Ted's Montana Grill

An American restaurant chain with a steadfast commitment to employee development, Ted’s Montana Grill (TMG) identified turn-over as a costly part of their business and was willing to invest in talent development. Unlike much of the industry, TMG increased rather than decreased developmental training during unfavorable financial times.

The Challenge

Food and Beverage has the highest turn-over rate of all industries. Its training is more likely to be task based and not include soft skills or leadership development. For many employees, their current restaurant position is their first job and this lack of any experience is a hurdle faced by F&B industry more than most. Add the financial impact of healthcare costs and slow recovery from the recession - restaurants find their plates very full. In managing e-learning across 16 states, they needed a platform that was flexible, mobile and available at anytime - from anywhere, plus, it had to be affordable.

The Solution

For Ted’s Montana Grill, CD2 Learning provides a customized talent development platform combining The Ken Blanchard Companies’ world-class leadership content and library (SLII®), CD2’s Talent Development Toolkit and Learning Process Map. It brings TMG a common language of leadership and a strong foundation to ensure leaders focus on growth and development in day to day interactions. It teaches leaders and individuals to analyze, diagnose, think, and apply leadership concepts effectively in any situation - and to be more accessible and responsive. Manager groups allow participants to increase the quality and frequency of conversations while building trust and sharing accountability. Managers select lessons from the KBC Leadership Manager Curriculum, or the Individual Contributor Curriculum, that meet organizational goals/outcomes. Online lessons are constructed using rich multimedia interactive simulations and discussions, and end with an assessment. Instant measurement and gratification supports TMG’s goal of self-leadership development.

To meet sustainability goals, the answer is CD2’s Talent Development Toolkit - intuitive, easy-to-use, and accessible to all team members. Using this designed-to-scale toolkit, TMG can:

• Create an interactive map of organizational and departmental goals.
• Set individual SMART goals and tasks that align to department and organization goals.
• More effective confidential communication between key stakeholders to discuss goals and performance.

The Talent Development Toolkit also provides a documented, real-time system that supports team members to improve overall communication and organizational effectiveness. Another component of the strategy for TMG was micro learning. CD2 Learning’s Learning Process Map (LPM) allows for training to be accessible, affordable, and flexible. Users navigate a series of lessons and activities related to a specific learning outcome or competency and are easily tailored to meet training needs. Gamification engages users through recognition; earning badges and points. (Soon a leader board will be launched that promotes engagement and shows at-a-glance progress.) After finishing the Leadership LPM, the toolkit supports a culture of continuous learning and engagement. The investment paid off. Staying committed to their core value of continual training was one of the overall successful strategies responsible for TMG’s 58 consecutive months of increased sales (same store). There was a decrease in manager turnover and rise in scores on employee engagement surveys...