Higher Education at Morton's
Morton’s training programs prepare employees for advancement and the company for expansion.
By Monica Rogers, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 4/15/2004
 Servers in Morton's training system must demonstrate competencies in nine modules, including wine service. |
Steve Baker throws a brightly colored plush toy fish at Brian, signaling it’s his turn to spill true confessions on training hardships. “Motivating them,” Brian admits, flipping the fish over to hostess trainer Liz, who bemoans, “Hostessing is such a multi-faceted job. It’s hard to teach them how to split their focus so many ways—and to keep communicating.” Jokes fly through the air along with the fish, but most of the discussion is serious. Just what Baker, director of training for 64-unit Morton’s, The Steakhouse had hoped.
“Starting a group training meeting having each person stand up and confess something difficult does several things,” says Baker. “It gets the tough stuff out of the way immediately, helping trainees to both relax with each other and get focused on the purpose of coming together.”
But what about the fish? “The fish is for fun,” Baker smiles. “Anything that breaks out of the straight lecture format will help them retain the material better.”
Training the Trainers
In the course of a three-hour session called “Re-Energize Your Training,” this room full of trainers in Dallas will receive a lot of practical information to help them train staff at their restaurants. They’ll learn communication and coaching skills, interactive training techniques and what to do when a trainee just isn’t catching on.
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Trainers in each category (waitstaff, kitchen, bar and hostess) will review and give feedback on Morton’s new, more-detailed training agendas. Quotes from Confucius, plenty of acronyms and problem-solving powwows, where employees work through theoretical training challenges, will enliven the session.
Three days later in a hotel conference room in Chicago, about 30 management employees toss an even bigger fish back and forth, introducing themselves and stating what they hope to get out of the weeklong Morton’s University they are attending. This group is auspicious, because with its graduation, all current managers (500 plus) will have been through the program. Tailored to give managers a better understanding of each other’s jobs and the processes and personnel at corporate, Morton’s University is the capper in a whole roster of company-training sessions.
Though hourly and management training topics differ, the sessions share commonalities. Presenters keep lectures short and pithy, underscoring key points with graphics and interactive games. All are features Morton’s hopes its managers and trainers will use as they work one on one with employees later.
Perfectly Remarkable
Training is a big deal at Morton’s. From a consumer standpoint, this is understandable. Dinner at Morton’s, with its $35 steaks and a la carte format, is pricey. Ensuring repeat visits means minimizing error and maximizing service, which all comes down to training. “The steaks have to be perfect. The service, remarkable,” says Baker.
And from Morton’s expansion perspective, there’s also little room for error. “We’re in growth mode again,” explains Nicole Raftery, manager of training. “We took a year off to focus when we went from a public company to being privately held.” Morton’s did not open any units in 2003, but the goal this year is to get back on track with the company’s former rate of five to seven new restaurants annually. “It’s essential that existing restaurants have strong procedures in place because the focus moves to restaurant openings,” Baker adds.
It’s in the Cards
Honing an hourly training system that could be used effectively coast to coast, Morton’s shaped a program that reduced skills to color-coded 3-inch-by-8-inch cards. One packet is a detailed blow-by-blow of each day’s training. Beginning with a daily objective, agendas list materials needed such as orientation videos, product displays and floor charts, as well as define manager, trainee and trainer responsibilities.
 Steve Baker, director of training, conducts "Re-Energize Your Training" sessions to help Morton's trainers train staff at their restaurants. |
The other packet—Distinguished Service Guarantee cards—detail skills needed for each position, breaking them into modules. A server, for example, needs to show competencies in nine modules including wine service, plate presentation and team service. Working through their training agenda, servers will be “certified” in all nine modules.
“Certification is an oral test,” explains Baker, “which we find is less stressful than written.” He adds that oral tests allow managers and trainers to “better gauge employee knowledge by asking follow-up questions.”
Trainers keep detailed logs that summarize a new hire’s progress. “Our goal is to tailor the training to the individual,” Baker explains. “If someone needs more time on something, the trainer can adjust the program to give it.” Baker stresses that the cards are organization and training tools but not a substitute for hands-on training.
Through the Ranks
To ensure trainers use the best methods, Baker travels the country with Raftery and National Service Manager Melanie McShane, conducting “Re-Energize Your Training” sessions. In the last eight months, the team visited all 64 restaurants. “We wanted to take these messages to a deeper level, and we felt that there was tremendous value in working one on one with the restaurants and trainers,” says Baker.
Thus far, employee acceptance of Morton’s card-based training system has been good. “Employees tell us they like the structure,” says John Bettin, Morton’s president. “They like the freedom to be themselves and exude their own personalities. But they like structure and predictability in training.”
The card system also encourages advancement. DSGs are displayed in every restaurant. If a pantry line cook wants to move up to the broiler station, he or she can begin studying the cards to learn that new position’s skills.
Once new employees have been certified, they must recertify every six months. “Repetition is key,” says Baker. “We don’t have a lot of [hourly] employee turnover—42 percent. So the challenge for us is to keep skills fresh.”
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After they’ve been on board for at least a year, hourly employees may sign on to become trainers. As such, they earn extra pay and open themselves up to the possibility of becoming managers. “Sixty percent of our managers were hired from hourly positions within the company,” says Raftery.
In the last year, Morton’s training department has shaped competencies for each manager position, setting standards for every task. For example, management training focuses heavily on people. All managers must meet the employee-development competency.
Several group-training sessions for both hourly employees and managers augment individual training. Each year all sales and marketing managers and general managers meet for conferences focusing on individual development. Regional managers may gather food and beverage controllers and staff for seminars on an as-needed basis, to learn new menu items, for example.
Morton’s U
Launched in 2001, Morton’s University symbolizes the importance the company places on training. “Launching the university was a very expensive proposition,” says Bettin. “And it came at a time when our company was faced with the challenge of having to make significant cost cuts. We determined that we absolutely could not cut our training because we knew if we dropped our quality or consistency one iota, we might never recover.”
That position is not the norm. “In the last several years of a down economy, many companies reduced training budgets,” says Tara Davey, executive director of the Council of Hotel & Restaurant Trainers. “But Morton’s continued to expand its training and development programs, clearly viewing training as a competitive edge for expanding its business.”
Held in Chicago, Morton’s University is a weeklong session that includes topics such as employee selection and product specification plus presentations from 18 of Morton’s senior staff.
Morton’s will continue with five or six universities a year. Building on the success of the program, Baker is developing Morton’s University II, a “graduate program for general managers and high-performing assistant managers,” he says.
And on the hourly front: “We’re working on enhanced certification methods and a new certification test which will come out this summer,” Baker adds.
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