The Training

You can learn a lot about an organization based on their training of new hires and continuous training or lack there of. CFA restaurants are individually owned and while similar from the outsider's perspective each store is as unique as the individuals who operate them. 

Most CFA stores have team leaders or trainers who do the physical training of new hires while also having a director of training to oversee the process. The store that I was hired at (Westfield) operated a little differently with the Executive Directors overseeing the process. 

My training was partially with the team leaders to learn the register, specialty drinks, and desserts. I spent many hours on an iPad watching videos, learning processes and systems, and then put it into practice with the team leaders.  Zach, the Executive Director of Frontline, would show me more of the business side of things. 

I was hired on as full time so I was immersed into CFA culture. There is definitely a learning curve to CFA but the more you do it the better you get. Some employees are hired on part-time and it takes about 2-3 weeks to be trained. Since I was full time it happened much more quickly. 

I stuck out a lot of the frontline. I was 38 years old when hired and while I was not the oldest on the Frontline I was older than the majority of the team. I was also one of the few men on the team. 

My goal was to learn the systems quickly and to be the hardest worker there.  I wanted to make a good first impression on my co-workers. A few days into training the AM Director of Frontline told me I was doing an excellent job and there were rumors circulating about a possible promotion. 

Later that day Zach pulled me aside and showed me the organizational chart of the restaurant. As I stated earlier every CFA is different and Westfield just went through a restructuring. We were growing fast and each year we were recording record numbers. The previous year we were an $8 million store and were on pace to break $10 million in 2019. That my friends is a lot of Chicken. The amount of growth would give our store a prestigious award called Symbol and is only given to stores with 18% growth over the course of the year. 

Due to the anticipation of growth the store went through restructuring. It impacted every facet of the restaurant. The store went from a GM model to an Executive Director of Departments. The front of house was divided into Frontline and Drive-Thru. The back of house focused on the kitchen. The other two departments consisted of Human Resources and Catering. The Owner/ Operator Patrick mainly led the group of Executive Directors. All the Executive Directors had been with CFA for 6 years or more. Zach had been with CFA for 10 years and was the GM before the restructuring. 

As Zach is sharing with me this organizational chart, he talks about each job on the Frontline team.

1. Team Member- New hires are brought in here. This is the soul of the team. Focus on hospitality, teamwork, customer relations. They will work anywhere from the register, making drinks, bagging food, running food to tables, drink refills, cleaning off tables, etc. 

2. Team Leaders- As I mentioned earlier they focus on the training of new hires. They are detail oriented because you do not want to miss anything in training. They also take care of quality control of the restaurant with food and safety procedures.

3. Supervisors- Run the shift and create remarkable experiences in order to have raving fans. They lead the shift through placing the team during the shift and help make sure things are running efficiently. 

4. AM/ PM Directors- These leaders focus on the scheduling and help serve and resource the Supervisor's and any needs for the team. 

5. Executive Director of Frontline- Leads the team with the overall vision, procedures and systems to effectively serve the Directors, Supervisors, Team Leads and Team Members. This usually consists with knowing the numbers to help with cost of wages, food, etc. In the restaurant business this is vital as the profit margins in a restaurant are smaller than most businesses. They would also be in charge of leadership development, promotions and leading the overall morale of the team. 

After Zach explained these positions to me he offered me a Supervisor role and I accepted. I was not even done with the official training yet but I was promoted to Supervisor and would now have to start training for that position as well.

Stay tuned for Training pt 2