How a Buffalo Wild Wings Franchisee is Streamlining Employee Communication

A delightfully simple digital solution has had a huge impact.

Lindsay Luke is the human resources manager and training coordinator for Womac Group, a franchisee that owns four Buffalo Wild Wings locations in Michigan. Recently, she found a binder at one of the company’s storefronts that contained pivotal information regarding best practices. One problem: the information was from 2019.

“Nothing in here is up to date,” Luke says, holding up the binder. “If we’re not looking at it on a day-to-day basis, things get missed. Additionally, the information loses relevance over time. It’s why we’ve been switching to digital platforms.”

Luke and her team recently added Shift, a digital solution that’s helping Womac Group communicate pivotal information to its employees in a seamless, real-time fashion. Here’s how it works: a Shift TV is installed in the back-of-house. All different types of messaging—from training materials, to new menu items, to sales goals—can be displayed on the screen. Luke and her team can quickly add content with the click of a button and have it display at all four of their stores.

“We use [Shift] for just about everything,” Luke says. “For example, when Boneless Bar Pizzas came out, our corporate team built these amazing videos showing how to build them. [Shift] allows us to maximize the visibility of training content that usually only lives in our LMS. We display training assets at specified times throughout the day which is really beneficial for teaching our kitchen staff how to make those items during their shift.

The new solution stands in sharp contrast to distributing training materials printed on paper, or notifying employees about changes to corporate policies, for example, on a notice tacked up to a bulletin board. Everybody with Womac Group—from Luke and her team at the main office, to store managers, to hourly team members—has benefited from the transition to Shift.

Storefront managers like Derek Kolasinski enjoy easily highlighting metrics—like store-versus-store, real-time suggestive selling initiatives and contests—as Shift is integrated with their Aloha POS system. Stores can also run training videos, like the ones Luke referenced, when team members need an introduction or refresher on how certain food or drink items are made. “[Shift] has changed our store by helping us create a stronger learning environment,” Kolasinski says.

Kolasinksi also loves the way Shift helps spotlight employees and highlight milestones like work anniversaries or birthdays. Employees play an active role in this process—they can scan a QR code with their phone and upload their bio, including any information coworkers might enjoy knowing about them.

“Seeing things like your birthday on TV is a cool experience for everyone,” says store manager Derek Kolasinski. “I think updates like that help get everyone engaged, and it helps build a strong team culture.”

Soon, Womac Group will open three more Buffalo Wild Wings locations. Luke says Shift will continue to be the franchisee group’s preferred communication channel of choice as they expand to different parts of the state.

“We are a company that is always looking for ways to grow, innovate, and evolve,” Luke says. “We learn and grow. Things that used to work may not currently work—our company is truly great at saying, ‘hey, let’s revisit this and evaluate and go from there.’ Things change so fast these days and we have to make sure the way we are communicating with our employees feels relevant to them.”

For more on Shift, visit the company’s website.