Don't bother googling it for lunch plans. It doesn't exist.
Why an example?
People often ask, "What does the final product look like?" Each organization's version is unique, but they share common elements. Your organization may not serve eggs, but it serves something. It may not employ egg chefs, but it relies on skilled people. And your clients, like Egg & Co's hungry customers, want what you do well.
What Egg & Co needs
Leadership needs:
- A consistent, automated way to onboard new employees in mission-critical roles
- Training that produces real, measurable results
- Fair, objective ways to promote people and set pay
- Confidence that employees can do tasks to the restaurant's standards, every time
- To know where skill gaps exist so training can focus there
Employees need:
- A clear path for career development
- To grow in a direction that benefits Egg & Co and their own careers
It's all about skills
Most home cooks have never thought about the skills in cooking eggs. You might make great scrambled eggs from years of trial and error, without ever noticing your technique. But can you count on yourself for a perfect poached egg and a Hollandaise sauce for Eggs Benedict?
If your employer depends on that dish tasting the same as yesterday's, consistency is the point. Because of an egg-chef shortage, Egg & Co decides to become a school as well as a restaurant. It hires general chefs and strong home cooks and develops them into master egg chefs, level by level, dish by dish.
How CDD helps, area by area
Hiring
Chef candidates take a quick evaluation to find their level against Egg & Co's standards. Recruiters have a tool that shows current skill level, which informs hiring.
What made it possible: a graduated competency model: a list of skills in order of difficulty, split into modules and levels.
Onboarding
New hires, whatever their level, have a clear path to get ready for the lunch rush. Someone who already makes perfect scrambled eggs doesn't relearn them. After a quick demonstration evaluation, a new chef can move through the early dishes until she finds one she doesn't know. Onboarding ends once she completes all Level 1 dishes.
What made it possible: levels and modules with clearly written competencies, curated learning resources, and instructions for scheduling an evaluation. People find modules in a web-based tool and learn the way that suits them.
Ongoing training
Egg & Co believes chefs never stop growing. If a Level 3 dish is ordered and only Level 1 and 2 chefs are in the kitchen, that's an egg-disaster. The restaurant knows where its skill gaps are and encourages people to grow into the levels that fill them. Because of this focus on growth, Egg & Co is known as a place that pays you to learn, which helps with recruiting.
What made it possible: skill reporting and a simple formula to introduce new dishes or initiatives by adding or changing competencies, modules or levels.
Performance reviews
Instead of an annual review, chefs take live evaluations, sometimes weekly. A pass brings recognition. A miss brings immediate feedback and an invitation to try again after practice. Growth feels like it's on autopilot.
What made it possible: an automated system that prompts frequent evaluations. Formal reviews, if kept, focus on celebrating every skill gained since the last one.
Promotions
Raises and promotions follow chef level. When a chef passes the last evaluation in a level, she's awarded a new level and a new salary, effective the next paycheck. When someone asks, "Can I get a raise?", the answer is always, "Yes, just level up."
What made it possible: a way to quantify skill gain and tie it to pay. Skills are a fair, clear and predictable basis for advancement, although you'll still need other tools for people who don't use the skills they've proven.
The levels
When a chef's level is described, it tells you the dishes she can prepare, the skills she holds, and which items on the menu might need crossing out if skill gaps appear.
- Level 1: Entry level
Prove the skills for the three most common dishes: scrambled eggs, fried eggs, hard-boiled eggs. People with existing skills brush up. Others learn from scratch. Both get the same chance at recognition or feedback. Three evaluations, and you're ready for the lunch rush.
- Level 2: Control and technique
Omelets, soft-boiled eggs and poached eggs. Customers who order soft-boiled eggs won't settle for overcooked yolks.
- Level 3: The picnic level
Deviled eggs, baked eggs and frittatas. Deviled eggs make or break a picnic.
- Later levels
Dishes are priced by ingredients and by the skill they require. Level 4 adds Hollandaise sauce, an essential part of Eggs Benedict in Level 5. Egg & Co plans more techniques and dishes, and has even considered an egg-inspired culinary school.
Not just for egg chefs
Egg & Co uses the same method for accounting, sales, marketing, operations, cleaning, maintenance, machine repair and more. If skills are the destination, CDD is the vehicle.
What the badge looks like
Each digital credential has the same parts: competencies, optional learning and practice resources, and evaluation instructions. They may look like recipes at first glance, but they aren't. They don't tell you how to cook eggs. They describe how to develop people.
Here's an example in the same layout as a real badge.
Scrambled Eggs, Level 1
A chef who consistently produces scrambled eggs to Egg & Co's standard for taste, look and texture.
Earning criteria
- [Competency about technique]
- [Competency about seasoning]
- [Competency about timing]
Kept separate from the badge
- Evaluation
- a live demonstration with a champion
- Suggested learning
- [links and practice ideas]