Tasty Catering – A Leader in Employee Engagement

I had the pleasure of lunching with employees at Tasty Catering several weeks ago and “tasty” is a mild word to describe the energy I felt entering, during and leaving the building.

It is no surprise Tasty Catering serving all of Chicago-land, was a recipient of 2012 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For™ within the Human Resources Competition.  The reward is driven by nominations of those companies that reflect a commitment to excellence through HR practices and processes. Nominated employees receive an assessment around communication efforts, work-life balance, employee education, diversity, recognition rewards, retention and much more.

Susan Rocque of Mechanical Contractors Association also visited the same day; and, in her words: “…WOW! Makes you want to better than what you are doing!”  She said it best.  When you walk in the doors of Tasty Catering you feel the sensation of that statement.

The ownership inspires employees to support and drive a culture that encourages personal effort, the desire to go above and beyond, and it is complimented by business transparency.  Therein is the rub: employee(s) own success, employee talent leveraged, and employee community.

Employee(s) Own Success

Tasty Catering employees take ownership of “business knowledge”.  Every AM huddle is reviewing the service to the customer and what expectations and actions are required to ensure not just a successful outcome but as measured by 100% customer satisfaction.  Every week is spent reviewing the status of business plans including successes and the shortfalls with inclusion from all employees as to ensure all have a clear line of sight to ensure achievement.

Tasty Catering employees take ownership of their daily responsibilities by working under a “circle of individual discipline” – one of 7 core values within the company culture.  Every meeting that has more than 3 attendees requires that the company core values, Vivid Description, & Core Purpose be read out loud prior to the start of the meeting.  This ensures that everyone performs their duties under a unified vision of providing superior quality & service to every customers.  Every Wednesday there is also a company wide 30 minute “huddle” to go over the current financial status of the company.

Employee Talent Leveraged

Tasty Catering has “figured out” how to utilize employee intelligence to bring employees ideas together and leverage “new” offerings and “new” lines of business truly engaging employees just not in the work itself but within each individual’s passion for success.  The line of sight is the desire to be better than what is already being done creating a sustainable organization through employees’ natural talent that resonates 24/7.  Here is evidence of how those employees are more than just engaged as they are truly “entangled in the business”:

• TF Processors- Wholesale Baking Contractor – started by CFO of Tasty Catering
• That’s Caring – Eco-friendly e-commerce gift basket business – started by Tasty Catering Director of Communications
• NuphorIQ – Creative Marketing Agency – Started by Tasty Catering’s Director of Marketing.

Employee Community

Tasty Catering has created its own transparent community.  The employees are embedded in their professional community where they have created a web of connections and relationships with a realization that leaving could critically sever the relationships and their personal commitment to the organization.  The culture has evolved through the open communication such as a 30-minute, daily “shut down the business” allowing employees to dine together and enjoy the “tasty” food inspired and prepared by their own in-house chefs.  It is during these shared moments, ideas and concerns are filtered and move into action.

Tomas J. Walter, Tasty Catering CEO, shares the strategy in his upcoming book It’s My Company Too  (formal release October 23, 2012).  In this book, co-authored with Kenneth R. Thompson, Ph.D.; Ramon Benedetto, DM; and Molly Meyer,  he dives into how organizations today require not just engaged employees but need entangled employees:  “…. company dedication and commitment at the deepest level”.

I am looking forward to watching the continued evolution of Tasty Catering and the success of its employees and believe the few hours spent impacted my professional perspective.

By: Debi Lusk, SPHR, GPHR

You can get in contact with Debi via email at dlusk@hrboost.com or call her directly at 847.736.5085 Ext. 104. You can get your very own BOOST!

More about Debi:

Debi offers her diversified industry experience as a senior HR leader to transform HR from traditionally transaction focus to strategically engaged function aligning HR programs and processes to business plans leading to organization transformation.  Her SPHR/GPHR professional certifications and her Six Sigma Green Belt Training compliment her hands-on capability to meet the day-to-day business demands any HR department faces.  The eclectic work experience demonstrates her strategic, analytical capabilities allowing Debi to step into a work environment assessing business conditions and trends and offer practical solutions.  Throughout Debi’s professional career she has served as a change agent to organization’s ensuring HR strategy added value to business operations propelling the organizations to the next level.  She has collaborated and worked closely with senior levels to analyze existing organization structure while contributing to the development of organization structures that drive performance.  Her professional expertise includes working with union and non-union organizations committed to ISO initiatives as well as Six Sigma.  In addition her comprehensive knowledge of talent management systems ensure the most effective HR activities are implemented to align HR with business plans, enhance organization capability and build a highly engaged workforce.  Your company will experience added value by engaging Debi to shift your HR function from a pure transaction focus to transformational capabilities as its focal point.•