Divieto Ristorante - Serving More Than Food: The People-First Approach Culture

Hello listeners, and welcome to another episode of the Real World Talks Podcast with Lordess and Kathy. We are back, and we have a very special guest today from Divietto Restaurant, and I would like for him to introduce himself and state his full name and position that he has with Divietto's. All right. First things first, thank you so much for having me here today. I'm so honored to share this space with you guys. I love what you're doing here, and I really appreciate and get inspired by every single work in class that I've seen. So thank you so much for having me here. It's my pleasure. My name is Tadeo Olvera. I am the Corporate Talent Manager for Divietto Restaurant. I've been working with Divietto for the last two years, but it's been like I would say seven years, because I used to work for the same company back in Mexico City, born and raised. And then I kind of understand the vision values. That's why I'm here working with them, because we are family. Awesome. Awesome. So I'm not going to lie. I feel like we should be having like pasta, or like a bambi, or a sea bass while we're eating. So I just want to say that. I forgot. It's okay. It's okay. We forgive you. The organization has like their own culture, like mission statement that they have their like team members, you know, I don't want to say live by, but they actually, you know, use that throughout their days and their experiences. Can you tell us what is Divietto's mission and vision and values for the company? All right. So I got to start from the, I think that the core of our company, which is hospitality. We've been changing that since like, well, we've been consciously doing this a year ago, trying to impact and inspire our people as much as we can through books, training, culture, and living with example, which is the most difficult part. So right now our mission is that we can transmit that passion to our family members. That's our mission, transmit the passion that it's been with us. For the last, in my case, 24 years doing this, 30 plus years for my COO to every single person that start working for us, we want to impact their lives in such a way that they can perform their job better through passion. So that's our mission and the vision as a company, as a restaurant chain is that we want to change our community, not just our lives, our family members' lives. We want to change and forgive our community through kindness, the same kindness that we're transmitting to every single family member and our guests as well. So that's our vision actually. And then we have a common purpose here. We celebrate life. We love to celebrate great moments with our guests, our family members. We want to celebrate their most remarkable moments in their life. And then we do it from plate to plate, you know, from our family and then to the family that it's coming to our restaurants. So that's exactly what we do. I think that's great too because I think for majority of us, especially in the hospitality industry, we spend so much time, you know, at our jobs and then providing the service to our guests, right? So I think it's great that you have to know about that passion and kindness and also kind of giving back to the community as well too. Yep, passion, kindness and celebration are kind of the keywords that I gather from that question. And oftentimes our listeners tend to be hospitality students and it's very important to have that passion for what you do. It's important to be kind and celebrating is important. So I think all of those things are qualities that our students are looking for when looking for positions. So that's great. Getting into the next question. What qualities and skills do you prioritize when hiring for positions at Divieto? Very glad you asked me this question. We're facing difficult times where emotional connections do not exist. And if you really want to make this emotional connection to our guests and then our family members, we need to prioritize hospitality. So in my personal point of view, the core of hospitality is kindness and you said that word already. So we are trying to hire people based on kindness and attitude. That's why we're looking from the people that is willing to be part of our family. Kindness and attitude. If you have those two, we can make it work. We're going to show you our way. But if you don't have those two, then it's going to be almost, you know, I wouldn't say impossible, but those are the main things that since we start taking so much attention into it. And so important to our company, we've been getting amazing results through this. So for sure, we're going to keep doing this. I love that because I mean, you can teach anyone how to serve a plate or teach anyone how to cook, but you can't really teach someone how to be kind. So I appreciate you sharing that. And going along with the theme of hiring and recruiting, are there any emerging trends that you're seeing out there right now that are kind of shaping how you hire at Divieto? All right. Yes. Then the one that is being the most powerful one, it's when our team refers a family member or maybe a friend. Tables is the most important action or project that we have here because we want to make our culture that strong, that not just we'll keep the talent within our company, but it's going to be that amazing that we'll be attracting talent, we're going to be so appealing to people that we're going to be bringing more people through our people. So that's the best one and the one that is being so rewarding for us. We have this referral program as well, which if you refer a person and that person stays with us for at least three months and then doing the right thing, we're going to be considering not just staying with that person and growing them, but also you're going to get a referral bonus. So believe me, it's not about the bonus, it's not about the money. They stay with us because they feel that we are a family. That's a powerful tool, I will say. So I think since we're talking about the whole team members, a good portion or I say a good part of our industry is customer service and a lot of times as managers or leaders or company culture is go above and beyond for your customer. So how do you balance creating an excellent customer service experience, all while still supporting your team's well-being and their growth? Amazing question and let me quote my COO words. Every employee is someone's precious child and we need to treat them with dignity, caring so they can grow within our family. If you have that in mind, they're not going to be just people working, they're going to be part of your family and you're going to be genuinely taking care of their growth and you're going to do whatever it's in your power to make them feel motivated, challenged, right? To continue doing what is what they consider their passion and if they haven't found their passion already, you never know. Maybe this is the moment in which we're going to be inspiring them that much that we're going to find their passion through our company. That's awesome. We don't hear that too often that leaders or COO say that's someone's precious child. So I think that that's awesome that that starts from the top, that that is actually how you guys view every single team member. So I know that you have discussed, I know in my class about your industry experience and also your leadership experience. What lessons have you learned about leadership in the hospitality industry? I think that you got to leave with example. But you cannot just say, "I really care about you if you don't really mean it." So leadership in my words is the power that you have to inspire people. So you might have all the knowledge, experience, the best resume in the world. But if you don't have our core, which is kindness and you don't, or you cannot inspire people to do the right thing, I think that that's the most important tool in terms of leadership for us. There's a lot of books, trading courses, but if you don't find in your heart that the most rewarding emotion is when somebody tells you, "Thank you," because I know who I am. I know what I know and I am who I am because of your help, boom, that's the most wonderful recognition that you can get from my people that you help or grow. I definitely agree. And I think having that kindness, especially from a leader, fosters a work environment that people want to be in. So speaking of a positive work environment, how do you foster this type of environment and culture that encourages growth and collaboration other than having leaders who have a tendency to be passionate and kind? Oh, yeah. There must be a balance. But what is not negotiable is respect. So if we're people working with people, serving people, respect is our work. We might share different ideas, contexts, languages, because we are a multicultural company. It doesn't matter as long as we share the same respect. So respect is the word. Fairness. Fairness. Oh, my God. You need to treat every single person individually and put at the same time must be fair. For sure. So you can create a positive environment. And then stability, that creates stability, not just for them, but for the company as well, because we're going to be building the strategy and whatever we have in our minds. With good, good, you know, the basics. The root will be always that powerful that can hold the whole strategy. But respect is one of them because we're working with people. Yeah. No, that's absolutely. Respect is something else too. That's kind of hard to train on, you know, it's kind of in those lines of kindness, but we don't have to make sure that that's also core value in our industry is respect for each other. Yeah. And we said the boundaries, because the boundaries are very clear. We said the limits. We were going to be telling you what you can do and what you cannot do. And most of those limits are said by respect and fairness. So I mean, you're going to have a good time if we respect those limits for our own sake. Absolutely. So since we're still talking about the whole restaurant, what do you envision for the future of the Viet-Dole's restaurant and how can employees contribute to that vision? Amazing. I always tell my students and people that the people is the heart of the restaurant. So we need them to understand that hospitality is our industry and the most important part. Once they understand that, we need to have our business and the sustainability of this business in a way that in the future, it can be self-sufficient. Not just in terms of the operation, but in terms of people bringing kind people, keeping kind people growing kind people to do what we do best, hospitality. If we have that base, like strong, then all the ones will become after that, because that's our core. We're going to be creating from there, from hospitality. I'm going to be hiring you from hospitality. I'm going to be training you from hospitality. I'm going to be growing you from hospitality. I'm going to be developing all your skills and hard skills from hospitality. I'm going to be having, I don't know, meetings with you, I'm going to be serving. Everything goes from hospitality in the way that all the restaurants will be having that in their hearts, and then it's going to be a self-sufficient company based on that core. So that's our vision in the future, to have self-sufficient restaurants based on kindness, hospitality, and people passionate about this. Yeah, I think that's great, because I know that sometimes we see different trends now, like there's no robotics now and things like that, which I think that that's cool, but I still feel like our industry, many people still like that actual service from a human being, right? That's correct. I guess you can train robots to do a lot of things, nothing against that world, however kindness is something hard, right? So that you possibly can genuinely have that robot do. So I'm glad that you guys are still sticking to that core in there, and Tanimal is making like a full circle coming around. And that's why we said that, well, I said, but technology is your friend, it's not your wife. Right, right. Well, technology will be your first friend, as long as you use it wisely, and as long as you use it according what it really fits to your company. So you've got to try, for sure, you've got to try different trends, you've got to try different technology, but you've got to stick to your values, to your core, no matter what. And like you said, hospitality comes from humans, then you cannot take too much attention to robots or technology as a whole. We serve people, not machines. Great, great. So kind of continue to talk about like our hospitality industry, Lordus and I also came from and had experience from various sectors of the industry, and we always kind of share what students like, we call like the, what is it, the thorn in the rose or whatever it may be, like the pros and cons of it. What are the most rewarding and challenging aspects of working in the industry in your opinion? Oh, the biggest challenge in our industry, wow, and rewards too, and rewards, and rewards, oh my God. The biggest challenge is to inspire young generations to be a little bit more kind every day, inspiring the young generations, it's what will make the difference. Like I said before, we're not here to influence people to do whatever is best for me, I want to inspire people to do whatever is best for them through hospitality. And I think that that's the biggest challenge we are facing right now. But the biggest or the most rewarding part of that is that you're going to be building a genuine and honest work environment. So we usually like to kind of end the podcast with some fun questions. Oh yeah. So one of the questions that we have is, what is your go to meal at Divietto? Okay, I gotta say that whatever you choose, it's gonna be amazing because we do it from the bottom of our hearts. But if we're trying to push experiences as much as we can. So one of the most important tableside experience that you can get out of our restaurant for sure is the Rotary Parmesan and Reggiano pasta. I knew that was gonna be it. It's so good. Once you experience that, you will never go back, you're gonna try different items from our menu, but you will always go for that every now and then. And that's for sure one of the most important and popular dishes we have in the menu. So if you want to go to Divietto, for sure you're gonna try that. And then chef specials because we want to be creative as well. So we try to bring more experiences, different experiences to our guests through our guest specials made from our chefs. So it's not a creation that came from the corporate office. No, it comes from our people, but they consider it's gonna be amazing for our guests. So we open the creativity window for them and you should try our guests specials. Because once they are there, probably you won't be able to try them again probably in three months later. So I encourage you to try those too. Well, I must say you guys do have the best Caesar salad if I must write about it. Oh yeah, you liked it. No, I didn't like it. I loved it. Oh, you loved it? Yeah. Even better. Pretty glad to hear that. Okay, so for our last question, I'm gonna get a juicy one, but if the walls of Divietto could talk, what stories would they tell us? Lots of stories. The one that I have right now in my mind is the, I'm gonna make it brief and I just told you this story before, but it's about a woman trying to find a restaurant to take dinner. He was bringing her a service dog and no restaurant allowed her to get into those. I don't know why. So as soon as he approached to our host's town, we let her in, telling us, well, looking for a place that will be better for her and also for her dog. So we found out that the left side of the bar would be the best. So we bring a plate with water for the dog, she ordered a cocktail and an entry, right? He was so happy because we let her into the restaurant and after that she decided to become our regular for the following six months, same day, same drink, same food, same everything, same spot, but then she stopped coming to our restaurant up to the time that we decided that we asked like what happened with her, is she okay? Then she came back two months after and when she came back, she sat at the totally opposite side of the bar, which was weird. And then we tell that he was coming by herself with no dog. So it was sad. We understood, but we didn't want to make any pressure. The manager asked her if she could come back next week, so we can, so she can feel that we were with her. She agreed the following week when she arrived to the restaurant, she sat again at the totally opposite side of the bar until the manager told her to go to the left side instead. She was like, I'm not ready. Thank you so much. I appreciate that, but you got to understand that I'm not there yet. The manager insists a little bit more, so she agreed. And when she arrived to the left side of the bar, used to be her spot, the manager pointed at a beautiful plate in the loving memory of her dog. But when he pointed at this plate, he said, okay, so this is your favorite cocktail. This is your favorite food. This is your spot. Here is your dog. We are your house. This is your home. You don't have to go anywhere. We will always be here for you. So those are the kind of stories that you can hear. Sometimes we don't have our phones and record every single hospitality moment. I mean, we just can't, but we get the stories from the people that work there, the people that is close to people or the ones that we can see with our own eyes. As you go to a restaurant, you will see this plate on the left side of the bar. So I highly encourage you to go and see it with your own eyes, because it really, it really happened. And there's a lot. And there's a lot. This is the only one that came to my mind right now. I think it's powerful. So you never know what the people is dealing with, but a act of kindness can change people's life. As you understand this, you're going to be looking for ways to make people happy, at least happier than when they arrived to our restaurant. And that's our goal. And I think that that's great that you share that story, because I think for anyone that's listening, if you haven't started in our industry or you just started our industry or you've been in our industry, that is what it's about. It's about these moments that organically we genuinely do for our guests, which end up being family members. And it really changes the experience that this is how you create a loyal guest for life, let's say. Yeah. This manager, we never told him to do so. We never told him to do so. We just created an environment where every single person feels empowered to look for kindness and hospitality moments like this. So the best advice is listen. We're trying them to listen and to be present with our guests and with our family members. If we are not present, then we won't find those beautiful moments that we can make them even better. Absolutely. Absolutely. And Lordeus, we have to listen to Thaddeo. He said that we must go to the restaurant and go see if we have a plate. Okay. So that's a hint for us. Deal. Deal. You don't need an invitation. It's going to be my pleasure to see you there. Ask for me. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Thaddeo. Thank you for your time today. Thank you for sharing your stories. It's my pleasure. Thank you for sharing a little bit more about Divieta so our listeners can learn a little bit more about the organization and about yourself. Amazing. So thank you again and we hope to see you on the next episode. Absolutely. Oh, sure. I appreciate you having me here, so thank you so much. It's our pleasure.