Transforming Team Management with Rushi Patel (Ep 224)

 

Today’s episode features Rushi Patel, co-founder of Homebase, as he joins Jaime Oikle to share how the company transformed from a simple scheduling tool into a comprehensive platform for managing hourly workforces. From its humble beginnings, Homebase has expanded to offer communication tools, onboarding, and payroll services. Rushi recounts the journey of transforming Homebase to meet the needs of hourly business owners and their teams, and how the app has adapted to the changing landscape of business management. Tune in to learn how Homebase can revolutionize the way you manage your team and improve your business operations.

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Transforming Team Management with Rushi Patel

Coming up on this episode of the show, I get with Rushi Patel of Homebase. You're not going to want to miss this one as we get into the nitty-gritty of people management and how to more easily solve those scheduling communication and onboarding headaches. Good stuff. Stay tuned.

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Rushi, let's start with the story about Homebase, what you guys do, and how you got started. We will dig in from there.

Homebase has become the everything app that helps hourly business owners and employees run and manage their teams. It didn't quite start that way. We started many years ago. Our goal was to help local business owners move their teams online. There was friction in how they scheduled their teams. It was often on a piece of paper with a clipboard hanging on the wall saying, “Here's your schedule for the next week.”

It was punch clocks. Point of sales were just entering the countertops at more local businesses but even those weren’t offering solutions. We started by creating easier ways to schedule and manage time for team members. Since then, we've expanded it to a communications suite, onboarding suite, and payroll solutions. You name it. It's now becoming the everything app you need to manage your teams.

You folks have found a pain point and solved it with technology. Was that some of the derivation like, “Let's make this easier?”

That’s right because we all had smartphones back in 2012 and 2013. If you think about what the restaurant industry was going through at that time. Again, the countertops were starting to change. Square had just come out. There are other solutions starting to come out to help change instead of the Casio register. What we were finding were the solutions that were being offered the important or the ones associated with perhaps loyalty rewards programs or marketing programs on how to remark it to your customers.

Again, very important solution sets but we felt like a very important category of burning of business was not getting the attention needed and that was your teams. Everyone was pitching solutions other than how to run your teams and I don't know why it's complicated. There are solutions suites available, but most of those are accessible by much larger enterprise companies. We wanted to provide that solution suite and make it available to the small local restauranter.

That's what we started with. It was let's go do something pretty unsexy scheduling or time tracking, but critically important because your major asset as a restauranter aside from the building you're in is your team. If your team isn't showing up on time, doesn't know what's going to happen at that shift that day, and their time is tracked right. It's hard to run the rest of the business.

It's funny you said it. I think you used the term not sexy. I had written it down somewhere and I just found it again. I was like, “Headaches.” You solve those headaches that no one wants to deal with and no one wants to think about. It's not that fun. Let's redesign the menu. Let's redecorate the place. It's like no it's this nitty-gritty stuff scheduling the time track. If you don't get it right, it does hurt the business.

 

Handling Communication

I wanted to ask, you folks do a suite of things but one of the things that's changed a lot is communication. Tell me how you folks handle that.

That’s right, everyone was doing it by text. Pre-homebase as well and there are still a lot of companies that do it by text, but the reason you want to start to consolidate your platform and separate is that text is great for some personal stuff but it's very challenging when you're trying to create groups or when you have turnover. The restaurant industry is well known for the turnover that happens in the space. If you think through it, it's like I've got this group text going and all of a sudden, I've lost an employee.

Managing that is a very challenging process on an iPhone or an Android phone versus doing it, let's say on the Homebase communication platform. What we've built is within the app itself, a way that you can communicate one-on-one if that's what you want to do via a group of just the people that are working today or the next day, with just your manager.

You create the custom groups that are required so that you can quickly get out the messages to the right audience and not disturb people who aren't working. If people aren't working, they don't need to know that something's been 86-ed. They don't need to know that an important maintenance crew is going to arrive and that's something that needs to make sure that X, Y, and Z happen. That's a distraction. We created mechanisms to make it super easy to communicate only to those that need to know. The important part is tracking. Did they read the message? When did they read the message? In case a manager needs to follow up, they know who they need to follow up with.

 

Onboarding And Culture

Let's talk about onboarding because I know that's a piece of what you do. What do you think about onboarding because it's a crucial opportunity?

Crucial for a number of reasons. One is we've gone to paperless onboarding or we support paperless boarding for all of our customers. I'd encourage folks to do that because we all know there's very limited space available back of the kitchen to store all the paperwork required. The way it works through solutions like ours is when you hire an employee, you click a button that says, “I've hired this employee. Send them the onboarding pack.” The employee gets a message.

They can do it all through their mobile phone. Even if they haven’t installed the app yet. They can just do it through a very friendly mobile browser link. They can add all the information they need for the basic demographics. They can upload the required Federal documents or state documents required. They can view the employee handbook. They’re pretty important. Acknowledge receipt of it. They can all so add custom documents because a lot of restauranteurs will have specific policies. They want to have carved out of the employee handbook just so they can be confident the employees on it.

It could be a uniform policy or a call-out policy. Even though these are components within an employee handbook. I've seen a lot of restauranteurs separate it. They create separate documentation and ensure that they get a signature on all those things. What this does is it speeds up the process because you've got them uploading their verification documents and your I-9 forms that are required. In a lot of cases, these are the little things that can delay someone from starting but instead, you can get all this information from the jump.

What about the culture piece? I know you work with thousands of folks. Onboarding is a big culture piece. Are you bringing people in in the right way? Getting away from that old, “Come on in and watch three hours of videos in the backroom.” Any learnings you've seen about how to do onboarding and culture process in the early phases?

You're hitting an important point here because one of the things that makes local restaurants just so attractive for so many folks is they tend to be known for their family-like camaraderie. There is a closeness. There's a sense of community you get when you work at a smaller place of business or when you work at a local restaurant. That starts though not just from the onboarding. That starts at the interviewing process because as a business owner or a manager that's doing the interviewing, as much as the candidates sell you on why you should hire them. You're selling that to why this is the place you want to be.

We've seen successful restauranteur’s employee strategies where they are walking employees or prospective candidates through like, “Here's our Employee Awards Wall.” Showing little ways that we celebrate incredible feats done by our employees. Within our product, what we've done is we've embraced that. We allow employees to give what we call shoutouts to other employees or managers to give it to other employees.

That's something like at the end of a shift. If someone helped you out, there's a little button you press right on the app that acknowledges that someone went above and beyond like a little note. What that does is, it wants to create a sense of pride for the person just to receive acknowledgment from their co-workers.

It’s not necessarily from their manager, but just from their co-worker that someone recognizes that, “I helped out.” Also, managers can see who's getting a lot of shoutouts. Use that as a way to either incentivize or quite frankly, just acknowledge that someone is doing an exceptional job. That acknowledgment in that team huddle right before the start of the shift plays a big part. It can change someone's mood immediately and is critically important to do.

 

Acknowledgments in team huddles before shifts can greatly impact mood and are critically important.

 

We don't give and get enough recognition in life anymore, so doing that in a small way people appreciate anything. Say thanks often. It's one of those harmless things we can do and we all don't do it enough. If we only take away one thing, say thank you more often.

It builds trust as well. It's that little feeling that someone has seen what I've done, acknowledged it, and shown some appreciation. It builds trust the next time because sometimes, the feedback may not always be positive but it comes from a good place when you've got that trust built between the owner or manager and the employee.

 

Labor Cost Management

Let's talk dollars and cents and labor cost management. Hourly wages keep going up. You folks are on the front line of this and that trend isn't going to reverse. Wages are going to keep going up and so, managing that is a big piece. How are you folks looking at it?

Our last data set, we just ran for August in preparation for the August shops report. It shows at least some stability. I want to say it was ten base points of an increase, but on a relative scale, versus what we've been seeing in the last year or two. That is stability. Wage management is critically important. However, I want to implore folks to understand that wages aren't the only thing that the employee cares about. Yes, it matters but one of the things that we have a unique privilege of is we've got over two million hourly employees in our platform.

We often run quick surveys to understand. We call it Pulse checks, like what's happening? Has something changed materially from one quarter over another? Satisfaction isn't solely linked to the wage rate. We found that a lot of folks find satisfaction and fulfillment in the job. The fulfillment of the job is, are they feeling like they're being appropriately recognized for the work they're doing?

 

Satisfaction isn't solely linked to wage rate.

 

Feeling like there's growth in the work they're doing, the sense of camaraderie, and the relationships they're building, getting the flexibility they need when they need it and with respect to their work schedules because life happens. When you create an environment where you're paying a reasonable wage. A market wage rate does not necessarily go way above market but creates these other aspects that make the work fulfilling. You can retain your staff longer is what our data issue is.

I was scribbling notes furiously on a couple of things you said because it is important to go beyond the wages. If you're going to compete for people, one way always is to pay the most, but not necessarily sustainable, especially in the restaurant industry. What else can you do? How different can you be in creating those growth opportunities and the special feel? That's where the opportunity exists to be the employer of choice.

 

Brand Personality

You have your purple shirt on. That's the color of your logo. Tell me about the brand personality because you folks have focused on creating that. What do you got?

It’s many years ago now purple. Purple is now a bit more common, but when we first came out years ago, there weren't many things that were purple. Part of this was, honestly, a little bit like, how do you stand out in a crowded market and how do you just make it easier? It was as simple as we were telling some of our restauranteurs who were using a specific point of sale just like, “Look for the purple icon,” because we were the only thing that was purple at the time.

There are a lot of green icons and blue icons, so we started with purple. It has just become infused throughout the company and the product. Quite frankly, a lot of folks seem to like it so we're sticking with it. We did add a bit of an accent color to it just to have a little bit more of a pop and distinction. A little bit of a yellow has been Incorporated in as well.

Do you find yourself wearing purple on your off hours if there are any in your profession?

Life of a business owner, there is no off-hour. I proudly wear this same polo shirt on date nights. I will go out with this same polo shirt.

 

Small Business and Government

I will change gears and this will be a weird change. We'll go from purple fun stuff. We're not going to talk politics but one of the notes from your team talked about insights into what it will take to win the small business vote in the election. Let's not go too political, but it's an important topic. What does the government need to do to get small businesses' attention because it's a viable big segment?

I have no doubt if we run a quick clip count between now and election day. We will hear quite often small businesses are the backbone of the Americans. Some flavor of that will be set off in local races and federal races alike but it's not just something to say. It's an actual truth. The sheer impact of employment that small business owners have across industries, not just restaurants, is massive.

If you then take that and say, “What does it mean at a legislative level, rule-making level? What most folks are looking for is, how do you make my life simpler as opposed to more challenging? Not a perverse way. As a technology provider, when the government makes things more challenging, it's easy for us to scale a solution and you put it out to the world and say, “Look customer, you should adopt this.”

That's not what we want for our customers either. We don't want to create more headaches for them. No one has gotten into the business to deal with the arcane rules around some unique time-tracking requirement for a class of employees, versus another class of employees. Maybe some specific rule applies because you happen to use fried oils in your kitchen versus a stovetop in your kitchen.

No one gets in the business for that. People get into the business with a passion for what they have. This comes down to how government bodies, politicians, and those that they put in charge help make it easier for folks to get back to the core of what they're doing. Create a set of rules and regulations that protect the business owner and respect the employee.

It's hard to do because, at times, those can be tension of each other. We've seen it across states with tip credit rules for example. Folks may feel like we're doing a solid for a specific set of people by giving them more than just what the tip credit wage rate was before. There are knock-on effects that come of that and sometimes folks can be shortsighted by being able to promote the, “I'm taking focus up from the Federal mandated tip credit amount to a much higher rate.” Use that as a way to win some points with the media or get some attention.

When in reality, you're missing the fact that most of these folks can or multiples of the new way trade because tips are so critical to the way that not just how they earn. The tips are also so critical for the way that restaurants can help manage their own expenses. Some of this gets lost and hopefully, what folks will find is there is a compromise. There is a way to keep this industry afloat but do more. How do you ignite growth in this industry again? How do you create rules or eliminate some rules that can help the restauranteurs and their employees feel like, “This is off my shoulders now. I can be unleashed.”

 

Closing Thoughts

Not easy stuff to accomplish but valuable stuff to talk about. As we start to wrap up, any trends you're seeing? Any other highlights you want to bring that maybe we didn't get to?

The most important thing I'm seeing is what we're seeing now a bit more consistently through the lens of the restaurant employees. Employers have felt the challenges since inception of whenever they started their business but certainly, a blast for years. What a roller coaster of crap the employers went through. On the employee side, what we're starting to see is a solidifying of a view that this isn't all just about pay. I'll go back to that point earlier.

This is around creating a work experience. There are folks that certainly have pay as the number one thing and they are going to make a set of decisions that are going to be different. They may go work at a more, I say corporate or enterprise large-scale restaurant where there are specific rules on how you do a certain activity. You are not to deviate from how you do your roll-up or do a specific rendition of a meal or place the food on the table.

There are some certain places where that's what's expected. That is the brand standard and you will not deviate. For not deviating, you get paid a little bit more. That's great. There are other places and it seems that what the hourly employees we surveyed, we find is they want to be able to have their personality show. They understand there are guidelines and they've got a guideline of how they've got to handle a specific task, but they are allowed to do it in their own unique way.

As an employer, as a restauranter, you've got to decide which side of this balance scale are you on and then attract the appropriate employee accordingly. At the end of the day, if you can provide a workplace that provides fulfillment to the employee level. You are most likely going to have yourself a great employee. With great people, the product and the process are ultimately better.

 

If you can provide a workplace that fulfills employees, you’re more likely to have a great team. Great people ultimately improve products and processes.

 

I like it. Great people are such an important piece of it. Let's do your websites or social. Anything else you guys got going on out there? Where should folks go?

I appreciate you asking. If folks want to learn more about what we offer and start to modernize their own solution stack. You can go to JoinHomebase.com. That's the easiest place to get the information you need. One of the things I failed to mention is when we built this years ago, we wanted to make this accessible and it's still accessible. We know the money that a restaurant spends on anything is dollars that don't go back into the owner's pocket at some point.

Our product is a premium product. Many customers may be just fine on the free version of the solution set because they're trying to start their journey of modernizing. You can get free time tracking, schedules, and a suite of comprehensive solutions if you're a smaller restauranter directly from JoinHomebase.com.

I appreciate you mentioning that. I did see that on the site and I failed to mention it where you have the free product then it goes up from there. We didn't even hit on the payroll stuff that you folks do. It's an extensive suite of products that you have and you will come back and do some of that in the future. Rushi Patel of Homebase. You can find them on the web at JoinHomebase.com and for more great restaurant marketing, service people, and tech tips stay tuned to us here at the show. In the meantime, do us a big favor. Hit the like button, subscribe to us, and review us wherever you listen or watch. All that stuff is super helpful. We'll see you next time. Thanks, Rushi.

Thanks.

 

Bonus Questions...

What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Always know your numbers.

What is a favorite quote or saying that you love?

I've got on the back of my wall, “Every day I'm hustling.” It's a reference to Rick Ross's song. By the end of the day, it's a great reminder not just for myself, but also a reminder for my kids that this is all happening in life because we hustle. You've got to push through hard things and good things come when you do.

What is a book that you would recommend or something that you're reading?

Hands Down. It's not something I'm reading but it's a book I'd recommend. I have recommended it to many folks. Not even in the restaurant industry. Another is called Unreasonable Hospitality. That book is in the restaurant industry. It's from Will Guidara. If you're following the journey of them making 11 Madison Park, the world's number-one-rated restaurant.

There are just so many concepts in that book that apply outside of the restaurant industry around just your general practices and how you build that I thought were great for anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur. One of the most memorable parts I remember from that book is early on, he talks about, “People will forget what you said, but they'll never forget how you made them feel.” It's just so critical to remember that a lot of what happens in a day in someone's memory is that feeling. Not of what you said.

What do you see the restaurant industry in the next 2 to 3 years?

It's going to be stronger and the reason why is there's this incredible ecosystem that continues to be built for restaurant industries. Folks love their restaurants. What are some of the things we learned out of COVID? People love this sense of community, a gathering place, and breaking bread. Even though we have lost a number of restaurants in that process, you're seeing traffic volumes continue to pick up but the ecosystem.

I'm thinking about your food service distributors. They're innovating all the time to figure out how to provide more quality foods at lower price points. How do we get delivery frequencies to the restaurants at a rate that makes sense so that they have less scrap? You've got providers like Homebase. You've got other solutions suites that are all working towards how do we make the restaurant owners get superpowers they haven't had before. With AI, other solutions suites are coming into play. I'm hoping it becomes easier to be a restauranter and a restaurant employee.

What's one thing that not many folks know about you?

I am hyper-competitive. I will do irrationally dumb things, as a result of that, as an example. If I see someone next to me running on the treadmill faster than me, even though I'm not conditioned to do it. I will just start to amp up the number. Any game I'm playing, if there's a scoreboard involved. I want to be near the top of that thing.

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 Important Links:

• Homebase
• Unreasonable Hospitality
• https://Twitter.com/joinhomebase
• https://www.Facebook.com/HomebaseHQ/
• https://www.LinkedIn.com/company/homebase-app/