PROMOTING BETTER JOBS AND STRONGER BUSINESSES.
Hot Bread Kitchen works to improve job quality in food by working directly with owners, operators, and workers in the industry to address operational challenges that get in the way of offering good food jobs. Through smart operational choices, effective investments in people, and solid HR practices, businesses can offer better jobs that help them run better, too—because good jobs are good business.
Quality Jobs Initiative (QJI)
Since our Kitchen Conference, we have been working to ensure long-term, equity-centered systems change in the food industry. In 2022, we launched our Quality Jobs Initiative with a pilot cohort of 11 bakeries based in New York City, which collectively employ approximately 800 food workers. The Hot Bread Kitchen team convened the bakeries, visited each one and met with its workers to better understand their definitions of what makes a quality job.
Each bakery identified two operational changes they intend to implement that will lead to improved job quality and business practices. Examples included: clarifying job responsibilities and expectations through job descriptions, standardizing performance reviews and offering clear feedback to all staff, instituting processes for employee input into product development, and creating cross-training programs to ensure slack (excess operational capacity.)
Spotlight: Colson Patisserie
Executive Chef Natalie Abrams wanted to develop a cross-training system that would simultaneously alleviate staffing challenges while providing growth opportunities for her team. As a result of changes implemented through QJI, base pay increased 6.7% for all staff.
“With all these changes we were able to attract and bring on an account that grew total revenue by 13%. I’m really happy we partnered with Hot Bread Kitchen. It’s been very much a game changer.”
—Chef Natalie Abrams, Executive Chef at Colson Patisserie and 2022 QJI member
Join the Quality Jobs Initiative for Food Business Leaders!
Hot Bread Kitchen is currently seeking food business owners and leaders for our Quality Jobs Initiative.
This program includes:
- Tools and strategies to ground your leaders in job quality principles
- A framework and individual support for operationalizing job quality goals
- The opportunity to connect with hospitality peers, experts, and thought leaders
- A resource toolkit (including templates for training manuals, scheduling, tracking PTO, and documenting incidents)
Expanding the Definition of Job Quality at Colson Patisserie
Since opening as a retail shop in Park Slope in 2006, Colson Patisserie has grown into a formidable Brooklyn wholesale operation...
Partner Spotlight: The Good Jobs Institute
The Good Jobs Institute is a non-profit whose mission is to help companies thrive by creating good jobs. The framework they use—the Good Jobs Strategy—is a system of operational choices and people investment that creates superior value for employees, customers, and owners. They have worked with leaders from Sam’s Club to small restaurant chains to use the Good Jobs Strategy to reduce turnover, improve operational execution, and improve customer value.
