Amid the frenzy that enveloped the meetings industry early last year--as politicians and the mainstream media skewered organizations that accepted federal bailout funds yet continued to host meetings and entertainment at resorts and luxury hotels--Texas Roadhouse CEO G.J. Hart unwittingly became one of the lone voices to articulate the business value of meetings, events and incentives.
Recognized in January with an award by the Professional Convention Management Association for speaking out, Hart detailed compelling reasons for holding the annual meeting at a time when numerous companies abandoned luxury properties and resorts for fear of getting caught in the cross-hairs of a camera.
"If it's the right thing to do--and we've done it year after year--so what?” Hart said of holding the five-day incentive meeting during the peak of the backlash at San Francisco's Fairmont and Ritz-Carlton hotels.
"We invest in our biggest assets: our people and culture,” added Hart, who continues to be involved in planning the meeting, despite the company's growth. [PROFILE_1]
"It's unique, special and has a real place. In fact, the expectation is higher," he said of employee anticipation of the event. "We don't just have this for the front-line managers, but for the bartenders, meat cutters or others we bring in. Their expectation is, 'we want to celebrate and get rewarded as well.' I didn't think for one moment that we needed to change" or alter the meeting.
Texas Roadhouse's annual team-building/incentive exercise "is certainly successful," Hart said as he cited an improvement in overall employee retention. "Turnover has gone from 130 percent to 20 percent. More importantly, our meat costs--our yield—has gone up by 1.5 percent. If you're doing $1.5 billion, you can figure out the math."
Meat cutters and bartenders are among those eligible for the trip each year. "Meat cutters sit in a 36-degree room, hand cutting every piece of meat we serve to more than 5,000 guests a week. That's not an easy job," Hart said. "We made a commitment years ago to make that person feel special and recognize him/her. We built a way for them to start talking to one another across restaurants and share best practices. The best six meat cutters compete in a cutoff, and the winner leaves with the largest cash award the chain offers: $20,000. Our strategy is to take care of our people. Our operators are proud of that person."
A full-day also is spent volunteering in the community, building schools and/or houses or working for the military. Hart said the company began the team-building exercise several years ago after he hired a company in Hawaii to lead employees, but then noticed the degree of poverty around the hotel that could have been addressed.
None of the meetings are held in cities where the chain has restaurants, so the exercise isn't about garnering publicity, Hart said.
[PULL_1]At the request of Ritz-Carlton president Simon Cooper, Hart agreed to give television crews free rein over his 2009 festivities. "I would be less than truthful to say it wasn't a little stressful going into that week knowing we would let TV cameras come live into our site totally unsupervised to allow them to do what they do," Hart said at PCMA.
However, since being on cable news last year and featured in various trade publications, Hart said, he hasn't received one complaint about the decision from shareholders, analysts or employees.
"We are about being part of a community," he said. "We go into communities and give back to communities. That's how we drive our business."
This spring, Hart expects to bring the qualifiers to New York City for the new incentive.