifth, the most important one. This is glad to be here. It's the joyful effort. When those five things come together, it's amazing what you can do as a team.

[00:14:14] Judd Wilson: That attitude you just spoke about. 

[00:14:16] Bernard Bean: Yeah. Yeah. It's so key. You know, and, and he, you know, the, the things he said, you know, in that I thought of, you know, when something goes wrong at one of our restaurants, it's my fault. When things go right, it's the staff that did it. 

[00:14:32] Judd Wilson: Yeah. 

[00:14:32] Bernard Bean: And 'cause ultimately that's the truth.

[00:14:34] Bernard Bean: I'm making those decisions on who's on our team, and if they're not performing, then it's my responsibility and they, they, um, they should get the praise and you have to use. Every, every time you get a great travel review or you get a compliment from a customer or I get a text from somebody saying they had a great experience, we have to share that and celebrate it, you know?

[00:14:58] Bernard Bean: And so, 'cause it [00:15:00] perpetuates that performance. What gets recognized gets repeated. And, and so, um, constantly being positive, he, he hit on so many things that are so, so important and, um, and, and so anyway, very great quote there. 

[00:15:14] Judd Wilson: Yeah, just that. Glad to be here. I, I remember, you know, in high school, uh, growing up and, and having different jobs and you heard the term customer's always right?

[00:15:23] Judd Wilson: But I had a manager one time said, it's not that the customer's always right, it's just that the customer is, is in our establishment. Correct. To have a good experience, you need to almost see it as that customer. 

[00:15:33] Bernard Bean: Right, right. Oh, absolutely. I mean, you know, we, you know, um, we take customer feedback very seriously.

[00:15:40] Bernard Bean: It's just like the team member feedback. Don't take it if you're not gonna act on it. 

[00:15:44] Judd Wilson: Yeah. 

[00:15:44] Bernard Bean: And, and so, uh. I tell, I tell our staffs that, that when we have to comp something, we have to buy something for somebody. 'cause we overcook the steak or messed up at the go order or something. Um, those customers, those guests that let us know about those [00:16:00] things, even sometimes, maybe they're not doing it in the nicest way or maybe not just having a good day.

[00:16:05] Bernard Bean: Yeah. You know, you gotta give 'em, give 'em a break, but they're paying good money for this. Is that? They're, they're letting you know something. I'm the type of person that I go to a restaurant. If I have a, a bad experience, I don't say anything. I just don't come back. And so every guest that tells us something that's not right is probably, there's probably two or three others that had the exact same experience that didn't, that didn't tell you.

[00:16:30] Bernard Bean: And so they're doing you a favor, you've. Got to use that feedback, the positive to praise your staff, but any negative to improve your staff. And again, we've, we track comps, we look at all this and we, we, we, we'll make adjustments as we go, uh, and try to train the staff up in certain areas if we're making constant mistakes.

[00:16:51] Judd Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. That's great. That's great. Yeah. We didn't start off, uh, kind of going over the history, but man, y'all. As you mentioned, think about how many employees you have in our [00:17:00] area. I mean, it's just amazing how much y'all have grown. 

[00:17:02] Bernard Bean: Yes. 

[00:17:02] Judd Wilson: Um, 

[00:17:03] Bernard Bean: tu Plus has been very good to us. 

[00:17:04] Judd Wilson: Yeah. 

[00:17:04] Bernard Bean: All of our market's been really good to us.

[00:17:06] Judd Wilson: Yeah. I mean, y'all did you start with Harvey's and, and 

[00:17:09] Bernard Bean: Harvey started in 1982. At in Starkville. Yeah. I was a freshman at Mississippi State. Yeah. Washington dishes, busing tables. You know, and kind of grew up in the industry, uh, I just kind of fell in it. Right. You know? Right. And, uh, on my bad days, on the bad, on the tough days, I asked my brother, 'cause he's seven years older than I am, I kind of followed him.

[00:17:29] Bernard Bean: It's John, right? John? I followed him in the business. I'm like, why didn't you get into something else? But it's really a, you know, I really love what we do. It's great. You get to, you know, I mean, I tell people, you know. Working in the medical field and dealing with sick people, or being that person that has to hand the estimate to you on your car, that's gonna be $4,000 to her.

[00:17:52] Bernard Bean: You know? Right. That's not a very happy moment. Those are not happy moments. 95%, you know, almost every, [00:18:00] uh, every group that dines with us are there to have fun and we get to be a part of that. Yeah. Yeah. And we can make it either special, uh. Or not special. And we have to realize that every meal is special.

[00:18:13] Bernard Bean: And if we'll treat every meal that way, our, our business will continue to grow. We'll be able to pay our people more, people will make more tips, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 

[00:18:22] Judd Wilson: So, uh, like you said, you've already mentioned your brother, your mom was in the 

[00:18:25] Bernard Bean: business. My mom, uh, my mom. And a gentleman named Harvey.

[00:18:29] Bernard Bean: If you ever, if you ever go into, uh, Harvey's, all three Harvey's, we have a picture of them over the hostess stand. Yes. One in the bar in Columbus and one in the dining room in starve. But here it's over the hostess stand and my mother has a rose in her mouth and Harvey's sitting there eating, and it's kind of a tribute to them, but they started it with my brother and, um, uh, and my, my mother and Harvey were, were engaged for 11 years, never got married.

[00:18:54] Bernard Bean: Uh, and uh, uh, he was like a father to me. Yeah. But yeah, that's how it [00:19:00] started. And uh, since 1982, we've grown to 17 restaurants and been very for less in 

[00:19:05] Judd Wilson: your And your son. Brian's in the business 

[00:19:07] Bernard Bean: too. That's John's. That's John's. That's John's. So it's Hayden is my son. That's right. He's running super chicks here.

[00:19:13] Bernard Bean: Yeah, 

[00:19:13] Judd Wilson: that's right. 

[00:19:13] Bernard Bean: And Brian is helping me in operations. 

[00:19:15] Judd Wilson: So let me ask you this, I mean, it's a, it's a family business. It 

[00:19:19] Bernard Bean: is. 

[00:19:19] Judd Wilson: Um, and do you think that helps you? Kind of serve families. I mean, yes. 

[00:19:25] Bernard Bean: You know? Yeah. It's, you know, I mean. It's great to work with my family, but there's, you know, there's always some tough times that you go through.

[00:19:34] Bernard Bean: Uh, and, but we just in the last two years read Good to Great. Yeah. 'cause we're trying, trying to think about trying, we all read, all the partners read Good to. Great. Pat Campo, one of our managing partners. No, pat son Elliot Yeah. Is in the business too. So we have an, uh, another. And so we're really, John and I, uh, in our later years here, uh, are trying to figure out a way to, uh, sustain [00:20:00] we're, we're going on 46 years in business and we would love that to sustain and, and with my son and his son and others, uh, uh, because, uh, the.

[00:20:09] Bernard Bean: The, it's been good to us and we'd like it to keep going. 

[00:20:12] Judd Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I, I tell you this, y'all do a fabulous job. You've, you've helped me keep my BMI up. Well, 

[00:20:18] Bernard Bean: thank you. 

[00:20:19] Judd Wilson: Um, so that's good. That's good. We 

[00:20:20] Bernard Bean: have a lot of great people. We have a lot of really good people, 

[00:20:23] Judd Wilson: but it, it, and, and, and just listening to you today, I mean, it's really working every day on.

[00:20:28] Judd Wilson: Making the, uh, experience great, but also making your staff great and, and looking at those leadership principles. I mean, just mentioning Good to Great and, and the, and the book coach that you mentioned earlier, right? I mean, you never stop learning, do you? 

[00:20:41] Bernard Bean: No. No. I wish I knew. Back then what I know now.

[00:20:46] Bernard Bean: Yeah. You know, and, uh, because you know, the best mistakes to learn from are somebody else's, and we've made a lot of them, but I think we've learned from them and gotten better over the years. But, you know, we're, we're, we still got a lot to, a lot to work on. And that's [00:21:00] exciting to know. You've got things you still got to improve on.

[00:21:02] Bernard Bean: Yeah. And, 

[00:21:03] Judd Wilson: and you need to always be doing that. 

[00:21:04] Bernard Bean: That's right. So that's 

[00:21:05] Judd Wilson: a great leader sees that, knows that. So. Bernard, thank you. Sure. I mean, what a great for having me. Uh, I, I knew we were just gonna have sit here and have a conversation and um, now I'm hungry, which is good. Good. 

[00:21:16] Bernard Bean: Eat out often. That's our motto.

[00:21:18] Judd Wilson: Will do. Yeah. Will do. Thanks so much for being on it, Nightcast. Thanks for having, we enjoyed having you.

[00:21:34] Taylor Tutor: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Ignite Cast, presented by iHeartMedia. For more leadership insights and engaging conversations, be sure to hit subscribe. And if you enjoy today's episode, we'd love for you to leave a review and remember, go forward and do good [00:22:00] things.