Like any foodservice operation focused on building employee loyalty and a strong corporate culture, Northbrook, Ill.-based Lou Malnati's Pizzerias strives to promote from within and provide managers with the tools they need to help develop talent in their stores. That's why, in 2006, the chain decided to go a step beyond offering such retention-boosting benefits as health insurance, employee values training and conflict resolution with a counselor and implement a new tool: language training.

“A large portion of our management is Hispanic—people who started as busboys or dishwashers” says Gabriela Streicher, director of human resources for Lou Malnati's. To help encourage more hourly employees' transition to a managerial role, Lou Malnati's partnered with a language-instruction service and offered English classes at its corporate offices.

The MFHA partnered in the creation of an English-language training program for foodservice workers.

Last spring, Lou Malnati's turned the tables and offered a series of Spanish classes at its Buffalo Grove location for managers. Although each of the chain's locations usually has at least one Spanish-speaking manager, a growing number of primarily English-speaking managers were expressing interest in improving communication with their Spanish-speaking employees, Streicher says.

“They didn't want to just dictate orders to them; they wanted to engage them and be thoughtful,” she says. “They wanted to be able to ask how their family was doing, [or] 'What did you do over the weekend?' 'Where are you going on vacation?'—that kind of stuff.”

The Spanish series, which followed the same format as the English series, was “totally customized to the restaurant industry,” Streicher adds. Participants have asked for a Spanish 2 course, which Lou Malnati's hopes to host in the fall.

Attrition in both programs was high—more than half of the participants who started the classes didn't complete them. Streicher cites scheduling issues as one reason for the high dropout rate. “A lot of our hourly employees have two jobs,” she says, adding that Lou Malnati's will take this fact into greater account and solicit more scheduling input from employees when planning its next series of classes. Her advice for other operators? “I would send out a survey and ask [employees] directly—ask for location, time of day, day of the week,” she says. “Do they want two hours once a week or one hour twice a week?”

Gerry Fernandez, founder and president of the Multicultural Foodservice and Hospitality Alliance (MFHA), notes that the changing demographics of the foodservice workforce—not just in terms of race and ethnicity but also age—necessitates a rethinking of inclusiveness efforts. With baby boomers in higher levels of management beginning to retire and less-populous generations moving up the foodservice ladder behind them, managers are retooling training programs, as by expanding language instruction, to promote worker retention.

“When you have a shrinking workforce, you have to treat your employees better,” Fernandez says. The previously prevalent attitude of “learn English or tough luck,” he says, has given way to a commitment by many operators to not just “get by” in their communication with workers whose first language is not English, but to have an open dialogue with them, literally.

“So many of us here in the U.S. speak only one language, and in the rest of the world they speak multiple languages,” says Fernandez. “If people can communicate on a higher level, I think everybody's better off.”

For its part, the MFHA was a partner in the development of a computerized English-language training program. The program operates via an interactive portable device, allowing users to study both during a break at work and at home.

Invaluable language-training assistance can be found within the community, too, says Annette Green, director of the Diversity & Inclusion team at Dallas-based Brinker International.

“There are so many programs out there,” says Green. Community colleges can be an ideal resource not only for the language classes they offer but also for the tutoring services that students and staff often are able to provide. One-on-one or small-group instruction can complement employees' English or Spanish studies, and introductory-level seminars conducted by individuals not working for a formal language-training service can serve as a jumping-off point for smaller operators looking to explore their training options.

For Brinker, partnering with ethnically diverse local groups and community organizations demonstrates a commitment to being an active member in and supporter of the towns in which its concepts operate—and that, to Green, promotes interest in the company as an employer as much as anything else does.