“The status of where Opus is, with a strong enough foundation, was enough for us to recognize that this is a product that is going to be pretty revolutionary and game-changing. - Steve
PLANTA was born in Toronto and created to provide delicious plant based food and beverage offerings that promote environmental sustainability. Our dedication to environmental sustainability is interwoven throughout every part of our business. Their dedication to environmental sustainability is interwoven throughout every part of their business, including training. We spoke with Steve Salm, CEO and President, Paul Weinstein, Senior Director of Restaurants, Danielle Smali, Director of Restaurants and Yuting Shen, Director Of Learning and Development to hear about their game-changing transition to digital training.
How paper training got in the way of PLANTA's values
At PLANTA, the training system was similar to many other restaurant groups. Information was put into PDFs, spreadsheets and training booklets. The material will be printed and delivered across teams and laminated. Once composed, training and testing was done on the spot. Training was manual and physical. The issue was updating training material. With 10 locations, some things were bond to be altered to fit each team.
“The biggest issue we had with it was that each one of our locations ended up doing things differently. We lacked consistency.” - Danielle Smali
Some stores would adopt a system and another store would use the template and build on it. Administrators were not able to control it in the way they’d like to. Steve and his team needed a better way to organize courses and create consistent changes nationwide.
But going digital wasn’t always the plan. Prior to Opus, PLANTA tested out other ways to systemize their training via paper. After several trials, they realized they needed a platform dedicated for today's workforce. Planta wanted a tool that would align with their philosophy of simplicity. Steve recognized retention was the “number one tell-all for success”. Steve continues to say, “the difference between a great restaurant, good restaurant and a mediocre restaurant was all in the hands of the leadership.”
The flexibility to divide and conquer
“With Opus we're able to create a course and then send it off to everyone in the company. Now everyone is very much aligned with our goals.” - Danielle Smali
A feature that stood out to Paul was the seamless revision process. Multiple admin can work on different courses, edit them to their fit and add their special touches with multimedia. GIFs, videos and other visual components are important for employee engagement. “Restaurants are spontaneous”, says Paul, “we need to be able to work on specific things, create course material just for that team at a whim. With Opus we can do it swiftly.” Planta uses Opus for a multitude of things. From pre-shift or checkout procedures to formalized manuals/SOPs and how-tos for daily use. Opus made training more streamlined and engaging.
How Opus helped with multi-unit engagement
"I'm loving Opus. I think it's incredible." - Paul Weinstein
It now takes under 30 minutes to make a course in Opus. At Planta, their top goals are consistency and efficiency. The ability to send message blasts, held people accountable via tracking and get real-time updates in reporting all align with their dedication to improving the day-to-day for their frontline. Within months, PLANTA adopted 100% of their employees and fully trained them.
Because training is now more ongoing, integrated and synchronized, engagement has increased. A bulk of PLANTAs training is onboarding and within the first five training shifts. After that, it is in the hands of the management teams to continue. Opus has made it easier for Paul and Danielle to track multiple restaurants, and make sure that that training is continued. "Engagement is better because now we can easily follow up and identify who's been assigned course to have they taken the course. Opus is extremely helpful for those who have multi-unit responsibilities."
