Jackie Fitch
Case Western Reserve University - Weatherhead School of Management
Chris Laszlo
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HCT’s spicy Southern style chicken certainly isn’t the norm so far north. But the company’s true innovation lies in the back office, not the kitchen. HCT provides job opportunities for people looking for a second chance at work for a variety of reasons, from incarceration to homelessness to rehab. DeLoss sees it as a way to address poverty at the source by empowering people to get back on their feet.
“There are so many symptoms and consequences of living in poverty and stressed communities that are outside the control of the people living it,” DeLoss says. “We have to think about building mechanisms that start giving back advantages and opportunity to these populations.”
These types of second-chancers make up nearly 70 percent of HCT’s workforce. And once they join the team, the company offers a suite of benefits and programs to help them reach their goals, including a matched savings program for things like housing, education and transportation; professional development; financial coaching; and even an emergency cash assistance program that allows staff to borrow money to get through a crisis at 0 percent interest.
The recipe that’s been packing HCT with hungry patrons since the restaurant opened in 2013 was inspired by a trip owner Joe DeLoss took with his wife Lisa took to Nashville, where they got hooked on the Southern spicy dish. But the seeds for HCT’s unique approach to human resources were sowed long before.
DeLoss had been active in the volunteer community for most of his life, instilled with a desire to show compassion and give back by his family. But after years of food drives and serving at soup kitchens, DeLoss started to feel a little disillusioned. He says he felt like he was treating the symptoms on the surface while doing nothing to address the root cause.
He marinated the idea for a few years and tried his hand at a few different startup ventures, looking for the right combination of product and procedure. The secret, he says, is stripping away labels—establishing a culture of mutual respect and accountability.
“We as a society tend to make people living in stressed communities feel like ‘the other,’” DeLoss says. “We see them as labels: low-income, criminals, addicts, homeless. Instead, at HCT, we see them as people instead of identifying them as the labels that are consequences of poverty and simply treat them with basic dignity. The result is we have a great workforce—our environment here is ripe with people who are working toward the same goal: they’re excited, they’re engaged and they’re accountable.”
DeLoss cultivates this culture of accountability by creating an active support system in the workplace, in addition to offering the benefits.
“Think about the best job you’ve ever had and the worst: jobs are better when you know your expectations and you get feedback,” he says. “We have mechanisms in place to provide that. Our employees get a tremendous amount of feedback, including formal monthly check-ins with managers and some form of feedback, even just informal chats, every week. You’re constantly hearing what you’re doing well and getting constructive points on how you can do even better. That feedback mechanism is important. People get used to it, and when it’s constructive, it comes out as supportive, not punitive.”
DeLoss has created a thriving business—dishing out thousands of meals every week during a limited lunchtime schedule with sales that rival fast-casual restaurants operating at full tilt. At the same time, he’s created an employment model that provides opportunities to a population many industries ignore, helping to break the cycle of poverty in his community.
HCT’s employment model is great for its Columbus, Ohio, community. And it’s been great for business, and not just in terms of intangibles like brand building and positive PR for DeLoss and his team.
The restaurant industry is typically plagued by high employee turnover rates—with some fast casual establishments turning over 100 percent of their staff every year. But HCT maintains a retention rate between 60 and 80 percent in this volatile environment, which provides tremendous value to the business itself.
“It’s good for our business for sure,” DeLoss says of his unique HR approach. “And the metrics are great, but what’s most rewarding is that we have a really special team of people that care about our business and care about our perspective. It’s a good place to be, a fun place to work.”
On the macro level, DeLoss is tackling poverty. But he looks at it differently.
“It’s easy to be overwhelmed when you think about addressing huge issues like poverty,” he says. “We focus on the individual level—we develop meaningful relationships with individual people and leverage those relationships to create lasting impact. Seeing people get through school and move on to different jobs in their chosen fields, seeing them create opportunities for their kids and supporting nuclear families, those kinds of wins every day are the ones that feel really great.”
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Joe DeLoss, Owner, head fryer
