TV Trainer

TV Trainer "In the News!"

2007-01-25T11:10:00.000-08:00

1/25/07

Wow!

The folks at TV Trainer are humbled, flattered and extremely grateful to have two, prestigious national publications write about us.

After reviewing our product and training methodology (as well as our understanding of the Latino worker and the employers that seek them), we were selected by Restaurant Business to be included in their "50 Great Ideas" (January issue. We're #22 - check it out here).

And if that wasn't enough good news, a few weeks later...

Fortune Small Business magazine recognized TV Trainer as a new approach to teaching "workplace English." You can read that article here.

We're thrilled with the great publicity! However, we're more satisfied helping companies like yours "faster-train and longer-retain your valued Latino employees."

Call me to learn how TV Trainer teaches work skills and English "a job at a time."

Craig Evans for TV Trainer
952.221.1800

craig.evans@tvtrainer.tv

"The High Costs of Employee Turnover."

2007-01-02T14:06:00.000-08:00

Got an interesting email today from TJ Schier, a consultant to the restaurant industry. He's come up with a very clever spin on calculating the cost of employee turnover in the restaurant industry. He's calling it, "Turnover Freedom Day."

Here's the jist of what he said...

Training new employees is expensive! Estimates range from $500 - $2,300 per (McDonald's spends $1,600). Costs include; recruiting and hiring replacements, training time, trainer time, lost productivity, uniform costs, etc.

Based on an industry average turnover of 200%, a 30-employee restaurant grossing $800,000 a year, averaging 10% profits could be working up to May 17th just to cover yearly turnover costs. And that's at only $500 training costs/employee.

That should be enough to convince anyone (outside of the CFO, who already knows) of the value of effective training designed to assist in employee rentention.

If you'd like a copy of TJ's article, you can write him here: eletter@qsrmagazine.com
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If you'd like to try the best solution to "faster train and longer retain your valued Latino employees," write me: craig.evans@tvtrainer.tv

"The Year 2006 Was One Of Growth For The Training Industry"

2006-12-15T13:03:00.000-08:00

As if the glowing report about the health and growth of the restaurant industry wasn't positive enough, a short two-days later, here comes an equally glowing report on the state of the US training industry.

Training Magazine's 2006 Industry Report was just issued (link here). But before you run and print off your own copy, eyeball a few of these notable quotables!

* $15.8 billion was spent on training products and services this year... up from$13.5B in '05.
* Training budgets are up 7% over '05 figures.
* Companies are averaging $1,273 in training expenses per learner.
* Of Industries spending on training, Manufacturing and Healthcare = 24%
- Healthcare is up 20% over last year.
- Technology training budgets have risen 14%.
* Smaller companies (under 1k employees) are investing the most in training and budgets are growing. They use less classroom settings and computers compared to larger companies. They also show increasing investment in "other" training methods.
* Formal classroom training is down (to 62% from 70%).

This is a wonderful time to be in the training business! We're glad to be a part of the growing movement toward other, new technologies that reach the "digitally-disconnected." If you'd like to learn more, check out our White Paper and latest Research, available on the TV Trainer Home Page. Or call me directly... 952.221.1800.

Craig Evans for TV Trainer
"Faster-train and longer-retain your valuable Latino workers."
"We teach English a-job-at-a-time."

"Real Growth to Hit the Restaurant Industry"

2006-12-13T08:40:00.000-08:00

An article dated 12/12/06 appearing in today's QSR Magazine announced even more good news for the Restaurant Industry (and, correspondingly, TV Trainer!).

Here are some of the more notable quotes:

"The restaurant industry will enter its 16th consecutive year of real growth in 2007 according to the National Restaurant Association’s 2007 Restaurant Industry Forecast."

"With the number of restaurant locations in the United States growing to 935,000 in 2007, the number of restaurant jobs will also increase; the industry is expected to add two million jobs in the next 10 years."

Many of the states predicted to have the most employees are also home to the highest population of Latinos.

You can read the entire article, here. Print it out and take it to dinner with you. It's great reading!
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TV Trainer helps businesses "faster-train and longer-retain valued Latino Employees." We do it by "teaching English, a job-at-a-time."

To find our more, contact me (Craig Evans) at 952.221.1800 or write me: craig.evans@tvtrainer.tv

"Turnover up... again" - People Report

2006-11-20T11:32:00.000-08:00

11/20/06

I found this in an article in today's NRN.

Acording to a recently released People Report, average hourly worker turnover in the restaurant industry continues to rise and now sits at 107%. Management is also unstable with a turnover average of 29%. Joni Thomas Doolin, People Report founder and chief executive adds that the replacement of 700,000 hourly employees and 15,000 managers in the next 12 months will cost businesses $1.8 billion.

NOTE from Craig: These numbers represent only People Report clients (100 restaurant companies that operate 11,000 businesses. There are over 1,000,000 restaurants in America). In other words, the actual number of employees needed and the costs businesses will incure for employee turnover this next year are TEN TIMES GREATER - 7,000,000 employees, costing $18 billion!

"Restaurant operators are going to have to change the way they tackle their people practices if they are going to survive in a tighter labor market," Doolin warned.

“Within the next five to eight years, the winners and losers are going to be determined by the availability and quality of the employees who work for your businesses,” she said.

The report also noted Latinos now account for 1 in 5 workers (20%).

The complete NRN article is available here:

Now in its 11th year, People Report collects data for more than 100 restaurant companies, which collectively operate more than 11,000 restaurants and generate systemwide sales exceeding $42 billion. The firm’s database contains records for more than 82,000 unit-level managers and 1 million employees.

NOTE from Craig: We can help you decrease turnover. TV Trainer is proven in helping faster train and longer retain your valuable Latino employees. For more information on how we can help, write me: craig.evans@tvtrainer.tv

"They Came Here to Work."

2006-11-16T09:46:00.000-08:00

11/16/06

A just-completed study by Dr. Elaine Lacy, research director for the Consortium for Latino Immigration Studies at the University of South Carolina, provides enlightening and encouraging news about America's Newest, Fastest Growing Workforce. Among her findings:

The immigrants were older than we expected and more educated. Mexican males had an average of nine years of education.

Lacy said undocumented immigrants are ineligible for any public assistance, and approximately 70 percent of the Mexican immigrants interviewed were undocumented. "Overuse of public funds is simply not an issue among the state’s Mexican immigrant population," she said.

Other than public education, the only other public service utilized was WIC, a Medicaid program available to qualifying families when their children are born in the United States. Only 15 percent of the families interviewed had children born in the U.S., but not all of those qualified for the WIC program.

Of the 181 immigrants interviewed, only four were unemployed. "They came here to work," Lacy said. "They want to help with living expenses for family members in Mexico and to save money for housing, businesses and retirement in Mexico."

Read more of this report at: http://www.wltx.com/sports/story.aspx?storyid=44073

One last finding to highlight:

Nearly half the respondents said they were making efforts to learn English. One-quarter said they were taking formal English classes, while nearly an additional 25 percent said they were learning from purchased tapes, watching English television and reading English publications. Lacy said 30 percent cited learning the language as the biggest need of the Mexican community.
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TV Trainer recognizes the importance and long-term need for ESL (English as a Second Language). The average American adult knows 10,000-40,000 words. For businesses wanting to teach English to their employees, that can be an expensive and time-consuming proposition. TV Trainer's scenario-based programs, designed to teach how-to-do-a-job, have incorporated a more cost-effective approach to teaching English. It's called VOCATIONAL ESL (or VESL). We've identify and include the English Actions, Words and Items necessary to the performance of a task in each show. Our VESL approach teaches English "a job at a time." This cost-efficient approach starts paying for itself in higher performance and happier, more competent employees from Day One.

Craig Evans for TV Trainer
"Recognized by Restaurant Business Magazine as one of '50 Great Ideas' for the Fast/Casual Dining Industry."

On-the-job Fatality Rates Soar for Latino Workers.

2006-09-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

There's little excuse for inadequate training. But when there's danger of injury or death, there's NO excuse for NO training.

Today, Latinos are getting hurt on the job in appauling numbers. In almost all cases, lack of training is the reason. There's NO excuse for that. Not when there are products like TV Trainer. TV Trainer works because we train the way Latino's routinely acculturate (through television). And it's fast.

We can help your workers (and your business) avoid accidents. Call us. 952.221.1800

Craig Evans for TV Trainer.
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On-the-job fatality rates soar for Latino workers.

September 9, 2006
By STEPHEN FRANKLIN and DARNELL LITTLE
CHICAGO TRIBUNE

CHICAGO -- Before the accident, he had warned the owner of the small dry cleaner that the pressing machine was old and dangerous. But his boss told him to forget about it, and Mario, fearful of losing his job, didn't say another word.

Then one day last winter, the massive, steaming press collapsed on Mario's left arm, melting the skin, mangling his fist and costing him a $5.70-an-hour job. There was no health insurance, no worker's compensation benefit and no severance pay offered, Mario said.
"If you don't have papers, you work 8 or 10 hours a day, six days a week, and you don't complain," said the muscular, middle-age illegal immigrant from Mexico.

Much of the furor over immigration reform has been about whether undocumented workers like Mario should be allowed to stay in the U.S. or made to leave. But beyond that debate lies an undeniable fact: They face disproportionate dangers on the job.

For most Americans, the workplace is much safer than it was a decade ago. This is not the case for many Latinos, who remain trapped in an earlier, more brutal era of industrialization. They lead throwaway lives, and their plight is nearly invisible because so many live in the shadows.

Over the last decade, Latino workers' fatality rates have soared, outstripping their share of the workforce. With more Latinos on the job, many suffer a hefty dose of injuries from some of the most dangerous jobs, according to government statistics and interviews with union, workplace safety and public health experts, as well as workers.

They are vulnerable because many are immigrants who are illiterate in English, have little understanding of American culture and are grateful for any job, no matter how dangerous. And because many are undocumented and afraid of being deported, they often don't ask questions and don't challenge the boss.

"They shouldn't be dying and they don't even have the same rights to complain. Being illegal, they fear retaliation. This is assuming that they know that what they are doing is dangerous," said Jordan Barab, a workplace safety advocate in Washington, D.C., and a former union health and safety expert.

Because they are not part of mainstream society, there is no clear picture of how many undocumented Latino immigrants are injured or killed on the job. Any statistical evidence is incomplete. But they are widely assumed to constitute the bulk of the nation's estimated 7.2 million unauthorized workers, and most experts say they have driven up the casualty count.

Those who know most and are willing to talk are the doctors who try to mend them, the compensation lawyers who try to get their medical bills paid, and the helter-skelter network of day laborer centers and others that strive to find them help and protection.

Lawyer John Budin, who regularly is consulted by injured workers, said it's common for bosses to refuse to pay medical bills or to warn undocumented employees against filing a worker's compensation complaint.

"I had a guy come in this week whose boss said, 'I'll call immigration and get you deported back to Mexico if you file,'" he said. The worker, he added, is worried and thinking it over.

A sampling of injury reports in federal files tells many of these kinds of stories of inexperienced and illegal workers being killed and injured.

In suburban Maryland in May 2004, a 15-year-old from Guatemala was sucked into landscape cleaning equipment and killed. Federal officials say the teenager had never been told how to use protective equipment or how to turn off the machine.

In South Carolina, 15- and 16-year-old brothers, illegal immigrants from Mexico, were killed minutes after they began working on a trench in 2003 when the walls caved in.

"We have investigated a number of cases where the victim was Spanish-speaking and the training was only in English, and there was little or minimal attempts to translate it into Spanish," said Dawn Castillo, an official with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the research arm for the nation's worker safety and health effort.

Jorge Mejia was doing day construction work in Chicago, hired off the street, when he nearly lost an eye in a fall. He said bosses rarely told him about the dangers of the job, and that day he recalls not wearing any protective equipment.

There were four of them, standing on a scaffold and trying to reach the building. But the crew was not close enough, so three workers leaned toward the fourth as he stretched toward the facade.
Just then the scaffold flipped over, and Mejia fell backward, tumbling three stories. At the hospital, he realized he could only see shadows with one eye.

His back also was badly hurt, and he can no longer lift the way he once did. Because of his health, he stopped working full time. He takes easier jobs two or three times a week, but his earnings are not the same. Despite his back pain and fear of going blind in his right eye, he plans to stay and keep sending money home to his family in Mexico.

"Here I can make $200, $300 in a few days. That's better than $40 a day in Mexico."

When these workers get hurt, they aren't the only ones to pay for their injuries.

Public-health facilities have to swallow the emergency room bills of injured undocumented immigrants not eligible for government support. And then the workers' families have to arrange their own therapies because they cannot receive such support.

And the toll grows.

While non-Latino workplace fatalities dropped 16 percent between 1992 and 2005, Latino workers' deaths jumped 72 percent in the same period. Last year, the fatality rate for Latinos was 4.9 per 100,000 workers, a rate unmatched by any other group. They accounted for more than 16 percent of all deaths though they make up 13 percent of the workforce.

Confusingly, government figures show Latinos' injuries declining in recent years, though hardly as much as they did for others.
But James Platner, head of research for the Washington-area Center to Protect Workers' Rights, a construction union-backed organization, seriously doubts that.

The reality, he and others suggest, is that there is a vast undercount of the injuries because Latino illegal immigrants stray far from public facilities and do not report being hurt.

In the case of Mario, the injured dry cleaner, the State Workers Compensation Commission recently ordered the employer to pay his $10,000 medical bill plus four months of disability pay. His lawyer has been trying to collect the money.

The owner of the dry-cleaning business could not be reached, while a daughter working there would say only that the accident was Mario's fault.

Meanwhile, Mario, who asked not to be further identified, is both scarred by the accident and devastated that he can't go back to the work he enjoyed.

"It changed my life," he said glumly in a relative's basement where he has been living. "I was happy before, cleaning, pressing clothes. Now I'm afraid of heat. Now, I can't do anything."

Hispanic Deaths On The Job Up By Two Percent.

2006-08-29T07:16:00.000-07:00

This is the second (and hopefully last) post I'll have to make on the morbid trend of Latino deaths increasing in the American workplace. While overall workplace fatalities are down 1% in 2005, Hispanic deaths increased 2%... to a new high. Safety Education/Training is the simple, affordable, life-saving solution.

I'm hoping someone from OSHA gives me a call about this. TV Trainer CAN help save lives!

Craig Evans for TV Trainer
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Economic Report: Hispanic Deaths On The Job Up By Two Percent.
Posted 08/17/2006
By Jesse Russell

While workplace fatalities overall dropped by one-percent in 2005 - that wasn’t the case for Hispanic workers. Numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released this week showed that fatal work injuries of Hispanics jumped by two percent in 2005 - setting a new high. Fatalities amongst farm workers were also up sharply, increasing by 23 percent in 2005 over 2004.

Economic Report

"Nationally, one Hispanic person dies on the job every day."

2006-08-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

This is just down-right stupid. AND avoidable! As this article confirms, Latino workers in construction, transportation and manufacturing industries are dying at rates significantly higher than other demographic groups. These deaths are preventable! All agree, Safety Education/Training is the solution.

This is a big part of why we got into this business... TV Trainer can help save lives, today!!

If you're a business in one of these industries, call us. 952.221.1800

Craig Evans for TV Trainer.
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Training counters rise in work-site deaths
By Jake Rollow / El Paso Times
8/25/2006

Gabriel Perez of Beltran Electric worked Aug. 15 at the new Eastwood Middle School construction site. Ysleta school district officials say work crews have weekly safety meetings to help prevent accidents. El Paso had eight work-related deaths in 2005. (Victor Calzada / El Paso Times).

While local and state officials listed various reasons for the more than 12 percent rise in occupational deaths statewide last year, many agreed that safety education is key to reversing the trend.

In 2005, 495 people died while on the job in Texas, an increase of 12.5 percent over 2004, when 440 on-the-job deaths were recorded by the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. The statistics are released annually by the Texas Department of Insurance's Division of Workers Compensation.
In 2005, eight occupational deaths were reported in El Paso County, according to the division's spokesman, John Greeley.

In 2004 there were fewer than six such deaths in El Paso County. In 2003 there were seven.
Greeley said he could not reveal the exact 2004 number because the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics does not allow the count to be released when there are relatively few occupational deaths. The bureau does this because it promises the employers of workers who die that it will not reveal information by which anyone could identify where a death occurred, Greeley said.
For the same reason, Greeley said, he could not report the types of occupational deaths in El Paso last year.

Statewide in 2005, deaths were reported in construction (134), transportation (122) and manufacturing (31), the perennial "top three" industries for occupational deaths, according to Mike Montgomery, team leader for the occupational fatality census.

Sixty-nine people were killed in natural resource and mining work in Texas, boosted by an explosion at a British Petroleum oil refinery that claimed the lives of 15 employees in Texas City in March.
Montgomery said he didn't know what caused the spike in Texas' workplace deaths last year, as he's still analyzing the numbers. Other local and state officials said that likely factors were the oil refinery explosion, increased trucks and traffic on Texas roads, increased construction projects statewide and a lack of safety instruction.

Forty percent, or 200, of the people who died in Texas last year were Hispanic, the census found. The percentage is higher than the percentage of state residents who are Hispanic, 34.6 percent, according to the U.S. Census 2004 population estimate. Elias Casillas, safety specialist with T&T Staff Management, said this trend is not surprising. Hispanics "are usually the ones working in construction and at high elevations," he said. Nationally, one Hispanic person dies on the job every day, he added.

"That's where the Hispanic initiative comes in," Casillas said, referring to a program T&T carries out in coordination with OSHA. Through the initiative, T&T provides safety training to local workers in their native language. The advertisement is more often Spanish than English in the El Paso area.

"Providing training in the native language of those workers really helps," Casillas said.
OSHA also collaborated with El Paso Associated General Contractors, JDW Insurance and the El Paso Del Norte branch of the American Society of Safety Engineers in a two-month billboard campaign during the fall of 2005. It included billboards in Spanish.

Casillas cited the business's recent drop in workers' compensation claims as a sign of success. T&T, which processed payroll and workers' compensation for 13,000 employees of its client companies in El Paso, recorded 1,046 claims in 2005. In 2004, 1,916 claims were filed with the company. That's T&T's incentive to provide the extensive safety training to its client companies' employees, Casillas said. "To keep the workers' compensation down; the less injuries, the less insurance the company (T&T) has to pay," he said.

T&T is not the only local company stressing safety education.

"Ysleta (Independent School District) has a very assertive safety plan," said Jim Booher, executive director of facilities and construction. He said his crews participate every week in a safety meeting, in which they cover such topics as work-site cleanliness, personal protection equipment, hazardous chemicals and drug abuse. And the attention to safety is paying off, Booher said. At Eastwood Middle School, which is being entirely rebuilt, the gap between safety "incidents" has been 62,000 man-hours. He did not know the average number of man-hours between such incidents in the region. At Eastwood Middle, no students are around the work site, but Ysleta bond spokesman Daniel Escobar said that's not always the case, and where students are around, safety becomes even more important. "There are some projects taking place while classes are in session," Escobar said.

Numbers of Texas workers killed on the job by year for the past decade:
2005: 495 people died while working.
2004: 440.
2003: 491.
2002: 417.
2001: 536.
2000: 572.
1999: 468.
1998: 523.
1997: 459.
1996: 514.

Jake Rollow may be reached at jrollow@elpasotimes.com

Recruiting Hispanics drives retention and supports ongoing growth at Cantina Laredo and El Chico.

2006-08-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

Confirmation is encouraging! More companies are reporting the fact that Hispanic workers make excellent employees! But there's more! In the Chain Leader Magazine article posted below, restaurants Cantina Laredo and El Chico report the following encouraging news:

1. In times of recruiting difficulties and employee turnover "...tapping the growing Hispanic labor pool helps (us) better recruit and retain talent. ...we find that one Hispanic hire leads to more hires, and these hires inevitably turn out to be very loyal, energetic employees.”

2. For Hispanic workers, the companies report the successful use of visual training materials that convey operational tasks and recipes in Spanish to help back-of-the-house employees overcome language barriers.

3. Management also encourages promotion from within the Hispanic ranks by financially rewarding employees who refer a candidate for a management position (they receive $500 when the individual finishes training and an additional $500 after six months of employment). The company paid out $23,000 in referral bonuses in 2005.

There are other pearls and insights in this article... all reasons to hire the Hispanic worker. At TV Trainer, we've also learned there are proven methods to successfully train, promote and retain them. Call or write us today to learn how we can help you "faster-train and longer-retain" your valued Hispanic employees.

Craig Evans for TV Trainer
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This article appeared in Chain Leader Magazine

Latin Influence

Recruiting Hispanics drives retention and supports ongoing growth at Cantina Laredo and El Chico.
By Donna Hood Crecca
May 1, 2006

L&S Restaurant Concepts Director of Operations Freddy Magana and President Len Lemmer are counting on their Hispanic hiring practices to help them staff Cantina Laredo franchised units planned for Florida.

Of Consolidated Restaurant Operations’ 4,200 El Chico and Cantina Laredo employees, 42 percent are of Hispanic descent; 27 percent of unit managers are Hispanic. Training materials that visually convey operational tasks and recipes translated into Spanish help back-of-the-house employees overcome language barriers. It stands to reason that an enthusiastic server with firsthand knowledge of the cuisine and a Spanish accent only adds to the authenticity of a Mexican restaurant. Such is the case at many Cantina Laredo and El Chico locations. But parent company Consolidated Restaurant Operations and its franchisees are also finding that tapping the growing Hispanic labor pool helps them better recruit and retain talent.

“We love to put a Hispanic female with a strong accent in front of our guest because it makes Cantina Laredo that much more authentic,” says Len Lemmer, president of Fort Myers, Fla.-based L&S Restaurant Concepts, a franchisee that operates two Cantina Laredo locations and one El Chico, CRO’s upscale and casual Mexican concepts, respectively. “The labor market is very tight right now, and we find that one Hispanic hire leads to more hires, and these hires inevitably turn out to be very loyal, energetic employees.”

About 60 percent of employees at the two L&S Cantina Laredo units are of Hispanic descent, as are six of the company’s 14 managers. Thirteen Hispanic nations are represented among the employees at the Plantation, Fla., location, where the majority of workers are of Mexican descent.

Retention is higher among Hispanic employees at L&S than among Anglo workers, according to Director of Operations Freddy Magana, although actual data are not available. “Because we are welcoming and many of our employees speak Spanish—including managers—this is a comfortable place for Hispanics to work,” Magana says. “Also, El Chico and Cantina Laredo are Mexican concepts, so there is comfort with the food and preparation.”

Community Connections

Magana uses a grassroots approach to recruit in the Hispanic communities where L&S operates. When opening a location, he reaches out to Hispanic business organizations, churches and community groups, informing their leaders that L&S is seeking employees. Ads on Hispanic radio stations and in Hispanic newspapers get the word out. And L&S participates in community fairs and job events.

“We find that in the restaurants or at these events, when a Hispanic manager is interviewing a Hispanic candidate, it gives us a lot of credibility as an employer who treats its people well and values everyone,” Lemmer says.
Once hired, employees find training materials that visually convey operational tasks and recipes translated into Spanish to help back-of-the-house employees overcome language barriers. L&S also offers financial support for English as a second language classes and is covering the tuition costs for a Spanish course that one of its Anglo kitchen managers is taking.

Its outreach and employment record has earned L&S kudos in the Hispanic community. The Fort Myers Hispanic Chamber of Commerce recognized Cantina Laredo as the 2004 Business of the Year. Lemmer and Magana are counting on their Hispanic hiring practices to help them staff additional Cantina Laredo locations planned for the Florida market. Because the company is still in negotiations with CRO and real-estate developers, L&S won’t disclose the number of Cantina Laredo and El Chico units it plans to open.

“We’re in a tight labor market, so it’s important we use the relationships we have to attract employees. We compete with agriculture jobs for the Hispanic employees, but when we show them the restaurants and they meet the workers, they see the opportunities here,” Magana says.

History Lessons

When Magana joined L&S three years ago, he brought with him a wealth of experience in recruiting and retaining Hispanic employees culled during his 23 years with El Chico, where he began his career as a dishwasher. The casual Mexican concept is now owned by Consolidated Restaurant Operations, the Dallas-based company with eight concepts and 141 restaurants in 12 states from Florida to Arizona. Currently, CRO operates 55 El Chico and 12 Cantina Laredo locations; 24 and three units, respectively, are franchised.

Hiring Hispanics is part of the El Chico history. The Cuellar family, originally from Mexico, founded the concept in Dallas in 1940. Investment partners John Harkey, John Cracken and Gene Street, who formed CRO, acquired El Chico and Cantina Laredo in 1998. Of CRO’s 4,200 employees at its El Chico and Cantina Laredo corporate units, 42 percent are of Hispanic descent; 27 percent of unit managers are Hispanic.

“We certainly don’t instruct our staff to hire a specific nationality, but the Hispanic community is core to this concept,” says CEO Harkey. “Thanks to the family’s legacy, we have a good reputation as an employer. Our Hispanic managers and many of our Anglo managers are fluent in Spanish, and we actively promote Hispanic team members into management, so our management bench is diverse.”

CRO’s Hispanic employees are its best recruiters, according to Vice President of Marketing Bill Watson. “They are like ambassadors for the company. They share their positive experiences with friends and family, and those people then become candidates,” he says. “When we opened new restaurants recently in Dallas and Granbury, we got Hispanic referral candidates from as far as 40 miles away.”

A cash referral bonus helps ensure all employees are talking up CRO to friends and family. Employees who refer a candidate for a management position receive $500 when the individual finishes training and an additional $500 after six months of employment. The company paid out $23,000 in referral bonuses in 2005.

Like L&S, CRO participates in job fairs and trains with visual and Spanish materials. And like L&S, CRO reports that retention is higher among its Hispanic workers. Turnover is declining throughout the company, according to Harkey. Hourly turnover for 2005 was 108 percent; management turn came in at 22 percent. Approximately 40 percent of internally sourced managers are Hispanic.

Diversity Drives Retention

Hiring diverse employees correlates to lower turnover, according to People Report, the Dallas-based human-resource benchmarking firm. Turnover trends 12 percent lower on average among top-performing People Report subscribers in casual- and fine-dining chains that report high levels of diversity. What’s more, the presence of male Hispanic managers positively affects retention in quick-service and family-dining chains.

“Our data indicates that as the percentage of Hispanic male hires increases, the hourly-employee turnover decreases considerably,” says Victor Fernandez, research analyst for People Report. “Companies in those segments with more than 10 percent of hires being Hispanic males showed hourly-employee turnover 29 points lower than the average.” Data on the impact of female Hispanic managers are unavailable.

The tradition of grassroots recruiting will also help El Chico and Cantina Laredo as they grow. Director of Franchising Adam Mandel is actively reaching out to potential franchisees in the Hispanic business community. Five franchised El Chicos are planned for 2006, including units in new markets like Georgia and Kansas, along with five corporate Cantina Laredos and several franchised locations.

“[CRO’s] Mexican concepts are well-positioned in terms of what’s going on demographically in Texas and nationwide with the growth of the Hispanic population and popularity of Hispanic culture and cuisine in general,” Harkey says. “Our approach to hiring should enable us to staff adequately as we grow.”

Healthcare Industry Metrics of Training Success.

2006-08-16T15:22:00.000-07:00

Just yesterday, research compliled for CHART (the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers) pointed out the increasingly competitive environment for hiring the hourly worker (see blog entry just before this one). Today I ran across this article defining Heathcare and Medical Learning Industry metrics for training success. Not surprisingly, given a change of a few percentage point for some categories, the Hospitality, Construction and Fast/Casual Dining Industries might report the same criteria... especially "Customer Satisfaction".

Complete article with stats below.

Craig Evans for TV Trainer
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8/16/06
TrainingOutsourcing.com

Healthcare & Medical Learning Community is dedicated to conducting and reporting original research focused on learning strategies, business practices, market data, industry trends, and other studies important to our members. The findings of Healthcare & Medical Learning Community's original benchmarking research are reported for review and analysis by our members.

"What is the most important metric that your learning organization could contribute to positively impact business performance?"

Reduce time to productivity 13.33%
Increase top line revenue 15.56%
Decrease expenses 13.33%
Increase customer satisfaction 20%
Increase profit 13.33%
Increase customer retention 11.11%
Decrease error rates 13.33%
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CHART Speakers Highlight Critical Need for Training.

2006-08-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

This article, published in Nation's Restaurant News points out MANY interesting facts!

1. Better-trained, longer-retained employees bring in more business. That should sound familiar in more ways than one!

2. Businesses employing hourly workers are hiring! In the past 9 years, hotel employment is up 5%. That's huge considering what happened to travel as a result of 911. In the same time period, Restaurant hiring is up 20%. And the Health Care Industry, expected to soon outpace Restaurants and become the second largest US employer of hourly workers is up 25%.

3. Competition for the best hourly workers is going to increase. As one of the speakers quoted below says; "Your competition is not just the restaurant or hotel across the street," she said. "We're all looking for the same workers."

4. Companies that retain their employees offer more training and management development.

If you're looking to be competitive in any marketplace that uses hourly workers, you've got to have solid training. Based on well-documented predictions, Latinos will soon own the majority of those jobs.

TV Trainer is in business to help you "faster-trainer and longer-retain your valuable Latino employees."

Craig Evans for TV Trainer.
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HR & Service
CHART speakers highlight critical need for training.
By Dina BertaLAS VEGAS (Aug. 14).

Trainers are critical to hospitality businesses that want to stay competitive as the industry expands, operators and researchers told the 400-plus attendees at the 72nd semiannual conference of the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers.

The three-day event held recently at the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel here focused on strategies to improve training skills, develop management and win more support for such programs from supervisors. CHART is a nonprofit professional organization whose more than 600 members represent multiunit restaurant and hotel companies.

When employees who are well-trained feel good about coming to work, customer satisfaction scores go up, said Colin Reed, chairman and chief executive of Gaylord Entertainment Co. in Nashville, Tenn. (See: Caputo: Workers with good character take care of guests and each other HR Happenings (8/14/06) ).

"When that happens, you see a correlation with profitability," Reed told attendees. "You're profitable when customers come back. Retention of our people makes our customers happy. They come back, and we make more money."

Reed was one of four executives on a Presidents' Panel session during the conference. Joining him were Kathleen Wood, president and chief operating officer of 48-unit Raising Cane's Inc., based in Baton Rouge, La.; Walter Isenberg, president and chief executive of Sage Hospitality Resources LLC, a Denver-based company that operates 50 hotels under the brands Starwood, Marriott and Hilton; and Eric Anders, president and co-founder of Agoura Hills, Calif.-based Wood Ranch BBQ & Grill, a 10-unit chain in Southern California.

The panelists encouraged CHART members to be proud of the work they do and to not be afraid to ask for the funds to do it. "Never apologize for what you do," Wood said. "I've seen trainers go into executive groups and apologize for needing money. ... Be confident about what you do, because what you are doing is providing a valuable aspect to the organization."

Training is becoming more important as competition in the industry heats up, Teresa Siriani, president of Dallas-based People Report, said in another session. Job growth in hotels has grown by about 5 percent in the past nine years and, in restaurants, by 20 percent.

Health care, however, grew by 25 percent in that time period, she noted. As baby boomers age, health care is expected to outpace the hospitality industry in job growth and move past the restaurant industry as the second-largest employer in the country, after the government, Siriani said. "Your competition is not just the restaurant or hotel across the street," she said. "We're all looking for the same workers."

Companies that retain their employees offer more training and management development, Siriani said, citing People Report data. The firm tracks human resources practices for member companies.

Also during the conference, CHART recognized Gaylord's Reed with its Commitment to People Award. The honor is given to an executive who has demonstrated a commitment to training and developing employees.

E-mail the author at: dberta@nrn.com

Research Reports Explosive Growth in Fast/Casual Dining Segment.

2006-08-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

Wow! A day after the release of a People's Report noting a substantial increase in hiring, a Mintel study confirms the growth of this segment of the restaurant industry ($11 billion in sales!). There's also some suggestions in here as to where to go for healthier eating!

Here's the article posted in today's Chain Leader magazine.

Craig Evans for TV Trainer
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Copyright 2006 Business Wire, Inc.

Fast Casual Dining Segment Shows Explosive Growth; Mintel Reports Identifies Segment as One of the Restaurant Industry's Fastest Growing Sectors
CHICAGO Aug. 7, 2006

With a projected outlook of over $11 billion in sales from leading chains for the year, fast casual dining is serving up strong growth within the restaurant industry. A recent Mintel report estimates that total U.S. systemwide sales of leading fast casual chains doubled in the last five years, and the future continues to look bright for the category. The category has been able to successfully blend the quality of family casual with the convenience of fast food, appealing primarily to adults.

"An increased interest in healthy eating, ethnic cuisine, and premium ingredients largely explains the boom in market growth," said Bill Hulkower, analyst for Mintel. "And what we've seen so far is only the beginning. Relative to QSR and full-service, there are still very few fast casual restaurants. As long as they keep updating menus to fit current eating trends, there is substantial room for growth. This category is eating into lunch sales at full-service restaurants, and it's going to pull some sales from QSR. A lot of people just don't have enough lunch time for table service, but don't want to do the QSR drive-thru."

More than half of Mintel survey respondents stated that they think fast casual dining is healthier than fast food restaurants. Close to half also cited that they are willing to spend more to eat healthier. With the trend rapidly shifting from low-carb to a variety of health-based trends such as transfat-free dining, organic and local food, fast casual chains are even better poised for growth than they were two years ago.

Panera substantially leads the fast casual sector in sales. Rapidly growing chains in the category include Zaxby's, Wingstop, Qboda Mexican Grill, Pei Wei, and Panera. Among categories, the ethnic fast casual segment has experienced the fastest growth, relative to the bakery and home meal replacement segments.

"It's not just about health," said Hulkower. "If you're interested in eating healthy, you probably should avoid a 1300-calorie burrito with four grams of salt and 20+ grams of saturated fat. It's also about novelty-- the fresher the concept, the faster it's growing."

Fast casual's increased sales have not gone unnoticed by fast food competition. In response to the category's growth, there is a marked increase in the amount of premium items on quick service restaurant (QSR) menus.

"QSRs are upgrading ingredients and stretching menus to provide ethnic offerings," Hulkower said. "McDonald's added an Asian salad recently that has fast casual written all over it. With fast casual poised for tremendous growth over the next five years, we potentially have a battle brewing between QSRs and fast casual."

About Mintel: Mintel is a worldwide leader of competitive media, product and consumer intelligence. For more than 35 years, Mintel has provided key insight into leading global trends. With offices in Chicago, London, Belfast and Sydney, Mintel's innovative product line provides unique data that has a direct impact on client success. CONTACT: Mintel International Chanda Rowan, 312-628-7946

Restaurant Hiring up. Turnover increases, Recruitment remains an issue.

2006-08-07T12:53:00.000-07:00

The following is an article from today's Nation's Restaurant News (NRN).

Recently published research by People's Report points to the excellent health of the growing restaurant industry. Hiring is up. But finding and then keeping hourly employees continues to be a challenge. TV Trainer cheerfully accepts the opportunity to reverse this industry trend! TV Trainer is in business to help you "faster-train" and "longer-retain" your prized Latino employees! Give our New Hire Kit a try.

Here's the complete NRN article:
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HR & Service
People Report data show job growth, but increased turnover in restaurants
By Dina BertaDALLAS (Aug. 7)

Job growth is on the rise in the restaurant industry, but filling those jobs is not easy, according to the most recent People Report Workforce Index, a quarterly gauge of restaurant-related employment data.

According to the index, which reflects employment trends at 90 restaurant companies, 62 percent of respondents said they expected to increase staffing levels during the third quarter of 2006. At the same time, the survey found that more companies were reporting a growing number of job vacancies, more difficulty recruiting new hires and increased turnover for both managers and hourly workers.

The upward trend in turnover rates, which also rose during the second quarter, according to the index, is particularly worrisome given that the nation's unemployment rate dropped in the second quarter to 4.6 percent, its lowest level since June 2001, said officials of People Report, a Dallas-based research and consulting firm that tracks human resources data for member restaurant companies.

According to the index, 40 percent of respondents reported having more trouble in the second quarter recruiting hourly employees compared with the first quarter of 2006, while 54 percent of companies said they were finding it harder to recruit managers.

The index tracks metrics in five areas: employment levels, recruiting difficulty, job vacancies, employment expectations and turnover. "We created this index to establish a foundation to assess and project where the industry is with regards to human capital," said Joni Doolin, founder and chief executive of People Report.

Index numbers for each of the areas researched range in value from zero to 100, with values greater than 50 indicating increases and values less than 50 signifying decreases. The strength or weakness of a value is measured by its distance from 50.

In the most recent index, employment levels had an estimated value of 75.4; recruiting difficulty, 70.8; vacancies, 66.5; employment expectations, 79.5; and turnover, 60.1.

The overall index value, the weighted average of each of the five components, was 73.4, indicating strong job growth in restaurant industry employment.

E-mail the author at: dberta@nrn.com

"Must-See (Training) TV" - 7/3/06 Business Intelligence article in Training Magazine.

2006-08-03T13:03:00.000-07:00

We're always grateful for the positive coverage TV Trainer has received from the press. Here's another entry from Training Magazine.

Must-See (Training) TVE-learning from home, or the office during a worker's spare time, is undoubtedly efficient, unless, of course, the employees in question lack the requisite computer skills. With the fast food/casual dining sector so heavily populated by recent immigrants, a good portion of whom are Hispanic, Minneapolis-based TV Trainer (http://tvtrainer.tv/), a company specializing in providing culturally targeted training via video and DVD, has come up with a New Hire Kit to speed up the transition to American work life.The product, in the form of three DVDs and VHS cassettes, allows learning to occur from employees' TV sets, with no Internet connection or computer necessary. A handset with a remote control through which learners can interact with the programs is also included. Each New Hire Kit costs $399, "but we're assuming in quantity, they'll [the kits] get down to around $250 each," says Craig Evans, chief marketing officer and co-founder of TV Trainer. Besides its simplicity of use, the fact that the programs are viewed from the Latino living room may help with your company's future recruitment efforts, he explains. It is likely, Evans notes, that more than just the employee new to your payroll will be trained. Centering training in the heart of the household allows those surrounding him or her to get a positive introduction to U.S. work life. "We're not only training them. We're training their family, their relatives and neighbors who come over," Evans stresses.There is a primer on safety and hygiene, focusing on sanitary do's and don'ts in the kitchen, for instance. "It's very important to set a precedent upfront that there's a difference between cleaning and sanitizing," Evans points out, "and what constitutes contamination, how long you should wash your hands and what you should do if you cut yourself."Developed over the last year, the programs highlight the expectations workers will be faced with in their new job. In addition to a tutorial on work schedules and pay periods, the message is imparted that employees will be expected to keep themselves busy even after their assigned task has been completed. Workers learn it's OK to take the initiative, Evans says, and that's how they'll get ahead in their new country.

Margery Weinstein

Fast/Casual Dining Training Pros Discuss Latino Issues.

2006-08-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

“Training Professionals in Fast/Casual Dining Industry Discuss Practices and Trends in Hiring, Training, Promoting and Retaining Hourly Latino Employees.”

In June of 2006, TV Trainer commissioned Dan Wiese Marketing Research of Cedar Rapids, IA to conduct 26, random, telephone interviews with Employee Training, HR and Learning & Development executives at large, leading, US Restaurant Chains to determine the biggest issues encountered in hiring, training and retaining Latino employees. Concurrently, twenty-six additional surveys were conducted with managers and owners of small, independent restaurants to assess their experiences and practices.

Thought I’d offer a preview of the findings to those interested. If you’d like the full report, follow this link.

Executive Summary of Findings:

Latinos are excellent employees, valued by restaurants of all sizes. They represent a significant portion of hourly workers in the Fast/Casual Dining Industry (38%) and the increase in their hire will continue.

Although the basics of learning their job tasks can be accommodated by traditional methods (On the job/Hands-on/Shadowing), promoting and retaining Latino employees requires some changes and additions to their training. Communicating in Spanish (verbally as well as in written materials) results in higher success in job performance and retention. Being attentive to differences between Latino and American culture also provides payback.

Latino managers of hourly Latino workers are in short supply and highly prized. Although many companies feel their current training methods should facilitate the promotion of hourly Latino workers to managers, successful results are slow in coming. Reasons for this delay include trainers not knowing exactly how to accomplish advancement training (advancement content and programs are only now being designed) as well as culture issues of employee motivation.

The good news is, many companies recognize and value the Latino worker and have made significant, highly-effective changes in their training methods. And materials to assist a Latino’s advancement to management/more complex jobs are now under development. In the meantime while industry-wide, high employee turnover remains a disturbing trend in the restaurant business, companies that have accommodated and embraced the Latino worker have discovered a loyal, hardworking employee and friend.

And there’s even more good news regarding the future of Latino hourly employees and the companies that invest in them:

Today’s valuable Latino employee (and their families) will prove to be tomorrow’s loyal , prized customers. Based on well documented Latino culture brand loyalty patterns, those companies now benefiting from the Latino’s strong work ethic will experience additional gains in the future as these workers achieve their American dream… and return to support those that supported them.

Complete report here.

Confucius had it right. Interactivity is key to learning.

2006-08-03T08:11:00.001-07:00

Centuries ago, in a far-away place, a very wise man by the name of Confucius already had a handle on interactive learning. His proverbial words were: “Tell me, and I forget. Show me, and I remember, but involve me, and I understand.” Ironically, twenty-five hundred years later, our digitally-connected, e-learning world is now employing technology to implement his age-old wisdom. E-learning is all the rage. And rightly so! Through the use of interactivity, research shows people learn more, faster and retain it longer. That’s great for those capable of using a computer. Or even knowing how to read… in their native language or a second. But what about those that, through circumstances beyond their control, don’t have access? Or never learned how to use? Or, just plain can’t read… in any language? In Confucius day, technology was little more than an abacas. And not everybody had or needed to use one in order to do their jobs. Ironically today, there is a growing population of digitally-DISconnected workers… those that are not able to experience the benefits of e-learning. Yet they can still do jobs well. Statistics show the highly-prized Latino worker is excellent at performing their skills, although many lack the ability to read, in English or Spanish, or use a computer. Technology is only a part of the real problem. Our TV Trainer research shows these employees have other barriers to overcome… the biggest being language.

So how do you train a potential workforce of 3-22,000,000 to speak English? If the average American walks around knowing 10,000-40,000 words, that’s a formidable task! Hiring trainers, interpreters, holding classes, even buying ESL technology is expensive. And returns on that investment are far from immediate. In today’s workplace of shrinking margins, competitive pressures and employee shortages (recruiting and turnover being two of the biggest problems), being able to afford to train workers in anything beyond their jobs becomes problematic. The good news is there IS a way to interactively teach job skills AND English. And to start getting payback on day one. Sound impossible? Meet TV Trainer. TV Trainer offers a way to:

Teach digitally-disconnected workers their job skills quickly and effectively:
TV Trainer uses any television and a video or DVD player - at home or at work. We teach skills and understanding using real-life, real-world job scenarios that help viewers interactively learn what they’re to do and why.

Teach the English actions, words and items necessary for the immediate performance of a job/task:
If you’re going to teach English, do it efficiently. Teach the vocabulary necessary to do something NOW. Each job scenario includes the relevant actions, words and items necessary to perform that task.

Teach these workers more advanced job skills in the same “Vocational English” technique:
When your workers are ready, use TV Trainer’s interactive, Scenario-based Learning with Immediate Assessment to teach them the understanding, skills and Vocational English necessary to advance. In exchange for facilitating your employee’s advancement to a more sophisticated position, paying him/her more money, allowing him/her to achieve more job satisfaction, you receive a prized, loyal employee that stays longer and contributes more to your business.

And use these excellent workers to bring more excellent worker candidates to your company:
It’s widely known Latinos do not use conventional means to find jobs. Most can’t use or have no access to computers, or even read (in any language). So they rely heavily on family and friends for job leads and referrals. The best way to bring in a new employee is on the arm of a current, satisfied one. TV Trainer helps get all your workers off to a fast, proper start. It also shows your workers how easy it can be to advance. More reason to stay with your business.

That Confucius was a real smart guy. His interactive learning principles are as valid now as they were back then. But today’s digital-divide leaves 3-22,000,000 excellent workers out there, UNable to benefit from computerized e-learning. That’s why we designed TV Trainer; an interactive learning system that works with an ever-present technology – television - at home or at work - to faster-train and longer-retain the digitally-disconnected worker.

Got a training challenge you want to overcome? Is there a position where you need a spectacular training tool? Then give TV Trainer a look. In fact, send us your dilemma and let us see if we have a solution. Follow this link and complete the TV Trainer Program Development Worksheet. It’s interactive! But as with all interactivity, you need to engage to get the best results. Best case scenario, we’ll have a solution for you that exceeds your expectations. And we’ll deliver within your means and time frame. Worst case, the exercise of completing this Worksheet will help you truly identify your problems and how to solve them. It’s worth the effort!

Thanks for your interest!

Craig Evans

PS - If you'd like to learn more about the advantages of hiring the valuable Latino worker, read the TV Trainer White Paper.

Welcome to TV Trainer's News Blog!

2006-08-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks!

Though this medium, the staff at TV Trainer will be bringing you news, articles, opinions, research and White Papers about our favorite subject, "how to best train hourly Latino Workers."

Our web site is currently being upgraded (new data, links to the final report on our just-completed survey of 52 training professionals in the Fast/Casual Dining Industry, e-commerce enabled, etc.) but don't let that stop you from looking around. I believe, if you take the time to browse through our existing content, you'll be impressed learning more about our valued clients (the Latino workers). From there, my hope is that you will share in the excitement surrounding our product, TV Trainer... and it's potential to change the way Latinos in the Fast/Casual Dining, Golf Maintenance, Hospitality and Construction Industries learn how to do their jobs. But we don't intend to stop there. Anywhere Latinos work, TV Trainer can train... and we can deliver on our byline: "Faster-train, longer-retain." But that's enough for now. Stop back sometime in the next few days. I'll be adding more threads on the following:

* How to teach ESL one job at a time (we call it Vocational ESL or VESL).
* How to cut down significantly on training costs for your Latino employees (your CFOs should like this article). And...

* "Practices and Trends in Hiring, Training, Promoting and Retaining Hourly Latino Employees" - Findings from our benchmark study of the Fast/Casual Dining Industry. If you're a training professional or a store manager, you will like this one!

Thank you for stopping by and looking in to TV Trainer! Please come again!

Craig Evans
Director of Marketing for TV Trainer