IN THE NEWS

November 26, 2006 - Toronto Star, ON.

Food for Thought

ANNA PIEKARSKI
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Fast food franchise Extreme Pita was ready to launch four new sandwiches, but they had one problem - they had to simultaneously teach their employees at 200 locations how to make the perfect pita.

The Canadian fast-food franchise has stores across the continent and, with each restaurant employing 12 to 20 people, trying to get everyone to make identical sandwiches is a daunting task.

"Our challenge was to communicate that message to 200 franchises from San Diego to St. John's Newfoundland," said David Newcombe, chief operating officer at Extreme Pita. Newcombe has been working in the fast-food industry since the 1960s. He said training employees is a difficult - and frustrating - task.

"I've seen more four-inch (training) binders sitting on a shelf in the manager's office that have never been cracked open," Newcombe said.

But Extreme Pita employees never had to study a manual to make these new sandwiches. Instead they watched videos on the Internet.

The new technology was designed by Toronto company Metrick Entertainment. The Metrick Training program is a Web-based learning system that helps companies improve the performance of their employees without the high costs of on-site training.

Employees can watch a video that shows them how to make a product, then they take a quiz and the results are automatically sent back to head office. This allows executives like Newcombe the opportunity to track which stores have completed training and which skills employees need to improve.

"Up to a year ago, two years ago, this wasn't possible," said creative director Laurence Metrick, explaining most people now have high-speed Internet connections that allow them to watch videos easily.

"It's the next best thing to being face to face with every employee in the organization," Newcombe said.

The technology is saving companies a lot of money. Newcombe said Extreme Pita recently estimated a new marketing manual would cost the company $75 a copy, plus shipping - more than $15,000 to send a binder to every store.

The Web-based system can be created for $7,000 to $10,000 depending on the company's needs, Metrick said.

"There was a prohibitive cost to (manuals)," Newcombe said, especially when there is no guarantee the manual will be read. The quizzes ensure employees are being trained.

Metrick said saving businesses money was one of the goals when creating the system. Before they made the online program, his company created videos and other creative applications both for advertising and for businesses to use internally.

But creating one VHS tape cost about $10 and Metrick said he knew there had to be a more efficient way to communicate a message.

A year ago the Metrick team started working on the online training system. The first training program was launched six months ago.

"I think I've taken the test 500 times. I know most of the answers by now," Metrick said, explaining the team wanted to make sure the system worked correctly. "I can make a mean pita at home."

While saving money is always attractive, other elements make this system ideal for franchises.

Some of Extreme Pita's employees do not speak fluent English, so video is a great teaching tool.

"We're dealing in places like California, Arizona. We work in Quebec. There are language difficulties," Newcombe said.

The system is good for part-time employees because they often work shifts and there isn't time to train them properly, especially when businesses have a high turnover rate, Metrick said.

"It makes a lot of sense for franchising. Retailers have to bring in a lot of part-time people."

Newcombe said many of their employees are high school students who enjoy using the new training system as they are comfortable learning online.

While it is being embraced by franchises - other restaurants have bought the system - Metrick said he has also been approached by different organizations.

A Washington pollster inquired if a system could be designed to teach people how to conduct polls. A Chicago fitness club has also contacted Metrick.

Extreme Pita is expanding quickly. Newcombe said 30 more restaurants will be running by December.

In 2007, the company is planning to open two new restaurants each week. One of the other benefits of the training video, Newcombe said, is an increase in product uniformity.

"It's been absolutely tremendous. We have consistency from coast to coast."

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